Byram Lakes Elementary School
3rd Grade
Mrs. Linda Swentzel

SPECIALS

Learning Links (click to open the page)

National Geographic

A+ Math

Bronx Zoo

Dear Third Grade Students and Parents,

ar Third Grade Students anDd DearParents,

Welcome to the first semester in Mrs. Swentzel’s Third Grade Class. This year will be filled with lots of learning and fun too.

I would like to explain some of the things to expect this year. Third Grade is a transition year, where our students move from learning to read to reading to learn. This is a big change from Second Grade. The textbooks are much harder and longer with a lot of work in each. We will work and developing good study habits that hopefully help them as they go through their school carrier.

I will assign homework each night. This homework will help reinforce what we have been working on in class. Their homework should be mostly Monday through Thursday, unless there is a long-term project. Homework should not last longer than 45 minutes. Please try to help your child pick a quiet place to sit down to do their work.

Reading is very important and we will be developing their skills this year. It will help each student if they try to read at home as much as possible. I would like my students to try and read at least 10-15 minutes four times a week this marking period. It is very important for them to read, since this helps them develop better sight vocabulary. We will work on developing skills in predicting, making inferences, comprehension skills, decoding skills and much more. We will be continuing a form of the Accelerated Reading program and I will have a variety of books on the students reading levels housed in the classroom.

Math it is very important!   Each student needs to learn their addition and subtraction facts. Everything they will be learning this year will be based on their knowledge of these facts. So, any practicing that can be done at home will only help and reinforces these facts.

Besides addition and subtraction, we will work on word problems, geometry, measurement, time, money, factions, multiplication and division.

Language Arts This year we will have an important stress on developing writing skills. We will be continuing to work on the Four Square writing process as well as developing quick writing skills. We will progress into working on the Writer's Workshop and a lot of fun with writing.  We will enjoy working with, reading and writing poems of different types. It is important for your children to be able to write good strong creative sentences and paragraphs and we will be working on developing these skills this year into stories.  We will also work on spelling skills and grammar.

Science W e are learning about animals and their habitats.   We are participating in the Journey South program.   This is an interactive program following various animal species in their migration routes in the fall and in the spring. We do follow this program throughout the year.  This program uses practical science as well as social studies skills, and links them with the use of technology and the Internet.

Social Studies We will begin by learning about the continents and oceans as well as learning about basic map skills. We will use maps to follow the Journey South project and to see where our symbolic monarch butterflies will be going, as well as follow the migration routes of other species as they migrate for the fall season.

Handwriting By the end of October, everyone should be writing using cursive writing.

THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BE STRONG THIRD GRADERS:

• Practice your math facts in addition and subtraction

• Read at least 15 minutes every day

• Check out the Learning Links or web sites

• Look at the world around you and enjoy

We’ll be learning lots of new things this year and having fun doing it too!

Bye-Bye for now,

Mrs. Swentzel