3 rd Grade Handbook

Transcription

1 3 rd Grade Handbook

2 Hello Families! I ve put together this handbook as a resource for you so that you know the expectations and routines in third grade. Included you will find information about classroom procedures and daily routines. I want it to be a useful tool, so if you have any suggestions please let us know. I am really looking forward to this school year and am very pleased to have the opportunity to work with Reading Specialist Katie Donovan. We each bring our own unique teaching style to the classroom, which I find helps to meet the unique needs of all 20 students. You are your child s first and most important teacher. I value your input, so throughout the year please let us know if there is anything you want to share about your child. It is my goal to make this a fulfilling and fun year of learning. As always, please feel free to come to me with your concerns, so that I can ensure that your child has a successful year in third grade. You can me, leave a message at , or come in to see me before or after school. Mrs. Murray at kmurray@duxbury.k12.ma.us Sincerely, Mrs. Murray 2

3 Schedule of the Day 7:40-8:00 am Morning Routine/Morning Work 11:00 11:45 am Recess/Lunch Our typical schedule is literacy in the mornings, and math, science/social studies in the afternoon. Specials o Monday Music o Tuesday PE o Wednesday PE o Thursday Spanish o Friday Art Morning Duties Daily Routines Beginning at 7:35 students will come into school and hang their backpacks and coats in their cubbies outside of the classroom. Next they will turn in homework, grab a chair, and copy their homework assignments from the front board. Then they will check the morning message for any further instructions such as morning work. During this morning routine the students should also make sure they are ready for the day (example sharpen their pencil; fill their water bottle, etc.). 3

4 Morning Meeting Morning Meeting is an opportunity for our students to spend minutes getting to know their classmates, team build, practice communication skills, and have some fun! Each morning the children greet each other, participate in sharing, and an activity. We end Morning Meeting with a review of our Morning Message. I hope that Morning Meeting will help each student feel more comfortable in our classroom, and remind them that we are a classroom family. Snack We will be eating snack in the classroom. Students are encouraged to bring healthy snacks. Most days the students will listen to a read aloud as they eat their snack. Recess and Lunch Students go outside for minutes of recess and then come in for 20 minutes of lunch in the cafeteria. During lunch, students are welcome to sit with their friends in our class There is always one administrator, one teacher, and three assistants on duty during recess and lunch to monitor and help as needed. Dismissal Students will be dismissed at 2:00. If you are picking up your child please remember to send in a note with him or her in the morning. When picking up your child, please wait outside the office until he or she arrives. 4

5 It is very important that you send a note in with your child in the morning if there is going to be any change in your dismissal plans. I will not let your child go with another parent without your permission. This is for the safety of the kids. If you need to pick up your child early due to an appointment, please send in a note just so I can have your child ready. I record all dismissal changes on a small whiteboard by the door as a reminder to students, but it is important that you make these arrangements with your child beforehand and that he/she takes responsibility for where to go at dismissal. Take home Folders Everyday your child will be bringing home a folder of work, notices and assignments for you to look over. One side of the take home folder will contain your child s homework assignment sheet and assignments, this side of the folder will only be emptied by your child. The other side of the folder will contain anything that was in your child s mailbox (corrected assignments, notices from the office, etc). This side of the folder should be emptied daily, and I hope during this time you ll have a chance to sit down together and reflect on past work. However, if you don t have the time to go through the folder every day then I encourage you to have a basket or bin readily available where your child can place his or her mail for you to browse at your convenience. 5

6 Curriculum Math Students will be working on many math concepts this school year based on the State Common Core Standards. I will be using our school-wide math program Everyday Math, as well as supplementing with other materials. During the entire year I will work on math facts becoming automatic and students increasing their problem solving skills. The specific math units I will cover in third grade are as follows: o Numeracy o Multiplication/Division o Addition/Subtraction o Data and Probability o Geometry o Measurement o Fractions Most days students will participate in a whole class introduction, followed by small group rotations. During this time each group of students have the opportunity to work in a small group with myself on the targeted skill. They will also complete two other stations, which may include independent work, partner activities, fluency practice, digital workstations, and small group games to reinforce the targeted skill of the day. Literacy Our literacy block is designed to be two hours long. This provides ample time for students to work in small groups, independently, and with a teacher each and every day. During this time, I will be meeting with reading groups to reinforce learned strategies and increase reading 6

7 fluency and comprehension. Additionally, students who are not meeting in a reading group are responsible for completing their literacy center work. At the start of a new story, students will be given one page of assignments that they can work on at their own pace. The assignment page always incorporates spelling, vocabulary, writing, reading skills, extensions, and independent reading time. Students will keep track of their daily progress and hand in all of their work at the end of the week. Once the literacy routine is established in late fall, it is important that students working independently remain on task and productive so that the teachers can make the most of their 20 minute reading groups with minimal disruptions. Additionally, students will be keeping track of their independent reading in class by keep a Reading Response Journal. This journal is designed to help the students think more critically about their daily reading. Mrs. Donovan will also meet with reading groups, and offer support to the classroom during this time. Spelling With each new story in literacy, there is a specific spelling list that goes along with it. I will be introducing a new spelling pattern every other week. In addition, the students will have spelling homework and a spelling test every other week. D.I.R.T. D.I.R.T. is daily independent reading time. This is always an option for early finishers. 7

8 Writers Workshop During the year students will work on the following types of writing: o Expository Writing o Personal Narratives o Character Description o Persuasive Writing o Friendly Letter o Responses to Literature o Poetry Many writing classes will begin with a picture book and mini-lesson that teaches students specific writing skills. Students will keep a writers journal and binder here in school that will hold their seed ideas, drafting, and editing materials. Some days, students will respond to a prompt, answer a question, or just write creatively in their journals. Other times, students will pick out some writing ideas and develop them fully through the writing process from drafting to publishing. Science and Social Studies During the year I will be switching off between our science and social studies units. This is a list of the following units I will cover: o Map Skills Review/Massachusetts/New England o Plant Life & Water Cycle o Wampanoags and Pilgrims o States of Matter/Simple Machines o American Revolution o Sun, Moon, Earth, and Planets o Health Print & Cursive Starting in September, students will embark on a yearlong exploration of cursive. I will take it slow and steady with worksheets and ease into lengthier assignments. Each student is encouraged to begin writing in cursive when they feel comfortable and their writing is legible. 8

9 Grading On a day-to-day basis, your child s class work and homework will be graded for effort and overall progress using checkmarks: ü = good effort ü + = making progress ü ++ = perfection If I notice a student really struggled with a particular assignment that he or she should really understand more clearly, then I will sit down with that child to redo the assignment together. This brief re-teaching allows me the chance to see where the child is having difficulty. In this case, I will note directly on the assignment that it was completed with help and my initials. Look Back and Writes or open response questions are an enormous part of third grade. I will spend a great deal of time throughout the fall and winter modeling, critiquing, and refining the students written responses to literal, critical, and inferential questions about our weekly stories. Your child s goal on these writing pieces is to receive a 4 on his or her written response. A 4 indicates that the response was clear, complete, accurate, and uses specific details. Your child may also receive a 3, 2, or 1 depending on Ill he or she met the criteria underlined above. I will spend a lot of time, reading and responding to your child s writing with those four pieces of criteria in mind. It s important for you to keep in mind that I have all year to get a 4, and my aim as a teacher is to see progress in each child s writing. A 1 in September is not the end of the world; it simply means that there is room for progress and growth. 9

10 All tests and quizzes are graded using a fraction, number correct over total number possible. Alden uses the standards based reports cards just like at Chandler. Your child will be graded during three separate marking periods using the letters P for proficient, A for approaching, D for developing, and B for beginning. In some instances, a number grade will be given for standards that cover social behaviors and weekly specials. In this case, a 4 stands for consistently, 3 stands for most of the time, 2 stands for some of the time, and 1 stands for not at this time. Homework The goal of homework is that it gives your child meaningful practice. Homework assignments should take no more than 30 minutes. If a specific piece of homework is especially challenging for your child, please just write me a note directly on the assignment explaining the issue. In addition to assignments students are expected to read each night. Students will be assigned homework Monday through Thursday. If students complete the homework on those nights, they will have the weekend off. If students don t miss any homework assignments in a given month they will receive one No Homework Pass. They will be able to use this to get out of doing homework one night of their choosing. Missed homework includes any assignments that are not in school on the day that they are due even if they are completed and mom forgot to put them in the backpack. 10

11 Respect and Good Choices It is important to have consistent expectations and clear boundaries. In our classroom, students are first and foremost encouraged to make good choices and be respectful of everyone and everything through positive reinforcement of praise, modeling, engaged learning opportunities, and individual and whole class incentives. There are times, however, when children need visual assistance to help them monitor their actions. For this reason, I am using the Class Dojo system. In Class Dojo students are given a Dojo Avatar which they can alter as they wish. Students earn Dojo points throughout the day for exhibiting positive behaviors. Points can be earned for being on task, quiet hallway behavior, working hard, helping others and other positive behaviors. Students can also earn negative points if their behavior/effort is not quite where it should be. Students that are off task, fooling around, disrespectful, or unprepared may show negative Dojo points. Throughout the week students will track their Dojo points and total them each Friday. Students can earn a variety of rewards for their Dojo points. They have the opportunity to spend them quickly on things such as stickers, pencils, and reward box prizes, or save them for larger prizes such as homework passes, sit with a friend for the day, or lunch with the teacher and a friend. Parents are able to log in to their child s Class Dojo account and check on their progress as frequently as they wish. Please know that, as with all technology, there are days when things don t work as well as they should. If your child has a particularly low point total for a day it is possible that the app was not working well, or that we were experiencing technical difficulties. It is my hope that the use of Class Dojo will spark conversations at home about how students are earning both their positive and negative points. Having home and school on the same page always helps! Thank you for your support!j 11

12 More Helpful Things to Know Website/ Updates During the school year, I try to keep families informed about updates in our classroom and opportunities for you to extend your child s learning in school. I will be updating our classroom website each month to keep you up to date and share our learning with you. I also send home class s most weeks to keep you up to date on what we have been doing in the classroom. Volunteering Some help will be needed on a weekly basis and other opportunities will pop up throughout the year. Reading Group Helper Copiers (this is the biggest help in the world!) Mystery Readers Field Trip chaperones Library Helper Math Group Monitor/Fact Fluency Monitor Passport Club Map Checker Passport Club Passport Club is an enrichment program run by PTA volunteers. In Passport Club students are asked to study world maps (at a level of their choosing) to learn the locations of countries around the world. I have chosen to have our class participate as a class in this program. Students will attend a map check once monthly where they will be quizzed on the world map. I encourage all students to try for Level 1, which requires 5 countries memorized. I will be giving students time during Morning Work to study their passport maps and we will review Level 1 as a class. Some students LOVE maps and want to strive to achieve a higher level, and they are certainly welcome to do so! Passport club should not be a source of stress for our students. There is no grade associated with this program, and it is meant to be a fun extra to help broaden their world knowledge. 12

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