Don’t forget to send your student’s costume with them to school this Wednesday! After lunch your child will be able to change into their costume. At 12:50 we will go to the gym and watch the 4th grade Famous Person Speeches. After the speeches are over we will parade around the gym and return to our room for our classroom party. The parties will begin at 1:30.

*Please make sure your child’s costume is school appropriate (not scary, no weapons…etc). If you have any questions about a costume please feel free to reach out to us before Wednesday!

Reading- This week will be a Rigby reading series week. On Monday we will focus on a Freckle reading assignment. Tuesday and Wednesday we will focus on monitoring understanding. For this comprehension skill we focus on the five Ws (who, what, when, where, and why). We will use this strategy as we read the stories this week. On Thursday we will complete our theme 5 ongoing test practice, and the students will get to show what they have learned about monitoring understanding.

Writing- Your student will write two short writing pieces this week. On Tuesday we will be reading poems. After discussing elements of a poem, your student will write one. We will have a separate rubric that we will use to grade the poem (if your child chooses to turn in this writing pieces later on in the week). On Wednesday after reading an example of an adventure, the students will write one! Later in the week your student will choose which ONE they want to publish and turn in for a grade.

Math- On Monday we will continue working on two-step word problems. Tuesday we will be taking the district’s math quarterly assessment. This will not count as a grade, it will just give you and I an idea of how well they have learned the skills from quarter 1. The Remainder of the week we will continue to work on two-step word problems and writing equations for the word problems.

Social Studies- We have finished our Water unit in science and are moving on to our next social studies unit. This unit will focus on our history. We will start by traveling back in time to learn about various native American tribes.

Reading- This week we are focusing on our district’s quarterly assessment. This assessment will NOT be for a grade; it will simply help us determine what areas we still need to review in reading.

Writing- As part of the quarterly assessment the students will be writing a literary analysis (response to literature) as well as a narrative. Again, these writing pieces will NOT be for a grade, just a way for us to monitor the students’ progress.

Math- This week we worked on rounding to the nearest 10 and 100. Today we are reviewing adding and subtracting with and without regrouping. Since this skill was taught in second grade, we only spent today reviewing it (additional practice will be sent home if your student needs more review). Next week we are moving on to multiplying with multiples of 10. On Wednesday we will begin working on two-step work problems, and we will continue that the week of October 29th.

Reminders:
October 19th: End of Quarter 1/Last day to meet independent reading goals
October 25th and 26th: Student Led Conferences (No School)

Reading- We will start our week off with a Freckle reading assignment. Tuesday afternoon we will introduce our reading strategy using our Rigby reading series. The focus for this theme will be synthesizing. This strategy focusses on bringing ideas together to form a new idea. We will introduce this skill while reading Power Posters. The following day we will use the reading strategy again only this time with a Fantasy story (Electrified). Later in the week the students will be able to show what they learned about synthesizing by completing the theme 4 ongoing test practice.

Writing- This week your student will write two short writing pieces. On Tuesday they will write a journal entry (after reading an example of a journal entry). On Wednesday they will write a fantasy story (after reading an example of a fantasy story). Later in the week they will choose ONE of those pieces to publish and turn in for a grade. Be sure to check out our third grade writing rubrics. These rubrics can be found under the common core tab!

Grammar- Our focus for grammar this week will be concrete and abstract nouns. Concrete nouns are nouns that can actually be touched (apples, Mrs. Ellis, water, etc). Abstract nouns are nouns that cannot be touched (joy, love, happiness).

Math- We are moving on to unit 2 (Focus on Operations and Algebraic Thinking/Number and Operations in Base Ten). We will start out with Lesson 12 and focus on patterns. Later in the week we will begin working on place value. Reviewing place value will help us the following week when we work on rounding to the nearest 10 and 100.

Science- We are continuing our water unit! Next week we will focus on building our own thermometers and learn what happens when hot/cold water is put into room temperature water.

Reminders:
October 8th- No school
October 19th- last day for AR quizzes for Quarter 1

Reading- We started today off today with Monday Mania! After reading various stories about light last week, the students created their very own shadow puppets. They will be performing their plays throughout the week. We will also continue to focus finding evidence in the text and using details to support a main idea.

Writing- The students will be turning in their quarter 1 writings pieces this week. Tuesday we will be focusing on quality conclusions, and Wednesday we will focus on adding details. Our focus towards the end of the week will be revising and editing. An “Analyzing Writing Paper” will be used to make sure your student has all the pieces for a quality narrative. As always, you are able to view their story by accessing their google docs.

Grammar- This week we will be focusing on regular and irregular plural nouns.

Math- We are wrapping up unit 1. Today we continued learning about the distributive property. We will practice with this skill tomorrow and Wednesday. We will have our fist math test this Friday! A study guide will be sent home on Tuesday. We ask that your child work on it at home Tuesday and Wednesday night. We will review the study guide in class on Thursday.

Science- We are continuing our water unit. Our focus question this week is: what happens to water when its temperature changes?

Reminders:
October 5th- Math test
October 8th- No School
October 19th- last day to take AR quizzes for quarter 1 independent reading goals