|
Jennifer Tschirky
 Dear
Third Grade Parents,
I
am pleased to write this
letter and introduce myself as
your child's third-grade
teacher. This will be my
seventh year at Good Shepherd.
Previously, I taught fifth and
sixth grade in Stockton.
I look forward to getting to
know all of the parents who
have children in my classroom
this year, and get to know
your children and their unique
talents and strengths.
Each
Monday I will send home a
packet in a plastic folder. It
will contain the newsletter
for the week as well as the
homework packet which will be
due on Friday. The homework
packet will consist of a
variety of math, spelling,
social studies, and science
follow up activities to go
along with what is being
taught in class that week. I
will also be requiring that
students read at home in the
evening for 20 to 25 minutes
and record their book titles
and the pages that they have
read on a weekly reading
log.
Multiplication
and Division are taught in the
third grade. Both concepts
require a lot of time
practicing and memorizing
facts. Your child will need a
set of multiplication flash
cards for practicing at home.
We will start learning about
multiplication towards the
beginning of the second
trimester, but it is
recommended that you start
practicing with flash cards at
home now.
Each
Friday we will have a spelling
test. We will learn the words
in class and have a pretest on
Monday. The pretest will be
self-corrected so that the
student will know which words
they need more practice
learning. In September we will
have three bonus words each
week they will be noted on the
newsletter.
During
the first week of school we
will be spending some time
learning about behavior
expectations for the
classroom. I will also be
teaching the students about
the procedures that we will
have in place in the classroom
in order to maintain and
optimize the learning
environment. We will also be
learning our routines such as
read aloud and silent
reading.
We
will have monthly class
meetings. The idea of the
class meeting is for students
to learn to problem solve on
their own. We will start the
class meeting with a
compliment(s) from the
compliment jar. The goal is to
get students to learn some
conflict management skills as
well as to create a team
environment.
Our
first teacher Read-Aloud will
be Charlotte's Web. We will
start this during the second
week. Read-Aloud will occur
daily. Students will follow
along in their copy of the
book. We will use this
experience to talk about story
elements as well as to learn
vocabulary. I will also
include reading comprehension
activities and journal writing
about the particular
book.
I
will be continuing to plan
third grade art projects that
go along with the curriculum.
In addition the students will
have Art with Mrs. Weber on
Thursdays.
We
will be working in the life
lab this year as well as
having in class science
experiments. We will start
with life science experiments
(like planting seeds,) then
hypothesizing and observing
them.
The
first topic we will cover in
social studies is
"Geography and
Landscapes." At this
point I am still working on
planning the field trips for
the year. They will tie into
the third grade curriculum. I
will let you know when I have
more information to share
about the year's field
trips.
One
very important note is in
order to save paper and school
resources we will be reducing
the amount of worksheets the
children will use and find
other ways to teach and assess
the topics. Please check
RenWeb for weekly newsletters
and announcements.
PE
for third grade will be taught
by our fourth-grade teacher,
Mr. Mike Norande. Please send
your chid in their PE uniform
on Wednesdays and
Fridays.
I
look forward to having a
wonderful year.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Tschirky
|
