Ms. B. in Class

Hi, parents!

We learned so much this week!  Students are getting a better idea of how to complete tasks and assessments independently.  Also, I’ve reached out to many of you to come in and meet with me about your student’s MAPs scores and academic progress.  I will endeavor to do this with each of you in the next couple of weeks.  If you have a tight schedule and I’ve not yet reached out to you, please email me and I’ll check my schedule.  Otherwise, look for an email in the coming weeks, and we can work on getting together.  Thanks to all of the parents who have already made time for me!

This week in math, we added more strategies for multiplication problems.  Ask your student about finding arrays in all you see around you.  Also, please continue practicing multiplication facts at night.  It helps so much!  Students love to tell me when they practice with you!

In reading, we finished up answering questions by citing textual evidence.  We took an assessment today.  Those results will make their way home next week.  Next week, we will start determining the main idea of a text, recounting the key details of a text, and explaining how those details support the main idea.

In writing, we made progress on our first major revision and worked on a benchmark opinion writing assessment.

As we progress into the fall, our content and responsibility rises in grade 3.  We all look for inventive ways to challenge your students and make sure we are reaching them.  This week, we did a STEM activity on persistence and building a solid foundation for all that we learn. We extended this activity to building a foundation from gumdrops and toothpicks. There are pictures of our activity on Classcraft announcements.

When we tested our structures, there was some discord when one team found success and other teams did not.  This is part of the process.  Students must learn to persist.  However, we had a lot of students who were simply not great teammates or classmates.  We will work on this next week.

Thanks again for all the help in the classroom, for all that you do at home, and making this week another wonderful week.  I am thankful for all of you!

Good morning, parents!  Today students will have an assigned reading task for reading homework.  They need to read chapter 5 in our novel out loud to someone.  They can use this as a reading log entry if they would like to read it in a fun way, but all students must read chapter 5 tonight.  Also, we will have our last set of flash cards to cut out and solve tonight in math.  Starting tomorrow, students can complete paper homework or electronic homework for math.  If your student chooses electronic homework, please identify which program they used (Socrates, ST Math, Prodigy, Freckle) so I can track their progress and give them credit for completion.

Dear Parents,

Thank you for another amazing week.  We made it through a lot this week, even though we only had four days.

In reading, we closed up text to text, text to self, and text to world ideas, and worked on reading with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension; a skill we will work on all year.  We also finished our first round of strategies for learning multiplication facts through 12.  In writing, we worked on adding sensory details to our writing to become better authors.  We also created our own bridges out of paper.  After creating our bridges, we added weight and revised our designs to make them stronger.  The kids had a great time!

We completed our MAPs testing!  I know that some of the students were really brain tired after completing their assessments.  I let them know that it meant they worked really hard and that I was proud of them.

This week, we will take our first assessment in reading.  It will cover asking and answering questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.  We will also start moving through our reading centers.

In math, we will build on prior knowledge and start working with arrays as a strategy for solving multiplication facts.  We will also work on multiplication fluency throughout the week.

In writing, we will choose one of the drafts we’ve done thus far and start revising and editing our work.

Please continue to practice math facts at home and listen to our skip counting songs.  Thanks for making Academic Night amazing!

Here are some important dates for the upcoming weeks:

• 9/27 – Free Dress Day/Tutus and Tiaras Day
• 9/24-9/28- Week of Respect

Thanks again for all you do!

Hi parents! This is a remember that today is picture day and free dress day. Tonight is academic night at school from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Also, we will MAPs ELA test tomorrow. We have a busy week! 🙂

Hi, parents!

Your students made it through a more considerable academic week this week.  We worked on reading standards with our first novel, found many strategies to solve multiplication problems, and finished our writing community setup.

You likely noticed that your students have been building their own set of multiplication facts flash cards for homework.  We will complete this set next week and continue to develop strategies for solving multiplication equations.  These strategies include equal groups, doubling, finding patterns, and skip counting.  Students should also continue to listen to their multiplication songs! (Sorry)

In reading, we worked on text to self, text to text, and text to world connections, while continuing to strengthen skills in answering questions by finding evidence within the text.  These concepts will be reinforced next week as well.  We will also work on making predictions in fictional text. We will continue to take our novel home and students will be required to read specific chapters next week.  Please listen to them read aloud as it helps them build their fluency.

In writing, we will start working on the first major writing project that we will take through editing.  We have continued to work on building our writing stamina.  Your students will also become familiar with rubrics and how to read them.

We took our first MAPs test this afternoon.  Your students worked hard!  I am proud of them!

We will take our ELA MAPs test on September 6.  Please make sure your student gets a good night’s rest on September 5.

Many of our 3rd grade standards differ from second grade standards by requiring students to work independently.  You will notice that I will require each student to take complete responsibility for their work in the next couple of weeks.  We will transition from “with assistance” to independence.  This means that if your student is missing work, it is their responsibility to turn it in.  If they do not put their name on their work, it is their responsibility to check the no name basket and claim graded work that doesn’t have a name.

Thanks for making sure your students complete their homework.  The majority of our class completed homework on all four homework nights this week.  This is great for week three!

Here are some important dates for the upcoming weeks:

• 9/3 – No School
• 9/4 – Book Fair Opens
• 9/5-  Fall Pictures and Free Dress
• 9/5 – Academic Night – 5:30-7:30
• 9/6 – Boelter’s Class MAPs Testing (ELA)
• 9/7- Superhero Day/Free Dress
• 9/7 – Grandparents Breakfast

Thank you for continuing to make this a great year.  We are off to a great start.  You are amazing and I am thankful.  Have a great 3-day weekend!

Ms. Boelter

There was an in issue with the NWEA/MAPs website today and our class was unable to test. We will attempt to test tomorrow morning if all is functional. I’ll keep you updated. Thank you!

Parents,

I wanted to send a quick reminder that we MAPs test tomorrow.  Please make sure your students get to bed early and have a great breakfast. We will take our math MAPs test tomorrow morning.  Students should be on time so we can get to the lab and get started right away.

All students now have Google classroom access.  Our homework is posted there, in your student’s planner, and on my homework policy page.  Please make sure to sign your student’s planner each night.

Thanks for all that you do and have a great night!

Hi, parents!  As I indicated in my previous post, we will work on our multiplication facts this week.  There will be some paper homework in which we start creating a set of flash cards for both home and school.  We will also start listening to our math facts songs. I will send home a CD, but I will post these here as well.

Fact practice video:

Multiplication Mashup mp3

Individual Fact Practice Songs:

1s, 2s, and more

3s

4s

6s

7s

8s

9s

Hi Parents,

Here are some important dates for the upcoming weeks:

• 8/29 Boelter’s Class MAPs Testing (Math)
• 8/30 – Pastries with the Principal
• 8/27 – SOT Meeting at 4:15
• 9/3 – No School
• 9/5- Fall Pictures and Free Dress
• 9/7 – Boelter’s Class MAPs Testing (Math) (This may change)
• 9/7- Superhero Day/Free Dress

I hope you had a wonderful second week of school!  We introduced a lot of new concepts and learned so much this week.

Our leadership teams changed for the first time this week.  Ask your students what their leadership role is for the upcoming week!

Next Week

In reading, we will start our first class novel, How to Be Cool in 3rd Grade.  As we begin this novel, we will work on asking and answering questions to demonstrate an understanding of what we are reading, root words, new vocabulary, and describing characters in a story.

In math, we will continue to develop strategies for understanding how groups of items create multiplication sentences, and expand to skip counting specific fact sets.

In writing, we’ve completed the rough draft of The Best Part of Me and will start revising next week while we continue to expand our writing community.

We jumped into Google Classroom this week.  We had a few hiccups on the way.  Some students have not been able to log into their Google accounts.  I’ve worked with our onsite technical department to make sure that all students will have access next week.  Our weekly homework and classwork expectations will be updated daily on Google Classroom as soon as we all have access.

We also logged into Socrates, Xtramath, Freckle, ST Math, and Prodigy this week.  We have a few more programs to roll out for in class and homework use.  These sites are always available at Sites Used In Class.

I try to make sure students have options for homework so they are more invested in the process.  If you have any questions or need help logging into any program, please let me know.

Our first field trip to the Springs Preserve is scheduled for October 2nd.  If you are CCSD badged and would like to chaperone, please send me a Classcraft message or an email.

As we work on math facts, we’ll be using playing cards as an option to reinforce strategies we develop.  If you work in the casino industry and have access to used playing cards, please send them in with your student.  Thanks in advance!

I’ve enjoyed hearing all about your students in their Me Stew presentations.  Thank you so much for helping them gather the needed items for this project.

Finally, I’ve completed working with and assessing beginning of year benchmarks for all students.  I will reach out to you in the next couple of weeks to set up a time so we can conference and review your student’s progress.

Thanks so much for all that you do!  I am so happy we are in this together.  As always, if you have any questions, please reach out.

Warm Regards,

Ms. Boelter