September 9th Update

Hello Families! We continued to get into the routine of school this week. We also completed our MAPS testing and DIBELS fluency checks this week. We met Mr. Knight, our student teacher from Columbia College who'll be with us for the entire school year. He will be with us two days a week this trimester, every day the next trimester and back to two days a week in the last trimester. We are really excited to have him working with us this year. It's been a cool and comfortable week for learning in our classroom.

Here's what you can ask your third grader about this week:
* POD Reading Program called "Read Across America" - your child should read at least 15-20 minutes every night as part of their homework. Please have them write the number of pages that they have read each night in the message box in their assignment notebook and get your initials or signature for verification. We will total up our pages in class every day. Each week, we will meet with our POD mates to get a grand total for the week and travel those miles on the map (200 pages = 1 cm). We are starting off in Washington state and are traveling all the way to Maine. Please remember that your 3rd grader should have an ongoing chapter book as part of their nightly reading repertoire.
* Start Smart in Treasures - setting up our writing journals, reading a writing rubric, responding to a writing prompt, rereading & revising our writing, making vocabulary word squares, getting to know the 6 syllable types, taking spelling pretests, and reviewing reading strategies.
* Read Aloud Books - "Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10," "Miss Nelson is Missing," "Zen Shorts," "The Giving Tree"
* Starting Social Studies with an introduction to communities - rural, suburban, urban
* Using Math tools (templates, rulers, calculators)
* Practicing place value and telling time in partners
* Finishing up morning word problems
* Doing math boxes for homework this week

Please remember that the best way to contact me is via email (vrajashekar@op97.org). Thank you for your support and partnership. Have a wonderful weekend!