Weekly Update September 23-27

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Thank you for all your support during our fun run this year! Our class had 100% participation and for our reward, we will have free dress on September 30th and October 7th.

This week we learned about Habit 3: Put First Things First.

Put First Things First means to decide what is most important and to take care of that first. Thinking about what needs to be done tomorrow or by the end of the week can be overwhelming, especially for children. Through practice, children can learn to think about which things are the most important and take care of them first. This allows children (and adults) to be less stressed. For example, if children can tell you they need a piece of poster board on Thursday or cupcakes on Monday, everyone can better prepare. Put First Things First becomes an important skill as your child advances grade levels. 

In Math, we are learning how to read and write large numbers in different ways, comparing & ordering numbers, and finding the rule in a pattern. Large numbers can be intimidating, but when their place-value structure is understood they are actually very simple. Encourage your child to draw a place-value chart like the one below. Place a few coins or other small household objects in each column (any number from 0 to 9) and have your child write the number that is formed. An example is shown:

Ask your child to make statements about the numbers using what she or he has learned about place value. For example, the digit 3 in 43,012 stands for 3 thousands or 3,000. You also have your compare three numbers using the words or phrases greater than, less than, greatest number, least number, more than.

In reading and writing, we just finished the first quadrant of our book, Shiloh. We were learning how to infer the characters’ feelings and think about what motivates them to do things. Thinking about the main character’s feelings and motivations to help us understand the main character better.

In social studies, we learn how to present our artifacts about social scientists effectively to our third-grade classmates.