Newsletter

We are getting into the swing of things in 3rd grade.  The first month of school has been a lot of getting to know the kids.  We have learned a lot both personally and academically.  

We have given the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test in reading.  This test we give in the fall and then again in the spring to measure growth.  

We have also completed the MCA Math test preview.  This test is given for a couple reasons.  First, we want to be able to measure where the kids are in math.  This test is designed to measure skills for a third grader at the end of the year.  Some skills included on the test are multiplication, division and fractions.  We have not covered that as a class yet so it is natural that this test is pretty difficult.  We will give another practice test in the winter.  At this time we will be able to compare the first to the second.  The final test is given in the spring.  This is the real test that counts.  This will be after we have covered all of the necessary skills to pass.  All of the results from these tests will be shared with you are conference time.  

Thank you all for checking over the student planners each day.  We ask the third graders to work very hard during the day and we do not want them to be doing hours of homework each day.  We will have something in the planner for them to do but we will also use the planner for communication so that you know what is coming up at Salem Hills.  Please keep asking your child to be responsible for bringing the planner home, showing you what is written and when the work is complete then you sign off on it.  

On Thursday we had a whole class conversation about recess.  We all sat down and talked about some of the things that have been happening outside during this time.  Some of the games that kids have been playing have been getting pretty rough.  We talked about the rules that are posted school wide.  We ended the conversation with the kids that had problems outside, fixing them and then all of the kids wrote out what they plan to do at recess from now on.  

As always, if you have any questions, please fel free to contact us.

Ms. G and Mr. Melde