3-Smith Weekly Newsletter
January 13, 2017
Our Special Classes:
Monday - Library
Tuesday – P.E.
Wednesday – Computer Lab
Thursday - Music
Friday - Art
We have lunch from 11:40 – 12:00 and recess
follows from 12:00 - 12:30.
When studying Spelling
this week, we worked on words that have
variant vowels again. They had the vowel sound
as gloom, but it may be spelled with oo, vcv
(like long u), ue, or ew. Also we had some
words spelled with the vowel sound as in shook
spelled with oo and ou.
In English class we worked on Linking
Verbs. A linking verb does not show action. It
connects the subject to a noun or an adjective
in the predicate. Our book calls them ‘being’
verbs also. In most cases they are telling you
that something is ’being’ something. For
example – The dog is cute. The most common
linking verbs are; am, are, is, was, and were.
We read the stories ‘Nail Soup’ and ‘The
Real Story of Stone Soup’ during Reading class
this week. Our Essential Question was “What
choices are good for us?” We discussed – How
do these decisions help us lead healthy lives?
Our Genre this week is Folktale again. This is
a short story passed from person to person.
It always has a problem the characters have to
solve, and usually has a message or lesson.
We are working on the reading skill of
Point of View. This is what a narrator thinks
about events or other characters in a story.
We look for details that show what the
narrator thinks to figure out the point of view.
Our vocabulary strategy this week was Root
Words. A root word is the simplest form of
a word. When we read an unfamiliar word,
we look for a root word in it. We use the
root word to figure out the unfamiliar word’s
meaning. We also use context clues in the
sentences around the word to give us clues
to its meaning.
We have continued working on
Language Arts standards that are a
priority(meaning there will probably be
questions on the ISTEP test over this)
During Math this past week we
continued working on Division. We have been
working on and practicing the various
strategies for solving division problems. We
can use arrays, equal groups, number lines,
addition, subtraction, and related multiplication facts.
In Science we went to the 5th Unit and
are working on the Measurement Lesson. We
are learning about length, mass, and
temperature. We are learning about SI units
and the English and French systems. English
is to use inches, feet, yards, miles, while the
French system uses the metric system of
centimeters, meters, and kilometers.
** Please try to get your child to
school every day as we are going over a
language arts or a math standard every
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday
before ISTEP and IRead testing. THANKS!!!
There will be an IRead/ISTEP
meeting for all 3rd grade parents on
Monday, January 23rd at 6:00p.m.
Have a Great Weekend!