Friday, June 9, 2017
Dear Parents and Guardians,
We have been busy this week with the All School Show and a bunch of end of year assessments. We are in the midst of the opinion writing and math end of year assessments. The students have been working hard and some are showing great maturity. I hope you got to see that All School Show because their performance was impressive! Congrats to the soloists.
This afternoon we went to Crimson and Clover Farm. A huge thank you to the parents who helped out as chaperones! Find out what your child learned at the farm.
Summer Reading
As I have said many times this year: reading helps make students better readers. Reading over the summer is a really important way to help your child continue to grow as a reader. Of course, choosing “just right” books that your child really enjoys is also important. I have definitely noticed this year that the students who read books that are not too challenging are making the greatest growth. If a book is too hard to understand, it is hard for a child to improve as a reader or even enjoy the book. The best way to check a book to make sure your child can read it is to have him or her read one full page of text. If there are 5 or more words that are hard for them to figure out, the book is too hard. You can also check to make sure that they understood what they read.
I will have the students write down their favorite books and series next week so that students have ideas for summer reading. Talk to your child about their favorite books and what they would like to recommend.
I have completed their reading assessment for the end of the year. The level for this assessment is the “instructional level,” meaning the level they should read when reading with a teacher, parent or reading group. To find out what level a book is, use the Scholastic Book Wizard website. For the end of third grade, your child tested at an _________. Great strategies to help your reader over the summer are to have special family reading time, diving into a series together, and talking about books. We have started to talk about themes in books and what you learn from a book so this can create great conversation.
Science
This week in science we explored the mystery, “How can you predict when it’s going to storm?” We learned about differences between fair weather clouds and storm clouds, and the role of wind direction in determining whether a rain cloud will pass overhead. You can continue to support your child’s curiosity by looking at clouds together and asking, “What kind of clouds do you think those are? I wonder if it will rain…” We each made a Storm Spotter’s Guide, a small book they made to help them remember how to use the clouds to predict the weather.
Yours truly,
Jessica Harwood