Curriculum Night
Mrs. Keogh
Electronically:
ckeogh@paplv.esu3.org
http://members.cox.net/cdkeogh
Homework Folder:
This folder is an extremely important link in our parent/teacher communication. It is also very important in improving your student’s skills of responsibility.
Expect it to come home every night so you and your student can:
- review valuable information regarding events of the week, possible homework assignment(s), upcoming quizzes and field trips.
- There is a box that reflects your student’s behavior during class that day and a box for you to initial showing me that you and your student have gone over any necessary information or assignments.
- It is your student’s responsibility to take the homework folder out of the backpack, discuss it with you, provide a pen/pencil for you to use to initial the box, and return it to the backpack
Notes:
I love notes too! We can either write notes back and forth on the homework sheet or correspond through notes in an envelope. Some issues require the confidentiality that envelopes provide!
Phone:
Feel free to leave me a message during the
school day. I will return your call the first chance I get. Often
times that won’t be until after school.
Work sent home:
I will often write notes on assignments that go home with your student to bring certain things to your attention. Those notes are more like “tips” to help you help your student work on those particular skills at home. At that point, it’s nothing to be concerned about. That’s what these tips are meant to prevent….we want to prevent behaviors or skills (or lack of) from becoming concerns. So please review all papers coming home with your student and praise them on all that they have accomplished!
Not all assignments/quizzes will come home. Some remain in school files. You are always welcome to view and discuss them here at school. Your student will be able to let you know how he/she did on them, and I will review them during parent-teacher conferences.
Third graders are responsible for:
*being responsible and accountable for their own actions, homework, and returning things ON TIME
*reading 350 minutes a month
*practicing math facts and spelling words
*being prepared for quizzes and class
*returning a signed homework sheet daily
Any assignments not completed during the school day are considered homework. As your student continues to develop the skill of managing time and becomes more familiar with being a 3 rd grader, he/she will have less work to bring home.
There will be times when everyone has homework no matter how well they use their time at school. However, your student should not continually be spending more than 15 minutes on a single homework assignment. They may occasionally, especially in math, but definitely not more than 30 minutes! If this becomes a concern, let me know so we can see what’s up.
A student should never be up past bedtime because of homework. On the other hand, I don’t accept, “I didn’t have time to do my homework, because we had to do this, this, and that.” I do, however, believe in life after school! Things do come up and life gets hectic. Write me a note to let me know. Your student can work on the assignment and turn it in before the end of the following school day.
*Reading Logs look like blank calendars. These will begin coming home in September and then continue at the beginning of each new month. They are to be returned at the end of the month. Your student is responsible for recording the amount of minutes read daily.
This gives students invaluable practice in reading. Please encourage your students to spend part of this time reading to themselves and part of it reading out loud to you. This is the best time to help develop your student’s comprehension and fluency skills.
Fluency includes the smoothness, pace, and expression with which your student reads. These are skills that are assessed throughout the year. Comprehension refers to their understanding of what they’ve just read.
* “Little stories” come home Wednesdays. The Little Stories are generally written at a grade below…so at a 2 nd grade reading level. This is so students can concentrate on practicing their reading fluency skills while they read it to you twice on Wednesday. Please initial it after the 2 nd reading, so your student can return it on Thursday. Feel free to model how the reading should sound if you notice your student needing help with reading with expression, pausing at appropriate places, reading too fast, or too slow.
3. Classroom Management (Self-Discipline Skills):
Earlier I mentioned a square on the homework sheet that reflects your students’ “behavior” of that school day. Your students’ choice to use or not use their self-discipline skills is more appropriate than the word “behavior”. Their choices during the day will reflect what type of day they have. I have a Self-Discipline Chart that your students will become very familiar with. They’ll be able to tell you which self-discipline skill they need more practice with if they end up having a hard day. You will know what kind of day they had according to the color of the “behavior square” on the homework sheet for that day.
We use color-coded cards as a personal visual reminder to your student that they need to remember their skills. I give a clear warning first for wrong choices (constant interruptions, put downs, not keeping hands to selves, etc.). As the day progresses and if an unwanted behavior, statement, etc. again occurs, a “green card” is “pulled” and your student jots a note to him/herself of why that card was removed. This continues through yellow, red and then blue cards if needed. Each day is a new beginning. If your child ends up with a red card showing at the end of the day, your student and I discuss which skill needs work and how the situation(s) can be handled in the future. A blue card at the end of the day requires all that a red card does in addition to a copy of what we’ve discussed being sent home for you to sign and return. You will never see an yellow-colored square. Yellow is a visual reminder for your student to work on a skill. If they are able to correct themselves throughout the rest of the day, they end up with a green card! So, you will only see green, red or blue.
This system helps promote responsibility and encourages students to make good choices at school.
Due to the dangers associated with peanut/nut allergies, please do not send anything in with any type of nuts or byproducts such as almond oil for example. Some snacks are processed at plants that also process nut-type products. Little Debbies, Hershey, and others fall under this category, and therefore, are dangerous for those with such allergies. Keep this in mind if your student brings treats on his/her birthdays. (This is optional) Summer birthdays will be celebrated on the half-birthday. If your child’s birthday falls on a weekend or during a holiday, you may decide when you’d like to send the treats. It isn’t necessary to call or write me a note. Please send napkins, spoons, plates, etc. along with the treats. Please do not send a cake or Big time consuming treats. Thank You. So far, we have 18 students.
Brief Overview of Subject Areas:
*Addition and Subtraction
*Place Value and Money
*Addition and Subtraction with Greater Numbers
*Time and Measurement
*Multiplication Concepts and Facts
*Using Data and Probability
*Division Concepts and Facts
*Geometry
*Fractions and Decimals
*Multiplying and Dividing Greater Numbers
*Graphs/Tables/Charts
*Written communication of the thought processes used to problem solve and explanations of their reasoning
Students should be fairly fluent in addition and subtraction facts by Winter Break. They will be required to demonstrate this knowledge throughout the fall by passing each level of math facts.
By the end of January, students will have multiplication facts to begin learning. These are expected to be completed by the end of the school year.
PRACTICE AT HOME IS ESSENTIAL!
*Manuscript practice (printing)
*Zaner-Bloser Cursive
*What is a community?
*Where do people start communities and why?
*The different people who make up a community
*People working together to improve their community
*Living together in a community, state, and nation
*How and why communities grow and change
*Citizenship Skills
*Thinking Skills
* Reading maps, charts, graphs, time lines, and tables
*Papillion!
*Plants and Animals
*Plants and Animals Interact
*Cycles on Earth
*Investigating Matter
*Making hypothesis
*Hands on experiments
*Gathering, recording, displaying or interpreting data
*Group participation
*Drawing conclusions
*Scholastic Literature Based Program
*Strategies and Skills
*Comprehend excerpts from literature
*Vocabulary (be able to use appropriately)
*Appreciation for a variety of literature
*Scholastic Guided Reading Activities
*Literature Circles
*Reader's Notebook
*Spelling words taken from the Scholastic Reading Anthologies
*Journal writing
*Daily Oral Language (D.O.L)
*6-Trait Writing Process
~using punctuation and capitalization correctly
~editing mechanics of writing
~parts of speech
~sentence structure
~complete sentence usage
~paragraphs and stories
~showing voice through writing
*using outside resources as needed (dictionaries)
*Oral Book Talks
*Speaking Skills
*Listening Skills
*Writer's Workshop Notebook