WELCOME

1. WELCOME MRS. MESSINA’S THIRD GRADE CLASS 2013-2014

2. Verification Forms Please check your verification form, make changes, and sign when correct. Place it in the bin on the counter.

3. Who is Mrs. Messina? • an Elburn resident • an enthusiastic veteran teacher who has taught: • combined 7th/8th grade • 6th grade • 4th grade • 3rd grade • a National Board Certified Teacher with a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and 49 hours of education beyond that. • a mother of two adult children • a grandmother of two • a teacher who can’t wait for the year to begin!

4. And so it goes… Procedures & Important Information

5. CLASSROOM GOALS My hope is to help guide each child to: Learn to the best of his/her ability. Be willing to always try and give a best effort. Develop critical and creative thinking skills. Work cooperatively with the class, in small groups, and with a partner. Become an independent worker in following directions and completing assignments.

6. REPORT CARDS There will be correlating shaded boxes under one of four categories: Beginning, Developing, Progressing, or Strength. The shaded box indicates which level your child is expected to accomplish during that grading period. Beginning (B) Student shows little understanding of concepts or skills. Developing (D) Student shows some understanding. However, errors or misunderstandings still occur. Progressing (P) Student shows understanding of concepts or skills; occasional inconsistencies in application Strength (S) Student shows strength and consistently applies concepts or skills

7. THE ESSENTIAL 10 1. Treat others with kindness. 2. Use words “Please” and “Thank You”. 3. Address adults by name. 4. Make eye contact. 5. Be a good listener. 6. Walk quietly in halls staying in a single-file line. 7. Hold the door for others. 8. Keep the school clean. 9. Behave in the washroom. 10.Change activities quietly and quickly.

8. THREE R’S: RESPECTFULNESS, RESPONSIBILITY, READINESS These are taught school wide and are general guidelines on how students are expected to behave anywhere in the school. We use a reward system call Daisy Dollars, named after my dog. Students receive dollars when choosing good behavior. For instance, your child may earn money when being in seats on time, turning in homework in a timely manner, and exhibiting kindness towards others.

9. HOMEWORK Expect homework most days. Math homework and home reading are usually every day assignments. In general, all other work that your child brings home is work that, for whatever reason, was not finished in class. Homework is designed to reinforce new concepts or to practice new skills that are essential to success in third grade and beyond. Generally, work should take no longer than forty minutes. If your family has a busy schedule, on occasion or an emergency, I ask only that you drop me a note so that work time can be extended.

10. Konnect All announcements and homework are posted on your classroom Konnect pages. If you have forgotten your Konnect login, please see one of the office personnel, and they will assist you.

11. Recess/Lunch Recess will be at 11:20 with lunch following immediately. Please make sure that your child has a filling breakfast with staying power.

12. ABSENCES If you wish your child to receive work during an absence, simply email me to let me know who will be taking the work home to you. Generally, if your child is sick at home, it may be best to wait until returning to school to try to accomplish homework. My rule of thumb is one day to make up work for each day that the child is absent.

13. LATE ASSIGNMENTS It is essential to develop sound study habits. Students are expected to complete assignments on time. I am available to help students who require additional assistance. Should this become a persistent problem, parents will be contacted so that we may devise a plan that is profitable for the student.

14. Weekly Progress Report All 3rd grade teachers will be completing Weekly Progress Reports on each Friday. This should enhance communication regarding missing assignments or help to share behavior concerns.

15. SNACKS *** Do not send in any snack with nuts!!!! We have a nut allergy and really need to be very careful not to bring nuts into the classroom.**** Pleasemake sure your child has a good, filling breakfast each and every day. In third grade, your child may bring a NUTRITIOUS snack. If your student must have a water bottle, it should have a sport top that is closeable. Should the water bottle become a repeated distraction or your child needs to visit the restroom frequently, I will ask that the water bottle remain at home.

16. Please consider volunteering… We work together closely with classroom volunteers who so graciously give their time to help the students excel. Please consider donating your time as a weekly volunteer. Your length of time can be as little as a half hour a week to multiple hours. We appreciate any time you can give us. Sign ups are on the front board.

17. Now for the fun…! Curriculum

18. READING Classrooms focus on four different types of reading experiences: • Reading aloud to children • Shared reading -whole class • Guided reading - small group • Independent reading Comprehension Strategies Taught • Making connections • Predicting • Schema • Questioning • Visualizing • Synthesizing • Inferring • Determining Importance

19. Types of Reading Genres We Will Cover • Biographies • Non-fiction • Narrative • Functional Text: Magazines/Newspapers • Fantasy • Poetry • Historical Fiction • Realistic Fiction

20. WRITING We will be using a writing workshop approach to writing. I will teach a mini lesson, the students will spend time on their writing while I conference with students, and then we will share our stories and strategies for writing together. The four types of writing experiences are: Shared writing - whole classInteractive writing - whole class Writer's workshop - small groups or individualIndependent writing Student work will be evaluated based on the following criteria: • Generated ideas and relative details • Organization • Word Choice • Conventions Students will also be studying grammar within the writing workshop. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives will be our parts of speech focus.

21. SPELLING Students are tested to find each child’s ideal instructional level. They are then separated into spelling groups ; all third grade teachers share the groups and are responsible for teaching at least two groups per stage/cycle. Each word list is studied for two weeks and then tested to see if the students should move on to the next week’s words. At the end of the cycle, students are re-evaluated in order to place them in a new appropriate learning stage. It is important to note that our spelling program is not about memorizing the words. We focus on teaching common spelling patterns. You will receive new words every two weeks ; please work with your child to sort and play with the words.

22. MATH New Core Standards Kaneland teachers are working hard to make sure rigorous common standards are taught through many resources and activities this year. We utilize the My Math program but it is not the only resource we will be using. We will also employ games, projects, journals, and other hands-on activities to help support your child’s acquisition of lifelong math skills. Concepts OA=Operations and Algebraic Thinking, NBT=Number and Operations in Base 10, MD=Measurements and Data, G=Geometry, NF=Number and Operations-Fractions, ***Students will need to master addition and subtraction facts as soon as possible in order to be successful with multiplication and division.****

23. Math Structure: The third grade team will be flexible grouping for Math. This means students will be tested before each unit and placed with other students who are at about the same level of achievement. Your child may or may not move to other 3rd grade classrooms for Math. At the end of each unit students will be given a post test and that will determine if they will need any additional instruction in that unit to be successful. All 3rd grade classroom teachers will teach the same main lessons but supplemental lessons and depth of lessons may be different depending on student need.

24. SOCIAL STUDIES Students will be reading about different communities and completing several related projects. We will also be working with maps and globes.

25. SCIENCE We use Foss hands-on science kits. The kits are rotated through the third grade each quarter. There are four units and we will concentrate on one unit per quarter. The units are: Space/Planets The Human Body Magnetism and Electricity Water We will question, predict, experiment, work with vocabulary, read supplemental books, and have a lot of fun as we learn!

26. Parent Teacher Conference Sign Up Please remember to sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences this year in the Multipurpose Room. Visit Mrs. McCoy’s Principal Presentation at 5:00 in the gym.

27. Questions?