I can't believe that it is May 1st already!

Next week our 3S students will be participating in the PARCC testing.  Please remind them to get plenty of sleep and to eat a healthy breakfast.  If your student seems to be getting nervous about the test I find reminding them what Mrs. Lynch says seems to help, "They already know it, now it's time to show it."  I'm already proud of the hard work this class has put in toward practicing for the test.

IXL- I am also proud of the work the students put in on the IXL competition.  We are still anxiously awaiting the results, but the weekly certificates I receive about the students' practice shows how ambitious 3S truly is.


Upcoming Events:

May 1- Shop Rite Family Night

May 18- Lakota Wolf Preserve

May 24- Shop Rite Nutrition Visit at Nixon for the kids

June 1- Shop Rite Field Trip

3S has been continuing their study of measurements.  This study includes perimeter and area.

3S used their knowledge of potential and kinetic energy to create "Egg Catapults".  Make sure to ask your student about them. :)

3S continues to work hard with all their reading and writing at school.  Students have been writing multiple compare/contrast essays.  Students have also been writing stories from different perspectives.  Additionally, students have been writing persuasive/opinion letters.  All of this practice combined with the weekly practice tests they have been doing on their Chrome Books, should help alleviate any anxiety the students are feeling in anticipation of the PARCC test.

3S continues keeping a "Growth Mindset" when it comes to learning.

Math
Students have been learning about fractions.  They have been comparing and contrasting fractions.  The fractions have come in all varieties:  same denominators, same numerators, different denominators and different numerators.

Language Arts
Similar to math, students have been comparing and contrasting literature.  These comparing and contrasting units have transcended to writing where the students have been expected to create in depth compare and contrast essays.

Writing
In addition to the compare and contrast essays, students have been taking the role of scholastic news writer and have been composing their own articles.  Students have also been continuing to research an inventor.  Students have been taking their opinion writing and changing the format to persuasive letters.

Reminder
Please remind students that homework needs to be completed thoroughly and neatly.  Students need to remember to write essays with proof in their ELA packets when the questions ask for text evidence.  Students have been responsible for making the corrections that they have made in their packets.

3S continues to work very hard in this new year.  We are currently finishing up multiplication and division and moving on to fractions in math.

3S did a wonderful job on the nonfiction reading unit.  They are now currently going to begin writing an article as if they are reporters for Scholastic News.  The article will combine information from 2 nonfiction sources.

The holidays are almost among us!  3S has been hard at work mastering their multiplication skills in math and learning about the different types of fiction in Language Arts.  As we move into 2017 the class will be starting Division and Nonfiction.  Nonfiction will be grouped together with the Nonfiction unit for writing.  If you find yourself reading an interesting article during the holiday please feel free to share it with your student.  The goal for 3S is to be able to identify the most important facts in an article and use those same facts to write an article in their own words.
3S has also been studying different famous inventors and deciding which one they would like to do a research report on.  Ask your student which inventor he/she has found the most interesting so far.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the 3S families.

3S has been hard at work in the classroom.

Math:
Students have been practicing their multiplication skills.  Students have been taught that there are more ways to arrive to an answer to a multiplication problem besides just memorizing the answers.
Ask your student about the distributive and commutative properties of multiplication.
Students have also been going weekly to Exemplar Word Problem practice during the Gifted and Talented period.  This period is designed to help all learners understand the process involved in solving multi-step math problems.

Language Arts:
3S has finished Gilly Hopkins and is now well into The Cricket in Times Square.
Students have been introduced to various genres of Fiction and are learning how to identify the theme of those genres and develop them into messages.  Students have also been learning to compare two different genres of fiction.  A neat lesson we did as a class was to compare/contrast two versions of the classic Folktale, Cinderella.
Ask your learner about The Appalachian Cinderella.

The theme for Responsive Classroom Meeting (Circle Time) this month has been ways to keep calm. I hope you're able to keep calm and enjoy this hectic, but ultimately lovely time of the year.

As always I am thankful for having your student in my class.

Thank you to all the students that could attend the PTA meeting this past Monday night.  I am so very proud of their presentation of all the wonderful work 3S has accomplished.