This Week, In 3-2...

September 3 - September 6, 2013

Reading: Students read our main selection, Dear Juno.  In order to find out character traits, students found text clues to support their ideas.  They learned that Juno was a clever young boy by analyzing his actions throughout the story.  Students also practiced their reading fluency by focusing on expression, punctuation, accuracy, and medium speed.  At the end of the week, we revisited a National Geographic article on bats.  Students determined the author’s purpose and provided evidence from the text.  We continued to practice using context clues to figure out unknown vocabulary. Reading Logs are due Monday, September 9.  (100 minutes)

Math: Students utilized number grids to find differences between various numbers.  They practiced using calculators to solve “change-to” problems where a number is given and needs to be changed to a new number.  Students were responsible for figuring out how to get to the new number using a variety of operations.  Money concepts were also reviewed at the end of the week.  Students wrote different amounts in dollar-cents notation.

Social Studies: Hemispheres were a main focus this week.  Students learned that the equator and prime meridian divide our world into four different hemispheres.  They continued utilizing cardinal and intermediate directions to interpret various maps.

Writing: Students finished their juicy sentence projects!  They enjoyed incorporating interesting adjectives and adverbs to create informative sentences.  In grammar, we differentiated between exclamations and commands.

Cursive/Spelling:  In cursive this week, students practiced the letters “p, s, r, j, and a”.  We took our week 2 spelling test.

Miscellaneous: I hope you all had a restful holiday weekend!  September book order forms went home this week.  If you choose to order, please send a check or order online.  Thanks for supporting our classroom library!  Also, Flat Stanley information was sent home on Thursday…please let me know if you have difficulty finding someone who would like to participate in this project.   If you need to order a recorder from Mr. Deptula, please send in your form and money as soon as possible.  Thank you again for all your hard work this week…I truly appreciate your support in helping your child get into the routine of a new school year.  As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!