THIRD GRADE

Well, the holidays are gone and before you know it the children will be preparing themselves for Lent.  Every Monday, we still gather together in the gym with Mrs. Gauger to pray and reflect.  To help children who are facing cancer, the students are completing their Math-a-thon Funbooks consisting of challenging math problems.   The monies the children raise will go towards the children at St. Jude’s.  Doing what Jesus wants them to do is talked about frequently so that the children can focus on the Lord and how important He is in their lives.

Reading has become a “favorite” past time in third grade.  Every single spare minute, the children have their eyes fixed in a book.  They’re unstoppable!”  Because of their love for reading, their vocabulary has grown, their writing has become more alive, their oral reading more fluent, and their spelling more precise. What a wonderful thing!  My favorite saying…“Readers are Leaders!”  The theme this marking period has been tricksters and incredible stories.  Loads of fun!  One story, “The Mysterious Giant of Barletta,” has sparked the children’s interest.  Their mission:  to design their own giant.  Watch out when you come around the corner heading to the third grade room!  You might be frightened by the “giants” lurking in the hall. 

In Math, the students are mastering their multiplication facts and learning about polygons, angles, lines, ordered pairs, space figures, perimeter and area.  To help master their facts, the children are taking timed tests and are also challenging their classmates as they play Around the World. A game everyone is enjoying!

Science has been a lot of fun. We’ve moved on to learning about water.  They’ve learned about the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.  They’ve also learned how water is cleaned and the different percentages of salt water compared to fresh water on our planet Earth.

In Social Studies, the students are studying Native Americans and how they built the first communities in North America thousands of years ago.  Later, they learned that people from Europe came to North America to build their own communities.  That’s when people’s lives changed forever!

Using their 6 Traits of writing books, the students have covered various forms of writing such as personal narratives, descriptive, poetry, and fictional. Their writing has become more flavorful and much more interesting to read.

These third graders are constantly giving of themselves everyday.  They are kind, generous, and truly thoughtful.  They consciously make good choices on a daily basis.  I am so proud of them for not only working hard academically, but also becoming better people spiritually.

May God bless you in 2012!

Till next time, 

    Mrs. Shugrueg incentive, students may fill out a brightly colored star for every five books they read. These stars are attached to a bulletin board. As a class, we will try to read 100 books by December 1. If we meet this goal, Scholastic Books will donate 100 books to needy children.