March 8

Religion:  We have continued our focus on the Lenten season. The students are working on a Stations of the Cross booklet. Each station includes a description, activity and prayer for the students to complete. We will be starting our Lenten prayer services next week. Third grade will be in charge of the prayer service on Tuesday, March 26 at 8:40.

Writing: This week we focused on adjectives and compound predicate with our Mentor Sentence. Next week we will present our functional writing pieces and then begin our unit on opinion writing.

Math:  Unit 7 continued this week with a focus on multiplication and division. The students will be using parentheses to form more complex number sentences. They will also be practicing extended facts for multiplication and division. The test for this unit will be on Wednesday, March 13 before Spring Break.

Spelling: Week 22 R-Controlled Vowels (eer, ear) / Prefixes (mis, dis, im, un)

The spelling section of the website contains all of the weekly lists and the choice words in case your child misplaces their words.  You can also find a copy of LSCW if you need it.

Science/SS: Students will learn:

- The moon's gravitational pull

- Solar and Lunar Eclipses

 - Phases of the moon
Test Review will be on March 25 and Moon Test will be on March 26.

Comprehension: We have one more week of our nonfiction text features unit. The students should now understand the importance of reading and utilizing these features. After spring break we will start Reader's Theater.

March 1

Religion:  We will continue our focus on Lent next week. The kids will be able to participate at Mass on Ash Wednesday. The students have started a project on the Stations of the Cross.  They will continue working on this throughout Lent.

Writing: This week we focused on adjectives with our Mentor Sentence. We are continuing to work on Functional Writing. The students are practicing writing step by step directions. We will soon edit and revise one of our drafts.

Math: Unit 7 continued this week with a focus on multiplication and division. The students will be using parentheses to create different scores for basketball. They will also be practicing extended facts for multiplication and division. The test for this unit will be on Wednesday, March 13 before Spring Break.

Spelling: Week 21 R-Controlled Vowels / Prefixes (mid, tele, re, pre)

The spelling section of the website contains all of the weekly lists and the choice words in case your child misplaces their words.  You can also find a copy of LSCW if you need it.

Science/SS: Students will learn about the Earth's rotation and what that causes here on Earth. Students will also learn about Earth's revolution and how our seasons are determined. Students will also gain information about Earth's closest neighbor in space...the moon.

Comprehension: We are working on a nonfiction text feature unit. This week each child has learned about the various features and how they help us understand and learn more about the subject.

February 22

Religion:  Next week we will continue talking about how we can use our gift of grace in different situations in regards to being fair to others. On Thursday and Friday we will do a Bible activity which focuses on angels.

Writing: This week we focused on complex sentences with our Mentor Sentence. We also started our functional writing unit. We are working on recognizing pieces of functional writing as well as brainstorming topics that we could write about.

Math:  Unit 7 starts next week with a focus on multiplication and division. The students will be using strategies to practice and memorize their multiplication and division facts. They will also be introduced to using parentheses in math.

Spelling: Week 20 Sound of a and al / Contractions

The spelling section of the website contains all of the weekly lists and the choice words in case your child misplaces their words.  You can also find a copy of LSCW if you need it.

Science/SS: Students will begin a new science unit on space and the moon. Students will research a specific planet and write a "postcard" about it. (Based on the book, Postcards from Pluto.)

Comprehension: Next week we will begin to study Nonfiction Text Features. The students will learn to recognize these features and also understand how important they are in understanding each piece.

February 8

Religion:  We will be looking at the Parts of the Mass next week. The students will have to know whether something happens in the Liturgy of the Word or the Liturgy of the Eucharist. After conference break, we will focus on the gift of grace and how that can help us in making good decisions.

Writing: We are finishing our fiction unit by sharing our stories with our classmates. After our fiction stories have been told, we will move into a unit on functional writing. This will enforce the idea that we use writing in our everyday lives.

Math:  Unit 6 continues next week with a focus on angles and polyhedrons. We will wrap up the unit after conference break on Friday, February 22 with a test.

Spelling: Week 19 Vowel Digraphs / Compound Words

The spelling section of the website contains all of the weekly lists and the choice words in case your child misplaces their words.  You can also find a copy of LSCW if you need it.

Science/SS: Students will researching a specific inventor/scientist and gain an understanding of how they have helped contribute to science knowledge today. Students will create a short video introducing their inventor/scientist to their classmates.

Comprehension: We are continuing to work on wondering and questioning as we read. The students are really taking notice of their thoughts and even writing them down to share with others.

January 25

Religion:  Next week we will be celebrating Catholic Schools Week. Here is the schedule for the week:

Monday, January 28: Celebrating Your Community-Wear a shirt representing a community/program you have been involved in (team, Girl Scouts, Battle of the Books, Choro, etc) and uniform pants. Tuesday, January 29: Celebrating Your Students- Spirit Wear with your choice of bottoms. The students will be going to a movie to celebrate! Wednesday, January 30: 11:20 Dismissal Celebrating The Nation-Dress Up for Jesus! Thursday, January 31: Celebrating Vocations- Wear school appropriate clothing that represents something about St. Francis of Assisi Friday, February 1: Celebrating Faculty, Staff and Volunteers- Pajamas!

**Friday will also be our Volunteer Luncheon. So many of you help our school to be the best it can be. Please come and let us celebrate you!

Writing: Next week we will focus on Onomatopoeia with our Mentor Sentence. The students will focus on revising their first drafts of fiction. They will also try to come up with meaningful endings to their stories.

Math:  Our next unit will focus on geometry. The vocabulary we will focus on for next week will be quadrangles and polygons. The students will be expected to know the characteristics of each type we review. They will need to give the most specific name they can for the polygons.

Spelling: Week 17 Sounds of ew & ue (new & blue) / Verb Endings - s, es, ed, ing

The spelling section of the website contains all of the weekly lists and the choice words in case your child misplaces their words.  You can also find a copy of LSCW if you need it.

Science/SS: Students will continue working on their presentation posters for their Inventions. Please join us for the Invention Convention on Friday, February 1 from 12:15-1:00.

Comprehension: We are starting to work on the comprehension strategy of wondering and questioning. We are writing down our thoughts as we read, and we are reading to see if our predictions actually happen in our stories.

January 18

Religion:  Next week we will continue to discuss parables and how to find symbols in them to learn about God's kingdom. The students will read the parables and also watch short videos depicting them.

Writing: This week we focused on quotation marks with our Mentor Sentence. We are continuing to draft our own fiction stories. This week the students used the character's words and actions to help the reader understand the story better.

Math:  Next week we will be reviewing Unit 5. The test over the unit will be on Wednesday, January 23. Our next unit will focus on geometry. There will be a lot of vocabulary to review and learn. This is a fun unit with lots of hands-on activities to help the students understand the concepts. We will start with lines, line segments, rays, angles, parallel and intersecting lines, and triangles.

Spelling: Week 16 Sounds of OO (moon and took) / Verb Endings - s, es, ed, ing

The spelling section of the website contains all of the weekly lists and the choice words in case your child misplaces their words.  You can also find a copy of LSCW if you need it.

Science/SS: Students will be watching "Our Friend Martin" in observance of Martin Luther King Jr Day on January 21. A reminder that the Blank Poster Board and edited Planning Sheet are due on Thursday, January 25. Invention Convention is Friday, February 2 from 12:15-1:00.

Comprehension: We are continuing to enjoy our class novel, Stone Fox. This week the students choose specific passages from the story and explained why that part of the story stood out to them. We will finish the book next week.

January 11

Religion:  Next week we will begin a mini unit focused on parables. We will read the Parable of the Mustard Seed together and try to figure out what Jesus wanted us to learn about the Kingdom of God through the story.

Writing: Mentor Sentence: Using Quotation Marks
The third graders are continuing to work on fiction stories. They are quite excited about it! This week we worked on describing our characters with their dialogue and actions.

Math:  We will continue working with larger numbers in Unit 5. There will be some introduction of decimals and fractions as well. The students will be expected to know their place value to the millions as well as low as the hundredths place.

Spelling: Week 16 Sounds of OO (In moon and took) / Verb Endings - s, es, ed, ing

The spelling section of the website contains all of the weekly lists and the choice words in case your child misplaces their words.  You can also find a copy of LSCW if you need it.

Science/SS: Students will watch "Our Friend Martin" in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A reminder that the Blank Poster Board and edited Planning Sheet are due on Thursday, January 24. Invention Convention is Friday, February 1 from 12:15-1:00.

Comprehension: This week we started reading a class book called Stone Fox. We will use a myriad of comprehension strategies while working on this text. This week we worked on creating discussion questions for a chapter.