Current Events
Next week will be the start of Current Events.  Current events is a mock news team the students participate in.  Every other week, your child will have to prepare a news report.  The students will be assigned the role of Anchor Person, Food Critic, Book Critic, Commercial, Movie Critic, or Sports Reporter.  Students will need to prepare a report with at least 5 sentences to present orally to the class.  For a more detailed description of the assignment, check out the Current Events tab at the top of the blog.  Thirteen students (2 news teams) report each week, so your students will report every other week.  The students love giving these reports and pretending they are actual reporters.  The schedule is also posted at the top so you can double check when your student is scheduled.

Reading Stars
October 1st officially started our reading incentive program.  Students can log into Reading Stars and log their minutes.  Third graders are expected to read 360 minutes a month.  If you divide 360 by 30, you get 12 minutes a night.  The stduents are expected to read 20 minutes a night so this should be a piece of cake.  Students may also write a book review and make comments about the book.  The reviews need to be well written with good grammar and punctuation.  These reviews are for recommending books not to write about the how bad it was.  Only positive statements or Mrs. May will not publish it.  The link for Reading Stars is on my blog.

Math Fact Fluency
With the adoption of the Common Core Math Standards learning math facts in third grade have taken on a new importance.  All third graders are expected to know all their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts by the end of the year.  I have included a number of fact practice sites for your students to visit.  Along with nightly reading, I would like the students to practice their facts for 5-10 minutes per night.

Jackets
With the weather cooling off your students need to bring a coat for recess and P.E.  The school policy is that students need to wear a jacket if it's below 60 degrees.