BACK TO
SCHOOL!
Goshen Elementary
Au g u s t 2 5 , 2 0 1 4
Volume 3, Issue 1
Grade Three Gazette
Welcome Back!
Welcome to the third grade year!
We are extremely excited about getting
to know your children. We will be busy
over the first week getting acquainted
with each other, our room, and our
building. We will spend a lot of time
becoming familiar with Goshen’s PBIS
expectations to insure a safe and orderly
environment.
Third grade is a transition year
from primary to intermediate grades,
and organization is the key to a
successful transition. The materials that
we suggested (composition books,
folders, etc.) will be used to organize
assignments and class activities
throughout the year. This will be a
challenging and rewarding year for your
child.
This is an exciting and important
year for children. A lot of our content is
far beyond their current experiences.
Our curriculum is challenging and
important. We teach and model for our
students that effective effort leads to
success. Together, we can and will
make this a successful school year!
Upcoming Events
Back to School Night Grades 3-5
Thursday, August 28, 2014 6:30
Labor Day—No School
Monday, September 1, 2014
Back to School Picnic
Thursday, September 4, 2014 5:00
Teacher Planning – Early Dismissal
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Rosh Hashanah – No School
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Third Grade Specials
Each week, third graders have P.E.,
music, and art. Students will also engage
in learning in the computer lab and have
opportunities to visit the media center to
check out books. It is essential that
students dress appropriately each day
for the special they have. On art days,
students should wear older clothes or
bring a smock. Also, students should
wear tennis shoes on the day they
attend P.E.
Grade Three Gazette
Reading
At the beginning of this month, third
graders will explore characteristics of
realistic fiction texts. These are made
up stories about believable characters
that have some of the same problems as
real children, resolutions that could really
happen, and settings that could be in the
real world. In both the whole-group and
guided reading settings, students will
practice making inferences, asking and
answering higher-level questions about
what they read, and explore how both
the narrator’s and author’s point of view
affects the plot of the story. Students will
also practice differentiating between the
main idea and supporting details within a
fictional text. We will also read a folktale
from The Junior Great Books series and
participate in a class inquiry discussion.
Writing and Social Studies
For the first part of this marking period,
our writing focus is on writing for
personal expression as students write
a personal narrative. Students will chose
a time when they helped someone else
(serving the “common good”) and will
describe what happened at the beginning,
middle, and end of the event. Students
will also describe the actions they took
and how they felt as a result of helping
someone else. We will practice editing
and revising our pieces by adding
dialogue and checking for proper
capitalization. Students will use their
Writer’s Notebook to record their ideas
and take their piece through the entire
writing process. Concepts explored in
Social Studies will connect to this writing
project as students discover what
characteristics make a responsible citizen
in the community.
Page 2
Math
This month, we will focus on the
measurement topics of Operations and
Algebraic Thinking and Numbers and
Operations in Base Ten.
Students will begin this year by exploring
an addition table and discovering the
patterns found within one. Next, we will
use our place value understanding to help
us round whole numbers to the nearest 10
or 100. Students will use a thousands chart
and number lines to help them determine
the most appropriate estimate. Next, third
graders will add and subtract within 1,000
using their understanding of place value,
properties of operations, and their
understanding of the inverse relationship
between addition and subtraction. Students
will also have the chance to solve two-step
word problems involving all four operations
and apply their understanding of estimation
to determine the reasonableness of their
answers.
Science
To start the year, students will take part in
a health unit on what makes a person
unique and better understand our own
special qualities. Next, we will move into
our study of Physical Science. Third
graders will describe the motion of a given
object using its position and speed.
Students will describe the position of an
object in relation to other objects and/or its
background. They will also describe how an
object’s motion changes depending on the
various surfaces it moves across.
In
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Gazette
Goshen Grizzlies are
GRRREAT!
This year Goshen has adopted a widely
recognized positive behavior program
(PBIS). Each day students are expected to
come to school showing their three R’s:
 Respect
 Responsibility
 Ready to Go
We will spend a lot of time exploring what
each of the R’s looks and sounds like in
various places in the building and on the
bus. Third grade teachers will
communicate your child’s daily behavior in
their agenda book. The goal is for your
child to stay on green all day. Please see
Goshen’s PBIS brochure for more
information regarding this program.

Goshen Folders
This year the third grade teachers will be
communicating with you using our
Goshen Folders. They will be sent home
every day. These folders are important
because they are filled with completed
assignments, important notices from the
office and from teachers, and each child’s
homework. Please check your child’s
folder, remove/review the papers,
return any required notices, and send
the folder back to school. Thank you
in advance for your support and
cooperation!
Stay Connected
Kelly Glickman:
[email protected]
Katie Henry:
[email protected]
Pamela Kerr:
[email protected]
Carol Prince:
[email protected]
EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!
Be sure to stay updated on our third grade news by reading our monthly newsletter
throughout the school year. While each newsletter will be posted on the Goshen Elementary
School website we do realize that some families may prefer a paper copy of the newsletter.
Please check which you would prefer each month below.
Student Name:
_______ I would prefer to read the monthly newsletter online. Please do not send home a
paper copy.
_______ I would prefer to receive a paper copy of the monthly newsletter in my child’s
Goshen folder.
PLEASE RETURN THIS PORTION OF THE NEWSLETTER TO YOUR CHILD’S TEACHER 