ALREADY THE BEST, UPLIFT THE REST!
When we begin each day with the best of ourselves, we can uplift others and proudly celebrate our accomplishments.
Dear 3rd Grade Parents,
This year's Celebration classroom theme reflects an important component in 21st century skills focusing on character building and development. Building character requires creating opportunities for our young children to make well-informed and reasonable choices. By empowering our children to realize their potential to create positive change, we will consistently celebrate the best of ourselves in 3rd grade!
What do we hope to accomplish this year?
By integrating content and subject areas (using lessons that infuse a variety of subjects such as Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science, Religion, etc.), we will challenge our children’s minds, empower their senses of well-being, and ignite a spark in their hearts with a commitment to our faith and values essential to becoming whole individuals. Project-based, hands-on assignments and oral presentations will become regular routine this year.
We will use plenty of visual learning tools to organize and retain information such as Thinking Maps.
8 ESSENTIAL THINKING MAPS CAN BE APPLIED TO ALL LEVELS IN ALL SUBJECTS:
Reading/Language Arts: There are Two Sides to Every Story!
As we learn about key narrative elements in fiction, we will also promote an understanding of different points of view. For example, two characters in a story can experience the same incident but will have different ideas or viewpoints about it. It depends on how one “sees” things based on their experiences and beliefs. Analyzing characters’ actions and choices promotes the development of higher-order thinking skills necessary for success in the real world. Later on this year, we will encourage our young readers to develop an interest in nonfiction works such as biographies of historical figures. They will learn how to answer the 5 W's and H (Who/What/Where/When/How/Why) in nonfiction works.
Real World Math
As we focus on memorizing Math facts this year, we will also take some time to remember that math and numbers affect our everyday decisions. When we buy a car, follow a recipe, or decorate our homes, we use Math principles. We will remind each other that we use Math to get things done, whether we're sailing off the coast of Japan or building a house in Peru!
Another important Math feature we added this year is the ALEKS (Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Space) Web-based learning and assessment program. ALEKS uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn't know in a course. ALEKS then instructs the student on the topics she is most ready to learn. ALEKS also provides the advantages of one-on-one instruction, 24/7, from virtually any Web-based computer for a fraction of the cost of a human tutor.
Classroom Incentives
3rd Graders will earn a variety of privileges through our classroom incentives program.
1. Student of the Week: Selected based on behavior and performance, a student gets to be the "Party Planner" who will choose a reason for celebration for the week. We will then use the special occasion as a springboard for our learning weekly.
2. Sticker Sheets: Stickers or stamps are given based on good behavior, good deeds, and overall performance for a variety of privileges.
I am so excited to work with your children and get to know your families this year. We will celebrate the best of ourselves everyday through learning. I wish everyone the best in 3rd grade, and I want everyone to have the most wonderful and memorable experience in this journey.
Love,
Mrs. Pulido
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