Miss Armstrong's Third Grade

Welcome to Miss Armstrong's Third Grade Class 

Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year. I am so excited to begin an amazing new year. Your child will be taking part in many exciting new learning adventures in the coming months. Through whole group, small group and individual learning efforts, I plan to help each child grow to their fullest potential.

Birthday treats: If bringing in birthday treats for your child's birthday, you are more than welcome. All treats must be brought to the nurse to check. All ingredients must be listed!! Thank You. I also ask for notice in advance so I could plan accordingly.   

Math:                 

Through short whole group mini lessons, followed by small group activties tailored to students' needs, I hope to have all students working up to their full potential. Students will be learning and practicing skills needed in the outside world.

We will be beginning the school year by completing a unit on graphing. We will be learning about tally charts, line plots, bar graphs and pictographs. Students will be not only be learning about different graphs, but also coming up with their own investigations and creating their own graphs.

Language Arts:

Reading: Throughout the school the workshop style of reading is being implemented. In workshop, students are allowed to read books of their choice (just-right books are stressed). This is to create a love of learning in your children. During workshop students take part in short, 15 minute mini lessons which target such things as reading strategies or procedures that students are encouraged to practice. Students are also partner reading and participating in vocabulary and word study activities.

Mini Lesson examples:

• Connecting
• Plot
• Theme
• Predicting
• Questioning
• Figuring Out
• Picturing
• Noticing
• Using context clues to figure out words
• Sounding out unfamiliar words
• Writing responses in a reading notebook

 Guided Reading: Students will be taking part in guided reading throughout the year. Guided reading serves to focus on a specific strategy in reading that a small group of students need to focus on.

 Writing: Writing also follows a workshop model. Students write about topics and genres that interest them. This process also begins with a short mini lesson which targets strategies I would like children to practice in their own authentic writing. Students then have a chance to share their work with the class. Throughout the year such mini lessons will focus on how writers get ideas, grammar, editing, revising, good beginnings, good endings, genre studies, and author studies.

Social Studies and Science-

This year we will focus on one unit of Social Studies and then switch to a unit of Science. Our first unit of Social Studies will focus on communities and mapes and globes. We will be learning about towns and cities, and then moving onto learning about maps and globes.

During this time, students will get to complete different in class projects. After learning about the similarities between towns and cities, children will get to work with a partner to create their own city or town.

Homework-

Students will have homework every night. Students will be asked to read for 15 minutes, as well as complete a math sheet to reinforced skills taught in class. Please make sure this is completed every night. If students miss an assignment I will send a missed homework slip home as well as a copy of the assignment they missed. I appriciate your help in making sure students complete all homework.

At the end of each period, I will figure the percentage that students completed homework and it will become a quiz qrade.

WEBSITES: here is a great site for students to practice those math facts!

http://www.factmonster.com/mathmoney.html