We have enjoyed another fabulous week in the third grade. I can’t believe how quickly this year is flying by! I hope that your child has had a chance to come home and brag about receiving “caught being nice” coupons. Valley View is trying to promote positive behavior by acknowledging kids when they are caught doing something nice. The children seem to be responding very well to this and absolutely LOVE being recognized! This goes right along with the assembly that we had last week called, “Be Nice”. Many of the kids were very inspired and if you would like to purchase any Be Nice merchandise please check the order form sent home this week. If you didn’t get one let me know and I’ll send you another one.
Math: We continue to work on our multiplication and division facts. I am really starting to see many kids really start to better understand the concept of multiplication and division. We not only do the timed tests but also use manipulatives, and draw pictures. We learned about using parentheses for multi-step problems and that when you see parentheses, you know where to start the problem. I think algebra will be a breeze for some of these smarties
Language Arts: We are in full swing of letter writing. The month of February we have the Valley View post office run by the second graders. We write letters to anyone in the school and it gets delivered to each room. If you would like to write your child a letter, but want them to get it in the mail, you can send it in with them and tell them to put it in the mailbox or you can put it in if you’re in the building sometime. Who doesn’t love to get a nice letter?
We are also starting our inquiry circles. We are taking information that we wonder about and question and delving deeper to find out things that interest us. This is so exciting to watch how passionate the children are about learning new things and also they really comprehend and understand when they have a strong interest like this.
Spelling: This week we are studying words for group #1 with ee, ea, and open-e. Group #2 is studying words with vowel ,consonant, consonant, vowel, and doubling. Next week we will not have a spelling test due to our short week.
Science: We are just starting our new unit called Earth and Me. If you have any cool rocks, please feel free to send them in and we will share!
Social Studies: We are learning the geography of Michigan. The next fun activity is creating our own maps of Michigan.
Dates to remember:
February 14th: Valentine party.
February 15th: Book Orders due.
February 18th & 19th: Mid-Winter break. No school!
March 6-7: Parent Teacher conferences.
March 8th: No school.
March 15th: Valley View Carnival.
March 28th-April 7th: Spring Break!
April 8th: School resumes and late start. We begin at 10:40 a.m.
April 30th: Lansing Field Trip! I will have more information coming as I receive it. Just a heads up that we will have to leave early (usually 7:30), and we won’t make it back until after school. This is a great day to carpool with a friend if you can’t make the drop off and pick up times. Or better yet, a great day to come as a chaperone! There is no limit to how many chaperones can come, so the more the merrier I am sending home Michigan t-shirt orders today. The shirts are not required but are nice to have on the children to quickly spot our group.
Thanks and have a wonderful week!
