The Week of September 11th through 15th, 2017

Spelling:
     List #2- short and long e

wrench     hello    yellow     bread     kept     better     sentence     eggshell

medal     metal     remember     reading     peaches     peace     piece

east      west      many

Challenge Words:  special     beanstalk 

*Spelling Test #2 on Friday, 22nd, 2017

Reading:

• We will be starting our class novel, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  
• Our storybook focus story will be Pinduli by Janell Cannon.  We will use this story to focus on vocabulary words, comprehension, describing characters, and adjectives.  

Language Arts:

We will be working on grammar Rules 1, 2 & 3.  Rule 1 focuses on the subject noun and predicate of a sentence and how every sentence must have these two elements.  Rule 2 talks about the different types of sentences and punctuation for them.  Declarative-stating something and ends with a period.  Exclamatory shows strong emotion and ends with an exclamation point.  Interrogative is a sentence that is in the form of a question and ends with a question mark.  Imperative sentence are giving a command or directions and ends with a period.  Rule 3 talks about conjunctions: and, or and but are used to join words or groups of words.    

• We will also use our Daily Language page to work on correcting sentence errors.  
• We will do some Shurley English jingles and work on the first few lessons dealing with parts of speech.

Math: 

• This week we will start our Math4Today weekly lessons, there are ten boxes covering 6-7 different math skills such as adding two and three digit numbers, subtracting numbers, naming shapes, story problems, using data graphs and beginning multiplication.  There will be an assessment each week but this first one will be done together as a class.
• We have two lessons in our Green Math books.  There will be homework on Monday evening for lesson 5 and Wednesday evening for lesson 6.

Snack:  We don't eat lunch until 1:00 pm so I am encouraging everyone to bring a snack for our morning snack break at 10:30 am

HOMEWORK:

• Students will have math homework on Monday and Wednesday evening.  It is a review of the lesson we will have worked on during those days.  It is important for long term learning to complete the homework after learning new information. We go over the Problem Set page together as a class and they are supposed to bring that home with them to help them remember how to do the problems as well as help parents see how we worked on the problems so that parents can support their child with their math homework.  I give 5 points for each homework and they do add up quickly in the grade book so it is important for practice and for grades to complete and return homework.  I do not grade for correct vs incorrect answers.  We go over the homework in class together the next day to check for understanding and work on any problem areas.
• Reading Calendars:  I am sending home the September calendar so students can record their reading minutes for the month.  They will be due October 2nd and are worth 100 points in the grade book for reading 400+ minutes for the month. If for any reason the calendar gets lost, I can accept a note or email from parents with the number of reading minutes for their child.  I do encourage that the paper itself be turned in at the end of each month to support growing responsibility and accountability for the students whenever possible.  
• IXL homework will be marked with a yellow star and are homework for the nights we do not have paper math homework.  This week students need to complete the 4 starred areas in third grade math on Tuesday and  Thursday.  The link to IXL is on the right side of this blog page and the starred assignments are:
• IXL, In Third Grade Math, under Numbers and Comparing:  
• B.1 Place value models up to thousands.
• B.2 Place value names up to thousands.
• E.3 Write multiplication sentences for equal groups.
• E.4 Relate addition and multiplication for equal groups.
• *Students who do their IXL homework will be given 5 points extra credit for completing the starred assignments.   

Grades:  If you would like to look at your child's grades please use the Vision Charter link on the right side of this page and go to Portal.  If you do not have a username and password please call Amy Bowers at 208-455-9220 or email her at amybowers@visioncsd.org so that she can get that information to you.  This is the only place grades are posted.  Please let me know if you have any questions or any problems using Infinite Campus.

Dates to Remember:

• Monday, September 11th:  Student Government sponsored skate night at the Rollerdrome from 6-8 pm.
• Tuesday, September 12: Helping your 2^nd - 3^rd grader learn to read well 6-7 p.m. VCS Gym
  Tuesday, September 19: STEM Night 5-7 p.m. come join the fun and learn about drones!
• Friday, September 22nd, Spelling Test on List #2 short and long e.
• Monday, October 2nd:  September Reading Calendar due.
• Thursday, October 5th:  Picture Retakes.  Photo packets should be arriving very soon.  If you would like to get your child's picture retaken, the original photo packet will need to be returned on or before October 5th to the teacher.  If you decided to order pictures after seeing the proof, there is a link on the photo page to order.
• Fall Break is October 9th through 13th,2017.
• November 2nd and 3rd:  Parent Teacher Conferences from 3:30-7:00 pm.  Scheduled with the teacher.