Mrs. Rodgers' 3rd Grade Class

ACADEMICS 10/31-11/4

2011-10-30T16:02:00.000-04:00

ENGLISH
This week we will begin talking about 2 new types of nouns...singular and plural nouns! A singular noun names just one person, place, or thing. A plural noun name more than one person, place, or thing.
There are several different ways to make plural nouns which we will also be learning this week. Some nouns can be made plural by adding an "s"--like dogs, girls, schools.
But if a noun ends with s, ss, ch, sh, or x, we have to add "es"--like matches, buses, classes, bushes, boxes.
We also have special rules for nouns that end with "y". If a noun ends with a vowel+y, we just add an "s" to make the plural--like valleys, holidays, boys. But if the noun ends with a consonant+y, we change the "y" to an "i" and add "es"--like berries, babies, bunnies.
Lastly, there are some irregular plural nouns. Some singular and plural nouns are the same word--like sheep, deer, etc. And some plurals are a different word--like tooth-teeth, child-children, etc.
We will be working on these rules all week. We will review next week and have a quiz on singular and plural nouns, probably on Tuesday, 11/8.

SPELLING
blankets
branches
flies
mountains
states
libraries
pairs
bunches
enemies
pockets
jungles
daisies
inches
companies
addresses

CHALLENGE
capture
liquid
ruin
skills
struggles

*Test will be Friday, Nov. 4th.

READING
Our story this week is a nonfiction passage called "Spiders at Work." We will be focusing on the following skills:
Determining whether information is important or unimportant
Comparing and Contrasting
Using Encyclopedia skills
Drawing Conclusions
Antonyms and Synonyms

Vocab:
capture--to catch or hold a person, animal, or thing
struggles--to make a great effort
ruin--to destroy
liquid--a form of matter like water that can be poured
serious--dangerous
skills--the ability to do something

*Test on Vocab and Comprehension will be Friday, Nov. 4th.

MATH
We will continue working on our addition skills. We will be doing double and triple-digit addition with regrouping, as well as adding three or more numbers at a time.
*Addition packets are due Monday, Oct. 31st. We will also be taking our timed fact test that day as well.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will be continuing to study our landforms and how they can be represented on a map this week.
Students should know the following landforms:
mountain
plateau
hill
plain
valley
canyon
island
peninsula
bay
coast

*We will be having a quiz on these at the end of the week.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

2011-10-27T16:44:00.002-04:00

1. Addition math packets are due Monday, Oct. 31st. Even if your child has completed his/her packet, please encourage them to continue practicing their facts. Graded fact test will be given on Monday, Oct. 31st as well.

2. Friday will be our Halloween festivities. There will be a parade in the afternoon, so students may bring costumes if they wish. Please do not send your child to school in their costume...we will take time in the afternoon to change. Also, snacks and treats are allowed, but please make sure to follow the school's wellness policy!

ACADEMICS 10/24-10/28

2011-10-24T16:35:00.000-04:00

ENGLISH
This week we are starting our Noun Unit. First we have to know what a noun is! A noun is a word that names a person place or thing. We will also learn about special types of nouns. Common nouns can name any person, place, or thing...like car, girl, teacher, etc. A proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing...like Ford, Susan, Mrs. Rodgers, etc.

SPELLING
We will have a short fall list this week. Test will still be on Friday. NO CHALLENGE WORDS THIS WEEK!
season
autumn
harvest
October
apples
leaf
colors
beautiful
leaves
different
Halloween
children

READING
We are continuing with Dream Wolf this week. We will continue with the same vocabular and with the same skills...context clues, cause and effect, compare and contrast.
Test will be Thursday, Oct. 27th.

MATH
We are jumping into our addition chapter this week. We will be continuing with adding two-digit numbers with regrouping, as well as starting in with some addition with three-digit numbers as well.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We are learning about landforms! There are 10 main landforms that we will be focusing on. We will be doing several activities in class to help students become familiar with these different landforms, as well as looking at how these landforms can be represented on a landform map.
Landforms include...mountains, hills, plateaus, plains, valleys, canyons, island, peninsula, bay, and coast.
We will have a quiz sometime next week...folders will be sent home in order for students to study.

REMINDER

2011-10-20T18:02:00.002-04:00

Addition Math packets are due Oct. 31st! Each page of the packet will be worth points. Students will also be taking a graded fact test on Oct. 31st as well. So even if your child has finished his/her packet already, keep practicing those addition facts!

RED RIBBON WEEK THEMES AND EVENTS

2011-10-20T17:56:00.002-04:00

Red Ribbon Week is Oct. 31st-Nov. 4th.

Monday--"Rally in Red" (Wear Red!)
Tuesday--"Put a Cap on Drugs" (Wear your favorite cap or hat!)
Third Grade will also have a Red Ribbon Week guidance lesson with Mrs. Marshall today.
Wednesday--"You Won't See Me Using Drugs" (Wear camouflage clothing!)
Thursday--"Being Drug-Free is No Sweat" (Wear your favorite sweat suit, pants, or shirt!)
Friday--"Keystone Stays in the Game Drug-Free" (Wear Keystone clothing or school colors!)

IMPORTANT NOTICE!

2011-10-19T18:39:00.002-04:00

In the past week or so, we have had several students with items turning up missing at the end of the day. I am asking each parent to please talk to their child at home about the importance of not touching or taking other people's things, as I have already spoken to the class as a whole and the problem has not stopped. Also, if you do happen to see your child coming home with items that do not belong to them, please have them returned to school so we can get the items back to their rightful owners. Thank you!

ACADEMICS 10/17-10/21

2011-10-16T18:27:00.000-04:00

ENGLISH
Before we start our noun unit next week, we are taking some time this week to do some fun fall writing activities.

SPELLING
spend
stream
scream
spring
skate
slept
spider
strong
scrub
sprinkle
skin
sleeve
string
screen
slice

CHALLENGE
buffalo
darkness
echoes
ripe
shelter

TEST WILL BE FRIDAY, OCT. 21ST

READING
This week we are starting the story "Dream Wolf" by Paul Goble. However, we are going to stray from our usual schedule a bit. There are several activities that I enjoy doing with the students on top of doing our regular skills and vocab for the week, so we will be taking two weeks to cover this story. This week we will be doing some research on Native Americans and learning about their culture. Next week we will focus more on the skills for the week.

"Dream Wolf" test will not be until next Thursday, Oct. 27th!
Reading Slips for homework will not be passed out until next week.

MATH
This week we are wrapping up our chapter and preparing for our chapter test. Topics tested will include: fact families, using number sentences to solve a problem, rounding to the nearest ten and hundred, and estimating sums and differences.

Chapter test will be given Wednesday, Oct. 19th.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We are continuing our map skills unit. This week we will begin looking at a new type of map...landform maps. We will be watching a video about some of the different landforms that we may see on a map, and then closer to the end of the week we will be learning how to read landform maps.

CASTLE MAP PROJECTS ARE DUE THIS WEEK...GROUP 2 DUE THURSDAY, GROUP 1 DUE FRIDAY!

HELP!

2011-10-11T09:18:00.002-04:00

Cold season has hit our room full force. Our supply of tissues and hand sanitizer for the year is diminishing quickly. Any donations of tissues or hand sanitizer would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

BOOK ORDERS

2011-10-11T09:16:00.002-04:00

If you would like to place an order from our October Scholastic Book Orders, please send them to school with your child by Friday, Oct. 14th. I will send in the order over the weekend. It will take about 2 weeks once our order is placed for your materials to arrive here at the school.

ACADEMICS 10/10-10/14

2011-10-11T09:06:00.002-04:00

ENGLISH
Last week we wrapped up our first unit. This week we are going to be taking some time to learn about writing friendly letters. We will be writing letters to Mr. Algoe for his first day next week!

READING
Our story this week is called "The Sun, the Wind, and the Rain." It is a mix of both fiction and nonfiction. There is a fictional character named Elizabeth who is spending the day at the beach. However, our story is also nonfiction because it teaches us how volcanoes are made.

Skills will include Compare and Contrast, Drawing Conclusions, using a Dictionary, and Antonyms and Synonyms

Vocabulary--
peaks--pointed tops of something, especially mountains
traded--gave away something to get something else
handful--the amount of something that fits in your hand
flowed--moved like a liquid, like a stream of water
grains--tiny bits
canyons--long, narrow valleys between high hills or mountains

SPELLING
block
brake
crazy
flash
grab
plate
blink
broad
crumble
flood
grand
blind
brisk
flame
plenty

CHALLENGE
canyons
flowed
grains
handful
peaks

MATH
We will be wrapping up estimating sums by applying this skill to word problems. Then we will be moving on to estimating differences. We will be using the same rules, but applying them to subtraction problems instead of addition problems.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will be continuing to work on using our directions to tell locations of places in relation to one another. We will do cardinal directions first and then move to our intermediate directions.

ACADEMICS 10/3-10/7

2011-10-03T08:42:00.000-04:00

ENGLISH
This week we will be looking at our last study skills for this unit and preparing for our unit test. We will be learning about Time-Order Words (words that tell when something happens), as well as how to find the main idea of a paragraph. Our unit test will be Thursday!

READING
Our story for this week is "City Green." It is a story about a girl named Marcy who decides her community could use some cleaning up. As she starts this project, more and more neighbors become involved.

Skills will include Cause and Effect, Drawing Conclusions, and using Context Clues.

Vocabulary--
excitement--the condition of being stirred up
schedule--a list of times, events, or things to do
area--a particular space, region, or section
heap--a large pile
stems--the main part of a plant that supports the leaves and flowers
halfway--at half the distance

SPELLING
open
battle
even
candle
frozen
carrots
silent
lazy
lettuce
maple
fellow
fifty
flavor
bottle
floppy

CHALLENGE
area
excitement
halfway
heap
schedule

MATH
We will still be using our rounding skills from last week, but now we are going to add another step. This week we will be estimating sums, which means we are not finding the exact answer to an addition problem. If we estimate the sum, we want to know ABOUT how much the answer will be. So we can round each number before we add. It will give us an answer that is close, while making the addition much easier.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will be continuing to use our parts of map this week, especially the compass rose. We will be starting to use our compass rose to be able to describe where one place is in relation to another place. We'll start out easy by just using our cardinal directions, and later we will use our intermediate directions, too!

ACADEMICS 9/26-9/30

2011-09-26T08:17:00.000-04:00

ENGLISH
Up this point, we have been working on making sure we are using complete sentences that include both a subject and predicate. But sometimes we can try to put too much information into one sentence. When we have too many ideas jammed together as one sentence we call this a run-on sentence. This week we will be learning to identify run-on sentences, and we will also be learning how we can fix a run-on sentence. We can either take the two ideas in the run-on and make them two separate sentences, or we can add ", and" between the two ideas to make it into a compound sentence.

READING
We have reached the end of our first reading unit. We will be taking Monday and Tuesday to review the skills that we have been practicing with our stories up to this point. Wednesday and Thursday we will take our Unit 1 Reading Test. It will have 3 passages students will be asked to read and answer questions on, plus a skills section and a listening section. All questions will be multiple choice, for a total of 25 points toward their reading grade.

SPELLING
music
goose
broom
excuse
soup
dew
fruit
juice
huge
crew
drew
group
truth
produce
pool

CHALLENGE
ceiling
eager
including
scene
section

MATH
This week we will be learning our rule for rounding to the nearest ten or hundred. First, we want to find the place value that we are rounding to in the number. For example, if we are rounding 54 to the nearest ten, we would underline our 5 because it is in the tens place. Then we check the number to the right. If that number is 0-4, we round down to the ten below. If that number is 5 or 5-9 we round to the the ten above.
We use the same rule for rounding to the nearest hundred, except we would check the tens place to see whether we round up or down.

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week is social studies we will be learning some very important things we need to be able to find on a map in order for a map to be useful to us.

The title tells us what place the map is of.

The compass rose shows us our directions. North, south, east, and west are the cardinal directions. Northwest, southwest, northeast, and southeast are called the intermediate directions.

The locator is a diagram, or small picture that gives us a better idea of what area we are looking at. For example, if we had a map of Pennsylvania, the locator would show us where Pennsylvania is at in the United States.

The symbols are shapes, colors, or designs that stand for certain things on the map.

The map key shows us what each symbol stands for.

ENGLISH 9/19-9/23

2011-09-19T06:54:00.003-04:00

This week we will be wrapping up with subjects and predicates from last week. Then we will be working on creating compound sentences. This is a skill that will help make us better writers. A compound sentence is when you take two short sentences that are on the same topic and you combine them into one longer sentence by adding a comma and "and" inbetween.

SPELLING 9/19-9/23

2011-09-19T06:52:00.001-04:00

Words with Long i and Long 0

might
life
rode
own
most
tie
find
toast
wipe
flight
bicycle
lie
spoke
ago
thrown

CHALLENGE
guard
length
royal
straighten
within

Test will be Friday, Sept. 23rd.

READING 9/19-9/23

2011-09-19T06:47:00.002-04:00

This week our reading story is "Opt: An Illusionary Tale." Opt is a royal land, and it is the prince's birthday. As we make our way to his birthday celebration, we encounter many illusions.

Test on vocab and comprehension will be Friday, Sept. 23rd.
Reading slips will also be due Friday, Sept. 23rd.

Vocab.
royal--involving or belonging to a king or queen, or a member of his or her family
length--the distance from one end of something to the other
guard--a person who protects a person or place
straighten--to make something straight
gift--a present
within--inside

Reading skills this week will include steps in a process, making predictions, and using a table of contents, as well as reviewing story elements and working more with prefixes.

MATH 9/19-9/23

2011-09-19T06:44:00.002-04:00

We will be learning how to write a number sentence to solve a word problem. In order to do this, we first have to think about what the problem is asking us to find. Then we must determine whether we can find that information by adding or subtracting. Lastly, we can write a number sentence to find the solution.

Toward the end of the week, we will be getting into rounding numbers, both to the tens and hundreds place.

SOCIAL STUDIES 9/19-9/23

2011-09-19T06:41:00.002-04:00

We will be continuing our Map Skills unit as we start to learn about specific parts of a map. We will be working a lot with the compass rose this week and learning our cardinal and intermediate directions.

~Don't forget about the vocab and world map quiz mentioned last week...Group 2 will have their quiz this Friday, Sept. 23rd. Group 1 will have their quiz the following Monday, Sept. 26th.

ENGLISH 9/12-9/16

2011-09-11T21:13:00.000-04:00

This week we will be focusing on the different parts of a sentence. The first week of school we learned that every sentence needs a who/what, as well as an action/extra information. This week we will be getting a little more technical. The who/what of a sentence is called the subject. The subject can be one word or several words, and the subject is found at the beginning of a sentence. The action part of the sentence is called the predicate. This could also be one word or a group of words. The predicate is found at the end of the sentence.

Tentative quiz date--Monday, Sept. 19th.

SPELLING 9/12-9/16

2011-09-11T21:09:00.000-04:00

Words with Long a and Long e Sounds

plane
team
raise
breeze
paper
marry
weigh
thief
cream
awake
grade
creek
carry
sail
neighbor

CHALLENGE
legend
correct
continue
embarrass
unusual

Test will be Friday, Sept. 16th.

READING 9/12-9/16

2011-09-11T20:56:00.000-04:00

Our story this week is a fictional piece called "Phoebe and the Spelling Bee." It is a clever story of a girl named Phoebe who does not care for spelling so much, but finds herself in an upcoming spelling bee. Phoebe finds some interesting ways to remember how to spell some very difficult words.

Test on Vocab and comprehension will be Friday, Sept. 16th.

Vocab
legend--a story passed down that many may believe, though it may not be true
unusual--not common or ordinary; rare
correct--having no mistakes
continue--to go on after stopping
embarrass--to make someone feel shy or ashamed
groaning--making deep, sad sounds

Our skills this week will include problem/solution, reviewing how to use the glossary, maing predictions, and an introduction to prefixes.

MATH 9/12-9/16

2011-09-11T20:54:00.000-04:00

This week our main focus is on being able to identify a rule or pattern for a set of numbers, and then being able to use that rule to continue the number set.

SOCIAL STUDIES 9/12-9/16

2011-09-11T20:48:00.000-04:00

This week we are continuing our map studies...we've been reviewing things we should be able to find on the globe, and have also been working with the world map to identify the seven continents and five oceans.

Quiz on vocab (see list below), as well as the continents and oceans
Group 2--Friday, Sept. 23rd
Group 1--Monday, Sept. 26th

Vocab for the quiz will include:
North Pole
South Pole
equator
globe
map
continent
ocean

Students will also be asked to identify the seven continents and 5 oceans on a map.
(Students will be bring home materials to study.)

BOOK FAIR

2011-09-05T13:39:00.002-04:00

The Book Fair is here! Each class will have an opportunity to go down and browse to see what items are at the book fair this year. Our class will browse on Wednesday, Sept. 7th. Students who would like to make purchases will have the opportunity to do so on Friday, Sept. 9th.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS

2011-09-05T13:33:00.003-04:00

Several Scholastic Book Order flyers were sent home last week. While there is no obligation for you to order, it is a great opportunity for you to get quality books at reasonable prices. There will be new flyers arriving each month. If you would like to order, please return the order form and payment (checks should be made out to Scholastic Book Club) with your child to school by Friday, Sept. 9th. I will then place our class order and your purchases should arrive in about 2 weeks.

ENGLISH 9/6-9/9

2011-09-05T13:05:00.000-04:00

Last week we started talking about complete sentences. We learned that a complete sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete. If a group of words does not express a complete thought, it is called a sentence fragment. We also learned that a sentence starts with a capital letter and must end with a punctuation mark.

This week, we will be learning about the 4 types of sentences: statements, questions, commands, and exclamations.

By the end of the week we will know that...
~Statements tell information and end with a period.
~Questions ask something and end with a questions mark.
~Commands tell someone what to do and end with a period.
~Exclamations show emotion and end with an exlamation mark.

READING 9/6-9/9

2011-09-05T12:50:00.002-04:00

We will be continuing with our story, Grandfather's Journey, by Allen Say. It is a biographical story about Say's grandfather and how he grows to love 2 different countries as his life experiences take him back and forth between Japan and the United States.

Vocabulary:

journey--a long trip
surrounded--to have something on all sides of
enormous--extremely large
astonished--amazed; surprised very much
towering--rising high up in the air
scattered--thrown or spread out in different directions

We will also be learning the following skills this week.

STORY ELEMENTS
characters--WHO the story is about
setting--WHERE and WHEN the story takes place

MAKE PREDICTIONS
predicting--using what you know about the characters and what has already happened in a story to guess what will happen next

COMPOUND WORDS
A compound word is a word that is made up of two smaller words.
Examples: sun + light = sunlight cup + cake = cupcake

HOMEWORK: Students will be asked to read our reading story at home to an adult this week. Reading slips need to be signed and returned by Friday, Sept. 9th.

TEST: Students will be taking a reading test on Friday, Sept. 9th. This test will include questions on the 6 vocabulary words, as well as comprehension questions based on the story.

SPELLING 9/6-9/9

2011-09-05T12:15:00.000-04:00

Words with Short Vowels

leg
black
much
bag
rocks
kept
hid
window
van
mix
rub
ever
buzz
body
thing

CHALLENGE WORDS:
astonished
enormous
journey
scattered
surrounded

TEST: Spelling test will be on Friday, Sept. 9th. The test will include the 15 word list.

Students are encouraged to try the 5 challenge words. They will be graded as follows:
0, 1, or 2 challenge words correct = 0 bunus points.
3 or 4 challenge words correct = 1 bonus point
all 5 challenge words correct = 2 bonus points

There will be 2 dictated sentences as well. One point will be given for each word spelled correctly, starting the first word with a capital letter, and for including the correct punctuation mark.

MATH 9/6-9/9

2011-09-05T12:00:00.000-04:00

Our first chapter in math is on addition. But before we get into double and triple digit addition, we are learning some basic properties (rules) of addition.

The Commutative Property (Order Rule) tells us that we can add numbers in any order and still get the same answer. For example 2 + 8 = 10 and 8 + 2 = 10.

The Associative Property (Grouping Rule) tells us that when we are adding 3 or more numbers, we can group them in different ways to add and still get the same answer.
Parentheses ( ) show which numbers are being grouped to add first. For example: (2 + 4) + 8 = 14 and 2 + (4 + 8) = 14.

The Identity Property (Zero Rule) tells us that any number added to zero equals the same number. For example, 0 + 4 = 4 and 9 + 0 = 9.

VOCABULARY:
Commutative Property, Associative Property, and Identity Property (See definitions above)
sum--the answer to an addition problem
addends--numbers being added together

SOCIAL STUDIES/SCIENCE 9/6-9/9

2011-09-05T11:29:00.000-04:00

We will be starting both social studies and science this week. Students from our class and Ms. Hoffman's class (Room 115) will be divided into 2 groups. Groups will alternate every other day for science and social studies. I will be teaching both sections of social studies, and Ms. Hoffman will be teaching both sections of science.

In science, students will begin a unit on life cycles. In social studies, our first unit focuses on map skills.

WELCOME BACK!!!

2011-08-29T20:36:00.004-04:00

~We had a great first day today in Room 118! We got to learn a lot about our classmates and expectations for 3rd Grade!

~White Emergency Cards were sent home today. Please complete your child's card and return it to school with him/her as soon as possible!

~Students were also given a short homework assignment for Tuesday. Your child was given a brown paper bag today. He/she is to find 5 items to put in their bag to share with the class to help us get to know each other better. (There was a more detailed information sheet sent home.)

~We will be getting into our regular handwriting, English, and math routines Wednesday. We will also be starting our first reading story on Wednesday. However, we will be continuing this story throughout next week also.

~We will begin science and social studies the beginning of next week.

~We do have a spelling list this week! Our usual spelling lists will have 15 words, as well as 5 challenge words. But this week, we only have 10 words and 2 challenge words to get us into the swing of things. Our test will be on Friday, Sept. 2nd!

Spelling List:
homework
classroom
learn
teacher
study
crayons
books
desk
pencil
tablet

Challenge Words:
Keystone
playground

**If you ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. You can reach me by email at mrodgers@keyknox.com, by phone at 797-1251, or by writing me a note.