Third Grade

Grade Level News-Winter Semester

Welcome to third grade. We ar econtinuing to focus on the following areas in third grade:

• Learning to write in cursive
• Reading chapter books, reading for information
• Making writing come alive
• Multiplication and division, fractions, decimals
• Learning about the sun moon and stars; structures of life; and matter and energy
• Learning about our communities, from local to national
• Making new friends

Curriculum

Reading

Theme 5 is “Voyagers”.  Genres that the students are reading include historical fiction, realistic fiction, and nonfiction. Students will work on reading strategies of questioning, predicting, inferring, and clarifying. Their upcoming sharing presentation is about a place they have visited.

Houghton Mifflin has a website that offers games and activities to complement our text.  Visit www.eduplace.com

Writing

Skills that we are working on are suffixes, singular and plural possessives, and pronouns—subject, object and possessives.   We continue vocabulary work, using the dictionary to divide words into syllables, find analogies, and identify homophones and base words.

Legible penmanship is a third grade goal as students learn to write in cursive.  Daily class time and homework is necessary to develop effective cursive handwriting.  Animated letters can be viewed on the Internet at www.handwritingforkids.com

Technology

Time on computers will emphasize keyboarding, word processing, skills reinforcement, Reading Counts, and Powerpoint.  Students will also use appropriate search engines for research. 

Health/P.E.

Students will receive their own monthly student issue of “The Great Body Shop.” 

P.E. activities will emphasize movement skills and knowledge, fitness, self-image, and social development.

In keeping with the District’s policy on student wellness, we are discouraging birthday treats. We encourage you to celebrate by donating a playground ball or favorite book to the classroom.

Math

This month students are demonstrating they can pass their times facts in 45 seconds.  No time to count on or use other strategies.   Facts must be automatic.  If they don’t achieve accuracy and speed on Tuesday, they have a second chance on Thursday.

At least five minutes of practice a day is recommended to achieve automaticity.  Practicing multiplication facts requires immediate feedback. (No worksheets) It is most effective to chunk the facts. Work on fives; when mastered, move on to twos, etc.  Practice mixed facts when they are fluent.

Social Science

In social studies students are learning how communities all over California began, grew, and changed.   There are many interesting places to visit right here in Irvine.  Two favorites are the Irvine Historical Society next to the San Joaquin Golf Course and the La Quinta Inn off Sand Canyon.  On a trip to Heritage Park Library take a few moments to read the circular timeline on the sidewalk.  The Katie Wheeler Library is a replica of the Irvine family home.

Science

The current unit is Structures of Life.  They are observing the structures and behaviors of crayfish and snails.

Art and Music

Third grade is fortunate to have six and six lessons from the Art Masters program.

Classroom teachers will implement Arts Advantage lessons. Our students will have District music every other Wednesday.

Websites You May Find Useful for Your Child

Encyclopedia Access at Home

Encyclopedia Britannica has been purchased for all IUSD school sites. Students can access the site from home using the following link:
http://school.eb.com/elementary
Username = iusd
Password = Irvine      

Math Standards

http://www.csun.edu/~vcmth00m/practice.html

Addition and Subtraction Facts practice

http://www.aplusmath.com

Websites to practice multiplication facts

Our old publisher website, www.mhschool.com has a section called Factdash which is a fun way for the kids to practice and time themselves.  You can also make your own flashcards at www.aplusmath.com.   A fun website to keep facts sharp is www.gdbdp.com/multiflyer.

Arrays

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_192_g_2_t_1.html

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/elab2002/grade_3/016.html

Practice with games

http://www.aplusmath.com/games/matho/MultMatho.html

http://www.gdbdp.com/multiflyer   (great graphics)

http://www.coolmath4kids.com

http://www.mathmastery.com/cyberchallenge

http://oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/maths1.html

http://home.indy.rr.com/lrobinson/mathfacts/mathfacts.html

http://www.dep.anl.gov/aattack.htm