January 14, 2021

Reading

This week, we have worked on reading passages and using the text to answer questions. Often, students think they can remember enough details from the story that they don’t have to check their answers, but we are working on always proving our answers with the text. The students read passages about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and hunted for facts that they could prove in the text. This is an easy skill to practice at home by asking your child questions and having your child show you where the answer came from in his or her book.

Next week, the students will begin their Biography Project. First, we will practice taking notes on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and then the students will get to choose their own historical figures to research. The students may choose any person who was born before 1960 and helped to change the world for the better (so no YouTube Stars please.) 🙂 

Spelling

The students are studying how to make nouns plural. They have learned to add an “s” to most nouns and an “es” to any noun that ends in ch, s, sh, x, or z (like dishes and boxes.) This is a difficult skill that we will continue to practice. Next, the students will learn to drop the “y” and add “ies” on words like cherry and country (unless the “y” is proceeded by a vowel, like in the words guys and boys) and to drop the “f” and add “ves” in words like leaf. They will also study irregular plurals like child – children, deer- deer, and tooth- teeth. English has so many rules, and many of these patterns are repeated in third grade so that the students can master them. 😊

Vocabulary

This week’s words are agree, bare, famous, feast, gentle, hero, leader, notice, search, and weak. Many of the words are homophones (words that sound like other words but mean something different) and the students will study this skill as well!

Writing

The students wrote stories about their adventures over winter break and things that have happened in 2021. Our big focus is adding details! It’s not just the beach, it’s the sandy beach that sparkled in the sunlight! It’s not a present, it’s a present wrapped in Bubbe’s beautiful wrapping paper with a bright, silver bow on top!

Math

Next week the students will complete their Geometry unit! This unit covers 2D polygons like quadrilaterals or quadrangles (four-sided shapes with four angles), rhombi (plural for the diamond-like shape rhombus), parallelograms, and trapezoids. They have also studied 3D shapes like cylinders, pyramids, spheres, cones, and rectangular prisms. The students have begun to learn geometric terms like parallel, perpendicular, and symmetrical.