Week 9

Happy Friday! We are pleased to announce that our class has earned a total of 1,323 dojo points all year! We finally got a chance to watch our movie which was our reward from a few weeks ago. We also earned an extra PE class and got to name the gecko. His name is officially now, Spots. Our next reward comes at 1,500 points!

This week was exciting here in third grade as we started multiplication! We have been talking about equal groups of things, repeated addition, arrays and multiplication number sentences. We’ve talked about the relationship they all share as well. There will be a math game in this week’s homework related to this!

We had a nice visit from one of Dedham’s firefighters. He talked to us about making an escape plan with our family and testing fire alarms. Please do this!

Your children are still working hard on their narrative writing stories. This week we talked a lot about similes. They worked really hard to put similes into their stories!

Next week we will be gaining a student teacher. Her name is Sierra Bloom - she just spent the last 8 weeks in 1st grade with Mrs. Nickerson and was phenomenal from what I hear! I’m very excited to have her join us for the next 8 weeks.

Wednesday is Halloween. We are not having a party, but I do have a fun day planned and will be having a small treat for the kids. We will be doing Halloween/fall activities throughout the day, to have a little fun!

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend! Looks like it might be a cold and rainy one. ~Mrs. Haulk

Week 8

Week 8 is under our belts! It’s getting to be that time of year when sickness is starting to hit. We’ve had quite a few kids out this week. Try to get your child resting well and eating healthy! I’m cleaning anything they touch extra carefully and hoping to stop the spread of germs!

This week one was a sad one in third grade. We had a funeral….a funeral for the word “said”. It has been laid to rest and can no longer be used often in story writing. :) We came up with synonyms to replace this word and kids have been diligently writing using words other than our beloved “said”.

Our first unit in science is complete, Stormy Skies. There is a study guide coming home that has the exact questions of the test on it. Please help your child study for this test. This will be one of their first experiences with test taking in science and I will guide them through it as the test is given.

We learned about the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island this week!

Math groups are going well. Keep studying flashcards that come home to increase your child’s math fact fluency. Do you have your child’s IXL login? I’m not seeing many families practice at home and it’s such a great tool! Let me know if your child needs their username and password for use at home. :)

Week 7

Week 7 - wow! Time is just flying by! Another fun week in grade three to tell you about :)

Science: We finished up all of our lessons in our stormy skies unit. This week we became engineers! We tried to figure out how to make changes to houses we built to make them stronger in a windstorm. Check out class dojo for pictures!

Social Studies: We moved on to two different states this week to make up for missing one last week. Vermont and Massachusetts. Your children will be coming home with states/capital flash cards soon!

Writing: we are continuing with our true small moment stories. They are coming along nicely.

Spelling: your child has come home with their week 3 words. Tests are every Wednesday. Please make sure you help your child study for these tests. We do have a spelling lesson throughout the week, but they need to practice these words at home too. Repetition is key!

In math we are now operating in a math workshop fashion. I have three math groups in the room in order to individualize instruction. This seems to be working really well! If your child has come home with flashcards, please try to fit these into your nightly routine. They are important!

The book fair is next week! We will make wish lists on Monday and then you can send money with your child!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Haulk

Week 6

Another great week in third grade! We’re busy working through all kinds of fun topics!

**Please, please, please** read these newsletters as I strive to give you important information regarding your children. It will ALWAYS tell you when something new is happening or tests are coming up. I appreciate your time to read through :)

Spelling tests started this week. Your children came home with words last Wednesday. EVERY Wednesday they will get new words. They will be located on the back side of their take home folder so they do not lose them. Tests will be on Wednesdays, unless a snow day, then on Thursday. We have four spelling groups in here so you cannot rely on calling a classmate for a list. Let me know and I can copy another if it’s lost.

Stormy Skies continued to be our theme in science this week. We looked at the climate on all the continents and figured out why some places are hot all year round.

We started some reading groups this week (more to come next week) and completed a full week of **successful** rounds of daily 5 each day! Great job third grade!

Math is coming along well, due to the varying levels in our room, as with spelling, we have different groups of kids working on different tasks. I aim to teach to all the varying levels of abilities in the room. Your child might come home saying they are doing something different than other kids and that could very well be true!

If your child came home with orange math flash cards, please study nightly. We’ve been working on strategies to learn these quickly!

As a whole group we are currently reading Wonder. The kids are loving it so far! We are getting ready to start responding in our literature journals to the first 44 pages. I can’t wait to see what they think! :)

Please encourage some of the homework being sent home - remember they can earn dojo points! :)

Week 5

Another week has flown by in  third grade! Here’s a little glimpse at what we’ve been up to! :)

    In literature we have been continuing our book Wonder. We’ve been learning to make observations with our reading and have been taking notes on our “jot spots” in our literature journals. We also have been focusing on Auggie’s character. Traits about him and things we notice.

    In science we continued with our “Stormy Skies” unit and learned about types of clouds this week. We created a storm spotter’s guide and practiced looking at clouds trying to figure out what we saw. Ask your children what type of clouds are in the sky! :) They got pretty good at identifying them!

    In math we continue our work with adding/subtracting within 1,000. We’ve been perfecting our borrowing, carrying and precision with our math. Next week we will begin math focus groups. With all children not needing the same concepts, this will be a way to focus on just what your child needs!

    In social studies we continued our study through the northeast region and learned about New Hampshire this week. We learned about the capital city, two major waterways and two mountains!

    We were able to successfully implement a full rotation of Daily 5 this week as well. This is awesome! The kids rotated through stations, stayed on task and completed work. I was able to conference with readers.

     In writing we are continuing with our true stories. They currently are learning different ways to come up with ideas and how to draft stories before writing.

     If you didn’t notice, spelling words came home this week. Spelling groups are determined by a spelling inventory that I gave a couple weeks ago. After looking at the results from this I can see what spelling stage your child falls within and then can customize their spelling curriculum. We currently have 4 groups in third grade. I ask that you have your children study spelling words more than once a week. This will be necessary to learn the rule/pattern they are focusing on that week. We will be focusing on this once/twice a week in their small groups as well, but nightly practice will benefit them tremendously!

    Next week is a FOUR DAY WEEK. Please mark your calendars - no school on Friday! Teachers have an inservice day and then there is also no school the following Monday for Columbus Day.

    I hope that you and your families have a wonderful weekend!            ~Mrs. Haulk

Week 4

To start, I want to share a compliment I have received three times this week from three other teachers who had our class. That was….”your class is amazing! They are so well behaved and kind.” This they truly are. I’m having such a great time with your children - they truly are a wonderful group of students.

   You may have heard - we earned our class pet! It is a leopard gecko and he is unnamed as of right now. We will be voting on that soon!

    Grade 3 is done with fall NWEA testing. I will be sending you scores soon.

   Math: We have been working on fact family fluency this week. We’ve been taking an addition problem and looking at the commutative property (being able to switch the addends and still get the same result) and then looking at the two subtraction sentences we can come up with in that same fact family. This is to build fluency - the speed at which your child can recall their math facts. It is also something that can be done at home. Give them an addition problem and they will come up with the four number sentences in that family! Before we move on to harder math, this is a necessary task to ensure fluency.

   Writing is going well - your children are working on small moment stories. Every class we start off with a mentor text or mini lesson. We have many tools to use to create excellent writing pieces. They love writing and hate when I say time is up!

    We got new computers this week! We are so excited and thankful for a grant that allowed third grade to get chromebooks.

     Today we started reading the book Wonder. The theme of this book is something we will talk about all year and an important life skill…..In a world where you can be anything, be kind. You’ll notice this was on the bulletin board in the hallway to start the year as well. I feel strongly about this statement and can’t wait to read this book with your kiddos!

      Treworgy field trip next week! Please pack a cold lunch and layers for cold weather!

Week 4 read alouds...

Week 3!

Our first full week in third grade! I think we might have some tired kiddos. I know my two girls are definitely ready for a weekend!

In third grade this week we started science! We are currently working on a unit titled, “Stormy Skies.” This week we talked about how clouds are made and made our own gas trap in a clear cup! We learned how water shapes our planet. Perfect timing to pull in talking about Hurricane Florence. Next week we will be talking about how to be a storm spotter and how to tell if a storm is coming our way!

In Social Studies we learned about 9-11. We talked about heros. We also started our states/capitals unit this week by learning what states make up the Northeast region. This is the first region we will be studying. Next week we will make states/capital flashcards that will come home to practice. Be studying - Flashcards will come home on Wednesday!

In math, we finished our unit on rounding to tens and hundreds. Next week we are going to focus on some games/activities to sharpen our math fact fluency. That is, how quickly we can recall math facts.  Flash cards at home are ALWAYS a great option. A deck of cards works good too! There will be homework choices for this as well!

Lastly, I wanted to take a minute to make a shout of thanks out to Connor Archer with the Courageous Steps Project. If you have not heard of him, or this great foundation, please look them up. Go to my class website to read more about why I am so thankful to this organization! They have made a huge donation to our classroom!

All seems to be going well with the homework choice sheet. As a parent, I know that some nights homework is just not in the schedule. I love giving you all the opportunity to incorporate this into your evenings or weekends - or not at all some nights if it just doesn’t work. Feel free to leave me feedback if this is going ok at home! ~ Mrs. Haulk

Thank you Connor Archer and the Courageous Steps Project

Connor Archer and the Courageous Steps Project for funding a wish list for my third graders! 

I recently noticed a need in my classroom for flexible seating choices. I have students who love these different options of seating. In my classroom students are allowed to move around as needed and find seating that "fits" their body and makes them successful learners. I have found though, that I don't have enough choices! After bringing up the idea of a Donors Choose project, someone reminded me that the project has to get fully funded in order for donors' money to come to my class. If the project isn't funded, the money goes elsewhere. Sooo...I backed away from Donors Choose and was given a link to the Courageous Steps Project by a parent who happened to see a Facebook post from this organization. They were looking for classrooms who had a need for sensory items! Perfect! I filled out the wishlist, stated why I felt my classroom would benefit and within hours Connor had emailed me to tell me what I wanted was fully funded....nearly $500 donated to our class! THANK YOU!

Our items will be arriving in the next few weeks - we will be getting more exercise ball chairs, bungee bands for the bottom of their desks and some new wobble stools. I cannot wait!

After our new seating arrives I'll be onto my next project which is new desks - in the form of tables. I'd love to have a "pub" style table in the back of my room for kids who would much rather stand and write. If you're getting rid of one, let me know! Here is something similar to what I'm looking for...long and skinny! Writing Table we want... and then I'd love to get a few rectangular tables instead of desks to put at different heights to match the new seating options. There, of course, will still be some of the traditional seating available as well. Stay tuned!

See the books we read this week for our #picturebookaday challenge!

This week's newsletter...

Week 2

Classroom Notes:

   What another jam packed, but fun week here in grade 3! We’re getting used to the classroom, guidelines and expectations.

   In math this week we are focusing on round to the nearest 10s place. Everyone is working hard and it shows! We’ve also started daily math. This is a variety of math problems (5 each day) that they complete each morning.

   We have set a goal to read a picture book a day and you can find which books we’ve read on the class website. When doing reading homework, if your child can’t remember what one of the books was about, go to my website and see what books we read. Then, go to google and search that book. There is usually always a video of someone reading that book and they can listen again before doing the homework!

    In writing we’ve started our writer’s notebooks and have talked about what 3rd grade writers do and don’t do. You also have seen that they will bring a journal home each Friday. This will have “brag tags” they have received throughout the week for different things they have done well and get to write home and brag about. Feel free to write back to your child! They love to read letters from you too :)

    In science this week we got organized and started our “I wonder journals”. Our first unit will be our earth science unit, called “Stormy Skies”. I’m excited to get going with this!

Have a great weekend!     

~Mrs. Haulk

Books we read this week...

Dojo Store day!