April/May Language Arts

Reading - We will be finishing Little House in the Big Woods.  There will be a two part test over the novel. The vocabulary test will be on Thursday, April 26th, and the comprehension test will be on Wednesday, May 2nd.  The students will know exactly what to expect on both parts of the test.  Please remember to hold on to all of your past Little House worksheets and quizzes.  The tests will be taken directly off of the worksheets and quizzes!  After the tests, we will wrap up our Little House unit with some fun activities in the classroom. We plan on taking our Spring field trip to Cowtown so the students can get a first-hand look at how Laura Ingalls and her family lived.  The field trip date is still being determined.

Writing - April is poetry month!  We will be learning about various types of poetry and writing our own poems as well.

Spelling - Spelling tests will continue each week with the exception of the week of April 9th (only three days of school that week).

English - We will introduce three new parts of speech: prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.  We will continue to use color coding activities and worksheets to help us identify the parts of speech.  For the remainder of the school year we will be reviewing various concepts from the year including contractions, synonyms, antonyms, and homophones.

April/May Dates to Remember

4/6 & 4/9 - NO SCHOOL - Good Friday & Easter Monday

4/13 - NO SCHOOL - Teacher Professional Development

4/14 - ARTESIA

4/16 - AR Store

4/18 - AR Reward Day

4/20 - April Jeans Day; Adoration

5/1 - First day to wear shorts

5/2 - May Jeans Day

5/4 - Adoration; May Crowning

5/14 - AR Store

5/16 - AR Reward Day

5/17 - PTO Spring Fling

5/18 - NO SCHOOL - 8th Grade Culminating Project Presentations

5/23 - Field Day

5/24 - Last Day of School - LATE MORNING DISMISSAL

March Langauge Arts News

Reading - We are starting our Little House in the Big Woods unit!  This will take us through March & April. We will read a section of the novel each week, complete a reading reflection worksheet, and take a quiz over what we have read each Friday (or Thursday if there is no school on Friday).

Grammar - In March we will learn about adverbs and then spend time reviewing adjectives along with adverbs.

Writing - Our focus this month will be word choice.  We will work on lessons and activities that help us choose words that make our writing more interesting.

February Language Arts News

English - After finishing up the verb unit, we will have a comprehensive review and test over nouns and verbs.  Mid-month we will begin our unit on adjectives.

Writing - February will bring a fun little writing project on similes for Valentine's Day!  We will also review the writing process.

Reading - With State Reading Assessments beginning Wednesday, February 22, we will spend much of this month doing various activities to continue to help us prepare.  Topics will include prefixes/suffixes, summarization, inferencing, and cause/effect just to name a few.

Assessment Time!

The students have been working so hard to prepare, and we have made great strides!  I am so proud of their hard work!  The time to "show what we know" in reading will be here on Wednesday the 22nd through Friday the 24th.  Please help your child to do their best by making sure they get a good night's sleep each evening and a solid, healthy breakfast each morning.  Thank you for your support from home!

February Dates to Remember

2/1 Jeans Day

2/3 Adoration

2/6 AR Store

2/8 AR Reward Day

2/16 Noon Dismissal; Conferences 1:00 - 8:00

2/17 NO SCHOOL

2/20 NO SCHOOL

2/22 Ash Wednesday - All School Mass 8:00

January Language Arts

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Hopefully it won't take us long to get back into the swing of things this year!  We have important work to do to prepare for the upcoming state assessments in February!

Reading - Reading lessons this month will focus on cause/effect, word structure, summarizing, compare/contrast and various other standards that will be tested.  We will also continue to read a story weekly.

Writing - We will complete our "Take Your Family to Church" essays that we began in December.  Then we will start a new writing and fun writing project.  Students will get to create a bug!

English - This month we will begin our verb unit and continue practicing nouns and verbs with multi-sensory grammar activities.

Art - Art this month will include snow globes, paper stained glass, and sunflower drawings!

January Dates to Remember

1/6  Adoration

1/11 Class Pictures (uniforms)

1/16  NO SCHOOL

*January 29th - February 4th is Catholic Schools Week.

December Language Arts News

English - We have just completed our unit on Pronouns, and we will spend the next few weeks reviewing everything we have covered so far this year including nouns, pronouns, multi-sensory grammar color coding, synonyms, antonyms, homophones, sentences, and punctuation.  The students will participate in various centers with fun activities to review these topics.

Writing - After completing our own narrative stories, we will take a short break from writing activities so that we can read aloud The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to be prepared to see the play on our field trip!

Reading - This month, topics we will focus on will be prefix/suffix/root word and cause & effect.  Please remember that each student must have six AR points by Tuesday, December 20th!

December Dates to Remember

12/2  3A Class Mass

12/7  Jeans Day

12/8  NO SCHOOL - Holy Day of Obligation

12/12 AR Store

12/13  Field Trip to see The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

12/14  All School Confession

12/21  Christmas Around the World & NOON DISMISSAL

12/22 - 1/3  NO SCHOOL - Christmas Break

1/4  Classes Resume

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I hope your family enjoys a wonderful holiday!

November Language Arts

Reading - This month we will work on identifying problem/solution & cause/effect in a story or passage.  We will also continue to practice the skill of inferring with various activities in the classroom.

Spelling - The kids are doing a wonderful job on their weekly spelling tests.  Keep up the good work!

Writing - We will begin November by writing riddles, which will help us practice our inferring skills.  We will also begin focusing this month on the VOICE writing trait.

English - Our focus this month will continue to be nouns with an emphasis on pronouns.  We will end the month with some fun grammar centers that will help us review everything we have studied in English so far this year.

Art - In Art we will work on a special project for the students to bring home followed by a service project for Chaucer Estates.  We will design Thanksgiving decorations for the residents of Chaucer Estates to enjoy for the holiday!

November Dates

11/1  NO SCHOOL - All Saints Day

11/2  Jeans Day

11/3  NO SCHOOL - Conferences

11/4  NO SCHOOL

11/11  Veteran's Day Ceremony after Mass; Adoration

11/21-11/25  NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Break

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

October Language Arts

English- We have just finished a unit on punctuation and will begin working this month on synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and contractions.  There will also be review homework assignments over sentences & punctuation so that we continue to work on those skills.  At the end of October we will begin a unit on nouns.

Spelling - Due to such short weeks the week of October 17 and October 31, there will be no spelling assignments or tests on those two weeks.  Enjoy the break!

Writing - Writing activities in October will include a character description project, a "How-To" writing project, and Ghost Poetry!

Reading - Along with a weekly story, we will also be working on various reading skills including summarizing, main idea & details, making inferences, cause & effect relationships, and identifying the problem & solution in a reading passage.

Art - Our classroom will get spooky on Friday mornings with bat, jack-o-lantern, & scarecrow art projects this month!

Important Dates to Remember:

10/5 Jeans Day

10/7 Adoration

10/14 End of the 1st Quarter

10/17 & 18 Teacher Convention - NO SCHOOL

10/24-28 Great Pumpkin Guesses Sold

10/31 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  Great Pumpkin Assembly at 1:30; Class Party at 2:40

11/1 All Saints Day - NO SCHOOL

11/2 Jeans Day

11/3 Conferences - NO SCHOOL

11/4 NO SCHOOL

SEPTEMBER LANGUAGE ARTS

Now that school is back in full swing, we are working on English, Spelling, Writing, and Reading each day, and after Labor Day, we will add Reading tier to our morning schedule as well.

English - We have been reviewing the four types of sentences and learning about subject nouns and predicate verbs.  We will then move into a unit on punctuation while we continue to work on color-coding the nouns & verbs.

Spelling - Please remember to help your child throughout the week to prepare for the weekly spelling test on Friday.  Your child should come home each Monday with the list of words in the clear plastic sheet in his or her binder.

Writing - We are focusing on two writing traits this month: Ideas & Organization.  The students will work on a descriptive paragraph about themselves followed by a comic strip which teaches about the importance of sequence when you are organizing your writing.

Reading - As we read a story out of our reading textbook each week, we will focus on the skill of inferencing during the month of September.  The ability to infer, or draw conclusions, significantly helps reading comprehension.

SEPTEMBER ART

This month to help celebrate Fall (and cooler temperatures!) we will create leaf and pumpkin drawings. Students will learn the difference between warm and cool colors, and we will look at the color wheel.  We will also look at a kaleidoscope, discuss radial symmetry, and create our own kaleidoscope designs.

SEPTEMBER DATES TO REMEMBER

9/5  Labor Day - NO SCHOOL

9/7  Jeans Day - Please bring 50 cents

9/8 & 9/9  Grandparents Day

9/12  AR Store

9/14  Confession - 10:00

9/25  Parish Picnic

9/28  Fall Portrait Day

9/30  Last Day to Wear Shorts

Welcome Back!

I am excited to start the new school year!  The upcoming year will be filled with fun and challenging learning activities for your child.  I will be teaching Reading, Writing, Spelling, and English in the morning. Mrs. Locke will teach Religion, Math, and Social Studies in the afternoon.

Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.  I know that 3rd grade can feel overwhelming, especially during the first quarter when there are so many changes to adjust to, but please feel free to call, email, or send a note in your child's agenda with any concerns you may have.  Together we will work to make your child's third grade year the best it can be!

Mrs. Klein