Last week was a super week!  I know I had a great time getting to know the students in our classroom.  They know more about each other than I do, which is different that in previous years.  Before, we were all learning and getting to know each other.  I am very thankful we started off with those 1/2 days.  The students were tired by the end of the day.

This week we have three full days and Thursday as a 1/2 day.  We will work on more routines and begin introducing new curriculum.

MATH

In math we start right away with multiplication.  Students are expected to master multiplication within 3-5 seconds per problem by the end of 3rd grade.  We start off very simple with 5s, then move to 2s, 1s, and 0s.  We learn the facts out of order by the ones that are easiest and then move to the more difficult ones.  A great app for students to practice is Flash to Pass.  I will show the class this app.  You can specify which fact you would like to focus on rather than going through all of the facts.  We will also make flashcards in class that will go back and forth every night.  You may want to buy some multiplication flashcards just in case these get lost.

READING

On Monday I will introduce our class library.  Students will be given a reading level band to stay in for choosing their books.  For example they may be a J/K/L band or M/N/O band.  Our class library is set up this way and it’s easy to find books with these reading levels in the school library.

GRAMMAR AND WRITING

We will also start grammar and writing this week.  For writing we will begin making lists of things and people who are special in our lives.  Then we will begin to think of stories that we’ve done with this person or at a place.  Students coming into third grade are very familiar with narrative writing.  Writing and reading are my favorite subjects.  Some of you told me that your child does not like writing.  I look at this as a challenge to change that thought and to show all students they can be writers.

I know this post was wordy.  I’m not usually this wordy but I want to keep you informed, especially since we didn’t have an open house.  If you have not sent in a clean pair of gym shoes to school, please try to do this soon.  This helps save on our gym floors.  Right now, I believe students are going outside as much as possible, so they can wear any gym shoe for outdoors. But once they need to be indoors it will be good to have a separate pair of shoes.

Your child can have school lunch or home lunch, but both will be eaten in the classroom beginning tomorrow.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  I look forward to another week with your child.

Blessings,

Mrs. Houtstra

What a great day today!  It went SO FAST!  These 1/2 days are going to go by very quickly.  I hope your 3rd grader came home and had some good things to share about our morning together.

Two things that I wanted to let you know:

1.  We no longer have a student with a peanut allergy in our class, so your child can bring in food with peanuts.
2. A ME Bag was sent home tonight.  The directions are on the bag.  These can come back any time this week.  They don’t all have to come back tomorrow.
3. Ok, three things! :). If your child did not bring in a towel or gym shoes, please send those in tomorrow.

Below is our first class picture.  I’m calling it the Masked Bandits!  Tomorrow I hope to get some individual pictures of students without their masks on.

Please fill out this student survey regarding your child.

Thank you!! 🙂