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Monthly Archives: August 2018

August 27th, 2018 – Into the Groove

Hello Families!

As we enter week three of school, the class is settling into a nice routine.  I have really enjoyed getting to know your children, and have been impressed with their kindness towards each other.  Any peer disagreements have been solved quickly and peacefully, which I appreciate.  One lesson your children partake in each week is a “Second Step” lesson, which is a behavior program to help kids learn to get along in a variety of tricky situations.  Based on the first two weeks, I’d say your kids are ahead of the curve when it comes to getting along with each other!

Our theme of the week in reading is “Traditions,” and we’ll spend the week reading stories about traditions, as well as sharing our own family traditions.  We had our first spelling test last week, and we’ll have spelling the next four weeks leading up to our first Unit Test at the end of September.  The majority of kids did and awesome job on their spelling test this week, which is no accident.  Keep up the extra studying at home!

In Math we’ll explore 2s, 10s and 9s in multiplication and division.  Most kids are doing a great job returning homework!  This week, I anticipate my Math class will have homework on these nights.

Monday – Homework 1-6

Tuesday – None

Wednesday – Homework 1-7

Thursday – Homework 1-8 (Possibly)

Friday – Homework 1-8 (if not assigned Thursday)

You child should have brought home a green field trip note for our September 6th trip to Morrill Hall.  If you can’t find the note, please click on the “Events” tab to read the information letter.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Eric Wachter

August 20th, 2018 – MAP Testing Week

Good Morning Families!

We had an awesome first week of school in room 702!  I really enjoyed getting to know the kids, and I’m looking forward to strengthening our bond in the weeks to come.

This week, we’ll begin our structured curriculum in reading, and your child will bring home his/her first spelling list.  Our lists come home on Mondays, and our tests will be on Friday mornings.  We’ll practice during the week, but any extra practice at home is always beneficial.

Our reading theme this week is “Storytime,” and we’ll learn from some fun fantasy and folktale books. I absolutely love reading stories to the kids, and I’m so eager to officially start this week.

In Math, we’ll continue exploring multiplication, and will introduce division.  Last week, we spent a lot of time mastering our 5s, and this week will explore division with 5s, as well as introduce 2s.  We have several more two day lesson this week, so our tentative homework schedule will look like the following.

Monday – Homework 1-3

Tuesday – No Homework

Wednesday – Homework 1-4

Thursday – No Homework

Friday – Homework 1-5

This week we will also take our fall MAP Tests for reading (Tuesday at 10:35) and math (Thursday at 1:25).  These tests give us a baseline of information about your children, and help guide our instruction throughout the year.  The kids will also take a mid-year version of this test in January, and then will end the year with the state reading and math tests (NSCAS) in the spring.  There is nothing your child needs to do to prepare for these tests, as they are not directly based on any curriculum they have been taught, but rather a general overview of their academic abilities.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Eric Wachter

August 13, 2018 – Welcome to Third Grade!

Good Morning Families!

I’m so glad the new school year has finally arrived!  It’s an honor to be your child’s teacher, and I hope you’re as excited as I am to start our journey together.

This week we’ll ease our way into the year with several introductory lessons about routines and schedules.  We’ll do several reading activities and do lots of sentence practice, but our core reading curriculum and spelling will start next week.

In Math class, we will dive right in!  We’ll begin exploring multiplication and division, and will spend the majority of quarter 1 on those concepts.  Depending on your child’s Math teacher, homework assignments may vary from night to night.  For the kids in my Math class, I hope to give you an idea when your child will have homework each night in these weekly emails.  For example, I am planning on assigning homework on the following nights this week.

Monday – All About You…By the Numbers!

Tuesday – Homework 1-1

Wednesday – None

Thursday – Homework 1-2

Friday – None

Many of the first lessons in unit one take two days, so there will commonly be gaps in the nights they have homework.  Of course, if a lesson doesn’t go well, I might skip the homework that night.  But, hopefully these emails will give you an idea when to expect homework.

I hope you take a moment to look over our class web site.  I still need to polish up a few things from last year, but I hope you find it to be a good resource for this school year.  When I get it updated, you’ll see news about spelling lists, field trips, conferences, etc.

I’m sure I’m leaving something out, but the kids are coming and I better get ready!  Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for the communication throughout the year!

Eric Wachter