Mrs. Nelsen's 3rd Grade!: December Letter

Hello Families! November 28, 2017

I know it is a bit early for a December newsletter, but there is so much upcoming information I need to share with you.

We are beginning a new math unit in multidigit addition and subtraction. We DO teach this with borrowing and carrying but we also focus heavily on place value identification in the process. Please support your student with this concept as much as possible by asking them to estimate and round, and add and subtract in their heads quickly. This helps greatly with the place value component.
Our math curriculum, Math Expressions, also uses www.thinkcentral.com for the website. Your students are pretty familiar with how to sign on to this site because we take weekly quizzes for the Reading program every Friday. Please encourage them to sign-on from home so they can do math activities that I have now assigned to them as practice. When they sign on, they will see the tasks under the “things to do” link. Remember, their username is usually just their first initial and last name, their password is gator123.
I have also worked to enroll the students in Typing Club. They can go to the website www.grapeview-school.typingclub.com and use their username (first initial and last name) and enter their password (first initial, last initial) to do the activities and increase their typing skills. Please have them do this as much as possible as it will greatly help them in the spring with testing.
Now for Christmas!!! Our students are performing in a Holiday concert on Tuesday December 12^th beginning at 6:30. Please have your 3^rd grader here by 6:15 and dressed in very nice clothing. I will be here to take them back to our classroom and prepare for the show. Ms. Shanin does such a phenomenal job with our music program, I always look forward to these productions!
We will begin reading an abridged version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens starting next week as a Reader’s Theater. We will likely be doing this three days a week in the mornings if you ever want to participate, please let me know and I will let you know more specifics.
We will be having a Christmas Party in class on our last day of school December 20^th before we go home for break. We will have the party in the afternoon around 2:30 so if you can bring treats or snacks, please let me know. I will also be giving the kids little Christmas presents for them to take home and open so if your student is going to be absent that day, please let me know ahead of time so they can get their gift early.
Last but not least, we are really working to improve our communication with parents and community and would love to get some ideas from you! If you haven’t had a chance to complete the survey that went home a few weeks ago, please take some time to give us your thoughts. If you need another copy, please let me know and I will send one home with your student.