Wow! We are already done with our second week of 3rd grade! We started teaching reading this week, so the students had a full schedule. They are handling the rigors of third grade wonderfully, and are doing their best to meet expectations. I would like to mention that this is the second week in a row that the students in my class were able to earn a reward for their behavior! On Backpack Night, you may have noticed the word "COMMUNITY" on the blackboard. This is our way of keeping track of classroom behavior. If by the end of the week the have kept (or earned back) all of the letters, the students will get a small reward on Monday. Please compliment your child on this accomplishment. It is a team effort to keep all of their letters!
I am also excited to report that our classroom Smart Board is up and running. This is such an engaging and educational tool. We've only been using it for the past couple of days, and we are all enjoying it so much! I am looking forward to finding new ways to use it during lessons!

Friday Folders
I know there were notes upon notes in the Friday Folder this week. I just want to point out a few.

• PTA sent a note looking for volunteers to the various events that we do at C. R. Hanna. If you are wanting to be involved in that, take a look at the information that they sent.
• Our first Scholastic Book Order was sent home as well! I attached a note to it that shows how to order books online. Please have your orders in by Friday, August 31st.
• Market Day orders were also in the Friday Folders. 
• Our first reading record went home in this Friday Folder. Throughout next week, please keep track of our child's reading. They will need to read for at least 15 minutes each week night. If your child's reading teacher sends their book home to read, this can count toward their reading record. Please send the signed and filled out reading record to school with your child on Tuesday, September 4th (no school Monday). Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

The Week Ahead
English: We will continue our unit on sentences. Next week will include lessons about commands and exclamations and the subject of a sentence.
Math: In math we will learn to divide squares into two and four equal parts, compare values of sets of coins, Add 10 to two digit numbers, use mental computation, and more.
Reading: My reading class will be reading a wonderful story called, Pepita Talks Twice. We will also continue practicing our new reading skills that we learned last week. We will practice the appropriate ways to read to ourselves, and read to someone. We will discuss what it means to listen to reading. The spelling list for next week is up on Spelling City. It is listed as Lesson 2. Let me know if  you have any problems finding the list.
Science: Last Friday we started an experiment to see what would happen to plants that were given either no light or no water. We have been recording observations and will continue recording observations for one more week. We will then draw conclusions (and possibly attempt to save the withering plants).
Social Studies: This past week, we learned to read a map. We also learned about countries and continents. We learned a rap about the continents and had fun singing it several times at the end of a school day. Next week, we will do a little group work with maps, and then we will move on to more specific aspects of communities.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I am looking forward to starting week three! Please feel free to e-mail me at bcalcott@orionschools.us if you have any questions or concerns.

Welcome to Third Grade!

Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog! I like to use this instead of sending home a hard copy of Friday News in an attempt to save paper. It was great to meet many of you on Backpack Night! If you did not have the opportunity to come to Backpack Night, please let me know if you would like to come in sometime. I would be more than happy to schedule something with you. If not, we can still meet at conferences! That being said, if you have not yet signed up for conferences, please contact the office to set that up.

I am very excited to get to know all of the students in my class as well as their parents! If you ever have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to e-mail me at: bcalcott@orionschools.us or by calling C.R. Hanna.

Friday Folders
Like previous years, your child will be bringing home a Friday Folder each Friday. It will contain notes and graded work. It will also contain your child's spelling list for the following week and their reading record. We will not be sending a reading record home until next Friday. This week there are a few notes in there. One of them is an order from for C.R. Hanna Spirit Gear. If you are interested in placing an order, please fill the form out and send it in with cash or a check by Friday, August 31st. You will also find a green note in the Friday Folder that will explain how we teach reading in 3rd grade. It also tells you who your child will have as a reading teacher. We have also included a note about the the changes that are being made to our math program because of the Common Core Standards that are being implemented. Please take a look at that note as well.

The Week Ahead
English: We have started a new unit about sentences. This will include subjects, predicates, types of sentences, etc.
Math: We will be learn to use the cummutative property of addition, identify the properties of a rectangle, identify and measure the length and width of a rectangle, use logical reasoning to solve a problem, make an organized list to solve a problem, cover designs with pattern blocks, and act out addition story problems.
Reading: My reading class will be reading a story called, Officer Buckle and Gloria. The students will take their book home on Monday and will be expected to read the entire story. We will be learning to use some special reading strategies called check for understanding, cross check words, and expand vocabulary. We will learn how to spell words with the short a and short e sound. We will also discuss the ways to read a book.
Science: We just started a unit about plants. We will discuss their needs and how they grow.
Social Studies:We started a unit about communities. We will learn how to read a map, how to get along in a community, and how to act like a responsible citizen.

Even though it was the first week of school, we have already been very busy! For a math lesson about bar graphs and collecting data, the students got into small groups and surveyed the class. They then turned their data into bar graphs. Some of the topics that the groups chose were: favorite wild animal, favorite candy, and favorite movie. It was fun for the students to see what their classmates preferred. We also started a science experiment with plants. We put two plants in a cupboard with water, two in the sun without water, and two in the sun with water. We are going to be recording observations over the next two weeks and then drawing conclusions.

I am looking forward to an exciting year. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. Please do not hesitate to e-mail me with any questions or concerns!