Introduction

Dear 3rd Grade Families,

We have had a busy month in 3rd grade, and we are almost finished with the 1st Quarter of school! If you have not signed up for a 3rd Quarter conference, please contact your child’s teacher to set up a time to meet about your child’s progress this year.

This month, we had Fairfax County Health Department come for a visit to teach the students different insects in Northern Virginia and what diseases they might carry! We also got to meet an entomologist who studies Ladybugs over “Zoom” and listened as they answered our questions about ladybugs!

We will be having our Field Trip this year! We are going to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to explore the Insect exhibit on Friday, November 18th! Please sign and return the permission form as well as the lunch form back to your child's teacher as soon as possible!

Interested in being a chaperone, we would love the help! Please fill out the chaperone form and send that back to school, or contact your child’s teacher. If we have more volunteers than we can take with us, we will be drawing names out of a hat by class.

Thank you!

Important Dates & Reminders

• Tuesday, November 8th - No School, Student Holiday
• Friday, November 11th - No School, Teacher Planning Day
• Friday, November 18th - Field trip to Smithsonian Natural History Museum
• Wednesday November 23rd - 25th - No School, Thanksgiving Holiday

• Make sure your child comes to school with a snack and water bottle every day. 
• Contact the attendance office if there is a change to your child’s schedule and will cause them to be absent, tardy or be leaving early.

Language Arts

What We Learned This Past Month:

• We have learned about characters in books in order to understand that characters are the heart of fiction stories.

• Students were focusing on writing a Personal Narrative story about a small moment in their life with details.

• Students focused on how they can teach a lesson using something that happened in their lives. 

• We also focused on different elaboration techniques in our writing.

What We Will Be Learning Next Month: 

• In Quarter 2, students will be learning that readers of nonfiction texts communicate with each other to learn about different points of view.

• Students will also be reading and learning about functional texts(flyers, magazines, directions). They will begin to understand that readers interact with texts to serve as tools to navigate / interpret the world.

• In Writing, students are learning how to write an ‘All About’ book about a topic of their choice. Students are encouraged to start reading nonfiction texts of their choice and apply writing strategies they have seen in texts.

Math

What We Learned This Past Month:

• Students focused on solving single step and multi-step addition and subtraction problems.  

• Students learned to represent multiplication and division problems using various strategies and models.

What We Will Be Learning Next Month:

• We will begin Unit 4: Fractions (Part 1). Students will learn how to name and write fractions and mixed numbers represented by a model and symbols. 

• Students will also learn how to compare fractions having like and unlike denominators, using words and symbols.

Advanced Math

What We Learned This Past Month:

• We started Unit 3: Fractions (Part 1).  Students learned how to name, write, and represent fractions and mixed numbers. 

• We learned how to compare fractions with like and unlike denominators. 

• Students also learned that fractions also represent a division statement and will be able to represent that with a model.  

• A study guide will be sent out at the end of the unit before our test. Please look over the study guide with your child and have them complete the problems on their own.
   

What We Will Be Learning Next Month: 

• We will be starting Unit 4: Addition and Subtraction Part 2.
• Students will learn how to read, write and identify the place value of each digit in a nine-digit whole number.
• Students will also learn how to compare and order numbers expressed through the millions.
• They will be learning how to round whole numbers to the nearest thousand, ten thousand and hundred thousand.
• They will also learn how to solve single-step and multistep problems.

Science

What We Learned This Past Month: 

• Students began building habitats for their ladybug exhibit! Students are put in groups with their peers to build a habitat for a ladybug to survive in. Third graders were excited to listen to a scientist and get to experience some hands-on activities while studying ladybugs in our most recent science unit! 

  

   

What We Will Be Learning Next Month: 

• We will be coming back to Science in January  to learn about the Water Cycle.

Social Studies

What We Learned This Past Month: 

• This month we learned about ladybug habitats in Science!

What We Will Be Learning Next Month: 

• Students will learn about World Geography.  Students will review the 7 continents and 5 oceans from last year. 

• We will also learn about specific geographic features specific to each continent.  

• Students will then begin learning about the first Ancient Civilization - Egypt!

• We will learn about how the Ancient Egyptians lived and adapted to their local surroundings.

• We will also look at how the contribution of Ancient Egypt influence our world today!

Photo Gallery