We are officially half way through the school year! The students are all so excited to be closer to being fourth graders! We will continue to work hard each and everyday for the second half of our year.

Reading: In reading, We read the main selection Seeing Stars. Students explored this expository text while looking at text features such as headings, key words, diagrams, photographs, and captions. We discussed the importance of text features and applied this skill in small groups. Students enjoyed reading this text about our solar system! This week, we will be taking our STAR Reading assessment. For this reason, our reading lessons this week will focus on our expository writing pieces and reviewing key skills in small group.

Writing: I have been conferencing with many of the students about their progress with their expository pieces. They are writing “how to” pieces to explain how to play their favorite outdoor game.The students are working hard to organize their thoughts into five paragraphs and use sequencing words. Our goal is to have these finished by January 31st.

Math: We ended our unit on geometry. Students focused on classifying polygons and describing their attributes. We looked at different triangles, quadrilaterals, and parallelograms. On Friday, we took the Quarter Two Assessment. Students were tested on ordering numbers, polygons, and multiplying a one digit number by a multiple of ten. Looking ahead, we will begin our unit on fractions after the three day weekend. On Thursday, we will be taking our STAR Math assessment.

Social Studies: Students are working in groups to complete their presentations on urban, suburban, and rural communities. Outside of the group presentation, students will be writing an essay using the research they have collected. The presentations and essays will be due at the end of next week.

Odds & Ends:

January 20th: No School

January 28th: Report cards go home

February 5th: Early Dismissal

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Thank you,

Miss Gentile

We are coming to the end of the second marking period. I can’t believe we are half way through the school year! I’m excited to see what the second half of the year will bring us!

Reading: In reading, we focused on the skills of inferencing and literary elements. The students worked in both whole group and small group to identify characters, plot, and setting of many passages. This week we are moving onto text structure and graphic sources as we look at an expository text titled Seeing Stars. We will also be learning about subject-verb agreement and applying this skill to our writing pieces.

Writing: We have started our own expository writing. The students are writing “how to” pieces and explaining how to play their favorite out door games. Many of the students are working with a partner to revise and edit their rough drafts. Some students are even starting their final copy!

Math: In math, we are still working through our geometry unit. The students explored different triangles such as obtuse triangles, acute triangles, right triangles, scalene triangles, isosceles triangles, and equilateral triangles. We also start exploring polygons and how we name different polygons. At the end of the week we looked at quadrilaterals and discussed the attributes of this group of polygons. We will be reviewing the quarter two material this week to prepare us for the assessment on January 17th.

Social Studies: To wrap up our unit on communities, the students have been put into groups for a research project. Each group will be researching one of the following topics: jobs, government, buildings, transportation, housing, and community workers. As a group, they will make a poster to share their findings as well as write a short essay.

Odds & Ends:

January 17th:

• End of the second marking period.
• Quarter 2 math assessment

January 20th: No School

January 23rd: STAR Math assessment

January 24th: STAR Reading assessment

January 28th: Report cards will be sent home.

As we head into the second half of the school year, I would just like to say how proud I am of all the students. They are working hard each and everyday; especially with our crazy schedule!

Reading: In reading, we spent two weeks on the main selection How Do You Raise a Raisin. With the snow and special events scheduled for the Holidays, I wanted to make sure we took the time to cover all the material. We focused on drawing conclusions using our own background knowledge and details from the text. We also discussed finding important ideas in a text. We will be working on an expository writing piece on the two days when we return from break. Our next story, Pushing Up the Sky, will begin the week of January 6th.

Writing: The students have FINISHED their personal narratives. Although the project went longer than I expected, the students were able to work through the writing process and come out with some wonderful pieces! I will be scoring all of those using the Writing Rubric and then they will be sent home.

Math: In math, we have moved our focus to geometry. We have explored different types of lines, rays, line segments, parallel lines, perpendicular lines, and intersecting lines. We have also looked at different types of angles and triangles. Triangles and attributes of different polygons will be our focus when we come back from Christmas break. Before the end of the second marking period, the students will be taking another Benchmark test which will cover all we have focused on for this marking period. I will be sending home topics which will be reviewed as we get closer to the test.

Social Studies: With our very crazy schedule due to the snow, we have had little time to work through our Social Studies unit on Communities. We have compared and contrasted suburbs, rural areas, and urban areas. We will continue with this unit when the students come back from break.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. I hope you are all enjoying the holidays with your families! Happy 2014!

Thank you,

Miss Gentile

Happy December! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The students came back from break and got right back into our routine! They continue to show me hard work.

Reading: Last week in reading, we completed our review week We covered all of the skills from Unit 2 in Reading Street such as drawing conclusions, main idea and details, author’s purpose, and text features. We read short passages and then applied the skills. Students also worked on a short cause and effect writing piece. This will come home in the Friday folder after I finish scoring them. I did put the Benchmark 2 test in Friday folders this week. The benchmark is very long and I’m proud of the students for staying focused while completing it. We will move into Unit 3 this week and work with the main selection titled How Do You Raise a Raisin? Our focus skill is drawing conclusions.

Writing: Almost all of the students are finished with their personal narratives. I did not expect the pieces to take this long, but the students are working hard to complete the writing process and are publishing their work on Word. We will be moving to an expository piece next to prepare for our next writing sample.

Math: We focused on area last week. The topic fit nicely with our multiplication unit. Students explored what area is and found the area of various shapes through counting squares. At the end of the week we looked at the similarities and differences between area and perimeter and found both for different sized rectangles. This week we will move to geometry. Students will continue to work with area, perimeter, and multiplication in small groups. I have asked students in my small math group to practice math facts at home. I sent home flash cards that can be used, but students should use a method they are most comfortable with. We will be taking “Mad Minute” quizzes at the beginning of math groups for students to practice fact fluency.

Social Studies: We have started our new unit in Social Studies. Communities is our focus and students will be exploring the features of a community this week.

Odds & Ends:

Wednesday, December 11 is a 1/2 day.

Wednesday, December 11 is  the due date for gifts for our Christmas family. We will be wrapping gifts Friday afternoon.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. Have a wonderful Sunday afternoon!

Thank you,

Miss Gentile

Greetings on this very chilly Sunday evening! Last week really flew by!

Reading: Last week in reading we worked on Main Idea and Details using the main selection Amazing Bird Nests. Students got the chance to read about and see some very interesting bird nests! We also looked at text features in both whole group and small groups. The students explored plural possessive nouns as well as digraphs. We are heading into our review week which will last until December 6th. Students will take the second benchmark assessment on December 5th and 6th.

Writing: We are really getting close to finishing all of our personal narratives. Students are working hard as they move towards typing their final pieces. After I grade those, they will be sent home! We will be working on cause/effect writing after Thanksgiving.

Math: In math, students have been exploring multiplication. We looked at how it relates to division, a few tricks to remember facts, why it is important to have fact fluency, arrays, and word problems. I will be sending home flashcards for the students to cut out and keep at home. Looking at those for just a few minutes each night will help improve their fact fluency. We will continue with multiplication after Thanksgiving as well.

Science: Last week we looked at severe weather such as tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. This week we will look at winter weather to wrap up our weather unit. After Thanksgiving, we will move to Social Studies.

Odds & Ends:

We have a TWO day week this week! Thanksgiving break will be 11/27 – 12/2 I hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving with family and friends!

Our class will be involved in the Holiday Donation project. We have adopted a family to purchase gifts for and I will be sending a letter home about that tomorrow. If you would like to purchase a gift, please send in the gift on or before December 11th. Our class will be wrapping the gifts on December 13th! I’m excited to be apart of this project and to give back to the community!

As always if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me! Have a wonderful Sunday evening!

Thanks you,

Miss Gentile

Thank you all for such a wonderful two days of conferences! It was great meeting with everyone and sharing all of the awesome things the students have been working on.

Reading: In reading we read the main selection Tops and Bottoms which was an animal fantasy. We focused on the skill of author’s purpose once again. Students are becoming better at naming the four types: persuade, inform, entertain, express a thought or feeling. We are working on using information from the text to decide what the author’s purpose is. This is a skill that will come up again in Reading Street in a few weeks. We looked at consonant blends such as spl, str, squ, and thr. Students also learned about possessive nouns. This week we will read the passage titled Amazing Bird Nests and focus on main idea and detail.

Writing: Many students are moving to the publishing stage for their personal narratives. The students are excited to publish their pieces using Word! I plan on finishing these by next week and moving to a narrative story.

Math: We started MULTIPLICATION last week! Due to half days and CDT testing, we only had a two day start. We looked at what multiplication is as well as arrays. We will continue exploring multiplication this week and looking at how it connects to division and begin learning some facts. Many students came in with a good foundation of multiplication so I’m excited to see how the rest of the unit goes!

Science: We are wrapping up weather this week. Last week we did not get to much science due to the half days. Students will be looking at severe weather patterns this week. Following Thanksgiving, we will be moving to Social Studies.

Odds & Ends:

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns after having some time to review your child’s report card. Once again, thank you all for such a great conference experience!

The Book Fair is currently taking place in our library. The hours are as follows:

Mon., Nov. 18- Thursday, – 9:00 – 4:00

Friday, Nov. 22 – 9:00 – 3:00

Students will have an opportunity to go as a class during our library time on Wednesday.

Next week is a very SHORT week! Thanksgiving break begins on 11/ 27 and will go until 12/2.

As always if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me! Have a wonderful Sunday!

Thank you,

Miss Gentile

What a great start we had to the second marking period! The weeks seem to be flying by! I’m proud of all the hard work the students are putting in and I can’t wait to see what the second marking period will bring for us.

Reading: Last week in reading our focus skill was drawing conclusions. It was the first time this skill came up in Reading Street and I feel we got a good start on it. We will continue to build on it as the year progresses. We also worked with the skill of questioning before, during, and after reading. This week we will be using the main selection Tops and Bottoms to review author’s purpose and predicting. Our spelling list will contain consonant blends and we will be working with this pattern all week. Look out for the spelling list in today’s homework folder!

Writing: In writing, we are working with the 4 domain rubric. The rubric covers focus, content, organization, style, and conventions. Students are using the rubric to go back into their writing sample from a few weeks ago and adding things such as descriptive words, more detail, and transitions. In addition, we are continuing to work on our personal narratives. Many students have moved to publishing their pieces on the computer!

Math: Ordering and comparing numbers, modeling numbers, and word problems are what we focused on last week in math. We learned about UPSC to solve word problems- Understand, Plan, Solve, and Check. This week is exciting as we move to multiplication! I will be sending home a list of fun websites for the students to practice their basic facts.

Science: In science, we continued our work with weather. Our focus was still how we measure weather. This week we will look at weather maps.

Odds and Ends:

Conferences will be held Thursday and Friday of THIS week. Students will be dismissed at 12:30 on both days. If you’re conference time no longer works for you, please contact me so we can set up another time to meet. I will be giving you your child’s report card at the time of our meeting.

Book orders due 11/25

Thanksgiving Break 11/27 – 12/1

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Have a wonderful Monday!

Thank you,

Miss Gentile

We had an AWESOME week in third grade! The students worked hard this week as we wrapped up the first marking period. We enjoyed our Harvest Party Friday afternoon with snacks and a craft! It was a wonderful way to end the week. Thank you to Mrs. Hoffman and Mrs. Mellinger for taking time to come into our class!

Reading: In reading, we took another look at comparing and contrasting and well as visualizing. The students focused on these skills in whole group as well as small groups. We compared items within the same story as well as items between two different stories. This week we will move onto main idea and details, drawing conclusions, and questioning while we read. The main selection is titled Prudy’s Problem and we will use this story to help us work on the above skills. Our spelling pattern is compound words. Look out for the list in tomorrow’s homework folder! The skills and spelling words will be tested on Friday.

Writing: Last week in writing, we took a look at our first writing sample. Students saw the rubric used to score their pieces and they had the opportunity to score their own. I met with each student to show them the score I gave them. We discussed strengths in the writing as well as areas that can be improved. The students focused on style and went back into their piece to add descriptive words. This week we will use the rubric again to look at content and edit our writing samples once again with more detail.

Math: In math, we spent the beginning of the week reviewing ALL of the topics covered so far this year. We looked at addition, subtraction, counting money, comparing money, telling time, rounding, estimating, interpreting data, and finding perimeter. The students spent two days taking the first Quarterly Assessment. The scores on this exam will be one piece of evidence for the report card. The tests will be graded and can be viewed at conference time. This week we are starting with ordering sets of numbers. We will then move to number models and finally word problems.

Science: We are still in the Weather unit and will work through different methods of measuring weather this week.

Odds and Ends:

Please do not forget to send in a note or an excuse card when your child returns after an absence.

Parent Teacher Conferences 11/14 & 11/15

I will be sending home conference times this week. These will be 1/2 days for your child/children. Dismissal is at 12:30 on both days.

School Board Meeting @ Brecknock 11/18

Thanksgiving Vacation 11/27 – 11/29

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. I hope you are enjoying this beautiful fall Sunday!

Thank you,

Miss Gentile

As we bring the first marking period to a close, I would like to say how proud I am of the students. They are working extremely hard and I’m excited to see their growth as the year progresses!

Reading: We read Penguin Chick last week and focused on main idea and details. We worked with the main idea and details of the main selection as well as shorter passages and books throughout the week. We also discussed ways to monitor and clarify as we read. This week we will move to the story title I Wanna Iguana. Our skills for the will include compare and contrast, and visualizing. We will further our understanding of these skills as they were introduced a few weeks back.

Writing: In writing, we are making a great deal of progress on our personal narratives. Some students have already begun to type their final copies! the students are working through the writing process and are taking their time to revise and edit their pieces. I’m anxious to see all of their final copies!

Math: We continued our work with rounding last week and took a look at using rounding to estimate sums and differences. Students will continue to work on this skill as well as finding perimeter this week. On Thursday and Friday of this week, we will be taking our Quarter 1 assessment which will cover all of the topics from this quarter. We will be taking time to review in whole group as well as small group before we being testing.

Science: In science we started our unit on weather. Students explored what water cycle is and defined weather. We will continue to work with weather this week and focus on weather fronts as well as how we measure weather.

Odds and Ends:

11/1 Harvest Party!

11/1 Conference forms due back

As always if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Have a WONDERFUL Sunday!

Thanks,

Miss Gentile

Only two weeks left until the end of the first marking period. I CANNOT believe it! The students continue to work hard each and everyday!

Reading: Last week we finished up reviewing skills from Unit 1 such as compare and contrast, author’s purpose, story elements, and sequencing. We worked on test taking strategies as we worked through comparing two passages and answering questions on them. The students will begin a new story this week titled Penguin Chick. The skills for this story are identifying main idea and details, monitoring and clarifying as we read, and using graphic organizers. Students will have a new spelling list this week and a test on Friday.

Writing: Students took the first writing sample on Thursday. I look forward to reading all of their narrative pieces. We are still working on our personal narratives and will focus on nouns this week.

Math: In math, we finished our unit on Place Value. The students worked on identifying place, values, and expressing numbers in standard, expanded, and word form. Graded tests will be coming home in this week’s Friday Folders. We will move to rounding and estimating this week.

Science: Brubaker Park was wonderful! We could not have asked for nicer weather! The high school students did a fabulous job setting up stations for our students. The students seemed to take a great deal away from our morning there. I enjoyed hearing their write-ups about what they learned. We wrapped up our unit on Agriculture and will move to Weather this week.

Odds and Ends:

10/30 is the end of the first marking period.

11/1 is Harvest Day

11/14 and 11/15 is Parent/Teacher Conferences. Papers were sent home in last week’s Friday Folders. Please let me know if you need another.

Just a reminder: Please remember to send an excuse card or note when your child misses a day of school.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me! Have a wonderful Sunday afternoon!

Thank you,

Miss Gentile