Mrs. Salisbury’s Third Grade

Room 5

Mrs. Stringfellow’s Third Grade

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Welcome to Third Grade! Our names are Anne Stringfellow and Lisa Salisbury and we will be your child’s teacher this year. We are in for an exciting learning adventure this school year. There are so many things to explore in grade three. Multiplication and division, communities, Rhode Island History, natural resources and life cycles are just a few of the topics and skills we'll be investigating this school year. 

We hope you are looking forward to each and every day, working and learning hard in every way! It will be so much fun, too! You will need to pay attention, think about your learning, and most importantly...ask lots of questions! That's how to do your best!

 Reading

As an instructional tool to teach reading we use the Reading Street series.   We read the stories in the anthology, the hard cover book, together.  The instructional focus is on comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and grammar.  All of these skills are necessary for reading success.  This series also has leveled readers for differentiated instruction.  During this time we read with small groups according to their reading level ability.  This allows for personalized instruction. 

We are pleased that all the children have their own spelling, grammar, and skills practice books that go along with the series.  As you are aware, many nights the students have homework from these books.  The homework provides time to for your child to review the skills taught throughout the week and continue practice. At the end of the week, each child is given an assessment to monitor their progress.

MATH

We will learn this year how exciting math can be!  As we work toward mastery of our multiplication facts, we will also learn about ‘Fair Shares’, an Investigations unit focused on fractions, and much more. Visit www.investigations.terc.edu to learn more about the Investigations program. 

Other math concepts we will continue to work on are problem solving, measurement, mental math, finding perimeter & area, addition & subtraction of larger numbers, and working with money and decimals.  This year we are lucky to have a new program called FASTTMATH!  It is a computer program where children practice basic math facts on the computer. The computer keeps a record of the facts each child is fluent in.  It then generates problems and practice games for the student to work on to master unknown facts.  Worksheets can also be printed for each student which contains examples of unknown facts.  

 SCIENCE

 Our four topics for Science this year are

The Sun, the Moon, and the Earth

Earth’s Resources

Matter, Forces and Energy

Life Cycles 

Your children have Mrs. Salisbury for Science. The Epic teacher  will also  be working with room 12 developing a unit on  recycling.  Every Wednesday afternoon the Humane Society offers our third graders a wonderful program called “Animal Studies.”

 SOCIAL STUDIES

Our four topics for Social Studies this year are:

Communities

Cranston. Rhode Island

Citizenship and Our Government

Geography 

Your children will have Mrs. Stringfellow for Social Studies.  The children will use a research method called Independent Investigative Method-IIM.

They will learn how to find sources of information, research a topic, and produce a final project to share with the class. 

Writing 

Third grade strives to incorporate writing across the curriculum in all subject areas. In their writing notebook students will write about different topics so they can have many opportunities to write and to improve their confidence in writing. Students will be writing friendly letters to their new friends in other classes at Stone Hill School.  Along with narrative and expository writing, we will dabble with poetry. This is usually a low risk writing experience that allows reluctant writers to have a rewarding encounter with paper and pencil. Many of our writings will be accompanied by fun and exciting art projects used as illustrations.

This year we will be developing our writing skills using the Writing Process and the Six Traits writing program. Students will gain an enthusiasm for writing because of a feeling of success! 

HOMEWORK

·   Students will have homework Monday – Thursday

·   Students will have one spelling assignment

·   They are also required to read 15-20 minutes every night

·   Reading logs indicates the date, how much time was spent reading, what was read, and the parent’s initials. The teacher will check logs daily.

TIPS FOR PARENTS

·   Please check your child's agenda every night.

·   Ask your child what they have learned in school.

·   Encourage your child to redo answers they may have gotten wrong.

·   If you have access to the World Wide Web encourage students to use our links.

TESTS

·   Every Friday there will be a spelling test.

·   Once a unit is completed in a subject students will be tested on what they have learned.

·   Weekly Selection Test

Classroom Notes 

Please continue to save those Box Tops for Education!  This is an easy way to raise funds for our school!! 

Fun Websites to Visit!

www.aplusmath.com

www.handwritingforkids.com