A Peek at Our Week
January 15, 2016
Ms. Collins, Third Grade, Claire.Collins@lz95.org
Spencer Loomis Elementary
Important
Dates
January 18-No School
January 20-3s
multiplication facts
January 21-Last Day
for Canned Food
January 27-6s
multiplication facts
January 29-Bingo Night
February 1-Read to
Succeed form due
February 4-Field Trip
Money Due
Enjoy your long
weekend! 
Reading- Our readers have really enjoyed beginning our fiction unit of study.
We have been focusing on folktales the past two weeks. The students are
working hard to identify the story elements of fictional stories. They have
also been using their background knowledge and evidence from the text to
determine the author’s message. You can support your child in this area by
asking them about the characters, setting, plot, problem, solution and theme
of TV shows, movies, and other stories that you might be reading together.
Math- Our mathematicians have been working on developing new strategies
to easily solve 9s and 8s multiplication and division facts. We have also been
practicing multiplication and division problems with 0 and 1. The
mathematicians have been taking their new skills and applying them to real
world problems. We will begin to collect and analyze data on graphs next
week!
Writing-Last week we did a lot of reflecting on 2015 and goal setting for
2016. The students really enjoyed discussing the positive moments from 2015.
They also identified areas that they can continue to grow in for 2016. Ask
your child about their 2016 resolutions! Our writers have started an author
study on Patricia Polacco. We will be using Patricia Polacco as a model when
we begin to write our own fictional pieces. The children are exploring where
Patricia gets her inspiration for writing and where they can look to find their
own inspirations.
Science and Social Studies- In science we started our physical science unit of
study. The scientisits have been working together to discover what matter
is and what the states of matter are. They have been exploring the
classroom to help them describe the physical attributes of the different
states of matter.
Growth Mindset Words of the Month:
Process-a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular
end
Resilience-the ability to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
Risk-incur the chance of unfortunate consequences by engaging in (an action)
Please use these growth mindset words with your child at home. 
*Please remember to have your child use Keyboarding without Tears at least
5 times a week for 20 minutes. This will make the PARCC test less
stressful and intimidating for them. 