Week of 3/1 - 3/8

March 1 is our grandparents/special people day at CTA. In lieu of the luncheon as CTA has done in the past, there will be a short performance in the shul and then an open house in the afternoon. In order to be on time for the performance, I would suggest that the SP should  be at CTA no later than 12:30pm in order to get a seat in the shul. After the performance, students and their special people will have time to go visit both Judaic and General Studies classrooms.  Students have been separated alphabetically by last name and have a 20 minute rotation between Judaic and General Studies classrooms. Dismissal is at 2:00pm.

Friday, March 22 ends the 3rd quarter and our Book Bingo Challenge.

We will resume our homework schedule.

Language Studies : 
This week we will review of 4 idioms and 10 spelling words from previous tests.

Idiom review:
Red letter day- a day of special significance
Head honcho – the boss or chief
Stop to smell the roses – take your time and enjoy what's around you
Right off the bat – immediately, without delay

spelling review:
twelve, February*, decide, special, when, unusual, knowledge, which, running, clapped

*note: this is the only spelling word that is a proper noun and should only have a capital letter at the beginning of the word. Any words that have capital letters in them will be marked as "incorrect" even if spelled correctly. By this time in 3rd grade we should be able to use capitals and lower case letters correctly.

Math:
PRACTICE MATH FACTS!! We really still aren't very strong in our addition and subtraction facts. This makes multiplication and division very difficult.

There is a HomeLink this week practicing multiplication math word problems..

Social Studies: 
Our test will be on Wednesday, March 13. 

Students have a review packet that we completed in class that is coming home today (Friday 3/1). They should be able to read a map using lines of latitude & longitude. They should also review the vocabulary terms found on the back of the class newsletter that came home today. I have also listed them below:

continents- Earth's largest land areas (there are 7)
oceans - bodies of water that are salty & cover over 70% of the Earth's surface (there are 5)
globe - round and shows the true shape of oceans & continents
latitude - lines that start at the Equator and measure the earth in degrees N/S
longitude - lines that start at the Prime Meridian and measure the Earth E/W

Northern & Southern Hemispheres - divided at the Equator. Below Equator = Southern Hemisphere, above Equator = Northern Hemisphere

US is divided into 5 regions: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest & West

physical maps - show what the land looks like
political maps- show lines for states and countries

Week of: 2/25 - 3/1

Our Purim festivities are upon us. We have a full day of costumes & fun on this Friday, 2/22. I know that the actual holiday is on Sunday. It is for this reason that I am not sending home any homework for next week. Students have a break from both Language Studies tests and math.

H&I folders will come home with your child on Thursday, 2/21 with completed work. There are also 2 handouts about maps & globes which your child has highlighted important vocabulary. They may use this to review social studies concepts learned in class. At this point, the plan is to have a social studies test the week of March 12.

I encourage your child to practice math facts with flashcards and to review the latitude/longitude & map/globe handouts.

Students may continue to read for the reading challenge which ends on March 22.

Please send the purple folder back to school with your child no later than next Thursday, 2/28.

Friday 2/15- Friday 2/22

Upcoming dates to remember: 
Monday, 2/18 - No School, Presidents' Day
Friday, 2/22- Purim Festivities & costumes
Friday, 3/1- Special Person's Day


Language Studies:
The next two Fridays we have special events and a special schedule. For this reason, I am not sending home any Language Studies (spelling or vocabulary) homework for the next two weeks.


Math Homework due Th 2/21:
1. Home Link 4-5 -- I have sent home the Unit 4 parent letter attached to your child's homework sheet.
2. practice multiplication page of x3 & x4.

Reading Challenge Bingo:
Students are turning in reading summaries and other projects. Please keep me posted if you have any questions or comments regarding the challenge.

February 8- February 15

This week we started geography. Your child should know that a compass rose is used to give directions on maps. We also know that the  Earth is divided into two hemispheres- the northern and the southern by the Equator which is the line of latitude that acts as the dividing line. We also learned that lines of longitude are long and start at the Prime Meridian.  We also know that there are seven continents, and should be able to list: Antarctica, Europe, Australia, Asia, North America, South America and Africa. 

Language Studies:
words that have an /f/ sound but are spelled with ph or gh:
alphabet
nephew
trophy
elephant
geography
laugh
tough
rough
cough
graph

Idiom of the Week: smell a rat - to suspect that something is wrong; especially due to someone being dishonest

Math: 
Homework: handout practicing multiplication facts

Practice! Practice! Practice basic math facts. We have learned multiplication facts x0, x1, x2, x4, x5 & x10. Your child should have flash cards he/she made at school to practice with.
Students have been tested to see if they could complete x2 & x5 in under 2 minutes. I will shorten that time to under a minute.

We also learned about division numbers divided by 2.

Reminders:
School spirit day/crazy hat day is this Monday 2/11.
Dress down Friday: 2/15
Purim school celebrations: 2/22
Special Person's day: 3/1

The bingo challenge continues.....
This past week we discussed how to identify first and third person narratives and what pronoun clues help us to know which type of narrator the story we just read had. A first person narrator is the main character of the story and will use  the pronouns: I, me, we, or us. A third person narrator will talk about the main character and other characters using the pronouns  he, she, it, him, her, they or  them.

Science quiz on natural resources:
Students took their science quiz on Thursday. We pushed it back a day so that we would have time to play a review game on Wednesday. They had the opportunity to use their notes and book to help them with any questions they didn't know.

Language Studies:
spelling words are a soft /g/

List 1:
giant
genius
genes
gentle
knowledge

List 2:
age
gem
large
gentle
cage
gel

- Please complete 2 tic-tac-toe activities for the spelling words.

In preparation for the math achievement test in April, we are reviewing math terms we've been practicing since the beginning of the year. "Area" & "perimeter" are new to us, we've only learned them in the past 2 weeks. The only word that we have just learned today is the word "product." We will have a math quiz using these terms next Friday. In the homework this week I've provided vocabulary cards for students to cut out and use to play matching or memory games to study the vocabulary.

Vocabulary:

standard form – numbers written in digits or numerals (example: 234)
expanded form- a number written out to show the place value of the digits in the number (example for the standard number 234, its expanded form is 200 + 30 + 4)
word form- a number written out in words (example: 234 is two hundred thirty-four)
difference- the answer in a subtraction problem
product- the answer in a multiplication problem
sum – the answer in an addition problem
digit- the symbol for numbers- 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
perimeter- the measurement of the outside of a shape*
area- the measurement of the inside of a shape*

*2-dimensional figure

Math: 

-study the math terms

- practice basic math facts we have learned multiplication facts x0,1,2,5, 10 and have created blue flash cards that your child should have to practice.

-continue to practice addition & subtraction facts!