Dear Third Grade Families,
Welcome to third grade! I am thrilled to be teaching third grade this year and I’m certain that your child will have an enlightening year as we learn and grow together.
We are a team, with your child’s best interests at heart. Please feel free to contact me by phone or through email with any questions or concerns. My email address is sue.lindquist@lz95.org
and my classroom telephone number is 847-540-4786.
The following is our schedule for lunch and specials. Students should wear gym shoes for Mondays and Thursdays or have an extra pair in school to wear on gym days.
Lunch and Recess
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
10:55 – 11:40
Gym
Library
Art
Music & Gym
Music
Sincerely,
Sue Lindquist

SCHOOL SUPPLIES
Please be sure to send in all school supplies as soon as possible. Please check with your child throughout the year to determine if school supplies need to be replenished (especially pencils).
BIRTHDAYS
Children enjoy celebrating their birthday at school. Please feel free to send in non-food items for them to share with their classmates.
You may also consider donating a book or game to the classroom in their honor. For children with summer birthdays, please feel free to celebrate their half birthday. Just let us know when you would like to celebrate.
STUDENT OF THE WEEK
Each student will have a special time for the class to learn and celebrate them. This is a great time for you and your child to reflect on who they are and special things about themselves. A note and guiding project poster will be sent home with your child a week before their presentation.
RECESS
Recess is an important part of your child’s day. Please make sure your child has appropriate clothes for the weather. Boots, hats and gloves are a necessity on cold, snowy days. Snow pants are required for playing off the blacktop during winter. An extra pair of socks and gloves in their backpack is a good idea, just in case! Putting your child’s name on clothes improves the chances of lost items being returned.

CURRICULUM
The District 95 curriculum committees have been working diligently to align the curriculum to the Common Core State Standards, identify materials for classroom use, and create engaging accessible learning opportunities for all students. This year the District will fully implement a new curriculum for math and literacy .
READING IN THIRD GRADE
This year the most obvious changes to the curriculum will be the format of the literacy lessons. K-8 classrooms will move to a workshop model. Components of a workshop model include read alouds, mini-lessons, small group instruction, time for independent practice, and time for collaborative conversations. Rather than using a textbook series, students will read and work with a wide variety of authentic literature and trade books.
Reading Fundamentals is the series K-6 classrooms will use to guide instruction. It is made up of genre based units of study for grades K-6 that form a yearlong Reading Workshop curriculum. These units will be used within a balanced literacy framework. Within this framework there are opportunities to read to students (mentor texts), to read with students
(shared texts), and to have students read independently. Each Unit of Study such as “Fiction”,” Non-Fiction” and “Poetry”, includes mentor texts, a variety of leveled books for guided reading, independent reading, and a selection of digital shared teaching resources that systematically integrate reading skill/strategy instruction with the study of genre. For more information, visit www.schoolwide.com.
The reading expectation this year is for students to advance in their understanding of themselves as readers and develop habits of mind for engaging with text. Students will learn practices and routines for actively participating in a reading community. Self-selecting appropriate text and applying self-monitoring skills are the foundation from which they will grow as readers.

We will read short stories that relate to specific skills and strategies, read some novels as a whole class and sometimes work in “Book Clubs”. The children will interpret and learn from award winning literature by favorite authors and illustrators.
The children engage in collaborative discussions with partners or groups of other students. This practice allows students to express ideas and build on the ideas of others. They are expected to come to discussions prepared and follow guidelines for discussions. These guidelines include asking questions of each other to check understanding, staying on topic, and drawing on the text as proof.
Students will individually read a variety of genres and report to the class on a few such as mysteries, fictions, and biographies. Students are expected to read at least 100 minutes a week at home during the first trimester and increase that to 150 minutes by the end of the year. Students are responsible for reading at their unique reading level and recording the title, pages and time read on their reading log. Studies have shown that writing a response to text may greatly increase student’s comprehension. Therefore, we encourage the practice of response journals with their reading activities.
Students have a large selection of books of all levels available to them in the classroom. Seth Paine also has a library which students visit weekly. Ela
Library is also a wonderful resource.
The best way to become a better reader is to READ, READ, READ!
WORDS THEIR WAY
“Words Their Way” is an individualized developmental phonetic and vocabulary program. Words Their Way fosters the understanding of word structure, a component of building literate minds. Students will be given words at their respectfully challenging level to practice throughout the week before being assessed on the spelling and meaning of their words.

WRITING IN THIRD GRADE
Writing is an integral part of communication and an increasingly important area of focus for third graders. They are very good at sharing their stories orally. Now each student must become more adept at organizing thoughts and sharing ideas in the written form.
Creative writing is perhaps the most popular style of writing for children.
They have wonderful imaginations and love to write about their ideas. More structured writing formats such as narrative, expository and persuasive writing will also be developed as they use proper editing, grammar and spelling. Students will learn to identify and write the main idea with supporting details and explanations.
MATH IN THIRD GRADE
The implementation of the Common Core State Standards has brought shifts to math instruction. The most significant shift is the focus on important 'processes and proficiencies' including problemsolving, reasoning and proof, communication, and connections. Other shifts include fewer topics taught at a grade level, a deeper expectation of conceptual understanding of mathematics, the need for students to solve problems flexibly, quickly and accurately, and an increase in real-life application of mathematics.
Stepping Stones by “Origo” is the series that will be used in K-5 classrooms.
Stepping stones is an online teaching resource that is fully aligned to the
Common Core State Standards. Students will have a consumable text, replacing the usual textbook. The focus of the Stepping Stones series is an emphasis on conceptual development of mathematics. You can expect your student to have many hand-on experiences with manipulatives and visual representations in addition to traditional computation. Number sense and fact fluency will continue to be emphasized. For more information, visit www.origoeducation.com/steppingstones .

Instructional time will focus on four critical areas. First, students will develop a deeper understanding of multiplication and division with strategies for multiplication and division within 100. Second, the children will develop an understanding of fractions, especially unit fractions. That is fractions with one as the numerator. Next, they will develop an understanding of the structure of rectangular arrays and of area. Finally, learning will focus on describing and analyzing two-dimensional shapes.
Students will continue to develop practices that are longstanding in mathematics education such as:
1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
4. Model with mathematics.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
6. Attend to precision.
7. Look for and make use of structure.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
SOCIAL STUDIES IN THIRD GRADE
Developing map and globe skills extends the children’s understanding of history and the world around them. Our Illinois unit explores the natural resources of Illinois, early people of our state, significant events in history and how transportation has influenced its economy. We will also study Our
Government at the federal and state levels. Students will learn about how the role of the government affects the citizens of the United States, the importance of the Constitution, and the significance of our country’s symbols.

SCIENCE IN THIRD GRADE
Science combines hands-on experimentation and text as we study Life
Science, Physical Science, and the Earth Science. Students will research various topics; formulate hypotheses and record data from their observations while learning about our world. Our science series is National
Geographic which has an on-line component, myngconnect.com.
HOMEWORK IN THIRD GRADE
Homework may be a review of what we have worked on in class or perhaps unfinished classwork. Homework is due the next day . When your child has homework, it will be placed in the “Homework” section of your child’s “Home
Folder”. Homework completion is a third grade expectation and part of your child’s learner characteristics on their report card.
BOOK ORDERS
Book orders will be sent home periodically. The books are usually priced inexpensively and make great gifts. Do not feel obligated to place an order.