Dear Occoquan Families,

Study Hall/STEAM

We are thrilled that the spring session of Study Hall/ STEAM has started. Those students who have signed up will receive targeted instruction for Reading and Math every Tuesday and Thursday. This instruction will help better prepare them for the upcoming SOL's!

Field Trips

We are in the process of planning two wonderful learning opportunities for our third grade students! Keep an eye out for information regarding not one but TWO possible field trips!

Homework

Homework will be sent home on Monday in your child's daily folder. Please have him or her complete it each night and return it to school the next day. Students are expected to show their work when solving their math problems (not just circling the answer!) If your child needs supplies at home to complete this homework (pencils, scratch paper, etc.), please let your child's teacher know. Please note that our Math homework is designed specifically to support students on their end of unit Math assessments, so completing it is extremely beneficial! At least twenty minutes of reading should also take place. In addition, study guides will periodically be sent home for Science and Social Studies tests.

Current Learning Objectives

Language Arts

As readers, we know the importance of being able to comprehend what we read. Some of the comprehension strategies that we will be focusing on will include: making inferences, drawing conclusions, and summarizing. We will also practice identifying the main idea and supporting details in a text. We will continue to practice showing evidence to support our answers by recording the paragraph and line that our answers were found on! (This is a strategy that will help us greatly on the SOL, as well!) Some new forms of literature that were are working with include poetry and functional texts! Other ongoing focuses include: synonyms, antonyms, homophones, word analysis, alphabetical order, and parts of speech. For writing, we are starting our unit on Research Writing! We will be using a number of research tools to learn about an animal of our choice. After conducting research and learning to paraphrase when taking notes, we will follow the writing process to create a rough draft that will be edited and revised. Our final product will be a virtual nonfiction book all about our animal!

Math:

We are currently in the second Place Value unit of the school year. This unit contains a ton of important skills! Some of these skills include addition, subtraction, counting money, comparing money, and rounding. Please continue to practice these skills at home.

Science: We are learning all about the components of food chains! We are identifying producers, consumers, and decomposers. We are also identifying herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.

Social Studies:

Our upcoming units will focus on ancient Greece an ancient Rome!

Upcoming Events

Mark your calendars! We have so much to look forward to here at Occoquan!

March 10-March 17 Book Fair

March 21 Chic-Fil-A Night

March 28th Science Night

March 31 End of Third Quarter

Assessment Dates:

March 7th Food Chains

March 14 Place Value, Addition, and Subtraction Part 2

Sincerely, Your Third Grade Teachers

Mrs. Infante

Mrs. Farrell

Ms. McCole

Mrs. Reese

Ms. Reid