We have lots of fun events going on in the next few weeks!

Boosterthon Fundraising - continues through May 20: Thank you EVERYONE for your generous donations and for raising money for our school! As of this writing, our school has raised over $21,000 and donations continue to climb. If you haven't already, you and your child can sign up to help raise funds on MyBooster.com. 

Fun Run - May 20: You are invited to watch your child run! We'll gather on the school playground at 2:05. 

Field Trip to Fort Missoula - May 25: We'll engage with local history at Historic Fort Missoula. This is an all-day field trip. Students should bring a lunch (or order a sack lunch from school) and a waterbottle, and should dress for a day of outside learning. We'll depart school at 9:30 and return at 2:30.

North Hills Wildflower Walk - June 2: We'll take a walk from school through the North Hills to view wildflowers using our student-created wildflower field guides. Students should bring a waterbottle, walking shoes and dress for the weather. Please ensure your child has their backpack with them that day as well. We'll depart school at 8:45 and return at 11:45. 

Here's what we're doing in May!

Math

• Measurement
  • Measuring Volume and Mass
• Area and Perimeter
  • Finding the area and perimeter of shapes

Assessments: Periodic quizzes - regular lesson assessments on hold until after SBAC

English Language Arts

• Reading: Libterary and Informational Texts about goverment and heroism
  • Using text evidence to answer questions
  • Determining main idea and key details
  • Describing science concepts in informational texts
  • Determining main idea and key details
  • Determining themes
• Writing: Opinion

Assessments: None planned until after SBAC

Science

• Plants
  • Interdependence in an ecosystem
  • Survival
  • Inherited traits
  • Native Flowers

Assessments: Native Flowers guide (5/31)

 Social Studies

• Local History

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Upcoming Events:

Every Thursday: Naturalist Thursday - Please help your child dress for success

May 3-5: SBAC Testing

May 20: Fun Run (watch for emails from PTA and Rattlesnake Elementary)

May 25: Field Trip to Fort Missoula (more info coming soon)

May 30: No School (Memorial Day)

TBD: Wildflower Hike in the North Hills (more info coming soon)

Running Club: Monday & Wednesday before school and Tuesday afternoon recess

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Nuts and Bolts:

• Outdoor lunch: As the weather warms up, we'll be eating lunch outside. Please remind your student to bring a warm layer to school every day.
• Standardized Testing continues: We'll be finishing the SBAC, and then taking the STAR 360 and I-Ready diagnostic.

Standardized testing season is upon us! Below is information about testing dates and times, the purpose behind the tests, and a few suggestions for preparing at home.

When is the SBAC? We will be taking the SBAC test from 9:00-10:00 on:

Tuesday, April 26 and Wednesday, April 27

Tuesday, May 3, Wednesday, May 4 and Thursday, May 5

Please note that each testing session will take about 1 hour. The rest of our school day will be a regular school day. 

What is the SBAC? SBAC stands for Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. The SBAC is a computer-based, standardized test in math and English Language Arts (ELA) given to students every year starting in the 3rd grade. The assessment tests each student on grade level skills and competencies and is aligned to the Common Core standards for Math and ELA.

Why take the SBAC? We'll use this test as an opportunity to celebrate and to show just how much we've grown as learners! We'll celebrate our curiosity, effort and resiliency, and we'll celebrate all things we learned at home, online and in school over the last few years.  

How can I help my student prepare? Please make sure your student is at school on the above testing days. It always helps to get a good night of sleep and plenty of playtime outside on test days.  At home, you can practice multiplication flash cards, go through incomplete pages in Volume 1 of our math book (sent home in early March), and read together. We'll review the test features and tools and take a short practice test this week so students can gain familiarity with the test tools. 

In addition to the SBAC, your child will also take the STAR 360 tests in reading and math and the I-Ready Math Diagnostic in May.

Here's what we're doing in April!

Math

• Fractions
  • Comparing Fractions
• Measurement
  • Using measurement tools
  • Using line plots to plot measurement data
  • Telling time using analog clocks
  • Telling how much time has passed
  • Measuring Volume and Mass

Assessments: Periodic quizzes - regular lesson assessments on hold until after SBAC

English Language Arts

• Reading: Informational Texts about weather and goverment
  • Using text evidence to answer questions
  • Determining main idea and key details
  • Describing science concepts in informational texts
• Reading: Literature
  • Determining main idea and key details
  • Determining themes
• Writing: Opinion
• Writing: Poetry

Assessments: None planned until after SBAC

Science

• Weather and Climate
  • Weather instruments
  • Severe Weather

Assessments: None planned

 Social Studies

• Local History

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Upcoming Events:

Every Thursday: Naturalist Thursday - Please help your child dress for success

April 11 and 18: Guest art instructors from the University of Montana

April 18-22: I Love Reading Week (more info coming soon)

April 26 and 27: SBAC Testing (more info coming soon)

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Nuts and Bolts:

• Outdoor lunch: As the weather warms up, we'll be eating lunch outside. Please remind your student to bring a warm layer to school every day.
•  SBAC Testing: Standardized testing begins in 3rd grade. Beginning the last week of April, 3rd grade wil be taking the SBAC. This is an important test for measuring progress, especially after the last few years of interrupted school. I will send more information soon, but in the meantime, our class has been talking about minimizing screen time at home, getting lots of fresh air, and getting lots of rest. Thanks for your help preparing your student! 

Here's what we're doing in March!

Math

• Graphs
  • Understanding scaled graphs
  • Using picture and bar graphs to analyze data
  • Making picture and bar graphs to show data
• Fractions
  • Understanding fractions
  • Naming fraction
  • Name fractions on a number line
  • Find equivalent fractions

Assessments: Lesson 19 quiz (week of 2/28); Graphing project (week of 2/28); Lesson 20 quiz (week of 3/7); Lesson 21 quiz (week of 3/14); Lesson 22 quiz (week of 3/28)

English Language Arts

• Reading: Informational Texts about countries and weather
  • Using text evidence to answer questions
  • Determining main idea and key details
  • Describing science concepts in informational texts
• Writing: Informational
  • Country Research project
  • Weather project
• Writing: Poetry

Assessments: Country project (due week of 2/28); Weather instrument project (due week of 3/14)

Science

• Weather and Climate
  • Weather instruments
  • Severe Weather

Assessments: None planned

 Social Studies

• Local History

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Upcoming Events:

Every Thursday: Naturalist Thursday - Please help your child dress for success

3/2, 3/4, 3/9, 3/11, 3/14: SPARK  arts - outside in the R.O.C - Please help your child dress for success

Week of 3/14: Parent-Teacher Conferences

3/15: Montana Shakes: Bottom's Dream + Montana Shakes classroom lesson

3/17: Early Dismissal at 11 am

3/18-3/25: Spring Break

Tuesday, 2/22/22 -  TWOs-day / 2s Day!  Wear two of things, like 2 scarves, 2 hats, etc, dress in tutus, cover your head with toucans or toupees, anything 2s!!  We will have TOO/TWO much fun!

UPDATE: Friday, 2/25/22- The third grade classes will be presenting an Olympic opening ceremony on February 25 at 10:00 AM in the gymnasium. Due to our current COVID restrictions, outside guests cannot attend. I'm sorry for the last minute change. If you have questions, please reach out to one of the specialists - Robin Nygren, Renie Gibson or Lene Wipplinger.  As the students march in, some will be presenting flags they made in art class.  Some will be performing a choreographed routine to the familiar Bugler's Dream they learned in music and others will be competing in a winter game they learned in health enhancement class, with the winners presented on a medal podium.

Here's what we're doing in February!

Math

• Area
  • Understanding area
  • Multiplying to find area
  • Adding areas

Assessments: Lesson 14 quiz (week of 2/7); Lesson 15 quiz (week of 2/14); Lesson 17 quiz (week of 2/28); Area project (week of 2/28)

English Language Arts

• Reading: The Year of Miss Agnes
  • Using text evidence to answer questions
  • Determining main idea
  • Describing character actions
  • Connecting story to history and culture
• Writing: Narratives
  • Developing character and plot
• Writing: Poetry

Assessments: Final narrative (week of 2/14) 

Science

• Naturalist Thursdays
• Weather and Climate

Assessments: None planned

 Social Studies

• World geography and culture with guest teacher Udo Fluck
  • Udo will join us every Wednesday for the next few months to teach us about places around the world.

 

Upcoming Events:

2/7-2/11: Super Bowl Food Drive

2/14: Valentine's Day (please see note below)

2/21: President's Day - No School

Valentine's Day- We'll celebrate Valentine's Day on Monday, February 14. Students may bring Valentine's cards to exchange. Please bring a card for everyone in our class. I will send home a class list in the coming weeks. In keeping with school policy, please no treats or candy. We'll celebrate with a math and art activity, and we'll make bags for collecting cards. 

Naturalist Thursdays: Starting next Thursday, February 3, we'll be spending a chunk of time every Thursday outside observing, studying, reading, and writing about the natural world around our school. Remember to dress for the weather (hats, boots, gloves, etc.). In late February, SPARK artist Alison Reintjes will join our Naturalist work for 6 visual art sessions, also outside. 

Book Logs: Thank you for your help building a reading habit at home. The book logs help build awareness of reading habits and signal the importance of reading in our daily lives. It is vital that students read everyday at home, in addition to the reading they do at school. A child that reads 30 minutes everyday will see nearly 2 million words in just one year! If you're struggling to establish an at-home reading practice with your child, please let me know so I can help. 

 

Starting the week of January 10, students will be keeping a daily reading log of their at home reading. Third grade students are expected to read at least 30 minutes every day at home in addition to at least 30 minutes of indepedent reading at school. In order to maxmize exposure to new words and types of texts, students should be reading word-based non-fiction and fiction books as much as possible, not just graphic novels or comic books.

  

The first reading log will come home in your student's Boomerang Folder on Monday, January 10. Student's should fill it out everyday at home, then return it to school in their Boomerang Folder on Friday for me to check. As I want this to be a student responsibility, not a parent responsibility, I will do my best to remind students of the expectations and due dates as often as possible. Finally, students will bring the log home with them on Friday so they can continue to log reading over the weekend. 

 

 We'll practice filling out the book log in class. Students will log the date, book title, pages read and number of minutes read every day. It should only take about 2-3 minutes each day to complete. 

 

Why does reading every day matter? Please take a look at this powerful graphic from Scholastic about reading 20 minutes a day. 3I students also noted that reading is fun, builds imagination, improves their writing and spelling, makes coming back from break or summer vacation easier, and makes them feel like they do better at school.

 

Here's what we're doing in January!

Math

• Division
  • Understanding the meaning of division
  • Connecting division to multiplication
  • Using strategies to divide
  • Building fluency with multiplication and division facts 
• Using Patterns

Assessments: Lesson 11 quiz (week of 1/3); Lesson 12 quiz (week of 1/10); Lesson 13 quiz (week of 1/18); Unit 2 Assessment (week of 1/18)

*We'll also be re-taking our math benchmark tests on STAR 360 and I-Ready. 

 

 English Language Arts

• Reading: The Year of Miss Agnes
  • Using text evidence to answer questions
  • Determining main idea
  • Describing character actions
  • Connecting story to history and culture
• Writing: Narratives
• Developing character and plot
• Writing: Parts of Speech
  • Using nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases

Assessments: Parts of speech project (week of 1/10); Final narrative (week of 1/24)

*We'll also be retaking benchmark assessments in STAR 360 and IRLA

Science

• Animals
  
  • How have animals and habitats changed over time?

Assessments: None planned

 Social Studies

• World geography and culture with guest teacher Udo Fluck
  • Udo will join us every Wednesday for the next few months to teach us about places around the world.

 

Upcoming Events:

1/17: No School

Week of 1/31: MCT Residency