What's in the Forsman Future?

Just a note to those parents of students I have for academic classes.  My gradebook is not up and running yet.  Normally you can log in to parent connect to see all of the updates and current grade in each subject.  I record all grades in my paper grade book as well and am waiting for my e-grade book to be ready for me.  As soon as this happens, I will let you know in my blog.  I am hopeful that this will be soon!

Spelling

We will start out Monday with our pretest of List #3 and then the homework packet that's passed out will be due Friday.  The test is also on Friday.  Remember, I do not grade homework - I check it and look at completion for the homework bank of points in the gradebook but studying for the tests is crucial because this ultimately determines the spelling grades.  During the week we will have phonics lessons that relate to the list and spell our words in sand as well as usually play the spelling game "Sparkle".  I would like your student to hole on to their homework packet until Friday even if they complete the work early because it is attached to the list and I would like them to continue practicing up until the test on Friday.  It is especially important that the students on a modified spelling list return their packet on Friday with the list of words attached because their lists indicate which words they are to be tested on.  Thank you!

Reading
Hopefully the reading for 20 min. every day is going well and you are indicating which days this happens with initials on the calendar for those days.  Thank you!  It will really help the students.  We will finish up our studies of the main reading strategies this coming week.  All of these "tools" as we call them are used to aid comprehension of what we read and we revisit them constantly throughout the year.  There is no "test" at the end of this unit, but when we start reading literature in our reading textbook, novels, etc. there will usually be accompanying vocabulary that the students are expected to work on studying at home.

Math
We are doing an EXCELLENT job in math so far.  Many of the students are commenting that 3rd grade math is easy- YAY!  I want them to feel confident and like math and we are off to a great start.  We will continue our chapter on place value next week.  Many of you may have noticed that I ask the students to record the homework daily in their assignment books, but if it is finished in class (using their time wisely) they can cross it off and I usually will initial that it has been completed.  Sometimes we will not get the chance to complete it in class or will start one together and the rest will be homework.  I am hoping to test on chapter 1 next Friday the 14th.  If you have a textbook that you checked out at Open House you may use that to guide studying, and/or the study packet of re-teach pages, and/or the study sheet that we will complete next week. All of these pieces will be in the math pocket.  After each chapter test, I will go through the math pocket with the students and sort what should be kept in there and what can stay at home.

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!