Literacy News: Week of Jan 31-Feb.4, 2011

Literacy News: Week of Jan. 31-Feb. 4
This week's new word wall words are:
1. please
2. famous
3. knew
4. would
5. should
The test will be on Friday/February 4. Remember, students should master all the word wall words, therefore they need to be reviewed frequently.


Reading Goals:
This week students will be reading different stories and learning to identify the cause and effect relationships. This is a sometimes a confusing skill for students, so we will spend the next two weeks practicing this. For you to be able to help your child, ask them to find cause/effect relationships in their daily reading.
Mini-Lesson:
A cause is why something happened, and an effect is what happened. For example:
The baby left a banana peel on the floor. (cause)
The father slipped and fell. (effect)


Grammar Goals:
Students have been working on identifying pronouns. This week they will learn when to use the pronouns I and me in sentences.
Mini-lesson:
I is always used before the verb: My cousin and I will go fishing.
The pronoun me is used after the verb in a sentence: My teacher gave a surprise to my friend and me.
As a reference: See Language book pages 328-329


Writing Goals:
This week we will continue working on the SENTENCE FLUENCY final drafts. Students have been writing paragraphs to practice sentence fluency. They have almost completed their graphic organizer for their final piece and assessment. This week they will put the information together in 3 paragraphs, and they will proofread, edit, and write final drafts.


News and Announcements:
1. I want to thank Daniele Nembrini, Reggina Massad, Jose Rafael Rivera and Mariana Zepeda for donating candy for class prizes!
2. Please come to the 3rd Grade Values Conference: Emotional Intelligence and Our Kids (See the flyer on the left handside of this screen)
The presentation is this Thursday/February 3 in the Multipurpose Room, from 11:30-1:00pm. Do not miss this great opportunity to learn more ways to help your child be a better person!


Thank you,
Mrs. Lila Paredes

MATH\SOCIAL STUDIES\SCIENCE JAN 31 - FEB 4, 2011

MATH: The class continues to work with counting money. There will be a U.S. coin test on Thursday, Feb 3rd. This week we will begin counting Honduran coins. The class will get bags of Honduran coins on Thursday or Friday and will need to count the coins for a grade.

Also on Thursday, Feb 3rd we wil have our first division fact time test; /0-/1. A great place to practice is at fun4thebrain.com - click on division and find the games.

SOCIAL STUDIES: This week we will concentrate on maps: symbols, map keys, and compass directions. The class should be able to read information from a map and create a map of their own.

Have a great week,

Kathy Vega

Literacy News: Week of Jan 24-28, 2011

Literacy News: January 24-28


This week we will add 6 more word wall words:
1. mine
2. instead
3. belongs
4. also
5. except
6. together
These words will be in the word wall test on Friday. The Language skill we will be focusing on is: Identifying pronouns. Students will circle the pronouns in the sentences.

Reading Focus:
Part of building vocabulary, students will be reviewing and learning more about synonyms and antonyms. Our read aloud books this week will teach students new words that will enrich their vocabulary. As a class, students will be writing what are synonyms and antonyms and including these new words to our lists of examples.
Language Focus:
To introduce pronouns, students will listen to a funny story about a planet without pronouns. We will also be share reading pieces where students will practice identifying pronouns. As they learn about this part of speech, we will discuss singular and plural pronouns. They will have a Language book homework on Tuesday to help them practice.
Writing Focus:
Students will be starting their Sentence Fluency (writing trait) assessment piece. They will use a graphic organizer to jot down their ideas. Then they will use it to compose a 3 paragraph composition and revise it. A checklist with the expectations will be given to each student before they work on their writing piece.
News/Announcements:
1. We recently gave awards to students as part on an in-class activity. Students feel great to receive praise for their hard work. Please help us continue giving prizes by donating a bag of candy or chocolate. We all greatly appreciate this!
2. On Monday, we celebrate the 100th day of school. Please refer to the previous post to participate in the optional activities (students may wear a decorated t-shirt with 100 items and bringing 100 items to show and share with classmates on Monday).
3. This Friday/Jan 28 is a color's day for Lps. 5.

Thank you very much,
Mrs Lila Paredes

MATH\SOCIAL STUDIES\SCIENCE JAN 24-28, 2011

MATH: This week the class will be working on counting U.S. coins and an introduction to two dimensional figures for our geometry unit.

On Thursday we will have another times test x0-x12. Division tests will be coming soon!

SOCIAL STUDIES: We are working together on Time Lines (page 61), Flow Charts (pages 332, 333) and Cutaway Diagrams (pages 258, 259). Much of the work is being done in the S.S. notebook after discussion, and will be graded.

Have a great week,

Mrs. Vega

Dear Parents and Students:

Next Monday, January 24 is the 100th day of school! This means more than half of the year has passed!!
Optional Activities:
On this day, students will be allowed to wear a t-shirt with 100 items on it (instead of their uniform shirt). They may also bring 100 objects to show and share with the class (candy, stickers, pencils, erasers, etc...).
We will be reading a fun 100th day of school book and the sharing of treats/gifts.

Thank you,
Mrs Lila Paredes

Math and Social Studies January 17 - 21

Math: The class has already begun measuring in inches ( to the nearest inch, half inch and quarter inch) and understanding feet, yards, and miles. On Tuesday, Jan. 18, there will be an assessment to see how well the class can measure in inches with a ruler.
We will than work with measuring in centimeters and understand millimeters, meters and kilometers. On Friday the class will be tested on measuring in centimeters.

Our multiplication time test will be X0 _ X12 on Thursday, Jan. 20

Social Studies: Notebooks with information about landforms went home today. The class is expected to identify these landforms. The test will be on Tuesday, Jan.18. We will then work on timelines and flowcharts.

Enjoy your weekned,
Mrs. Vega

Literacy News: Week of January 17-21, 2011

Literacy News for Week of January 17-21

The word wall words for this week are:

1. trying

2. special

3. easy

4. difficult

5. happened

Note: Remember to study these and all the other word wall words on a regular basis. The dictation will be this Friday/Jan 21. Our grammar focus for this week's test will be to find and circle the future tense verbs in the sentences.

Reading Goals:
We will continue working on: making inferences. This is like "reading between the lines" or using the clues in stories to figure out information that the author doesn't tell the reader. We will continue reading several books and shared reading pieces to practice this skill together. Students will be assessed on Thursday.

Language Goals:
Wwe have 2 short and simple Language goals this week. The first one

is to teach students that the helping verb will is all you need to write in the future tense. You just need to put it before the verb. Ex: I will ride my bike tomorrow. The second goal is to introduce students to pronouns.

Writing Goals:
Students are doing a good job learning about SENTENCE FLUENCY. This week we will continue working on this. Students will be improving a short choppy paragraph together. They will start practicing writing with sentence fluency independently.

News/ Announcements:
1. Please send report cards back signed as soon as you can.

2. You are cordially invited to attend the Values Conference on bullying this Thursday/Jan 20 from 11:30-1:00. See invitation on the right hand column.

Thank you,

Mrs. Lila Paredes

MATH\SOCIAL STUDIES\SCIENCE - JAN 10 - 14, 2010

Welcome back and Happy New Year to everyone!

MATH: This week the class will be working on mulitplying 2 and 3 digits by one digit. There will be a test on Thursday, Jan 13th. We will also have a x12 time test on Wednesday, January 12th.

Plato math testing will take place during computer class this week. Please make sure your child makes every effort to attend school in order to take the test with their homeroom class.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Our new unit is about landforms, maps timelines, flow charts and tables. At the moment we are working on ten types of landforms. The information the class is gathering in their notebooks will be compled on Thursday, Jan 13th. The notbebook will go home for additional review over the weekend.

Thank You,

Mrs. Vega

3-A News: January 5-7

Welcome Back and Happy New Year!
We hope you had a great and restful vacation!

NEWS:
We are beginning the 3rd quarter of the school year. Time sure goes by fast!

Because this is a short week, the only homework assignments will be reading log and multiplication 0-9 sheets. There will only be a 0-9 timed test this Friday, Jan 7.

The new word wall words for this and next week are:
1. yesterday
2. another
3. different
4. out
5. off
*These words will be tested next Friday/January 14

Thank you,
Mrs. Lila Paredes & Mrs. Kathy Vega