Grade 3

                            Mrs. Schurch & Mrs. Hillios

Welcome to Grade Three, 

       Hope you had a relaxing and fun filled summer.  School will soon be starting and it promises to be a year  filled with  new adventures.  Religion is an important part of our curriculum. Third grade focuses on the sacraments and the commandments as well as the important part Jesus plays in our lives. The bible comes alive as we put together a bible alphabet. Math offers challenges as  we explore addition, subtraction, multiplication , division. Fractions and decimals. Weekly multiplication tests help us to strengthen the basic facts.  In Science we begin the school year learning about living things both plants and animals. Expect a fun  project.

       Read ….Read….Read  reading is strongly  emphasized with new skills taught weekly. A chapter book is a constant companion to be used  when  free time arises. New this year is cursive. Children enjoy  learning a new way to communicate. This is a brief summary of what to expect this year. Our theme this year is “ Believe”.  Believe in yourself as you grow in faith and knowledge on the path to a wonderful year in grade three. I look forward to working with you!

 Mrs. Hillios

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The cold and snowy months of winter are upon us.  Time sure is flying by! 

In English, students completed their menu projects with plural nouns.  I enjoyed reading the different dishes that students “cooked” up:  “battered starfish,” “snowball soup,” and “three mice skewers!”   These menus will be on display in the classroom.  

After the menu project students completed Chapter 9—Informative Writing.  I brought in my bread machine and we made and sampled bread.  Students took notes and wrote about the process. We had some fun with writing a “how to” paragraph and then follow the directions.  It quickly became clear to students the need to be very specific when writing directions.  The students got a laugh when I picked up the baseball bat upside down, put the whole stick of butter on top of my slice of bread, and tried to throw a football with all my fingers and thumb on the laces.  One student thought that because this topic was covered in first grade, it was “baby stuff.”  I explained to them the spiral of knowledge and how each year we learn more and more that we add onto our knowledge base.  I even searched out my box of old college English papers and brought in a three page “how to” paper.  I showed the students the three drafts and the final copy that I wrote.  I think they really enjoyed seeing all the corrections on my papers!  Hopefully students will understand and appreciate that good writing takes time and practice. 

Presently we are working on Chapter 10—Possessive Nouns.  Children often confuse plural nouns and possessive nouns because they are pronounced the same.  I will look for some optional papers that students can take home to get extra practice.  These papers will be labeled optional, and will not be graded. 

In Social Studies we have begun learning about our 50 states and their capitals.  Each day children look at a map of the U.S. in my room and find my cut out in a different state.  Children are recording their findings on a sheet:  “Where in the United States is Mrs. Schurch?”  They are also getting practice finding the state on an unmarked map of the U.S.  My visits will sometimes coincide with a state holding a presidential primary.  This will be an ongoing in-class project until I’ve traveled to all 50 states.  We will continue to discuss map skills as we work on this project. 

This week students will continue to learn about the life of Martin Luther King Jr.  Please feel free to send in any books or articles you have. 

In Reading we are finishing our work in Unit 3.  We have one story and some poetry to do before our Unit Test.  I have begun sending home three spelling workbook pages each Friday.  The spelling pages are due the Friday of the following week.  I have asked the students’ to please be careful with their spelling, especially when they are copying sentences or definitions.  I am beginning to take off more points for work that is not neat, and words that are not copied correctly.  I want all the children to take pride in their work. 

In Religion we have been discussing the seasons of the Church Year.  We also saw a video about the Miracles of Jesus, which the children seemed to really enjoy. We are currently on Chapter 10.  There will be a Unit Test after Chapter 11. 

Mrs. Schurch

Unit 4 Spelling List 

1.          dream

2.          dragon

3.          drip

4.          score

5.          scared

6.          scarf

7.          coast

8.          past

9.          test

10.                     soft

11.                     left

12.                     gift

13.                     frown

14.                     frame

15.                     freeze

16.                     squeeze

17.                     picture

18.                     caught

19.                     kept

20.                     different

21.                     surprise

22.                     favorite

23.                     chocolate

24.                     Tuesday

25.                     swimming

26.                     Monday

27.                     fifth

28.                     presents

29.                     easy

30.                     every

31.                     enjoy

32.                     toys

33.                     royal

34.                     point

35.                     voice

36.                     noise

37.                     oil

38.                     true

39.                     due

40.                     glue

41.                     clue

42.                     who

43.                     movie

44.                     lose

45.                     move

46.                     that’s

47.                     we’re

48.                     it’s

49.                     won’t

50.                     I’m

51.                     he’s

52.                     haven’t

53.                     I’ll

54.                     you’ll

55.                     didn’t

56.                     aren’t

57.                     doesn’t

58.                     let’s

59.                     I’ve

60.                     they’ve