Third Grade News
Third Grade Newsletter: First Quarter 2014-2015
WELCOME BACK!
Welcome to your child’s third-grade year
at Farmland Elementary! To those families who
have been at Farmland, it’s great to see you
again. To our new families, we’re pleased to
have you join a terrific community where
teachers and families work together to provide
our children with a well-rounded education.
Each quarter, the third-grade team will
send home a newsletter outlining important dates
and information about our curriculum. We hope
you will find it helpful in your planning and in
your support of your child’s learning.
Finally, several important forms have already
come your way – and more will come shortly –
as we begin the new school year. Please check
your child’s take-home folder and backpack on a
daily basis for any forms that must be returned to
school.
BACK-TO-SCHOOL NIGHT
Please join us Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 7:00 p.m.
for Back-to-School Night. Presentations will
begin in your child’s homeroom classroom
promptly at 7 p.m. You will have a chance to
look around the classroom, leave a note for your
child and sign up for a parent/teacher conference
in November. Then, you will have the
opportunity to hear a presentation from your
child’s teacher.
IMPORTANT DATES
Sept. 1
Sept. 2
Sept. 24
Sept. 25
Oct. 13
Oct. 17
Oct. 30
Oct. 31
Labor Day: NO SCHOOL
Back to School Night
7:00 p.m. and 8:00 pm, teacher
presentations in the classrooms
Early Dismissal – 1 p.m.
(grading and reporting)
Rosh Hashanah: NO SCHOOL
Open House/Parent Visitation
Teachers’ Convention:
NO SCHOOL
Halloween Parade/Parties;
First Marking Period Ends
Teacher Professional Day:
NO SCHOOL
CONTACT US
By e-mail:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
By Phone:
(301) 230-5919; best times to call are
immediately before or after school, or during
the lunch/recess hour (12-1 p.m.).
As a reminder, Back to
School Night is for parents only.
UNIFYING QUESTIONS & TASS
Each marking period, students work toward
developing responses to a series of “unifying
questions” that apply to all subject areas. During
the first marking period, the unifying questions
are:

How can responsibilities be shared to
reach a group goal?
 What steps do you take to reach a group
goal?
 How do relationships among parts within
a whole help define the whole?
 How do we know if our group is working
productively?
 How does analyzing relationships among
parts help make sense of the whole?
 How does analyzing help make meaning
or inferences?
 How do I analyze?
Also during each marking period, teachers
provide explicit instruction on important
Thinking and Academic
Success Skills (TASS)
that will help students
thrive not only in third
grade but in college,
throughout whatever
career they choose, and
as a contributing
member of society. This
quarter’s TASS skills
are collaboration (working effectively and
respectfully to reach a group goal) and analysis
(putting parts together to build understanding of
a whole concept or to form a new or unique
whole).
Below, you’ll find specific information about
what your child will be learning in each subject
area.
READING
We have started the year by getting to know
your children as readers. We asked them to
complete a “Reading Survey” telling us about
their reading habits and preferences. We also are
in the process of conferencing individually with
each child. We will be developing an
independent reading program where each child
will learn how to choose a “just right” book, use
the classroom library, create and follow rules for
respectful group discussions and build stamina in
the amount and speed of independent reading.
During the first few weeks, students will read
realistic fiction, where they will examine
common themes found in literature and how
characters behave in texts. They will read and
discuss the characteristics of realistic fiction and
the character’s influence on the sequence of
events. Students will make connections to our
social studies by describing ways characters
contribute to the common good. Students will
also make inferences and predictions to identify
a personal point of view about characters’
actions or sequence of events in literary text.
About midway through the quarter, students
will begin to read informational texts. Students
will use text features (print and online) to gain
knowledge about a topic. Students will explain
how text, online features and search tools clarify
information relevant to a topic. They will also
determine main ideas and identify relationships
between ideas. Many of the books and articles
that we will read during this time will
incorporate themes from science and health
education.
As you can see, many of our reading lessons
will incorporate texts and other resources related
to science and social studies concepts your child
is learning at the same time.
In addition to whole-group lessons, students
will meet in guided reading groups to practice
and demonstrate their understanding of these
skills and strategies.
A separate newsletter is attached which
explains how the TASS are incorporated into the
reading lessons for the first part of the marking
period. This newsletter also gives ideas for how
you can help your child at home. A second
parent newsletter for reading will be sent home
mid-quarter.
Finally, students are expected to read for 20
minutes (or more, if they wish!) each night and
record what was read on a weekly log. This log
should be signed by a parent and turned in each
Monday to your child’s reading/writing teacher.
Essential questions for reading in the first
quarter include:
 How does asking and answering
questions in literary and informational
text deepen understanding of the text?
 How does understanding the central
message or main topic of literary and
informational text clarify the author’s
message?
 How does comparing the most important
points within a text or between texts
clarify information about the topic?
 How does describing the relationships
among a series of events, ideas, concepts
or technical procedures demonstrate
understand of text?
 How do text features and images
contribute to literary text and clarify
informational text?
 How does distinguishing point of view
contribute to text interpretation?
WRITING
During our writing block, students will use
an inquiry approach to gather ideas, draft, revise,
edit, produce and present narrative, informative
and opinion texts.
They’ll begin by connecting social studies
content to writing by developing a narrative
about how they contribute to the common good.
Students will use descriptive words and phrases
to emphasize their ideas about a good deed they
have done. Beginning around week 4, students
will continue to use descriptive techniques and
develop topics according to their interests in
order to respond to the inquiry question: How do
people work together to develop a thriving
community? Students will edit their writing
through the use of language
(pronouns, adjectives, conjunctions,
etc.) and conventions (proper
punctuation). Students will publish
their research through the use of
multi-media, which may include
PowerPoint or PhotoStory.
Essential questions for writing include:
 What techniques do writers use to develop
characters and events?
 How does developing a point of view
strengthen opinion pieces?
 What techniques can be used to convey ideas
and information?
 How does the application of writing process
change when constructing extended writing
vs. short compositions?
 Why is it important to select and use
information from multiple sources?
WORD STUDY
Our spelling lessons will be based on the
Words Their Way program, which begins by
assessing each student to find his/her stage of
spelling development and understanding. During
their reading/writing block, students will meet
regularly in word study groups to work on
patterns and rules that specifically address their
needs.
Students will explore the focus pattern or rule;
develop their personal lists; complete a variety of
activities – which may need to be completed for
homework– to help them learn their words; and
take a test. Generally, spelling tests will be given
every other week.
MATH
In third grade, students will use place value
understanding to round numbers to the nearest
10 or 100. They will also use place value
understanding and properties of operations to
enhance their strategies for addition and
subtraction within 1000 by looking for and
explain patterns found in addition tables and in
written methods for solving these problems.
Students will work towards solving problems
fluently. The expectation is that students will
add and subtract fluently without the aid of
concrete models or place value drawing by the
end of the first marking period.
By the middle of the quarter, students
will begin to build their repertoire of strategies
for learning multiplication and division facts.
Students develop an understanding of the
meanings of multiplication and division of whole
numbers through tasks and problems involving
equal-sized groups, arrays and area models. The
emphasis is on applying multiple strategies for
solving multiplication and division problems
rather than simply memorizing.
Throughout the year, students will also apply
a variety of strategies and assess the
reasonableness of answers using mental co
mputation and estimation strategies. Students
will have ample opportunity to solve 1 and 2 step
addition and subtraction problems at the
beginning of the marking period.
Throughout the school year, many students
will benefit from extra practice with their basic
addition and subtraction. We want students to
know their facts
automatically – no more
counting on fingers in fourth
grade! A great website for
practicing math facts is
www.aplusmath.com.
Students will have math homework each
night Monday-Thursday. The math homework
will be a continuation of what was learned that
day in school. If your child is struggling
through his/her homework, please let his/her
teacher know.
Finally, a parent math newsletter is attached
showing how TASS will be incorporated into
math during the first quarter. This newsletter
also provides examples for ways to help your
child at home for the first half of the quarter. An
additional parent math newsletter will be sent
home about halfway through the quarter.
Essential questions for math include:
 How does understanding place value help
in rounding numbers?
 What are efficient strategies for adding
and subtracting numbers?
 What strategies can be used to solve for
unknowns?
 What strategies can be used to learn
multiplication and division facts?


How can you model, represent and
interpret multiplication and division
situations?
What is the relationship between factors,
products and quotients?
SCIENCE
We will begin science focusing on Health
Education concepts and topics of mental and
emotional health. Students will practice verbal
and non-verbal communication skills while
investigating stressors experiences while at
school. Students will analyze their own
character traits and how these traits contribute to
their personal uniqueness.
We will then move onto exploring forces and
motion in the topic of Physical Sciences.
Students will begin by investigating the changes
in an object’s motion and how that motion is
affected by different textured surfaces. Students
will use ramps and balls for investigating these
concepts. Next, students will define and
investigate the basics of gravity by examining
the factors of how an object falls. Students will
then describe the motion of objects by
comparing the speeds of objects. Students will
also identify control, dependent, and independent
variables that affect the
motion of objects during
the investigations.
Towards the end of the
marking period, students
will use the Elementary
Engineering Design
Process to design, test,
and redesign a tire.
Essential questions for Science include:
 How is evidence collected about
changes in motion?
 What factors affect changes in motion?
 How can the engineering design process
address a problem or improve and idea?
 What is needed to carry out a task or
conduct an investigation?
SOCIAL STUDIES
The first marking period begins
understanding democratic principles. Students
begin by examining roles of individuals, groups,
and leaders in a democratic society. They
consider rules, laws, and rights and
responsibilities of citizens within the classroom
and community. Students will participate in an
interdisciplinary project focused on two
questions: How do people work together to
create a thriving community? What action
would you take to contribute to a thriving
community?
By mid-quarter, students will explore the
basic functions of governments (creating
structure through laws, enforcing and
interpreting laws). Students will also examine
the selection process and role of local
government leaders today in Montgomery
County and in the past government of the Roman
Republic.
Towards the end of the quarter, students
will analyze collected information to determine
how and why individuals, businesses and
governments provide goods and services.
Students will compare how goods and services
are paid for by taxes today in the United States
and log ago in the Roman Republic.
Social studies lessons this quarter also include
the health topics of alcohol, tobacco, and other
drugs. Students will draw conclusions about the
uses of prescription and over-the-counter drugs
as well as the effects of tobacco products on the
body.
Essential questions for SS & health include:
 How do democratic principles affect
the lives of individuals and groups?
 What do government, individuals,
and groups do to contribute to a
society?
 How do we learn about the past?
 How does the United States economy
meet the needs and wants of people?
 How have governments in the past
met the economic needs and wants of
people?