Writing is a very important skill for a third grader and it is something we focus on throughout the school week.  When we take state tests, writing has it's own section and it is important for your child to be able to produce a solid piece.  The more practice, the better their writing will be.  Once a month we will be sending home writing homework that helps practice this skill.The packet that is sent home will include a graphic and checklist of what we are looking for in their piece as well as draft paper and final copy paper.  I am focusing on the final copy when I grade the piece, but I wanted them to have the tools to help them produce a successful paragraph.  This will begin the first week of November. 

Language Arts- Last week... Essential Question this week- How do landmarks help us understand our country's story?
This week we read the stories, "A Natural Beauty" and "A Mountain of History".  These were Expository texts which means that it gives the reader facts and information about a social studies topic.  It also includes features such as photographs, captions, sidebars, and maps.  
Within these stories we learned interesting facts about many monuments and landmarks that we find in the United States and what they mean to our country and how they helped to form our country's story.  We worked on Main idea and details within the texts and wrote about what the Grand Canyon is.  
We also worked on simple and compound sentences and spelling long o words.

This  week is our sixth week in this unit.  Every six weeks we have a review week which means that we will not have spelling those weeks or regular stories.  We will be working on writing together and finishing up some other items we have been working on.  

Math- This week we wrapped up topic 3 and took a test today.  Tests will be going home tomorrow.  

Science- Our unit will be beginning next week.  They will be working on Matter.  

A few more things...
    This week kids only have school Mon-Wed because of conferences and NEOEA day on Friday.  

Check out the important dates in the post previous to this.