Good Afternoon Parents!
Here are several announcements before a summary of what we’ve been up to this
week!
- Group pictures will be this Tuesday, March 29th (prepay by envelope or online…..forms were sent out yesterday and today).
- District Collaboration (Late Start) will be Thursday, March 31st. Drop off will take place at 10:20 and school will begin at 10:40.
- Individual spring pictures will be Monday, April 4th (no prepay….pictures are taken, printed, and sent home for parents to decide if they want to purchase).
- OCCT Testing will be Monday through Thursday April 11th-14th.
- Journey with Me performance will be Thursday, April 28th at 1:45.
Classroom Needs:
Mints for Testing, healthy snacks for test week, the DVD movie The Tale
of Despereaux to borrow for Friday, April 15th
Reading: I feel
like we have done so much in a weeks’ time. This week we focused heavily on
synthesizing. The students read, took notes, responded, and reread an article
titled “Hard at Work.” This article was about child labor in Ecuador. The
students were able to think about kids around the world and held a great
discussion over child labor. It was neat to see the kids think about child
labor and how some kids around the world do not have the opportunity to go to
school. Ask your kids to talk to you about what they learned and what their
thinking is on the subject!
The students also got to meet with their Book Club on Tuesday to discuss the
first half of their new book. For the most part they did really well with
staying on topic and discussing what was going on in their book.
I introduced the students to ixl.com and they have really been enjoying it!
This is an easy thing to access at home and is amazing test prep! To read more
about ixl.com, please see my previous emails.
We also used part of our reading time to practice stamina reading. One of the
harder things about the OCCT is being able to sit in one seat and read for an
hour. If possible, please practice this at home—maybe set a timer for 20
minutes and have them sit and read without stopping. The next time, bump it to
25 minutes and so on.
We have been doing reading rotations every single day. The students have been
able to do a lot of different activities and test prep during this time. The
students have been reading specific books and then have had to answer test-like
questions about the books (Venomous Snakes and Small Cities), they have done
Word Work and Spelling City with their spelling words, Word Sorts with
prefixes, Front Row Reading—which gives articles and then test-like follow up
questions, Book Club where they read and respond using four boxes, and Fact and
Opinion games and task cards.
Writing: I have
been using our writing block to do even more test prep and reading. We looked
at rhyming words and a poem titled “Shell Shopping” which used the figurative
language of alliteration, did some more Fact and Opinion exercises, and even
got to listen to Cimarron Sunrise author, Brenda Turner, about the writing
process and a career as an author. The students absolutely loved meeting her!
Vocabulary-Our
vocab words this week were destination, landscape, youth,
and verdict.
Math: As you
already know, the students took a practice test on Monday titled “CRT Practice
Test” and for the most part did not do so well. To learn more information,
please see my previous email. We finished going over the practice test today
and I sent it home with them. PLEASE take time to walk through the test with
your child and help them if they have questions. The main reason I believe why
they did not do so well is that they did not take their time and read each
question thoroughly. I stressed to the kids that I cannot help them on the OCCT
and that they need to slow down and read each question all the way through. The
good news is that we still have two full weeks until the test. We now know what
kind of questions will be on the test so we can focus on things we do not
understand and be prepared.
Besides
the practice test, we did a lot of work with coordinate grids and ordered
pairs. The students seem to really enjoy this kind of math! We did several
packets which I hope made it home.
***On Monday, we will take the state practice test for
reading and on Tuesday we will take the one for math. I will grade these and
send them home as soon as possible so you can use them as test prep.
Test Prep-synthesizing,
reread and rethink, fact and opinion, main idea, poetry, figurative language,
Front Row, ixl.com, synonyms and antonyms
As always, please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or would
like to donate to our classroom. Stick with me through this testing period-we
can do! Keep encouraging and loving on your kids and have a great Easter
weekend! J
Katie Jones
Third Grade Teacher
Jenks West Elementary
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