Week of September 15th

Hi Parents,
I've rolled our Reading story into two weeks so that we can extend some concepts in class.  This and other things have made it so that I have not had too much to share until now.

Reading
Your child will be making a "comic strip" for the story Penguin Chick.  This will be due on Monday and is replacing a comprehension test that could have been given.  They should bring home a large paper with boxes AND a full sheet of instructions.  We went over how to do this in class and they were given some time to get started.  I expect that they will take a decent amount of time on this since they are not receiving other homework (besides math).  Please let them bring it to school to work on tomorrow and ask questions if needed.  Please also let them work as independently as possible and only guide when absolutely necessary since it is in place of a test.  They should use their books as much as possible to glean information.

Science
They will be having their final test on Bones with Mr. Fishburn on Monday.

Religion
I have found that breaking the meaning of each commandments into "Do" and "Don't" categories helps them keep the words straight and understand it a little better.  This may be a helpful strategy to try at home.

Social Studies
Next we will be starting a long series of Social Studies lessons.  In 3rd grade our Social Studies curriculum fits so easily into our fall schedule.  This means that we will cover Science more heavily during 2nd semester and focus a lot on Social Studies from now until Thanksgiving.  Please be assured that all the necessary topics will be covered by the end of the year.

Collecting Papers
I am making every effort to get graded papers home to you in a timely manner.  I just want to make you all aware that I am having the kids sift through their mail before bringing it home each day.  I have asked them to save samples of their work in a binder to show you at conferences.  This will explain why they may not be bringing home papers with extremely good or extremely low marks.  If you notice a trend however, please feel free to ask and we can make sure that is what is happening.  I have left it up to the kids to do this each time without asking my permission.

Thank you for being so supportive and helpful up to this point.  You're kiddos are really starting to get in the swing of third grade and you should be proud of their progress so far!