Our Classroom News
Mrs. Brown
Week of January 11-15th, 2016
Important Notes and Dates:
Report Cards
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Report cards were sent home on Friday, January 8th
Please sign the report card envelope and return ASAP
Friday, January 15th No School for students- Teacher Workday
Monday, January 18th No School – Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday
HERE’S A LOOK AT WHAT WE ARE LEARNING:
READING:
Story: Yonder Mountain
Genre: Folktale
Folktales are stories that are passed down and are typically false or based on a superstition.
Comprehension Skill: Compare and contrast: Students will be to compare and contrast Black
Bear and Grey Wolf. Students will be able to tell how they are the same and how they are
different.
LANGUAGE ARTS:
Spelling Assessment: This week your child will have a spelling assessment over his/her words
in his/her agenda. The five highlighted words in the agenda will be ones your child should
have memorized because they are the third grade CORE, No Excuse words. Your child will be
bringing home a copy as well for you to look over his/her spelling pattern words. I will be
entering spelling assessments into Progress Book this quarter. Please work with your child
nightly to help him/her learn the spelling pattern. Core words will need to be memorized.
These are the highlighted words in your child’s agenda. All students have a copy of the 3rd
grade No Excuse Core Words in their Writer’s File Folder. Please encourage your child when
writing at home to complete homework or writing for pleasure that your child is practicing
spelling skills they are learning as well Core Words. Students need to capitalize all sentences
and all sentences must end with some kind of punctuation. Please have your child read his/her
writing at home. When read aloud when students naturally take a breath, that signals to them
“Oh I need some kind of punctuation”
Phonics Skills: Each student is now grouped according to his/her Jan Richardson Spelling
Inventory test. What does this mean to you? Your child will have spelling words that match
his/her phonics skill he/she needs more practice within. Please review your child’s agenda for
his/her spelling words. Your child will be taking an assessment next week over his/her spelling
pattern words. Please help your child practice his/her words daily
Grammar Skill: Adjectives, verbs, and nouns
We will be reviewing adjectives, verbs and nouns. Adjectives are describing words that
describe a noun or a pronoun. Verbs are action words. (They are things you can do.) Nouns
name: person, place or thing. We have been watching short videos using School House Rocks
to review.
Adjective Examples: beautiful, ugly, blue, green, skinny, fat, bumpy, smooth, rough, etc.
Verbs Examples: hit, catch, run, write, jump, kick
Nouns Examples: house, dog, cat, book, paper, nail, computer
Scoot Pad: The students will have a Scoot Pad grammar assignment this week.
SOCIAL STUDIES: We will review our new knowledge of: physical and political maps.
Physical map is a map that shows things you can see (mountains, rivers and oceans). Students
will also learn about political maps. A political map is a map that shows things you can’t see
like borders between states and countries. Students will make a physical and political map
about themselves to understand the differences. Students will be reading map clues and must
use the compass rose to find where specific places are located.
Students will be learning about Martin Luther King Jr., to honor his upcoming birthday on
Monday. Students will watch a Brianpop video about his life and legacy. They will also read a
short story about his life and answer questions using key details from the story.
Writing: Students will continue focusing on The 6 Writing Traits of “Word Choice”. Word
choice is like the sun in the sky. The sun can give us comfort, sunburn, make us thirsty or
helps us to relax. The words we choose to include in our writing have a big impact on the
reader. Students will finish publishing their story from last week focusing on word choice
using descriptive adjectives, verbs and nouns. Last week I read The Plot Chickens focusing on
organization in their writing and this week I will be reading Walter The Farting Dog focusing
on the author’s word choice. This book was donated to my class by the new book store at
Austin Landing called The Booksellers.
Homework for Mrs. Brown:
Monday: Read Yonder Mountain- Journey’s Book and complete a vocabulary practice page.
Students will choose 5 vocabulary words and write a meaningful sentence
using the vocabulary word. (Student’s do this weekly, so they should know
how to do this.)
Tuesday: Scoot Pad
Wednesday: Scoot Pad
Thursday: Reread Yonder Mountain- Assessments on Friday
MATH:
Multiplication and Division:
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We will work on writing our own word problems that can be solved using multiplication
and division. The students will get to solve their classmate’s problems. 
On Thursday, we will have an assignment on problem solving using multiplication and
division that will be graded. (This was originally planned for last week.)
Guided Math:
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Students who need to, will work with Mrs. Rabe on becoming more comfortable with
division.
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Students who are very comfortable with multiplication and division will work on learning
to multiply problems with 2-3 digits (x 1 digit).
Area of Rectangles:
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We will learn to determine the area of rectangles by counting square units.
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We will relate this to what we’ve learned about multiplication arrays.
Mighty Multiplier Sundae Incentive:
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CONGRATULATIONS to our MIGHTY MULTIPLIERS!: We have several students
who have mastered all their multiplication facts. Once students master the individual
fact groups, they should mix all the cards together and practice them. Their quizzes
will then be on mixed facts, which is more challenging.
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We will continue to have fact quizzes to earn sundae ingredients during January,
so there is still time to become a Mighty Multiplier!  Our next official quiz is on
Wednesday, but special arrangements can be made for students who are working hard
and want an additional opportunity to test. 
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Students should spend approximately 15-20 minutes daily on math homework/ fact
practice.
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Thanks for your support at home.
SCIENCE:
Earth Science, Rocks and Soil: Last week we learned about weathering and erosion. This
week we will learn about the properties scientists use to classify rocks (hardness, luster,
color, texture, and streak) and investigate various rocks and minerals.