Important Information

 Dear Superhero Families, 

First, I'm glad everyone made it back safe and sound. It was good to be back in the class. I know this year has been truly different, third grade is always the year we have parents upset with us because of the big jump from 2nd to 3rd grade, but we have made it ya'll. Everyone is still standing and ready for the next challenge. Thank you all for being so supportive and entrusting me with the care of your little hero. I know this is normally said at the end of the year, but I wanted you to know that I appreciate you and all of your support. 

On Monday, we had a chance to talk about what we did over spring break, even if we just sat at home and relaxed. That was probably better than those of us who traveled. As you know we're gearing up for the end of the year, so please be sure to read the email to the end. I will also post this on the blog so you can refer back to it if need be. 

Secondly, we will have our in-person book fair on May 16th-May 20th. Unfortunately, parents will not be allowed to come in and visit the fair. They will have the capabilities for you all to use e-wallets. More information and flyers will be provided later.

Most importantly, we are preparing for our required state testing in May and wanted to share details with families as soon as possible. Monday,in your student's backpacks, they will be bringing home more information about SCREADY.  4th graders will also be bringing home information about SCPASS. Click here for the SCREADY letter.

Our testing dates are as follows: 

3rd, 4th, and 5th Graders 

May 4th and 5th- SC READY ELA

May 10th- SC READY Math

May 19th- SC READY Field Test (Text Dependent Analysis)

4th Graders Only

May 11th- SCPASS Science

On these dates, it is important that students come to school on time and plan to stay the entire day.  Make sure they get plenty of rest and eat a good breakfast. Remind them that this is the time to show what they have learned this year.

Other reminders about testing: 

Students will not be allowed to have cell phones or smartwatches during testing. If brought to school, they will be required to give them to their teachers until testing is complete.  Water bottles will be kept in the classrooms, but not at student desks during testing.  

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Dr. Watson (jewatson@richland2.org). 

Month of Military Children Spirit Week Pictures

Thank you to everyone that participated in spirit week to show your support for our military children. We enjoyed seeing everyone dressed in camouflage, red, white & blue, superhero attire, stars & stripes, and purple!

Spirit Week Pictures

Thank you and have a great weekend!!

Week of March 18-24

 Good afternoon!! Last week was awesome. We are very, very close to the end of the quarter. Please look in Parent Portal at your child's grades. The end of the nine weeks is March 23rd.  I am trying to get our pace back up, I had a procedure done this past Monday, but I'm feeling better so we should be back on the move this coming week. 

We were supposed to be 3 chapters further along in your chapter book, so we will probably complete 9 chapters this week coming. They will be tested on understanding parts of a letter, combining sentences, and context clues. This week, in addition to the skills we will be working on in our chapter book, we will be covering homophones, quotation marks, correct past tenses of verbs (both regular and irregular), and capitalization errors. This is something I definitely need your help on because we have been working on this skill for months. By now, you should see this in their writing. We are still capitalizing words in the middle of a word or sentences and not capitalizing things they should be. With our novel we will work on point of view, figurative language, problem and solution, tone  and mood, and summarizing. As you can tell, most of these are repeat skills from previously. 

In math, we are still working on fractions. We are actually back in the book in Chapter 11. This chapter will cover equivalent fractions and comparing fractions. What will help them be successful in this chapter will be knowing their multiplication facts. I've stressed this all year and unfortunately, we still have some who do not know their facts. They are going to struggle in this chapter because knowing those facts will help with both equivalent fractions and comparing fractions. In the meantime, some of the skills I am reviewing in small group are rounding and place value (reading a big number, standard form, word form, and expanded form). Both of these skills are trouble areas as was subtraction and addition. We met in small groups last week and almost everyone seems to have it, minus 2 or 3. We are also working on telling time to the nearest minute. The area(s) your child is having trouble in may involve me sending home some practice sheets in that/those areas. 

Below, you will see some of the pictures from our St. Patrick's day. We also had Lucky Charms (for our math) to use with fractions. I was only able to catch a few pictures, sorry. Trying to catch pictures while I was preparing the punch was hard. LOL!! 

Last but not least, we will also be learning about the March Madness brackets.  We have 2 teams we are supposed to be learning about: Virginia Tech and Gulf Coast of Florida. Funny thing is they played each other, so it's really hard to root for them. We will definitely be going into this diligently this week, though I have told the kids we're going for the Gamecocks (😁)!! 

GO COCKS!!!!

We also have a lot of important dates coming up that I have included below.

Days to be Aware of for April

1 - Class/Spring Pictures, GATORFEST

8 - 11:30 AM Dismissal

11-15 - Spring Break

Test Days Remaining 

(Please try to be present these days.)

March 29 - ELA Benchmark

March 30 - Math Benchmark

April 5 - 3rd Grade Reading MAP

May 4 & 5 - SC Ready ELA

May 10 - SC Ready Math

May 19 - Field Test all grades - TDA

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St. Patrick's photos

Week of March 7-11

 Guess what, we're one week closer to the end of our 3rd nine weeks. Can you believe that we're almost at the end of our 3rd grade 2021-2022 school year?!!! I definitely can't. I want you to go back and look at the work and writing your child did at the beginning of the year compared to now. They have really grown and we will continue to grow the last 12-13 weeks we have left. They're rocking it!!

We are working on fractions and measurement in math. We're slowly migrating into Chapter 11. We will have a quiz on Tuesday, the 8th, on fractions greater than 1 on the number line (improper and mixed fractions), converting them, using pictorial models to represent them, and measuring to the nearest inch, quarter of an inch, and half inch using line plots. They should have papers that shows examples of these in their math notebook. Also, it's very important that they are practicing their math vocabulary. I use it all the time in math class and a few of them are still struggling. They are going to struggle if they don't know the vocabulary. Please practice it with them. Another thing, we work on daily is our Math 4 Today. I am reiterating this from a previous blog, I have started counted the assessments for the Math 4 Today as graded quizzes as well. These are supposed to be glued into the back of their notebooks. We are on week 23 and going to test on that one (Math 4 Today) on Thursday, the 10th.

In reading, we are continuing James and the Giant Peach. We are going into Chapters 10-12 on this Monday, they will take a quiz on it Wednesday, the 9th.  I will be covering characters, character traits, figurative language, and problem/solution (all with text evidence) this week through this novel. They also have vocabulary words and prefixes/suffixes/homographs they need to be practicing. I will give them a quick check on those words on Friday, the 11th. These words are also in their notebook. By the end of this week, we will have finished Chapter 18 by Friday. 

In language arts/writing, we will continue to work on capitalization errors, adjectives, apostrophes, letter writing, and singular/plural nouns. This goes along with our Reading 4 Today. We will take a quiz on this on Tuesday, March 15th. In writing, we have worked on writing introductions and will continue into the body of an essay this week. 

In science, we will be wrapping up soil this week and moving into social studies. They will take an open note quiz on soil on Monday, the 14th. The social studies I had completed before was tied into our black history activities. We actually created a mini book on the African-Americans we studied, including Gabbie Goodwin. 

We are going to have a great week this week and I look forward to seeing everyone in class tomorrow. WE GOT THIS!!!!

Photos from Read Across America

Week of February 21-25

 Wow, I can't believe it. We're already in the middle of the 3rd nine weeks. The time is really flying by now. Pretty soon we will be in the 4th quarter and it will be over. I can't believe the time has gone by. 

In reading and ELA, students are taking an assessment on our Daily Language Arts (Reading) 4 Today. This will always be completed on the Monday after unless we do not have school. They also have a sheet that lists what the assessment consists of, which are the skills from weeks 5 and 6. We will be focusing on weeks 7 and 8 this week. The assessments on Monday, Feb 28th, will focus on rhyming words, capitalization, adjectives, contractions, and plural nouns. We will also continue with our reading of James and the Giant Peach chapters . We will text on those chapters Friday, February 25. We will cover different skills as we go through the chapters.

With writing, students are working on introductory paragraphs with a hook, thesis, and 3 short details. This week, we will incorporate the body paragraphs with the use of transitions and text evidence. In math, we are working on plotting fractions on the number line, fractions greater than one (improper fractions), measurement to the nearest quarter of an inch (1/4, 1/2, and 3/4), and mixed numbers. In science, we are working on the soil unit. We will not test this week but they will have quizzes throughout. Remember, science and social studies are always open notes.

Below, you will find information from the district and pictures from our Valentine's activities.

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ORDER 2021-22 YEARBOOK

Purchase your copy of this year's yearbook through Parent Portal.

SOAR REGISTRATION CLOSES TOMORROW Feb. 22

SOAR (Summer Opportunity for Academic Readiness) is a FREE, in-person extended learning camp for Richland Two students currently enrolled (2021-2022 school year) in pre-K through 11th grade. Log into your Parent Portal account and register ASAP! Read details about eligibility, focus and more about SOAR here.

Valentine's Day 2022

Week of February 14-18

 We' re almost halfway through February and close to interim time. We are working on the novel James and the Giant Peach, have finished our first unit on fractions, tested on rocks, and will continue to work on Black History for our social studies until. 

In math, will be completing a mini drop-in unit on mixed fractions and how to plot them on the number line.Students should know whole numbers as fractions in terms of copies of unit fractions. (Example: 1 = 4/4 = ¼, ¼, ¼, ¼) Students should understand that mixed numbers are iterations of unit fractions on a number line. Students should not refer to a fraction with a larger numerator than the denominator as an improper fraction. It should be referred to as a fraction greater than one or with multiple copies of a unit fraction. (EX: 4⁄3 is 4 copies of ⅓ ) Students should understand that a fraction such as 8⁄3 could be put together on a number line using 3⁄3 3⁄3, and 3⁄3. We should be in this unit for 7 days, so the test will not be until Thursday, February 24. Please practice the vocabulary and they can go to the Big Ideas or Khan Academy to practice. Even though homework is not mandatory, once again I STRONGLY encourage it. Homework suggestions are written in their agenda books daily.

In reading, we are reading James and the Giant Peach, along with the novel they are reading their small reading groups. We will test on Chapters 1-6 for James and the Giant Peach on Tuesday, February 15th. I will also incorporate some vocabulary into it. They will be allowed to use the novel and they will definitely need it because they will have to find text evidence for some of the answers. For practice, when they are reading at home, refer to last week's post with questions you can use before, during, and after reading.

In science, we will move on to soil. Of course, any quizzes or tests in science and social studies will be open notes. This can only be successful if they have copied the notes. If they have their notes, they should make no less than a high "B".

In social studies, we have learned about Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Booker T. Washington, Daniel Hale Williams, and Harriett Tubman. For our Black History Month finale, we, as a school, are reading Ruth and the Green Book and will be highlighting Gabby Goodwin (15 year old here in Columbia making 6 figures selling bows - Confidence by GaBBy Goodwin).

I will start having readers on Friday in March. There will be a sign up calendar that I will send out at a later date with days and times you can sign up. Be sure to have your book selected because the sign up will also ask for that as well.

Last but not least, Coach Lally has partnered with the American Heart Association for the Kids Heart Healthy Challenge. You can donate if you are able and willing. This is the message you will see once you click the following link: Heart Healthy Link

Our School is Heart Healthy!

 

Our School Has Heart!

Join us in learning about heart health and raising funds to protect all hearts – especially other kids’! Through fun activities we’ll discover ways to take care of our hearts and brains while practicing kindness, gratitude and learning ways to de-stress. Plus, we have the chance to earn PE equipment for our school!

Week of February 7-11

Last week was awesome!! Please make sure your heroes have studies the fraction math vocabulary and reviewed the lessons we completed in Chapter 10. The test will be Thursday. We will continue into Chapter 11. Another good place for them to build their math skills is through Khan Academy. We have been using that site frequently along with the Big Ideas lessons. Make sure they are reading at least 20 minutes a day at home. The information below has been proven through research.

 The Benefits of Independent Reading

Builds background knowledge
Deepens vocabulary knowledge (students with the broadest vocabularies stand the greatest chance of                 scoring well on tests that measure vocabulary and comprehension)
Builds reading stamina (stretch their brains for longer, challenging works)
Students should read fiction and nonfiction 
Students that read 10 minutes a day encounter 600,000 more words a year than students who do not                     read
Students who read 20 minutes a day read over 2 million more words a year than a nonreader

Plus, remember this is the year they have to pass the reading and writing portion of the state test. They can always bring their reading notebooks home to see what we have covered as well as incorporating it into their at-home reading. Scroll down to see questions you can ask them to answer when they are reading at home. 

Unfortunately, one of our classmates fell and broke his arm last week. The kids were so caring and concerned about him, so we ended up having a Google Meet with him. They were so glad to see that he was okay. Thankfully, he was able come back today.  

Also, be sure to check out some of our pictures from our writing analysis to our top notch volunteer parents who came and read on World Read Aloud day. I told the that  we will start having a guest reader (at least one) each Friday. This will be so encouraging to let our babies see our love of reading. I will send out a sign-up tomorrow, be on the lookout for it. Thank you to Mrs. Murphy-Jamison, Mrs. Stoutland, Mrs. Athens, Mrs. Jackson, Mrs. Brown, and Mrs. Ramya Smith for taking time out of their day to come and read to us.

CHECK OUT OUR PHOTOS

Visit with Lathen

Writing Analysis

Our World Read Aloud Readers