Introduction

Dear 3rd Grade Families,

We have had a great start to 2023! We had an eventful month!

This month, we started learning about the Water Cycle in Science and celebrated students completing their Fractured Fairy Tales. We are so proud of all of the hard work, effort, and love they put into these stories!  Students have now begun the research process on a topic of their choosing for our new writing unit. 

Please remind your child to stay focused in school! It can be hard at this time of year, but we want to continue the year in a positive way and stay focused on our goals!

Thank you for your continued support at home.  We couldn’t do it without you!

The 3rd Grade Team!

Important Dates & Reminders

• February 20th - No School, Presidents Day
• Make sure your child comes to school with a snack and water bottle every day. 
• Check out our new online attendance form. It not only allows you to report an absence for your child but also late arrivals and early dismissals. You will find it on our website, https://timberlanees.fcps.edu/about/attendance-form.

Language Arts

What We Learned This Past Month:

We started our new unit in Language Arts, which is Content Area Research.

• Students have picked a topic of their choice and have started  research on that topic using a variety of different sources.
• Students are becoming researchers who will engage in a process of inquiry to ask and seek answers to questions.
• Students are also collaborating and discussing to clarify thinking.
• Students are practicing expanding their vocabulary when reading.
• They are applying meaning clues, language structure, and phonetic strategies to determine the meaning of new words.

What We Will Be Learning Next Month: 

Our next unit in Language Arts is Biographies and Autobiographies.

• Students will have the opportunity to read and learn about a variety of individuals who have contributed to our world.
• This unit focuses on individuals who have struggled in the face of adversity and succeeded in making a positive change in our world.
• Students will  be challenged to read through two lenses. 
• Students will read to learn more about an era in history, the adversity people faced during that time, and the subject’s contributions.
• In addition, students will read to understand how the tribulations and eventual successes of the subjects can teach us something in our world today. 

Math

What We Learned This Past Month:

In Math, we have begun Part 2 of Multiplication and Division.

• Students are revisiting this unit and are working on multiplication and division facts.
• Students have been representing multiplication and division through 10 × 10, using a variety of approaches and models.
• Students are working on creating and solving single-step practical problems that involve multiplication and division through 10 x 10. 
• Students have also been practicing identifying, describing, creating, and extending patterns found in objects, pictures, numbers and tables. 
• Students are working on creating equations to represent equivalent mathematical relationships.

What We Will Be Learning Next Month:

Our next unit is Part 2 of our Addition and Subtraction.

• Students will build on their knowledge of three-digit numbers and explore how those understandings extend to six-digit numbers. 
• Students will continue to build meaning for addition and subtraction through problem solving and application of the identity and commutative properties. 
• Students will begin to apply their mental math strategies to working with money. Students will work with a collection of bills and coins to determine their value, compare the value of combinations of coins and bills, and make change from $5.00 or less. 
• Students will also apply their understanding of computation to work with elapsed time.

Advanced Math

What We Learned This Past Month:

• We started Unit 4: Addition and Subtraction (Part 2).
• Students learned how to read, write and identify the place value of each digit in a nine-digit whole number.
• Students also learned how to compare and order numbers expressed through the millions.
• They learned how to round whole numbers to the nearest thousand, ten thousand and hundred thousand.
• They also learned how to solve single-step and multistep word problems. 
• This month we started our Decimals unit.
• Students are learning how to read, write, represent, and identify decimals expressed through thousandths.
• Students are also learning how to round decimals to the nearest whole number and how to compare and order decimals.

What We Will Be Learning Next Month: 

• In the beginning of the month, we finished up our decimals unit by learning how to write the decimal and fraction equivalents.
• We also learned how to add and subtract with decimals, solve single-step and multistep practical problems involving addition and subtraction with decimals.
• We also learned about patterns found in objects, pictures, numbers, and tables.
• This month we started Multiplication and Division part 2.
• We will continue to demonstrate fluency with multiplication facts through 12 x 12, and the corresponding division facts.
• We will learn to estimate and determine quotients of whole numbers, with and without remainders  and also determine products of whole numbers.
• We will also create and solve single-step and multistep practical problems involving multiplication and single-step practical problems involving division with whole numbers. 
• We will also be learning to identify, describe, create, and extend patterns found in objects, pictures, numbers, and tables.

Science

What We Learned This Past Month: 

We started our new Science unit - The Water Cycle!

• We learned about how many substances interact with and in water.
• Students participated in hands-on science experiments to help further their understanding of how different substances interact with water and how important water is to life. 
• Students learned that water is essential to Earth’s processes. We also learned that the water cycle is a model that illustrates how water is conserved within environments.

What We Will Be Learning Next Month: 

We will be continuing Science, but with a new unit: Soils!

• The Soils unit engages students in investigations and observations that will provide them with a basic understanding of the importance of soil to life on Earth.
• Students will learn about the need to conserve soils and methods of soil conservation. 
• Students will explain why soil is an important natural resource that should be conserved.

Social Studies

What We Learned This Past Month: 

We have paused Social Studies to do our science units. We will start learning about Ancient China after our Soils unit!