Third Grade Newsletter
October 2015
October News and Notes
We are back in full swing now and have a lot going on in
the classroom. Research shows that consistent school
attendance correlates highly with positive student
achievement. Being on time each day is an important way
to start the day. Please continue to encourage your
child to complete homework assignments and review
content each evening. It is also important for your child
to read each night to support the reading instruction we
are providing in school.
Interims will go home at the beginning of this month.
They will only go home with students who we have
concerns about, whether they be related to academic
achievement or classroom behavior. It is intended to
make parents aware of where their child is at the
midpoint of the quarter so we can work together to
make the necessary changes for the child to turn around
their quarter.
At Back to School Night, there were sign up
opportunities for fall conferences. If you missed Back
to School Night or if you missed signing up, please make
sure to contact your child’s teacher to set up a
conference. Conferences will be to discuss goals for
your child, the current performance of your child and to
answer any questions specific to third grade or to our
report cards. The grading period ends on October 30th.
November 2nd and 3rd are days reserved for conferences
and report cards. Other opportunities will be available
before these days and in the evenings.
American Education Week takes place in the month of
November. There will be more information coming out
later this month on the specific events for that week.
The PTA has a big event this month, the Harvest
Festival. This is a fun social event for families. We hope
you are able to get out and help support our fabulous
PTA!
Thank you,
The Third Grade Team
Academic Notes
In October, we will be studying the
following things:
Reading:
-Comprehension Strategies
-Predicting
-Sequencing
-Summarizing
-Making Inferences
-Writing story summaries/retelling
-Reading Fluency
Writing:
-Personal Narratives
-Realistic Fiction
-Cursive
-Editing Strategies
Math:
- Addition and Subtraction – Test on
October 16th
- Money – Test on October 30th
Science:
-Matter and Investigations – Test on
October 6th
-Water Cycle – Quiz to be held on
October 15th
-Space Cycles – Test to be held on
October 27th
Social Studies:
-Maps Unit – Test on November 12th
Upcoming Events
October 2nd –
Interims come home
October 7th –
Watch Dog Night 6:30 PM
October 8th –
Mobile Dairy Classroom
PTA Restaurant Night – California Tortilla and
Sweet Frog
October 12th –
No School (Columbus Day)
October Vocabulary
Math
Commutative
property
Identity property
Related facts
Equivalent
Sum
Addend
Minuend
Subtrahend
Difference
estimation
Regroup
Number sentence
Inverse
Science
Evaporation
Social Studies
Map scale
Science Cont.
Condensation
Precipitation
Groundwater
Water cycle
Rotation
Revolution
Solar Eclipse
Lunar Eclipse
Full Moon
New Moon
First Quarter
Third Quarter
Phases
Orbit
Axis
Tilt
Gravity
Seasons
Tides
Experiment
Hypothesis
Observation
Solution
Gas
Volume
Atoms
Mixture
Mass
Liquid
Solid
Chemical change
Physical change
Physical property
Matter
Map key
Map title
Longitude
Latitude
Location
Hemisphere
Europe
North America
Indian
Geography
Equator
Asia
Africa
Antarctica
Australia
Atlantic
Arctic
Compass rose
Prime Meridian
Pacific
South America
Continent
Cardinal
directions
Ordinal
directions
Ocean
October 14th –
PTA Meeting – 6:30 PM
October 23th –
PTA Harvest Party 6:00
Mrs. Bolden’s Notes
This month, we will be using PowerPoint to
review some of our content activities. We will
also to refer to Google Earth as we start to
talk about maps and communities.
We really love the writing notebooks that we
created and have already started putting
them to good use. We will be finishing our
personal narrative writing and begin a
Realistic Fiction unit during October.
October Tip
Research shows that students who read
15 minutes or more per night have an
increased vocabulary and comprehension
of written text because of an increased
degree of exposure. Please make sure you
encourage your children to read for at
least 15 minutes per day.
Comments? Questions? Concerns?
School Phone: (571) 252-2940
Alaina.Smith@lcps.org
Kelli.bolden@lcps.org
Carolyn.knight@lcps.org
Michael.steed@lcps.org
Email Reminder
Please don’t use email for emergencies or last minute dismissal
changes. We don’t always get these messages before the end of the
school day. Please call the school instead so these messages are
received and handled in time.