Weekly Crandall Chronicle

Each week I will post an electronic newsletter (Weekly Crandall Chronicle) on our class blog, which will contain important information about upcoming activities, units, and class projects. I will also include some helpful tips that you can use when working with your child at home. 

What's Happening This Week
Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week is the short vowel sound.
Reading: This week we are focusing on identifying story elements including characters, setting, and plot.
Writing: We are practicing writing friendly letters and reviewing writing complete and detailed sentences.
Grammar: Our focus is identifying and properly writing statements and questions.
Math: This week we are reviewing and extending math concepts that include the use of number grids, exploring mathematics tools, and analyzing and displaying data. 
Social Studies: We are beginning our map skills unit by learning about different types of maps including political maps, globes, community maps, aerial photographs, and satellite images. The students will be using cardinal and intermediate directions.

Weekly Reminders
* I am sending home a Scholastic Book order with your child. Please place your order by   Friday, September 6th. The online ordering continues through Saturday, September 7th. Our class activation code is GRNPB.
* Students will have PE on Mondays and Fridays. Please remember to have your child wear gym shoes on these days.
* Our class will be going to the LMC on Wednesdays. Books will be due after two weeks, but may be returned weekly on Wednesdays.

Study Tip
Students are encouraged to visit the Everyday Math website, which is linked to our class website. Once they have logged in using their login name and password, they can access a variety of online games that will help them to practice skills we are learning in class, as well as the Student Reference Book that is mentioned frequently in the homework. (www.everydaymathonline.com) Our class blog also offers a number of other websites that provide games and activities to help students practice their math facts.

Continents Film

To help prepare for their first social studies test on map skills, I created this short film featuring the voices of the students from 3-1:

Second Day of School Lessons

Similar to our toothpaste/talking comparison yesterday, the students learned another lesson by comparing the selection process for books and shoes: Picking a perfect book can be just like choosing the right pair of shoes.

When choosing a pair of shoes you need to make sure that they are both the right size and that they meet the purpose for why you are wearing them. Similarly, when selecting a book, you can tell that it is a "good fit" if it is the appropriate reading level and goes along with the reason you are reading. For example, if you are trying to learn true facts about a dog, it is important to find a book that is nonfiction and is at a reading level appropriate for a third grader. Ask your child to tell you more about our fun shoe activity!

Hallway Display

First Day of Third Grade!

We had a terrific first day of third grade today! I was excited to be greeted by so many smiling students who were eager to be back at school. We have a wonderful class and I know that we have an amazing year ahead of us. 

We began our school day with a getting-to-know-you Bingo game. Students quickly began mingling and learning more about one another. 

After reading the first chapter of the book Stuart Goes to School, the students shared how they were feeling this morning while anticipating the start of their first day of school. Each child drew a face on a post-it that represented their feelings. These faces were then used to create a pictograph that helped us compare feelings across the class and to those of the characters in the book. Here is a photo of our graph. Even though there were a few students that were nervous about school starting or upset with summer ending, I was pleased to see plenty of smiling and happy children throughout the day! 

The students had an opportunity today to share some of their ideas and goals for third grade. I posed the following questions to the class and each child provided ideas and answers that we later discussed. I am amazed at the sophisticated ideas that were brought up! 

Teams of students then discussed strategies that we should use to help promote learning in our classroom. We combined ideas and came up with the following list of Class Strategies. 

Finally, the students learned an important and unique life lesson today: When we speak to one another it is like squirting toothpaste on a plate.

If we are not careful with our toothpaste and squeeze it without thinking we can end up with a big mess. This is also true with our words. If we open our mouths and speak words that are hurtful, disrespectful, or mean, it can make a huge mess. Several students volunteered to squirt out some toothpaste on a plate, but discovered that it was impossible when I asked a child to put the toothpaste back in the tube. She did manage to smear the toothpaste around and make an even bigger mess though! It is just as difficult to put words back in our mouths. Even if we apologize or try to explain that it was a joke, it is impossible to take back those hurtful words. The students were really able to understand the comparison and agreed to think carefully about the words they are choosing to use. 


Thanks for taking time to learn about our busy first day of third grade! I look forward to seeing all of the parents at Curriculum Night next week!

Welcome to Mrs. Crandall's Class!