December 17-21

Important Dates:

12/18: Whole school Elf movie at the Tivoli

12/19: Unit 2 Math test

12/20: Spelling test and 3 activities due

12/21: 3rd grade bowling (am), 3rd Grade Movie Marathon (pm), Last day before break

Spelling:

• A new list of words went home.  The test will be on 12/13 THURSDAY and the 3 activities will also be due Thursday.  If you would like to study the words at home with your child, you can open to the Spelling folder and work on some activities on the menu. Please just make sure the activities and menu go back into that folder because we will work on them throughout the 2 weeks!

Reading/English:

• We will be doing some activities with the reading The Night Before Christmas. 

Social Science:

• We are well into our first unit of science. We are trying to answer the big question of how does a floating train work. We are in still in chapter 2 of this unit and will continue after break. 

Math (For families in my math class only):

• We are finishing up unit 2: Multiplication. The test will be on Wednesday 12/19. A study guide went home and is due back on Monday, 12/17. The test is on Wednesday, 12/19.

Have a wonderful weekend and one week and counting!

December 10-14

Important Dates:

12/18: Whole school Elf movie at the Tivoli

12/19: Unit 2 Math test

12/21: 3rd grade bowling (am), 3rd Grade Movie Marathon (pm), Last day before break

Spelling:

• A new list of words will go home Monday, December 10.  The test will be on 12/13 THURSDAY and the 3 activities will also be due Thursday.  If you would like to study the words at home with your child, you can open to the Spelling folder and work on some activities on the menu. Please just make sure the activities and menu go back into that folder because we will work on them throughout the 2 weeks!

Reading/English:

• We will continue our culture and traditions unit. We will be reading The Keeping Quilt and talking about traditions, as well as writing a reader's response. We will create our own class quilt of our own traditions too. 
• We will finish off the week by close reading The Night Before Christmas. 

Social Science:

• We are well into our first unit of science. We are trying to answer the big question of how does a floating train work. We are in chapter two of this unit. We learned all about force and touching and non-touching forces. We are thinking and learning about magnets and how they work to cause a force. 

Math (For families in my math class only):

• We are finishing up unit 2: Multiplication. The test will be on Wednesday 12/19. A study guide will go home on Wednesday, 12/12 and due back on Monday, 12/17.

Have a wonderful weekend and two weeks in counting!

November 19-30

This blog is for Thanksgiving week and the following week!

Trimester 1 ends Friday, November 16!

Important Dates:

11/21-11/25: No school due to Thanksgiving break

Spelling:

• A new list of words will go home Monday, November 26.  The test will be on 12/7 and the 3 activities will also be due.  If you would like to study the words at home with your child, you can open to the Spelling folder and work on some activities on the menu. Please just make sure the activities and menu go back into that folder because we will work on them throughout the 2 weeks!

Reading/English:

• We are beginning our second unit in reading called Culture and Traditions!
• This is a favorite of students, it will involve culture day later in the trimester. 
• We will finish up the last week of November with some reader's theater on the myths. We will also be working a lot in stations.

Social Science:

• We are well into our first unit of science. We are trying to answer the big question of how does a floating train work. In chapter one we are investigating how the train rises. We have learned that force is involved. We will continue with this after break and then move onto chapter 2: all about how the floating train moves. There is no chapter test as we learn, however we will have some graded things along the way. 

Math (For families in my math class only):

• We have started unit 2: All about multiplication strategies. The students seem to really "get this" chapter and are excited to do it. We will not have the unit test until the last week of December. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and remember there are soooo many things to be thankful for! 

Week of November 5-9

We had a blast at our Halloween party! Thank you to the families that either donated or helped out, we couldn't have done it without you! Pictures were uploaded to the homeroom app.

Important Dates:  

11/21-23 No school

11/30- November reading log is due

Spelling:  

• A new list of words will go home Monday.  The test will be on 11/16 and the 3 activities will also be due.  If you would like to study the words at home with your child, you can open to the Spelling folder and work on some activities on the menu. Please just make sure the activities and menu go back into that folder because we will work on them throughout the 2 weeks!

Reading/English:

• We have finished up our haunted house writing and it was spooktacular!
• We will work next week on Myths and more informational reading along with finishing up adjectives.  

Social Science:

• We have finished with our social studies unit and will transition to Science. We will start with balancing forces. A parent letter will go home to explain about the new program as well as a science parent night November 6 from 6-7. (see link) Next generation Science Parent Night

Math (For families in my math class only):

• We will be having our unit 3 test on Friday, November 9th. A study guide went home Friday and will be due back on Wednesday, November 7th.

Week of October 29-November 2

We will finish off this week and be in November! The holidays are just around the corner!

Important Dates:  

10/29- No school for students
10/31- Halloween Parties 1-1:50 and parade (all are welcome) 1:55-end of day
11/1- Downers Grove Test (study guides went home 10/25)
11/1- October Reading log is due

Spelling:  

• A new list of words have gone home.  The test will be on 11/2 and the 3 activities will also be due.  If you would like to study the words at home with your child, you can open to the Spelling folder and work on some activities on the menu. Please just make sure the activities and menu go back into that folder because we will work on them throughout the 2 weeks!

Reading/English:

• We will be working on finishing our final drafts of our haunted house writing. 
• We also will be focusing on reading informational texts and finding relationships.
• The October Reading Log will be due 11/1.

Social Science:

• We are finishing up our DG unit with a test on Thursday, 11/1. A study guide went home on 10/25.

Math (For families in my math class only):

• We will focus this week on learning more strategies for subtraction and moving on to addition strategies. 
• Many useful tips and tricks are in the math google classroom if you would like to take a look!

Have a terrific weekend and enjoy your 4 days!

Week of 10/22-10/26

Conferences will be taking place this week. Please check your sign up time. 

Important Dates:  

10/22 - Conference Week

10/24 - Students earned a marble party and voted on cap out day (Bring sleeping bag, wear PJ's, bring small stuffed animal, and we will be watching the Witches)

10/25- DG Field Trip (please dress for the weather)

10/26- No school

Spelling:  

• A new list of words will be going home on Monday.  The test will be on 11/2 and the 3 activities will also be due.  If you would like to study the words at home with your child, you can open to the Spelling folder and work on some activities on the menu. Please just make sure the activities and menu go back into that folder because we will work on them throughout the 2 weeks!

Reading/English:

• We will continue to learn about adjectives and work on writing the rough draft of our persuasive haunted house story. Some students will start the final draft this week.
• We will also continue focusing on reading informational texts and sequencing the events and talking about the cause and effect relationships.
• The October Reading Log will be due 11/1.

Social Science:

• We have read so much about the history of DG and will take our field trip Thursday! We are super excited to see all the things we have been learning about! 

Math (For families in my math class only):

• We are continuing to dig deep into subtraction strategies and rounding. This can be difficult for students since this may be new. Please don't stress. It is an introduction and they will continue this in 4th grade. There are many resources on math classroom to assist. 

Have a terrific weekend!

Week of October 15-19

Conferences will be starting this week and go into week of October 22-25.

Coming Up Next Week:

Spelling:  

• A new list of words went home.  The test will be on 10/19 and the 3 activities will also be due.  If you would like to study the words at home with your child, you can open to the Spelling folder and work on some activities on the menu. Please just make sure the activities and menu go back into that folder because we will work on them throughout the 2 weeks!

Reading/English:

• We will continue to learn about adjectives and start writing the rough draft of our persuasive haunted house story. 
• We will also be focusing on reading informational texts and sequencing the events and talking about the cause and effect relationships.
• The October Reading Log will be due 11/1.

Social Science:

• We have begun our DG unit. The students seemed mesmerized by the historical information and the idea that we will be going on a field trip to see these things. If you haven't done so already, please send in the permission slip to go.

Math (For families in my math class only):

• We are digging deep into more addition and subtraction strategies and rounding. There will be a multi-digit and rounding checkpoint on Monday. You can review rounding to the tens and hundreds place. 

Important Dates:  

10/22 - Conference Week

Have a terrific weekend!

Week of October 8-12

By the end of this week, we will be close to have way through October already! Time flies when we have fun!

Conferences will be help the week of October 22-25. A sign up email will be going out soon! 

Coming Up Next Week:

Spelling:  

• A new list of words will go home on Tuesday. The test will be on 10/19 and the 3 activities will also be due.  If you would like to study the words at home with your child, you can open to the Spelling folder and work on some activities on the menu. Please just make sure the activities and menu go back into that folder because we will work on them throughout the 2 weeks!

Reading/English:

• This week will will start preparing for our persuasive writing unit. We will learn about adjectives and how to use them in our writing. We will do this with some fun Halloween themed activities! It will be spooktacular!
• The October Reading Log will be due 11/1.

Social Science:

• We will begin our new unit all about Downers Grove! 
• This is a fun unit about the history of our town. We will finish the unit with a field trip to Downers Grove on 10/25! Permission slips will go home home soon!

Math (For families in my math class only):

• We have begun our next unit in Math. Unit 3 (we will go back to unit 2 after this one)
• This unit is all about rounding numbers. This can be difficult so we will spend a lot of time practicing!

Important Dates:  

10/8 - Columbus Day (no school)

10/22 - Conference Week

Have a terrific weekend!

Week of October 1-5

Can you believe Sunday is the last day of September?  The year feels like it is

already flying by. In fact, next Friday is our mid point for first trimester.

This week we had a blast celebrating Johnny Appleseed’s birthday. The applesauce

was delicious!

Coming Up Next Week:

Spelling:  

• A new list of words went home Monday and the test will be 10/5. If you would like to study the words at home with your child you can open to the Spelling folder and work on some activities on the menu. Please just make sure the activities and menu go back into that folder because we will work on them throughout the 2 weeks!

Reading/English:

• This week we will be honing in on finding the theme/moral of stories and also finding key details and text evidence that proves the moral. This is a rather complicated skill, so we will take time to practice it.
• The October Reading Log will be coming home on Monday.

Social Science:

• We have started hemispheres and students have a study guide in their binders. The quiz on that will be 10/2.

Math (For families in my math class only):

• Please make sure your child has completed the study guide/pretest they were given yesterday.  It is due on Monday.
• We will go over it entirely and review for the test, which will be on Tuesday!!   We will then skip Unit 2 (for now) and start Unit 3.  We feel
• Unit 3 follows Unit 1 better than 2; we will cover Unit 2 AFTER we finish Unit 3.   

Important Dates:  

10/8 - Columbus Day (no school)

10/22 - Conference Week

Have a terrific weekend!

Week of September 24-28

Important Reminders:

• If you haven't joined our new homeroom app, please do it's a great way to see what your kids are doing in class!
• You child is coming home with a reading log for September. Please keep it all month and initial each day that they read. It will be due back on September 28th.
• Please send in a peeled, cored, and sliced apple on Tuesday, 9/25 to help celebrate Johnny Appleseed's Birthday!
• Wednesday 9/26 is an early dismissal day!

Reading/English:

• This week we will be working on reading stories and finding the theme/moral of the story.
• We will Spend Tuesday learning about who Johnny Appleseed is and celebrating his birthday by making a homemade applesauce in class. 
• We will continue to work on grammar and focus on correct sentences, commas, capitalizing proper nouns, and quotation marks. We will have some in class worksheets that will be graded after we learn about this.

Spelling:

• A new list of words will go home on Monday and the test will be 10/5. If you would like to study the words at home with your child you can open to the Spelling folder and work on some activities on the menu. Please just make sure the activities and menu go back into that folder because we will work on them throughout the 2 weeks!
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• Social Science:

• We will start hemispheres later in the week. The quiz on that will be 10/2.

Math (For families in my math class only):

• We will focus on subtraction strategies this week and the study guide for the test will go home on Thursday. It will be due back on Monday 10/1. The unit test will be 10/2. The best way to study for this test is to work through the study guide. However their notebook that they take notes in can be helpful as well!

Week of September 17-21

Important Reminders:

• If you haven't joined our new homeroom app, please do it's a great way to see what your kids are doing in class!
• You child is coming home with a reading log for September. Please keep it all month and initial each day that they read. It will be due back on October 1st. If you fill all 20 slots before then, they can bring it back early.
• ME BAG Presentations will start Wednesday. Your child will be coming home with their essay they wrote. Please have them practice saying it aloud. (The rubric for how they will be graded will be posted on the homeroom app)

Reading/English:

• This week we will be continuing our study of folktales. We will be reading a Harry Potter themed story and concentrating on context clues.
• Me Bag presentations will be on Wednesday and Thursday. Please be practicing.
• There will be an in class graded checkpoint on our grammar papers that have been coming home completed. 

Spelling:

• The first test will be on Friday. There will be 15 words and 2 sentences. 

Social Science:

• The continent and oceans quiz will be on Wednesday. There is a study guide in your child's folder. 

Math (For families in my math class only):

• We will be moving on to adding lengths this week.  This is still part of unit 1.

Week of September 10-14

Important Reminders:

• If you haven't joined our new homeroom app, please do it's a great way to see what your kids are doing in class!
• If you have not sent in a family picture (4X6) frame yet, please do
• You child is coming home with a reading log for September. Please keep it all month and initial each day that they read. It will be due back on October 1st. If you fill all 20 slots before then, they can bring it back early.

Reading/English:

• This week we will be starting our first unit on Folktales. We will be looking for the theme or message of various tales! 
• We also will be finishing up our final draft of our me bag writing. The presentations will be on Monday and Tuesday, September 17 and 18. We will pick days next week. They can be practicing at home toward the end of the week. 
• This week will be practicing grammar skills in class. Subject and predicate, Statement, questions, etc. 

Spelling:

• I will be giving out the students first lists. They can be practicing the words at home and the test will be Friday, September 21st. We will be working on activities in class. 

Social Science:

• We will move on to continents and Oceans this week. A quiz will be scheduled for the following week.

Math (For families in my math class only):

• There will be a short checkpoint quiz covering addition and subtraction, on Wednesday. This week we’ll be focusing on length, which will include a fun scavenger hunt. 

Week of September 3-7

Our first 5 day week is over! Time flies when we have fun!

Important Reminders:

• No school Monday 9/3
• If you haven't joined our new homeroom app, please do it's a great way to see what your kids are doing in class!
• If you have not sent in a family picture (4X6) frame yet, please do
• You child is coming home with a reading log for September. Please keep it all month and initial each day that they read. It will be due back on October 1st. If you fill all 20 slots before then, they can bring it back early.
• Bring Ziplock "Me Bag" Back to school on Wednesday (filled with 3 things about them)

Reading/English:

• This week we will focusing on reading strategies while reading high interest books. I will be modeling how to fill out organizers to help with reading. Some of the strategies we will talk about are: inferring, characterization, finding details, and cause and effect.
• We also will be starting our first writing activity. Students will be bringing home a note and bag. Please fill the bag with 3 things that represent them. In class, we will learn how to formulate good paragraphs while writing about our items. 

Spelling:

• We will start the following week.

Social Science:

• We have already started learning about directions. We will have our first directions quiz Friday, September 7. A study guide will go home today to help them prepare. 

Math (For families in my math class only):

• We are starting our first lesson in unit 1. We will focus all about addition and subtraction strategies, such as doubles, doubles plus one, etc. You will see some sheets of homework come home to help reinforce this. 

Week of August 27-31

WOW! Our first week has flown by! We are ready for week two of 3rd grade. This is a one stop shop for you to check what we will be doing the following week.

Important Dates:
Tuesday 8/28: Math MAPS
Wednesday 8/29: Picture Day
Wednesday 8/29: Curriculum Night 6:30-8
Thursday 8/30: Reading MAPS
Monday 9/3: No School

Reading:
We will be continuing reading some books and talking about good reader strategies. We will also start stations this week. 

Spelling: 
We will do a spelling inventory this week and start spelling the following week.

Social Science:
We will start off the year learning all about the cardinal and intermediate directions and then the Continents and Oceans. We will have quizzes on these (TBD).

Math: (For my Math Class only)
We will start Math on Monday.

Week of January 16-19

We have completed our first week back from break. It is great to be back into the routine!

Some good winter weather rules for PV: With Winter almost upon us, here’s a quick note about recess: Children NEED boots to be in snow- snow pants are not required, but kids should know that if they get their clothes wet, they will be wet for the afternoon.... Snow/ice is not to be thrown for any reason at all.  They may roll it, or build with it, but not launch it, etc.

Coming Up Next Week:

Spelling:  Students have received their spelling words and the spelling test will be on Friday, January 19th.

Reading & Language Arts:   We are continuing with our culture and traditions unit by reading a story called The Matchbox Dairy. Students will be asked to bring in a small memorable item that they will write about.

We will be doubling up reading and Social Studies for a few weeks. We will be reading all about culture and traditions in our social studies book during part of our reading class.

January logs are due on 2/2.

Social Science: We started our next Science unit...all about weather! We will be finishing up unit 1 and 2 next week.

Mrs. Mandru's Math Class:  We have learned about mass, volume, and length. There will be a checkpoint on these concepts on Tuesday. We will then continue unit 4 by studying fractions.

Important Dates:  

1/15 MLK Day-No school

1/22 Winter F and P testing

Have a great weekend!!