Third Grade

Instructors / Classes  
Jennifer Tschirky / Homeroom Kathy Thomas / Library
Sydney Irish / Music Geoff Odell / Spanish
Erika Hanson / Technology Mike Neronde / PE

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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

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Third Grade Instructors

   
   
greenbal.gif (863 bytes)Jennifer Tschirky Homeroom



 
greenbal.gif (863 bytes)Sydney Irish Music


 
greenbal.gif (863 bytes)Erika Hanson Technology


 
greenbal.gif (863 bytes)Michael Neronde Physical Education


 
greenbal.gif (863 bytes)Kathy Thomas Library


 
greenbal.gif (863 bytes)Geoff Odell Spanish


 

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