Mrs. McClary’s Class: Newsletter

FSA: Reading FSA April 1-2; Math FSA May 7-8
Each session is 80 minutes per day with a break at 40 min. mark. We will be spending the weeks leading up to the FSA doing FSA prep work in additional to our regular work. Students must pass the Reading FSA to be promoted to the fourth grade. To make sure they are prepared, please try to limit absences as much a possible. When students are absent, some concepts are difficult to make up because the rest of the class is moving on to the next concept.

Parent FSA Encouragement Letter:

Every year, 3^rd grade teachers ask the parents a little favor that will help encourage their child before they take the FSA.

For our class, I would love to have a letter to give the students each morning of their test—written by you or other family members. In the past, parents send in letters from themselves, siblings, grandparents, pets, super heroes, etc.—basically a letter of encouragement from anyone! I will leave it up to you on how you’d like to format your letters (cards, handwritten letters, and letters with pictures…). Be creative J

PLEASE DO NOT TELL YOUR CHILD WE ARE DOING THIS! I want it to be a complete surprise to the whole class to boost their confidence before the test. I would like for them to have 4 letters (one for each morning of the test).

Here are the options for sending it in:

Ø You may put it in a sealed envelope and send it in with your child.

Ø You may email it to me and I can print it out.

Ø You may drop it off in the front office to be given to me.

Please try to get them to me BY March 25th .

Contact me with any questions!

Also, I would appreciate if a few families could donate peppermints to the class for the FSA. Research has shown that peppermints can help with focus during testing.

Valentine's Day- February 14th:
We will be celebrating Valentine's Day by exchanging Valentine cards. If your child would like to participate, please send in the cards for 18 students. I will not be sending home a list on student names. Just have your child put their own name on the Valentine and they will pass them out for every student. You may also send in extra treats or goodie bags if you like.

Field Trip:
Our in-school field trip presented by Challenge Island will be on Tuesday, February 18th. Please send in payment by February 11th. When paying with School Pay, please do not send in blue form until after the payment has been made. This helps with bookkeeping.

Language Arts: Socratic Seminar: is a formal discussion, based on a text, in which the leader asks open-ended questions. Within the context of the discussion, students listen closely to the comments of others, thinking critically for themselves, and articulate their own thoughts and their responses to the thoughts of others.

We will be reading Snow White by the Grimm Brothers in a Socratic Seminar. The students are improving in their ability to conduct a seminar effectively. We have learned a technique which is called a student fishbowl. Half the class sits in a circle to discuss a topic & the other half of the class sits in the outer circle to observes the students leading the discussion. Each observer is assigned one student (the participant) to observe in the inner circle. After the seminar is finished, the observer gives the participant feedback on their performance during the seminar. In the following day of a seminar, participants and observers switch roles. The students seem to really like this technique.
Homework: Students should be reading 20-30 minutes daily. Please check-in with your child to verify that they are checking just right books for their reading ability.

Math: Unit: Multiplication/Division

We are finished up our math unit this week with learning about Time/Metric Weight last week. We will be moving on to revisiting multiplication/division

Multiplication must be practiced consistently in order to develop fluency. Master one fact at a time before moving on to the next fact. Research shows that students learn facts in this order: 1, 0, 10, 5, 2, 4, 8, 3, 6, 9, 7, 11, 12

In order for student to become fluent in these skills, students should be working on their multiplication skills at home nightly.

Computer Program- I have enrolled each student in Reflex Math fluency program. This program helps the students become more fluent in multiplication and division.

Science: We will working on classifying animals this week and will test on Thursday or Friday.

Box Tops: Please send in box tops. We appreciate your support!!! :-)

Binder:
Please view the students nightly and initial it.

*** Please send in a water bottle daily.

Resources

Monday: Music

Tuesday: PE

Wednesday: NRD (early release)

Thursday: Media

Friday: Media

Upcoming Dates
2/11 - Picture Day

2/14 - Valentine's Day
2/17 - No School - President's Day
2/18 - Challenge Island In-School Presentation

Classroom Wish List - candy, treats