Dear Parents,
Welcome to a new school year! We are delighted to teach your child. We would like to share the following information on classroom policies in Grade 3. We hope that you will find this helpful.
SCHOOL THEME
This year’s school theme is “Finding the Magic Within”. Throughout the year we will participate in activities within our classroom and together as a community to strive to find the magical qualities within.
CURRICULUM
The third grade curriculum is filled with acquiring many new skills. Students will learn how to work independently and develop good work habits.
LANGUAGE ARTS- Students strive to become independent readers and to develop the necessary skills to comprehend written material. Dictionary skills, decoding skills, and study skills are also stressed. Writing skills are developed through the use of journals and weekly writing assignments.
SPELLING
We are encouraging all students to complete Spelling homework in cursive. However, for the months of September and October while we are reviewing cursive, the students may print if necessary. Also. For these two months cursive will be optional for Friday Spelling tests. Our weekly homework will be the same most weeks except for review lessons and if there is a glitch in the schedule.
Monday-Write words in alphabetical order and write 2x each.
Tuesday-Use first 10 words from list in GOOD sentences.
Wednesday-Use last 10 words from list in GOOD sentences.
Thursday- Study all words for test on Friday.
Weekly words will not be listed online. The students need to be responsible and bring home the necessary books to complete their homework.
MATH- Basic addition and subtraction facts should be mastered by the beginning of third grade. We will soon move on to place value to the hundred thousands, and addition and subtracting with regrouping to the thousands place. Multiplication and division facts to 12 are introduced in December/January and mastered by the end of the year.
SOCIAL STUDIES- Students will focus on geography skills especially map skills, and the history of the first settlements in the US. Current events will also be discussed weekly.
SCIENCE- Students will learn about the scientific process, conduct experiments, and engage in various seasonal activities. We will also touch on nutrition and of course, since we are a GREEN school ecology issues will be discussed and emphasized.
RELIGION- Many things that happen during the day lead to opportunities to teach about Jesus. In addition to those opportunities we will follow the lessons in the Religion book titled “WE BELIEVE”.
GRADING
Beginning in third grade, students are given a letter grade in all subjects . In addition to letter grades, students are assessed on certain standards for each subject area. You can view your child’s grades in 2 ways:
1. Log onto POWERSCHOOL on your computer and view grades online.
2. Work folders will be sent home about every 2 weeks. View the papers at your leisure(preferably with your child) but sign and send the empty folder back to school the next day.
JOURNAL
A weekly writing assignment to be completed in the student’s journal will be given on Thursday to be completed that night. Grading journals is based on sentence structure, capitalization, punctuation, and if the prompt has been answered correctly. IN this packet you will find a Journal paper that will be pasted inside the front cover of each journal as a reminder to the students. Feel free to keep this copy for yourself.
HOMEWORK
Please look closely at the attached homework contract. This pretty much explains our policy for homework and missed work. Please sign and return.
DISCIPLINE POLICY
Third grade students will receive demerits for inappropriate behavior and merits for exemplary behavior. This is the same conduct code that grades 4-8 follow. Please review pgs. 8-11 in the STUDENT/PARENT HANDBOOK for more details.
CONTACT INFO
You may contact us at the following email addresses:
lkendzierski@immaculateheartofmary.com
jbrazil@immaculateheartofmary.com
These addresses are also on our SHAREPOINT site