Week of January 22!

Calendar:
Thursday, January 24 Morning Math Session, 7:45
Friday, January 25 50th Anniversary Chapel & Parade 8:30-9:30 (approximate times)
Friday, January 25 Spirit Day and Feed the Need

Homework:
Tuesday: Read, Study spelling, Study multiplication facts
Wednesday: Read, Study spelling, Study multiplication facts
Thursday: Read, Study spelling, Study multiplication facts
Friday: Have fun with family & friends!

Class News:

Rainforest:
*We worked on our first paragraph last week.  We learned about the habitat of each animal.  The students worked hard at finding where their animals lives and in which rainforest.  This week we will learn about size and appearance of each animal.
*We are reading and writing about the layers of the rainforest and will start creating our layer paper.  The layer paper shows that each student understands how each layer of the rainforest is different from the others but also very important to the rainforest.
*Rainforest Booklist - Mr. N provided a plethora of books from the library about the rainforest.  Each student has a Rainforest Booklist where they read a book of their choice and write down some facts that they learned.  This is very independent and the students work at their own level and their own pace.  The students are sometimes allowed to read with a partner and learn about the rainforest.   This is a great way for third graders to take responsibility for learning about the rainforest.  We have been really impressed with how much they have learned already.

Math:  Last week we continued to work on long division.  Have the students show you the dance we learned to help us remember the 4 steps.  We also worked on our rainfall graphs.  We compared how much it rains in the rainforest compared to cities in the United States.  Then we published them using the laptops.  This week we will begin our unit on fractions.  We will take a pretest to see how much we already know and then begin our unit.  Some of the areas we will focus on are: comparing fractions, adding and subtracting fractions, finding the fractional part of a group, and more.  We will have some vocabulary words with our unit such as denominator and numerator.

Science: This week in Science we will continue our study of protecting the rainforest.  Last week we talked about deforestation and what we can do to help protect it.  This week we will focus on heroes who have helped protect the rainforest.  We will also learn about rainforest explorers.  We talked about the  leaves in the rainforest and how they have some special tips.  Last week the third graders made some leaves with special tips and edges.  They did a great job and will look great in our rainforest.

More rainforest news :  We are ready to have your help constructing the rainforest.  You are welcome anytime during the day except for chapel time between 8:20-8:40.  We need to have the rainforest completed by February 11 when the animals arrive.

Spelling: http://www.spellingcity.com/Spedsthirdgrade/

1. travel
2. open
3. dollar
4. wagon
5. final
6. squirrel
7. sugar
8. garden
9. paper
10. animal
11. nickel
12. another
13. lemon
14. brother

Challenge words:

calendar
character
cardinal