JKES 3rd Grade Newsletter

• August 12th: First day of school
• September 2nd & 3rd: No school for students
• October 3rd: Field Trip to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (Maher, Emory, Doering, Pecoraro)
• October 4th: Field Trip to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (Toth, Weant, Earhart)
• October 11th: End of Grading Period

Throughout the first quarter, third graders will complete two units during shared reading. Unit 1: Life's Lessons will allow students to explore fiction narrative text structure. These texts will feature connected themes, character relationships, and character change and growth.

Unit 2: Government for the People will enable students to explore multiple nonfiction informative text structures. Students will learn why reading more than one text on the same topic can be beneficial.

In addition to the shared reading portion of our reading block, students will also demonstrate their comprehension of a text through writing. Students will become purposeful writers focusing on personal narrative, informative, and opinion writing structures.

We'll begin quarter one by building a mathematical community. Creating a positive learning environment is essential. Students will work together, communicate effectively, and solve problems as a team. This unit helps build confidence and a growth mindset.

Students will explore place value and work with numbers up to the thousands place. They'll practice reading, writing, and comparing numbers, as well as addition and subtraction strategies to enhance their number sense and computation skills.

Towards the end of quarter 1, we'll introduce multiplication and division, focusing on understanding these operations and their relationship to addition and subtraction. Through games and real-world examples, students will build fluency with basic facts and develop problem-solving skills.

These topics will spiral throughout the year as students increase their understanding. Please work with students at home to gain automaticity of addition and subtraction facts, as well as 0, 1, 2, 5, and 10s multiplication facts.

Topics covered during quarter one of social studies will include geography, government, and ancient Egypt. Students will explore maps, identify continents and oceans, and understand the importance of geography in shaping our world. We will also explore the basics of government, discussing the roles and responsibilities of leaders and citizens. We will end our quarter by learning about the history, culture, and resources of Ancient Egypt.

In science our two units will cover forces and soil. Students will investigate different types of forces, such as pushes and pulls, and explore how they affect the movement of objects. Through hands-on experiments, students will understand how simple and compound machines can make work easier. Through our study of soil, we will learn about its composition and importance to plants and the environment. Students will examine different components of soil and discover how soil supports life on Earth. We'll explore the layers of soil and how it is formed over time.

Mrs. Obitts is excited to work with students in the English language program this year. Students in the language program will receive letters with WIDA Access scores and service information for the school year. Please be on the lookout for letters coming home soon! Parents of students in the English language program, feel free to contact Mrs. Obitts with any questions at obittsh@wps.k12.va.us. We are looking forward to a wonderful year!