Michele Scott/Alyssa Kent

January 23, 2012

We hope everyone had the opportunity to read over the AR letter we sent home on Friday. Varner has switched to the online version of AR which allows parents to review their child's testing results at home. In computer lab last week Mrs. Brown reread the story Stand Tall Molly Lou Mellon and our class took the test on the new version of AR. This will be the first test recorded for each student. Tests taken prior to this test were taken on the other AR version and will not be included in the new student test results. Please use this as an opportunity to discuss the AR books your child selects and how important it is to comprehend what they read. Remember to record all minutes read each night in the RAH folder. Each third grade student should be reading a minimum of 20 minutes nightly.

Another parent letter was sent home today for a new math practice computer program called First In Math. Each student was assigned an ID and a password generated by the computer, and they were written at the top of the letter. The ID and passwords were also printed and taped to the first page of the student planner/agenda in their three ring notebooks. This program along with Skills Tutor provide fun games and activities to support the standards and skills taught in class. Both programs provide excellent practice that every student can benefit from and the games and practice activities are student paced. This allows each student to advance as soon as they are ready for the next level. Please encourage your child to spend time on the computer in both of these programs.

Also, you will begin to see a new math practice workbook being sent home for students to complete as homework in addition to the regular practice workbook. These books are titled Buckle Down and we will be using them to review previous skills taught and to support the current skills in math. These books must be returned each day as we will also be using them in class. If books are lost or damaged we are unable to replace them so it is very important that each student uses their life skill of responsibility and is prepared each day for class with their book. Please feel free to review and practice on notebook paper any of the lessons in the book with your child just please do not work ahead in the workbook.

Our goals are to help every student reach their full potential and be a successful learner. Thank you for partnering with us to help your child practice their reading and math skills at home. We appreciate your support and your child appreciates the time and energy you give to them.

January 9, 2012

We hope everyone had a restful break and is ready to begin the second part of our third grade adventure. We will begin checking reading logs on Wednesday morning for the required 20 minutes of nightly reading. Any reading logged during the break will be counted with this Friday. We will not have spelling words this week, but will start a new unit next Monday. Please make sure to check ASP and lunch accounts to make sure your child is prepared for this week. Make sure they have placed their notebook, pencils, and snacks in their backpack for Tuesday.

Students will begin to use the Framing Strategy for reading comprehension passages. This strategy will make they focus more carefully as they read and more easily locate information in a passage. Reading Comprehesion passages will be sent home three days a week beginning this week. Students will need to use the Framing Stragety when completing these assignments and assignments will be due the next day.

Framing Strategy

Step 1 Frame out the passage by outlining each paragragh on the left hand side. Begin drawing a line beside the indented first word and down the side of the paragraph and ending by underlining the first word in the last line of the paragraph. Number each paragraph beginning by writing 1 next to the first indented word of the first paragraph. Contiue until all the paragraphs are framed and numbered.

Step 2 Read each paragraph and underline at least three important details.

Step 3 Label each paragraph with one or two words stating the main idea of the paragrpah.

Step 4 Answer each question looking back at the passage to check each answer.

Tic Tac Spelling will continue beginning next week as an optional way to study spelling words. These activites are not required, but are a great way to practice spelling words.

Please continue to practice multiplication facts 0's-10's as we will contiue to test these facts weekly.

We are looking forward to a great week!

 

November 15

We are so thankful for each student in our class and the diversity and creativity they bring to our classroom each everyday! We hope to see many of your smiling faces on Wednesday and Thursday for the Thanksgiving lunch and the Boosterthon. Please note the change in our typical lunch schedules for both days.

 

 

Thanksgiving Lunch: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 Our time is from 11:22 - 12:02

Cost for an adult lunch is $2.75. Lunch tickets will be sold in the front lobby.

 

Boosterthonthon Fun Run: Thursday, November 17, 2011

Third Grade will run be from 10:45-12:00

Our Lunch time will be 12:26-12:56

You can help support Varner by:

· Connect your child to sponsors—friends & family—who can give a pledge. Go to Funrun.com

· Come and cheer on your child at the Boosterthon Fun Run on

Thursday, November 17, 2011!

We need parents to help us mark off the laps the students run and hand out water. Every student participates in the Fun Run, regardless of pledges raised, and receives a “Boosterthon All-Star” t-shirt.

Spirit Day: Friday, November 18, 2011.

Wear your Varner t-shirt current or previous years. The classes with the most participation will win a prize.

Clinic Needs:

The school clinic is in need of the following items if you are able to donate:

Kleenex, Zip Lock baggies-sandwich size, pants- boys & girls. Thank You!

 

NO SCHOOL: Monday, November 21- Friday, November 25, 2011.

October 24

Conference week is here! Thank you to our parents that came in today for a great beginning to our conference week. We are looking forward to meeting with the rest of our families this week to review student progress and handout report cards. We really appreciate your participation in your child's education and the support you provide at home daily.

This week we are not assigning homework in the math practice book. Please practice multiplication facts 0's, 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's, and 5's. Focus on the facts your child is having the most difficulty remembering. Try writing three or four multiplication facts on sticky notes and posting them around the house. Some ideal places are the bathroom mirror, the refrigerator, bedroom doors, and the door used most to leave the house. Traveling in the car is another great opportunity to review multiplication facts. The goal is to memorize the 0's-10's this nine weeks.  When your child is doing well with facts 0's-5's move forward and work on the 6's-8's. We will be reviewing in class a fun trick for practicing the 9's with your hands in the weeks to ahead.

Reading fluency for this nine weeks has increased from 90 words per minute to 100 words per minute. Try adding one minute reading practice each night with your child. Ask them to read aloud, time them for one minute, and count the words they have read for a quick and easy fluency check. 

Paul Revere galloped through the countryside one night in 1775 to warn people that British soldiers were coming. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about that event called "Paul Revere's Midnight Ride." We will be reading this poem in class. Help build your child’s background knowledge about Paul Revere and this famous poem. Try doing a little research and send in a few facts about Paul Revere or the poem that your child can share with the class. This is a fun way you can get involved with what we are learning in the classroom.

Soil, soil, and more soil is the topic of discussion in science. We are learning about the different types of soil and how to describe the soils. Ask your child how sugar cubes and peppermint candy can be used to show how erosion and weathering happen in nature. Ask your child to explore the soil around your house and collect samples to share with you. Observation is an important skill in science. Discuss the observations your child made as they collected their sample. Ask them to describe the type of plants growing in the different soils and how the soils smell. Does your family have a magnifying glass? Dig it out, dust it off, and check out the soil samples up close.

 

This week is Red Ribbon Week and it goes along with our Health unit on making healthy choices. Students were given a red ribbon to wear on their wrist this morning. Ask your child about the ribbon and what is represents. Encourage them to wear it each day this week to school.

Have a terrific week!

 

Red Ribbon Week

          Red Ribbon Week  

 

We are celebrating Red Ribbon Week the week of October 24^th through October 28^th.  Our theme for the week is “I’ve got better things to do than drugs.”  During this week we pledge to lead a drug-free life.   Here are some ways that we will recognize this special week:

 

• Monday – Wear your RRW bracelet that you can keep on all week.

 

• Tuesday – Teachers will ask the students to draw a picture, write a paragraph, or a poem about the positive activities that they enjoy, which are better than doing drugs (ex. Sports, playing musical instruments, singing, art work, dance, etc.). 
  • Teachers can display these outside their classrooms.

 

• Wednesday – Wear RED Day (wearing RED signifies that we choose to lead a drug-free life).
  • Teachers will choose 1 student picture, paragraph, or a poem to give to the counselors for a hallway display. 

 

• Thursday and Friday – Counselors will choose students each day to share their picture, poem or writing on the News Team.

 

 

 

October 10, 2011

We did it! Testing is completed and next week we will resume our regular schedule with specials at 8:50 once again. Please be sure to return your conference form so we can set aside your time to discuss your child's progress. Picture order forms were sent home this past week. Picture day is October 20th so be sure to send your child to school that day with their best smile.

The weather looks gorgeous today, and tomorrow we hope to see everyone out at the Fall Festival. Thank you to all the parents that sent in baked goods today for the Third grade booth. Kudos to our Room Mom for lining up parents to help us work our allotted time tomorrow in the booth. 

Next week we will begin learning about Paul Revere in Social Studies and the different types of soils in Science. 

This nine weeks each student needs to memorize the multiplication facts 0's-10's, so keep working on the easy facts 0's, 1's, 2's and 5's. When they can say those fluently move forward to the 3's, and 4's. Keep working on telling time to the minute and elapsed time, or time that has passed. 

We will be focusing on responding to literature in Language Arts throughout the next nine weeks. Share what you are reading with your child and your thoughts about what you read. It can be as simple as discussing an article you read in the newspaper or a magazine and sharing what you think about the article. You can also talk about what the characters are doing in the novel you are reading, or how you would like to change the story. You might also discuss what you would do if you were a particular character faced with a certain situation. Then ask you child about the story they are reading. Ask them which character they would like to be, and what would they do if they were that character. You just can't go wrong when you take the time to talk about what you are reading.

Enjoy your weekend and remember to support Varner by joining us tomorrow at the Fall Festival!

 

October 10, 2011

We hope everyone had a restful weekend. Testing continues this week, Monday through Friday. Please help your child get the rest they need to do their best and a good breakfast. We begin testing after announcements so it is important that everyone is on time and ready for the day.

Conference letters will be sent home on Tuesday with your child. Please let us know as soon as possible if you can attend by filling out and returning the bottom portion of the letter. 

Spelling will remain Sort 7 and the same words will be copied on Monday in the planner/agenda as last week. Due to testing we felt it was best to continue to practice the same sort this week.

Reading is a skill used to learn in all areas in third grade, and it is very important that every student is practicing nightly. Reading is like riding a bike, the more you practice the better you become as a rider or reader. Being a fluent reader helps to depend the reader's comprehension of a passage. Reading fluency is increased by intentional practice. This nine weeks the goal has been to read 90 words per minute. You can help your child increase their fluency by asking them to read aloud and timing them for one minute. Next, count the words they read in one minute and see how they are doing toward the reading goal. Also, use some of the questions on the back of the reading envelope to help guide your discussion after they have read their 20 minutes each night. Discussing what your child reads each night helps to deepen their understanding of the passage. Remember to write the number of minutes read nightly in the RAH folder. Students may count the reading done for the reading packet as part of their nightly 20 minutes. 

Math will be review this week as we practice representing numbers in different ways, place value, adding and subtracting with regrouping, counting back change, time, elapsed time, basic math facts, multiplication, and word problems. Continue to practice basic math facts and multiplication 0's-5 at home.

We will review mapping skills, Ancient Greece, the olympics, and government in Social Studies this week. We will play a group Jeopardy game as a fun way to practice and review.

Science was definitely fun this nine weeks as we learned about the attributes of rocks, minerals, and fossils. Ask your child to describe the different attributes of rocks and how something that was once alive could become a fossil. We will continue to review these as well in class.

Our schedule is very different this week due to testing, however our lunch time does remain the same if you are planning to eat with your child this week.

Every one of our students are special and unique. We look forward to working with them each day and helping them to reach their full potential.

Testing This Week

We will begin eight days of testing tomorrow! Please help your child start off each day with a good breakfast and make sure they arrive at school on time. Testing will begin following the morning announcements, and we want each student to be prepared.

Your child copied Word Sort 7 in their planner/agenda on Monday, and they will keep this sort through next week. This means they will recopy the same words into their planner/agenda next Monday. Due to testing we felt that working on the same word patterns for two weeks would be beneficial for the class.

Please continue to work on telling time to the minute and elapsed time. You can practice elapsed time with your child by telling them a short story and having them determine the time that has passed or elapsed. For example, Kylie began playing on the computer at 7:30 p.m. and logged off the computer at 9:00 p.m. to go to bed. How long did Kylie play on the computer? Elapsed time is a difficult skill and needs continuous practice. Also, ask your child to demonstrate how to count back change. First, they begin with a dollar amount, one dollar is a good starting amount. Then, they subtract the cost of an item that is less than one dollar and use coins to represent that amount. Finally, they start with the item price and using the coins count back the change to one dollar.

Thank you for encouraging your child's nightly reading we are seeing good improvements in weekly reading totals in the RAH folders. Remember that modeling reading for your child makes a real difference in their attitude toward reading. Hearing you read expressively and seeing you read a variety of reading materials shows that reading is important to you. Grabbing something interesting to read and sitting with your child while they read models reading as a lifelong skill we all use daily. 

Coming up this Week at Varner

09/23/2011

What's going on in Third Grade?

 

Coming up this Week at Varner

  

  

 

Baskin Robbin's Spirit Day: Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 from 3:00pm-8:00pm.

Did you ever think you could give back to Varner just by eating ice cream?  The class with the most participation will win free ice cream. Baskin Robbins: 4150 Macland Road (Next to Viva Mexico). See you there!

 

Spirit Day: Friday, September 30th, 2011.

Wear your Varner t-shirt current or previous years. The classes with the most participation will win a prize.

 

Box Tops: Friday, September 30th, 2011.

The September contest will end Friday. The class that turns in the most Box Tops will receive a special prize. As a reminder to parents, we are also collecting Labels for Education, Sunny D labels, Tyson A+ labels.

 

 

Save the Date: Varner's Fall Festival is on Saturday, October 15th from 11:00am- 3:00pm.

 

 

Bake Sale

 

 

Varner Fall Festival

Saturday, October 15^th, 2011

11:00-3:00

 

Dear Parents,

Third Grade is celebrating the fall season by hosting the Bake Sale again this year at the Varner Fall Festival.  It was quite successful last year, but we do need your help in order to do this again! 

 

Bring out your family recipes or your favorites and share with us that day.  Please let your homeroom teacher/room mom know if you are able to donate baked goods to sell at our booth.

 

We thank you so much for your kind donations.  Donations can be brought to school at the end of that week to Mrs. Mendenhall’s classroom.  There will be an area outside of the classroom where donations may be dropped off.

 

Also, we will need volunteers to run the booth that day as well.  A schedule will be set up soon, so please be looking at your schedule for that day.

 

Happy Fall!

 

Third Grade Teachers