Welcome to the 3rd Grade!
This is a year of fun exploration and great discoveries! I am so excited to journey with the 3rd graders as we learn more about our faith, our community and our world, through all of our classroom activities. Here are some highlights of our year:
Language Arts – writing paragraphs and summaries, doing research projects, learning about different types of text features, structures and genres including historical fiction, informational text and poetry.
Science – using FOSS Science Kits for lots of hands-on investigations of Structures of Life, Motion & Matter, and Water & Climate.
Social Studies – doing in-depth studies of the city of Seattle, the country of China, and the continent of Africa.
Math – using the Math in Focus curriculum to learn multiplication and division facts, solve word problems and every day applications that we can apply our math skills to in order to solve problems that we face in real life.
Religion – exploring scripture, the life of Jesus Christ, the Seven Sacraments, and the community of Christ’s disciples and saints; learning to l live
our faith through daily prayer and service to one another. Third Grade Service Project: partnering with PreS/PreK and WestSide Baby to collect previously owned items for children and infants.
Handwriting – learning cursive using the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum
I look forward to a year of smiling and discovering!
Blessings,
Mrs. Hoch (Mrs. H)
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Grade 3 News – 9-26-22
Happy weekend, Grade 3 families! I hope you enjoyed a lovely weekend!
This week we continue MAP Testing! Please make sure your student gets good sleep, has a protein-rich breakfast, and brings a protein snack so they can do their very best on the assessments. Third graders will be testing on the following days:
* Reading test – Monday, Sept. 26 and Thursday, Sept 29
* Language test – Monday, Oct. 3 and Wednesday, Oct. 5
Other Notes:
* Field Trip! On October 25 we’ll be heading downtown to tour Seattle’s Underground city! We’ll be needing some drivers/chaperones. Please contact Aimee Cabrera (Migi’s mom) if you’d be interested in helping. All parent volunteers must be current with their Safe Environment training. Thank you, Aimee, for helping us make this trip happen!
* Mystery Reader Fridays! – We will be starting our Mystery Readers in October. Please use the link below to sign up. The week before your date, I will ask you to send me 5 clues about yourself (or the Mystery Reader) that I can use to let the 3rd graders try to figure out who their Mystery Reader will be. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0C4CAAAD29A3FA7-mystery
* Science with Mr. Casey – Starting this week, Mr. Casey and I will be doing a “teacher swap” twice a week – Mr. Casey will come to 3rd grade to teach Science, while I go to 5th grade to teach Religion.
Here’s what’s coming up this week in our classroom:
Friday Notebooks – You should have seen a Friday Notebook come home with your student on Friday. Please take time to review the “Weekly Earnings Chart” as well as the reflection your student wrote about their week in third grade. Sign the Earnings Chart and help your student remember to bring it back to school on Monday so they can get their “paycheck.” These notebooks will come home each week as a way of communicating how your student’s week went.
Religion – looking at the Trinity; practicing the Apostle’s Creed; introducing the specifics of the Saint Project (watch for info packets to come home this week). Saint Project choices are due by Wednesday.
Math – beginning our chapter on rounding and front-end estimation.
Language Arts – finishing our unit on Narrative Nonfictions; writing a personal narrative paragraph, practicing sequencing, asking & answering questions about a text, identifying text features, and responding to texts. Foundational Skills: continuing to work on compound words, sentences vs sentence fragments, capitalization & punctuation.
Handwriting – continuing to learn our lowercase cursive letters.
Spelling – No Spelling list this week due to Jog-a-thon and MAP testing.
Social Studies – learning fun facts about the Seattle Space Needle.
Science (with Mr. Casey) – exploring how water moves on different slopes
Important Dates:
* Wednesday, Sept. 28 – PreK Buddies – Autumn activity together
* Friday, Sept. 30 – Jog-A-Thon (½ day)
* Friday, Oct 14 – No School – Professional Development
* Oct. 17-19 – Mrs H planned absence (traveling to Texas for Dad’s memorial) – Mrs. Pedersen to sub in 3rd grade
Have a wonderful week!
Blessings,
Mrs. H
