October 12, 2007

Reading
We wrapped up our theme on adventure. Ask your child to tell about his/her favorite story. We are working on the strategies of predicting, summarizing, clarifying and questioning with all our reading. Our next theme is on celebrating traditions. Check out www.eduplace.com/kids for background information on the stories, fun activities and suggested further reading for kids who really loved a particular story.

Vocabulary (eWord)
If your child could use some vocabulary building games, click on the story on the Education Place website. http://eduplace.com/kids/hmr06/?grade=3

How about a challenge? Click on the link below and select “Fake Out.”
http://eduplace.com/kids/games.jsp

Need help finding other good books? http://www.eduplace.com/tacklereading/index.html

Word Study Update
Things continue to improve! We owe a HUGE thanks to our volunteers Judy Chirpich, Mike Ouyang, Denise Jones, and Jenny Corniea, Michelle Horan, Kim Sabow, Michelle Schuveiller, and Sandy Thomas! We appreciate your flexibility and willingness to help! Also, thank you to room moms Barb Romanelli, Ann Makredes, and Margaret Zverinova who are organizing the volunteers! Thank you!

Next week, we will be assessing students one-on-one with their reading and comprehension so students will NOT have their word study test on Wednesday. The list they brought home this week will be tested on Wednesday, October 17th. It sounds like many kids are working on their words at home. This is just fine! We always appreciate the support! Kids should be successful with the practice they get in school, so don’t feel like you need to spend a lot of extra time. If you feel like your child is needing a lot of extra time and support to be successful, PLEASE let us know! We don’t want homework to take over your life! We can adjust to make things more manageable! Thanks!

New Volunteer Opportunity: Fluency Fridays
We are looking for parents to provide an audience for kids practicing reading with good pace and expression. You would be modeling a very short piece of reading and then facilitating a group of 3-4 students taking turns reading aloud and giving them lots of positive feedback.


Dates:
Friday, October 26
Friday, November 16

Times:
Amérindiens 8:55-10:05 / 12:30-1:00
Voyageurs 10:05-11:15/ 2:45-3:15

Ask your child which group he/she is in and let us know if you would like to help! Remember that Mme Livant and Mme C-D have morning English and Mmes Johnson and Meyer are in the afternoon. Thanks!

Writer’s Workshop
We have continued writing short narratives and are focusing on “small moments” or writing a lot about a very small event, making it interesting with the details and emotions. We have also introduced a “Quick Word” dictionary for spelling of high frequency words.

Conferences
Because of the number of students we serve, the district sets aside enough time for one English conference during the year. We will hold traditional conference times in November and March. Think about which time works best for you. Please know that we will be in touch if we think a November conference is best. You can access our interactive conference sign-up by going to:
www.3rdgradeenglishlanguagearts.pbwiki.com

If you have trouble accessing it or questions, of course let us know and we can sign you up! Please give the site until 5:00 p.m. today to be linked- we were having a few technical difficulties!
As always, please be in touch with any questions! Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynnea West and Amby Takekawa