News

ELA

Dear Families of 3-Fitzgerald,

With a mid-week break, this week seemed to fly by! Our class began a new read aloud, "Witches" by Roald Dahl.

Thank you for helping your child to find a photograph, or encourage an illustration to accompany his/her second Milestones piece on friendship. Students mounted these works on construction paper and will look forward to sharing them with the other third graders next week.

We were able to visit the library an extra time this week for a read aloud about research. We will begin a mini rock research project next week. This will serve the purpose of familiarizing ourselves with the informational text section for when we begin our study of the United States after Thanksgiving.

In Readers' Workshop this week we finished our ghost story books. Students had worked with their talking partners to identify the main problem and were able to identify the main solution. Students are now working cooperatively to map the main events that occured during the book. They are referring to the post-it notes they filled out to keep track of events as they were reading. Next week, students will piece together a story board to sequence the events of their book. Although ghost stories are finished, talking partners have continued to have a conversation with one another about a book that they are reading. Ask your child about the book he/she is reading. Or, ask him/her about the ghost story and how it turned out.

During Writers' Workshop, we revised with a partner. We realized that when we hear our stories outloud, it is easier to hear what we have left out, or what we could word a litte better. We will look forward to using the Alphasmarts next week to publish these pieces. Look for student samples online next week!

Science

Math

Science partners continued their work with studying Rocks and Minerals. This week, we learned about the rock cycle and words such as sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. Students began observing the minerals in our kit. Some awesome Rock & Minerals links can be found here.

Next week students will be visiting the library in small groups to research rocks of their own choice. We will utilize the encyclopedias, online resources, and other informational texts. This oppportunity to work with our librarian, Ms. Harmon, will help us segue into our unit of study of non-fiction texts by learning how to use such texts in the library.

We began our unit on measurement this week. Students discussed why it is important to have standard units of measurement. There were many opportunities to measure items within the classroom. Partners worked together to measure lines to the nearest inch, nearest half inch, nearest quarter inch, nearest centimeter, and nearest half centimeter. We then moved on to measuring with yards and meters.

Next week we will look forward to learning about perimeter. This measuring unit gives students a great opportunity to practice skills at home. We have been encouraging estimating lengths, and finding the exact lengths.

Unit 3 Everyday Math Family Letter

Math Links Page

We are continuing to add/subtract large numbers in class as well. You will see a couple problems on your child's homework. This skill is important and will be expected to be mastered by the close of Unit 3.

Here are a couple videos for addition and subtraction with larger numbers to explain various strategies. Your child is encouraged the strategy that is best for him/her.

Partial Sums Addition Method step-by-step tutorial

Counting Up Subtraction YouTube video

Trade First Subtraction step-by-step tutorial

11/11 Veteran's Day No School
11/25-27 Thanksgiving Break

Communication:
Please feel free to email me at: fitzgeraldm@guilderlandschools.org. Another way to reach me during the day would be to leave a message on my voicemail: 357-2770 x4105. I will return your call as soon as possible. Thanks!

Book Orders:
Your orders have been processed for the November book club if you chose to order online. You can expect to see your order in the next couple weeks - hopefully before Thanksgiving break!

Helpful Info to Keep On Hand:

You can order online now! Go to:
www.scholastic.com/bookclubs

Our class User Name is: 3Fitz
Our class Password is: Reading4Fun