Picariello News

November 2014 Edition

Dear Parent/Guardian,
Its hard to believe that we are already in the month of
November. This is a month that seems to come and go with a blink
of an eye. It will be a very busy month in third grade. We have 2
days off, a half day for parent conferences, and then Thanksgiving
time to spend with our families. Two half day field trips are
planned the second week of the month as well. We will be on a
tight schedule.
I wanted to address student absences. I do send home any
missed work if your child is ever absent from school. The only
work I expect to be passed back in is HOMEWORK. The
classwork that was missed I expect the child to do at home but I do
not expect it to be returned back to school unless the child has a
question about the assignment.
As I mentioned in last months newsletter, third grade has
begun Walk To Read. This first session has come to an end. The
students were administered fall DIBELS, DAZE, and I-Ready tests
and all of the data has been collected and reviewed. Today the
Walk to Read groups have been reconfigured. Your son or daughter
may be with a different teacher or with different students for the
next session based on their strengths and/or weaknesses.

The children rotate through reading centers in our own

classroom twice a week. You have seen many of the independent
reading activities come home over the past weeks in the yellow
folder. It is important to note that the students have the reading
selection available when they are asked to complete an
independent reading activity. This means that they should be
looking back through the reading to find the answers. They are also
expected to be highlighting as they go back into the selection to
find the answer.
In Reading Street we are now on unit two: Smart Solutions.
This unit revolves around the Big Question: What are smart ways
that problems are solved? The weekly concepts we will focus on
in this second unit are, How do the structure of plants and animals
help them solve problems?;How do you know if a solution is a
good solution?; When is it time to find a solution?; What can we
do to make sure solutions are fair?; and How have plants and
animals adapted to solve problems?. Children will be exposed to
expository text, realistic fiction, fantasy, and animal fantasy
throughout the five stories. Phonics lessons within unit two will
focus on syllables V/CV VC/V, final syllable le, consonant
blends, and consonant digraphs. Vocabulary lessons within unit
two will review concepts such as compound words, synonyms/
antonyms, and unfamiliar words. Comprehension lessons within
unit two will focus on main idea/details, compare/contrast, drawing
conclusions, and authors purpose. We will review the skills of
story plot and summarizing. Convention lessons within unit two
will focus on common/proper nouns, singular/plural nouns,
irregular plural nouns, and singular/plural possessive nouns.

Math Fact Drills continue to be given 2-3 times each week.

The first sets reviewed addition facts to eighteen and the last sets

have reviewed subtraction facts to eighteen. Over the next few

weeks the drills will be mixed with addition and subtraction facts
to eighteen. I cannot stress enough that mastery of math facts is
essential. Students will be introduced to multiplication in the next
topic in math and both mutliplication and division math facts are
part of the third grade curriculum. For Term One of the report card
I will be grading my students ONLY on mastery of addition and
subtraction facts.

Xtra Math is a wonderful site for reinforcing the mastery of

math facts. It allows students access to quickly practice the facts as
they use technology. I am happy to see that students are logging on
and using the program. Please remember that I expect students to
log on 4 times each week as part of their homework. A big shout
out to Arianna Lee and Joshua Cazeault for receiving a certificate
of achievement in addition! Congratulations and keep up the good
work!
Students took the Topic 3 assessment in math on Friday. This
week we are moving on to Topic 4: Meanings of Multiplication.
The lessons will focus on multiplication as repeated addition,
arrays and multiplication, the Commutative Property, and writing
multiplication stories. This topic should last only about two weeks.
Topic 5: Multiplication Facts progresses on with lessons that focus
on using patterns. Students will begin to multiply by 2, 5, 9, 0, 1,
and 10.
Parent Conferences will take place in three weeks. Thursday,
November 20th evening conferences will be held and Friday,
November 21st afternoon conferences will be held. Please come
prepared with any questions or concerns that you want to address.
We only have ten minutes to meet and the time goes by quickly.

November birthday wishes went out to Arianna Lee who

celebrated her birthday on Saturday and go out to Julia Donahue
who will celebrate hers on the 29th.

I wish all families a wonderful

Thanksgiving holiday.
Enjoy this special time with family.

Dates to Remember
Tuesday, November 4th: NO SCHOOL Teacher Inservice Day
Friday, November 7th: Book Orders are DUE
Monday, November 10th: Field Trip to Tufts Library in the morning
Tuesday, November 11th : NO SCHOOL
Thurday, November 13th: Field Trip to Science Center in the morning
Thursday, November 20th : Evening Parent Conferences
Friday, November 21st: DAY and Afternoon Parent Conferences
Wednesday, November 26th : DAY of school.
Thursday, November 27th : NO SCHOOLHappy Thanksgiving
Friday, November 28th : NO SCHOOL