As you may know, February is Healthy Heart Month. Your child will be learning all about the importance of having a healthy heart. They have learned that if they want their heart to be healthy for the rest of their lives, they need to get plenty of exercise, follow a good diet, and keep their heart clean and drug free.
As part of Black History Month, we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. day in two ways. First, because Martin was a man of service, the third grade worked on a service project together. We wrote letters and drew pictures for military men and women and sent them in the mail. We thanked them for their service and sacrifice. Also, we made a class timeline of important events in MLK's life and illustrated each event. The timeline is in our hallway and you can take a look at it during parent/teacher conferences.
 Tuesday, 2/16: PTG Meeting, 7:00 pm
 Friday, 2/19: Bobcat Pride Breakfast, 8:15
 Wednesday, 3/2: Read Across America Day
 Friday, 3/4: Progress Reports Go Home
 Wednesday, 3/9: Full Day of School for Students
 Wednesday, 3/9: Evening Parent/Teacher Conferences
 Thursday, 3/10: Parent/Teacher Conferences (No School)
 Friday, 3/11: No School for Students
 Monday, 3/21 through Friday 3/25: Spring Break!!!

In Reading Workshop, we wrapped up our Mystery Book Club unit! The students practiced reading suspiciously while growing big ideas about the crime, clues, suspects, etc. Students also learned about red herrings, story elements, and how to grow theories about characters.
They enjoyed sharing and discussing their thinking and reactions with their other book club members.
In Writing Workshop, we are publishing our persuasive essays. The students worked hard by adding the correct “ingredients”: a thesis statement, explaining sentences telling more about the thesis, supporting detail paragraphs including reasons and examples as evidence, as well as a solid introduction and conclusion.
The students are looking forward to typing their final drafts using their google.net accounts.
In Science, we are wrapped up our unit on The Amazing Body. The students had a great time learning about the different body systems, as well as the purpose and function of the major organs in their bodies. They especially enjoyed creating their own life-size bodies in the hallway.
In Social Studies, we learned about ways for people to have a voice in their community. Students used their acting skills to bring to life images of public meetings, peaceful demonstrations, support for candidates, and voting. After that, we will spend most of the rest of February honoring Black History Month.
The students are working in small groups to research the achievements, contributions, and culture of famous African Americans. Each group is responsible for organizing and preparing a short presentation in order to teach the rest of their classmates about that person.
In Math EnVisions, we wrapped up unit 8 where we reviewed rounding, as well as estimating sums and differences. We also learned about inverse operations relating to addition and subtraction. Now that we wrapped up this unit, we will continue practicing the algorithms associated with addition and subtraction, as well as place value concepts in unit 9.

Believe it or not, the PSSAs are just around the corner beginning Tuesday,
April 12 th . These assessments will test students on Math and English
Language Arts on the 3 rd grade level. We will test for a period of six days.
While it is exhausting for students, we will do a lot in the weeks and months ahead to prepare them for the academic requirements and rigor of testing for the extended period of time. As the testing window approaches, I will provide more information to you about how to prepare your child for the tests and some more specific information on testing dates.
Keep your child reading long & strong for 30+ minutes at home every night. They MUST be logging their reading at home EVERY night, as well.
This needs to become a habit!!! I reviewed many reading logs and we need parent support to make sure that students are logging and getting in the essential reading that growing readers must have. Thank you in advance for your support!
Spring Conferences will be held on Wednesday, March 9 th and Thursday,
March 10 th . I look forward to meeting with you to discuss your child. To find out your scheduled conference time or to sign up for a conference, please follow the Time to Sign Up link on the Indian Lane website. The link will be live on Tuesday, February 16 th . If there is a conflict, or if you are unable to come during this time, please email me so that we can work something out.