Oct. 29-Nov. 2

Week of October 29th- November 2nd

Good Morning,

We had a busy week in G3 finishing up our narrative reading and writing units. Students are encouraged to continue writing personal narrative stories at home and bring them to class to share. Students had a special  opportunity to celebrate with grade one students as they finished up their writing unit. Both grades shared their writing and gave feedback to each other. The rooms were buzzing with excitement as budding authors shared!

On Wednesday, students will be able to dress up in their Halloween costumes (no weapons and no masks). While there will not be any specific parties, students do love to see the different and creative costumes. You may wish to have your child bring in their school uniform to change into as sometimes those costumes are not comfortable to wear all day.

This Thursday (3MM, 3JA, and 3Jh) and Friday (3JI, 3JG, and 3BM), students will be going on a fieldtrip to FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia). They will need to bring a home snack, as we will be eating our snack at FRIM. Children also need to bring: sunscreen, water bottle, hat, bug spray/repellent and wear closed toe shoes (it might be muddy). For those of you that are chaperones, please be at school by 8:00. Parents will ride on the bus with the students. We should arrive back at ISKL around 11:45.

This week will begin on Day 2

Reading This week we will transition toward information/nonfiction reading, with the first focus being on finding the main ideas of the text and text structures. Students will be accessing their prior knowledge of this genre and tapping into topics of interest.

Writing The informational writing unit will be taught in conjunction with our information reading unit. Although this is not a unit where the focus is on researching to write, rather the students will use informational writing strategies as they compose texts about subjects they already know well. This week will give the students the chance to show what they already know about the genre. Students will also begin to develop plans for how to organize their writing.

Math We will continue to use rounding as an estimation strategy by introducing rounding to the nearest 100. Students will continue to show different ways of proving their thinking by using a number line, using benchmark numbers, and finding halfway numbers. As always the parent learning connection has ideas for you in math and reading/writing here.

Science  This week w Students will look for commonalities among components of biomes in different locations, as well as adaptations that plants and animals make to these different biomes. They will begin to study food chains/food webs to think about the interconnectedness of living and nonliving elements in an ecosystem.

October 29^th – November 2nd - Choose 2 activities to complete before Friday to share in class.

Math: Show an adult how to add 3 digit numbers. Write down and solve  2-3 problems in your home learning journal.	Language arts: Make a list of things that strong informational authors include in their writing.	Language arts: Read a favorite nonfiction book. Summarize one or more sections of the book using boxes and bullets. Then you can teach your new understanding to an audience.
Math: Play a math game that you have learned in class.	Science: Write down and explain to an adult what are some common features/characteristics of all biomes.	Other: Play a musical instrument. If you do not have any instruments, make your own!

Remember:

• Reading is just what we do. It is expected each night.

Oct. 23-26

Greetings,

We had such a fun week in grade 3! Students were really excited to go and cheer on our IASAS teams and show their ISKL school spirit! I think this will be something that many of the kids remember for a long time.

Students did a really nice job reflecting on our geography and mapping unit. We are all excited to start our new science unit this week. If any of you have expertise in ecosystems, please let us know. We would love to have you come and share your passion with the students.

This week, we will be welcoming a new third-grade class to ISKL. Welcome to Ms. Jen of 3JH. She comes to us with lots of teaching experience and we are excited to work together this year.

This week starts on a day 6.

Reminder: There is no school for children on Monday, October 22nd. This is a professional development day for teachers.

What’s happening this week in the classroom?

Reading This week we end our first reading unit. We will then move from fiction reading to information/nonfiction to focus on main ideas and text structures. This is perfect as we think about areas of interest, so students can build on their strengths.

Writing We are also ending our personal narrative unit.  When we are finished, we will be sending home both the pre and post assessments for this unit. We will use these to help set goals as we move forward. Many aspects of writing are transferable across genres, so this information will help us as we move on to informational writing.

Math  We will continue to use rounding as an estimation strategy by introducing rounding to the nearest 100. Students will continue to show different ways of proving their thinking by using a number line, using benchmark numbers, and finding halfway numbers. We will also use our rounding to check and see if our answers for addition and subtraction are reasonable.

Science This week marks the beginning of the Ecosystems unit. We will start out by thinking about what is a scientist? What are ways that scientists interact with the world? What skills do scientists have/use? How do we keep track of our scientific thinking?

Oct. 1-5

Greetings,

This week, the playground opened up and the kids were so excited to explore this new area!

We were also busy measuring which included figuring out the difference between mass and volume. Students also spent time reflecting on their learning this far into the school year. They will be sharing these reflections with you at our Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences next week.

This week starts on day 7

What’s happening this week in Grade 3?

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, students will be taking the ISA, International School Assessment. Please make sure that they come to school well rested and have had a nutritious breakfast.

Wednesday, we will have a regular scheduled day. Students will continue their work on their personal narrative writing, asking questions and making predictions while reading, and analyzing different maps to determine where people live.

Thursday and Friday we will have our Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences. Please make sure to be here at your scheduled time with your child. We look forward to reflecting on our year together so far.

Coming up after conferences, grade 3 will participate in the Global Cardboard Challenge. We are asking students to bring in cardboard that can be shared with all of the grade level. Thank you in advance. If you would like more information about the challenge, take a look at the website here.

Weeks of October 1st AND 8th  , 2018

Choose 4 to complete and return on Friday, October 12th.

Math: Create a math game that helps you practice your addition/subtraction facts. Be ready to teach it to your class on Friday.	Language arts: Write a letter to someone.	Language arts: Read a nonfiction book about one of your interests/passions.  Share something you learned.
Math: Practice your fact fluency (+ or - facts to 20) Flashcards, online, games, worksheets, or game.	Social Studies: Choose a question you have about mapping and landforms and research to find the answer. Share what you learned on Friday. You can write, make a video, or share your learning in another way.	Other: Put on a play for your family or practice keyboarding on Typing Web.

Remember: Reading is just what we do. It is expected each night.

Sept. 24 - 28

Greetings,

I hope that you all enjoyed the weekend. We were busy this week in grade 3! Kids have been super engaged in our Geography unit as they follow directions to find hidden treasures, read maps to get information, and also draw their own landform maps!

Students continue to work on their typing skills in school and it would be really helpful if they practiced at home as well. As mentioned in previous emails, we use an online program typing.com. We use our blogs to share information with all of you and it requires the students to type, so extra practice would be helpful. These should only be in 10-15 minute increments, keeping it fun!

Coming up:

Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences

Parent/Student/Teacher conferences are coming up quickly. You will be receiving your conference times this week, a letter will come home in your child’s backpack. Please note that these are conferences that your child needs to attend as we will all be discussing how things are going in the classroom and setting goals together.

Photos

Individual and class photos are this week. In 3MM, we will have individual photos on Monday, September 24th. Students can wear smart casual clothing on this day. Our group photo will be on Wednesday, September 26th. Students need to wear their full uniform (not PE uniform) on this day.

This week starts on a day 2.

What’s happening this week in the classroom?

Reading In reading this week we continue to work on using contextual clues to read through difficult words.  We are working on retelling the main story events in order and then “growing ideas” by adding on to our own thinking about what we have read. Students will continue practicing using their reading strategies to ensure understanding along with making predictions that include evidence from the text.

Writing Many students will begin writing a new piece with more independence. This allows us to review the many tools they have to help, such as the narrative writing checklist and anchor charts made in class. Revision continues throughout with another look at “showing, not telling” as a way to be more descriptive in writing.  We will continue to use mentor texts to help us get ideas and develop as writers.

Math We will be looking at liquid volume and weight as we finish up this math unit. Elapsed time is a skill that students need to practice, so look for opportunities to practice this at home (“If we need to be at soccer at 10:00 and it takes 17 minutes to drive there, what time should we leave home?”).

Social Studies This week we will continue looking at the specific uses of different kinds of maps (focusing on landform, resource, climate, and population). We are looking at how the place influences the people and their lifestyle.

September 18

Good Morning Parents,

I hope you are enjoying another long weekend! This past week students celebrated Hari Raya and Merdeka Day at school on Friday. In writing, students worked hard on their descriptive language and participated in a writing celebration with all of grade three. Check out photos from the week here.

PE Swimming begins next week. Please check to see which day on the 8 day cycle your child has PE swimming. Our next Free Dress Day will be next Friday, the 21st of September. If your child wants to participate, don't forget the 5 RM donation. Students will have library on Thursday.

This week we begin on Day 6.

Reading: We will continue to work on making connections based on our prior knowledge, making predictions based on evidence from the book, and asking questions before, during and after we read. We will look at problem solving strategies when words or passages are tricky and how we need to really work hard to make real meaning from what we read.

Writing: Many third graders are working toward revising and editing their first “small moment” personal narrative. We are looking at how dialogue is punctuated and closely examining some mentor texts to strengthen our work. We are beginning to use paragraphing when time moves forward, a new speaker talks, or when a new subtopic starts.

Math: While we continue to work on elapsed time we are also introducing units of mass and liquid volume. Next week students will learn about mass and the importance of a standard unit when finding out how heavy something is. In this unit, we will be using the metric system: grams and liters.

Social Studies: We are beginning to look at different types of maps and how we use them.

Have a great week ahead! Thanks in advance for reminding your child to return home learning on Friday

September 12-14

Good morning parents,

I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend.

Map testing went well this past week; students were focussed and demonstrated lots of perseverance. 

A friendly reminder, there is no school on Monday the 10th or Tuesday the 11th. 

Friday September 14th will be our Hari Raya Culture Day and  Merdeka celebration. See the attachments below from Ms. Nalini about the day.

Your child has been doing typing.com at school most days for the past couple of weeks. This is part of an intense typing "boot camp" to help them become faster typers. You child is encouraged to continue this practice at home, they can log in with their panther user name and password, then it will save their progress. It works best if they just do it in 10-15 minute periods.

This week will begin on a Wednesday, day 3 .

Reading

Students will learn that readers give themselves comprehension check as they read, asking themselves questions to make sure they understand what is going on in books. They will follow the steps:

1. Give yourself a comprehension check about each chapter.
2. Ask yourself or write a post-it about:

1. Who was in that part?
2. What was happening?
3. How does this part connect to the rest of the story?

Writing

Students will learn that writers don’t wait to edit (adding punctuation and capitals); they take a minute as they write to make sure their writing is as clear as possible for their readers. Students will also learn how to write a lead for a story by using detail, action, sounds, or dialogue that introduce the characters and setting.

Math

Students will begin to explore weight and the need for standardized units. Students will then transition from nonstandard to standard unit of measurement and use grams to measure weight.

Looking for more ways to help your child practice math facts? Try these games!

Want to look at telling time with your child? Maybe these videos can help.

Here is the vocabulary they will encounter:

a.m.	analog clock	decompose	capacity	digital clock	elapsed time	gram
hour	hour	interval	kilogram	liquid	liter	mass
minute	p.m.	solid	volume

Social Studies

Students will continue to learn how to use map keys, a compass rose, and a scale to interpret and gain information from various maps.

When you ask your child, “how was school today?”, does your child often answer with one-word answers such as, “good”? If so, consider these 15 questions to replace “How was school today?” (Edutopia) 

Week of Sept. 12th-21st. Please complete 3 activities and bring to share on Friday, Sept. 21st.

Math: School starts at 8:00 and finishes at 2:45. Bjorn says we are at school for 6 hours and Dola says we are at school for 6 hours and 45 minutes. Who is correct? Prove it with words, pictures, and/or numbers.	Language arts: Write a personal narrative story about a recent small moment you have had with a person or animal that is important to you.	Language arts: Watch 10 minutes of your favorite TV show with your mom or dad, but turn the sound off and practice storytelling to each other what is happening.  Make sure you include: dialogue, details, actions and inner thinking.
Math: Practice your fact fluency (addition or subtraction numbers 1-20) Flashcards, online, games, worksheets, cards. Or play the clock game (go to the home learning section of the class blog to click on the link).	Social Studies: Create a map of your neighbourhood, or condo area. Don’t forget to include a title, compass rose, map key and symbols.	Other: Play a board game with your family.

Remember: Reading for at least 20 minutes is just what we do. It is expected each night.

Sept. 3-7

Week of August 28th-30th

Good morning parents,

I hope you all had a great weekend. Last week we began to draft our first personal narratives. Students also set writing goals in areas they wanted to improve on! They continued to show that reading is thinking by asking questions while they read and making connections to other books or their own life.

This week will begin on a Day 6. Our class will have Library on Monday and Friday this week!

The MAP test (Measure of Academic Progress) will be on Tuesday and Thursday morning this week for grade three. Please make sure your child gets a good night's rest and arrives at school on time. We will be starting the test first thing in the morning on those two days.

Reading

Students will begin to set clear reading goals such as the amount of pages read during independent reading time and track their progress towards these goals. Students will also continue to build up their reading stamina , as well as talk about and reflect on what they are reading.

Writing

Students will learn about the importance of writing about small moments and continue to develop a bank of writing ideas of small moments to draw from during this unit. Students will also begin to learn that writers use descriptive details of movement, sounds, actions, etc. to show the story rather than tell it.

Math

Students will continue to practice time to the nearest minute as well as solve elapsed time word problems. One strategy is to use a number line with the start and end time.

Social Studies

Students will learn how to use map keys and the compass rose to interpret and gain information from various maps.

A note from the PE team: Please remember to bring a hat and water bottle on PE days.  The new artificial turf field is ready to use and PE classes will be going outside this week.  Hats are required when going outside.

thanks,

Tim Pettus