Forsman's Fancy Front-Page News

2012-01-20T08:27:00.000-08:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

We have data review meetings this week and will discuss the RTI services that we offer and which students qualify for these services currently. We are hoping to have our new RTI groups begin on January 30th. Letters will go home regarding any changes your student may be requiring before that start date. As a whole, our winter MAPs scores showed much growth from our fall scores. Way to go 3rd graders!!!

Spelling
Our class will pretest List #14 on Monday and have our graded test on Friday. The assigned packet of homework will be due on Friday!

Reading
We will be continuing our work with the novel Horrible Harry. We will be working on asking ourselves questions as we read, making connections, and summarizing the important information. Our class is taking on more independence and working in partners to comprehend the reading material. They are excited about this opportunity!

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is continuing to work on the five areas of reading: fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. We are using the Michael Heggerty phonemic awareness program or as we call it "word games" in group now and the students really like it! Please encourage your students to re-read phrases for smoothness at home when you are reading with them. They also should practice decoding or breaking down words into recognizable parts as they are reading each night.

Math
We have finished our study of customary measurement and will begin the metric system. I like to say that we are doing the same chapter, but now they are students from Europe (how glamorous!) :) I am hopeful that a lot of the ideas from the customary system will transfer to the metric but this can be tricky in switching the labels. See if your student can identify both labels for each unit of measurement for length, temperature, weight, and capacity! Temperature is especially fun to discuss now that snow is upon us this season! Here's hoping there are a lot of days above 32 degrees Fahrenheit! :)

Math RTI
Next week, we are working on a mixed review of all of the concepts we have covered so that retention is high. I don't want this to be overwhelming, so we are going over the big ideas from our curriculum across the entire week!

English

This week's prompt: List different ways you can be helpful to others. Why are those good things to do? Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2012-01-13T07:54:00.000-08:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
Our class will pretest List #13 on Tuesday and have our graded test on Friday. The assigned packet of homework will be due on Friday!

Reading
We will be working on the novel study of Horrible Harry. During this unit we will work on identifying character traits as well as using our many other comprehension strategies. We had previously started our study in earlier months however we did not get the chance to complete the novel. As we have welcomed a new student and so much time has past we will probably read the novel again this time in its entirety!

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is continuing to work on the five areas of reading: fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. We have done a lot of work using summaries to help us understand what we read. I have moved towards instruction on how to read independently with comprehension. This is still an area that many students struggle with.

Math
We will continue our study of customary and then metric measurement next week. We also always spend a lot of time on mixed review since retention of these skills (even the ones we have already concentrated on in class this past fall) is so important. I know that a lot of concern has been made regarding multiplication facts. It is developmentally appropriate for your student to not have retention of all of their basic facts. It comes only with time and repetition. For some students this comes easier than to others. As long as you continue to work at it, that is all that we can hope for. We are most concerned for the students that are not putting in the time at all. Please look for games at the teacher store, computer games, "around the world" style competitions, and any other fun ways to practice these facts with your student. Be creative! :)

Math RTI
We will continue to use the math intervention Number Worlds. We will work on volume and capacity next week as well as a mixed review of all the concepts we have learned so far. The mixed review that we do so often is the best thing for your child's overall math concept comprehension!

English
This week's prompt: Which do you think is a more important number, zero or nine? Explain. Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2012-01-06T09:12:00.000-08:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
Our class will pretest List #12 on Monday with our and a graded test on Friday. The assigned packet of homework will be due on Friday as per previous weeks.

Reading

We have started working on identifying facts and opinions and being able to distinguish between the two. Next week we will continue this study and apply it to our story Nights of the Pufflings as well as advertisements that students might come across in their world. We will also touch on comparing/contrasting ideas and stories.

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is continuing to work on the five areas of reading: fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. We have done a lot of work using summaries to help us understand what we read. I have moved towards instruction on how to read independently with comprehension. This is still an area that many students struggle with.

Math

We are working on measurement in math class. We are studying customary first and then metric. We will assess the students on their knowledge first of the customary system and then on the metric so they do not get confused.

Math RTI
We will continue to use the math intervention Number Worlds. We have worked on various number sense concepts and time so far. We will be starting to focus on measurement next week.

English
This week's prompt: What is your New Year's Resolution? Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-12-16T10:20:00.000-08:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
When we get back we will start the week with a pretest of List #11 on Tuesday and a final test on Friday. The assigned packet of homework will be due on Friday as per previous weeks.

Reading
Our December reading calendar is due January 3rd, but the genre book report is due January 31st. It can be turned in earlier, if it is complete. We will start working on identifying facts/opinions as well as comparing and contrasting using the basal story Nights of the Pufflings. Continue to practice reading over break! :)

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is continuing to work on the five areas of reading: fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. We have done a lot of work using summaries to help us understand what we read. We have done a lot of work in large groups but every once in awhile I will ask them to do this independently to assess their skill set. I am also asking the students to respond in writing to comprehension questions regarding a reading selection. They are doing a great job decoding words and I am excited to see them get faster with this so that their reading sounds more smooth to the listener!

Math
We just finished our study of graphs and grids. This is an area that the students seemed to struggle with as far as using a chart/graph to solve problems is concerned. Please encourage your student to graph information over break as well as continuing to work on their multiplication facts, telling time, and working with money!~ :)

Math RTI
We will continue to use the math intervention Number Worlds. We have worked on various number sense concepts and time so far. After break we will start up with symmetry. As always we always work on our basic facts.

English
This week's prompt: Describe a perfect winter vacation. Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-12-01T09:09:00.000-08:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
We are back to regular spelling schedules this week with a pretest on Monday and a final test on Friday. The assigned packet of homework will be due on Friday as per previous weeks.

Reading
We are starting to work on the strategy of visualizing using the high interest story Dogzilla! The students will have fun working with this story and more while continuing to improve our independent comprehension skills. We also have a new genre to work with for the next two months - Fiction! The new genre book report is due January 31st, but can be turned in earlier.

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is continuing to work on the five areas of reading: fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. We have done a lot of work using summaries to help us understand what we read. We have done a lot of work in large groups but every once in awhile I will ask them to do this independently to assess their skill set. I am also asking the students to respond in writing to comprehension questions regarding a reading selection.

Math
Though we have concluded our chapter on time and money, please continue to give your students opportunities to work with clocks/money. This will help with their retention of the knowledge that they have gained. Please also continue to work on multiplication - this is an area of difficulty for many of our students and it will only come in handy when we start discussing division.

Math RTI
We will continue to preview and review the concepts from the 3rd grade math curriculum as well as supplementing with number sense intervention and review.

English
This week's prompt:
Try to persuade your teacher that homework assignments are unnecessary. Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-11-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
We will continue to work on synonyms/antonyms and analogies this next week. There is nothing to study, I am just continually assessing their understanding of these word relationships. After the Thanksgiving break, we will resume regular spelling lessons and testing schedules.

Reading
We are taking a break from our work with Horrible Harry in Room 2B in favor of some Thanksgiving Reader's Theater for fluency as well as practicing our reading strategies using Thanksgiving themed literature.

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is continuing to work on the five areas of reading: fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. We have started to talk about "genre" and how to identify what genre a story, novel, etc. is. Our group is now working in partners with short stories of varying genres to read and pull out the main idea and important details so they can summarize their literary work to the class! This gives me a chance to walk around and work with the students on a more individual level as well as fostering leadership skills and independence with our reading comprehension strategies!

Math
We will be starting to discuss the time portion of chapter 5 next week and then Thanksgiving Break is upon us. We will continue to work on time after break as well. We are planning on making a cute visual aid for the students to better comprehend elapsed time.

Math RTI
We will continue to preview and review the concepts from the 3rd grade math curriculum as well as supplementing with number sense intervention and review. We will continue to work on the concept of counting money and work our way to counting back change (which is typically difficult at this grade level) Please try to give your students opportunities at home to work with coins and paper money. Help them feel comfortable identifying their various values as well as counting it out, etc. Then we will move on to supporting their study of telling time and working with amounts of time.

English
This week's prompt: Choose a person you admire. Describe his or her most admirable traits. Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-11-09T08:38:00.000-08:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Lexile Helpers: Hi Parents/Families! As other teachers might have expressed, we are assigning a lexile score to each of our classroom books in order to make it easier for students to select books to read that are at their level. This is very time consuming so any help that parents could give during the school day is appreciated. I would have a station set up ready to go and you could stay as little/long as you can or would like to. Please e-mail me if you are interested and able to help out. This would greatly assist our reading instruction. :) Thanks!

Spelling
We will continue to work on synonyms/antonyms and analogies this next week. Due to the extensive practice we have had in class I decided to do little quizzes after each concept instead of one giant test so the students would not get confused. There is nothing to study, I am just assessing their understanding of these word relationships. After the Thanksgiving break, we will resume regular spelling lessons and testing schedules.

Reading
We are continuing our work with Horrible Harry in Room 2B. This has proved to be a high interest book and the students have made many connections already! They love to participate and read aloud and get a lot of chances to do so. We are using graphic organizers to pull out and remember the story elements and add to these as we read further.

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is continuing to work on the five areas of reading: fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. We have started to talk about "genre" and how to identify what genre a story, novel, etc. is. Our group is now working in partners with short stories of varying genres to read and pull out the main idea and important details so they can summarize their literary work to the class! This gives me a chance to walk around and work with the students on a more individual level as well as fostering leadership skills and independence with our reading comprehension strategies!

Math
Chapter 5 will continue on into next week. The students are getting lots of chances to work with money and do hands-on activities in comparing values and counting change. We will also be adding and subtracting money amounts before we start the time section of the chapter. We will quiz on each concept separately so as not to confuse the students. Thank you for sending in the change baggies. This will aid your student in comprehending our lessons!

Math RTI
We will continue to preview and review the concepts from the 3rd grade math curriculum as well as supplementing with number sense intervention and review. We will continue to work on the concept of counting money and work our way to counting back change (which is typically difficult at this grade level) Please try to give your students opportunities at home to work with coins and paper money. Help them feel comfortable identifying their various values as well as counting it out, etc.

English
This week's prompt: Write questions you'd like the President of the United States to answer if you were interviewing him. Explain why these are important to you. Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-11-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
We are taking some time away from the regular spelling lists so that we can focus on analogies. We will have an analogies test on Friday after much in class instruction this week.

Reading
Mrs. Forsman's reading class will start a novel study using the novel Horrible Harry in Room 2B. We will focus on understanding story elements like characters, settings, and plots. We will also integrate the reading strategies that we have already studied thus far in the school year.

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is continuing to work on the five areas of reading: fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. The students have been really excited about Downers Grove's history and our upcoming field trip. We also have fostered a love of non-fiction reading using Time for Kids magazines! In the coming weeks we will be working on using our reading skills more independently and in small groups versus teacher led.

Math
We are starting Chapter 5 next week on money and time. This is a great measurement chapter and we have fun activities planned to help students comprehend these life skills. Elapsed time is typically a difficult concept for students so please try to supplement our teaching here in school at home in this area if possible.

Math RTI
We will continue to preview and review the concepts from the 3rd grade math curriculum as well as supplementing with number sense intervention and review. We have had great success with rounding and are ready to focus on time and money to support what is being learned in the classroom!

English
This week's prompt:
Would you rather be an airplane pilot or an astronaut? Explain. Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-10-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
We will be back to working on our regular spelling lists this coming week with List #8. We will have a pre-test on Monday and our final test on Friday once again. Our homework packet is due on Friday as well.

Reading
We will continue to focus on cause and effect as we read stories from the basal and other materials such as non fiction articles and chapter books. We will also work on synonyms and antonyms.

Our reading calendar for October is due on the 31st and the November calendar will be assigned. Also new this month: the genre book reports will be starting November 1st. A packet of explicit information about these will be coming home for review. Basically, each month the students select a book to read (it counts towards the calendar reading) from a certain genre. Please help to make sure it is at their reading level. They are to read this book and do a fun project that they will turn in!

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is continuing to work on the five areas of reading: fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. We have also really been concentrating on the comprehension of non-fiction reading materials such as the history of Downers Grove in preparation for our upcoming field trip to the sights we are learning about.

Math
We will be taking time next week to work on problem solving and writing explanations as to what steps we took to solve those problems/why. This is typically difficult and requires a lot of thought about the reasons behind our problem solving strategies. Please feel free to encourage your child to orally explain the reasons behind their actions in general or the steps they take to solve math problems. This would be great practice!

Math RTI
We will continue to preview and review the concepts from the 3rd grade math curriculum as well as supplementing with number sense intervention and review.

English
This week's prompt: As a circus performer, would you rather walk a tightrope or be shot from a cannon? Explain. Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-10-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
We will be working with Halloween words this coming week. We will not have a pre-test but will have our final test on Friday! We will still have a packet of homework due on Friday as well.

Note for my reading class... Dinner Plate Words have been a great success! The students will have so much more schema regarding these topics throughout the year and they are so excited to bring back in their plates. Thanks for the participation!

Reading
We will begin to focus on cause and effect as we read stories from the basal and other materials such as non fiction articles and chapter books. We will also work on synonyms and antonyms.

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group continuing to work on the five areas of reading: fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. We have also really been concentrating on the comprehension of non-fiction reading materials such as the history of Downers Grove in preparation for our upcoming field trip to the sights we are learning about.

Math
We are continuing chapter 2 next week and spending more time on rounding to higher place values. We will be working a lot in smaller groups and doing more math station rotations in the future so that each student can not only learn the 3rd grade mathematics curriculum but also work independently on skills at their level or be enriched as well.

Math RTI
The math RTI groups will be using the new Intervention called Number Worlds. We are excited about piloting this new program and using it to gain lots of data about our students' level of understanding!

English
This week's prompt: If dragons were real, would you want one for a pet? Explain. Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-10-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
We will be pretesting List #7 on Monday and assigning the homework for the week. My students will have a packet to complete and turn in on Friday. The cursive sheet has been looking great! We will also test on Friday!

Note for my reading class... we have started "Dinner Plate Words". These are third grade words that we write on a plate each week. Please try to use these words with your student or talk about them at home during dinner! If you do sometime in the week (or everyday if you are ambitious) please sign the plate so that your student can bring it in on Friday for a bonus ticket! This is a great way to increase their vocabulary!

Reading
We will continue to work on inferencing as we read good fit books. We will work on word, setting, and character inferences.

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group continuing to work on the five areas of reading: fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. I have noticed great improvements already from our short time together. I cannot wait to see these gains increase!

Math
We are starting chapter 2 next week. This chapter will focus on ordering and comparing numbers.

Math RTI
The math RTI group will be splitting into two smaller groups for a better student to teacher ratio. Some students will be working with Mrs. Kelly and some will continue to work with me. We will both continue to preview math concepts as well as review concepts that the students may need extra intervention with.

English
This week's prompt: Tomorrow is Saturday. Explain what you like most and least about Saturdays... Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-10-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
There is no spelling homework or test this week due to the 2 days off at the beginning of the week.

Reading
Our continued focus will be on inferring this week as we practice using many reading strategies to improve our reading. The inferences we make will be about text, characters, and unfamiliar words. How are your child's "good fit" books working out? Are they willingly reading at home for 20 minutes each night? If this is a struggle, perhaps I could work with your child to find a book they will be very interested in - let me know!

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is working on both fluency and comprehension daily. For fluency we are starting back at phonics practice and decoding words using the Lexia and Wilson interventions. Please help support your student and ask them to "tap out" unfamiliar words or break them down into familiar parts/sounds. For comprehension, we are using the "Soar to Success" guided reading model with a variety of fiction and non-fiction materials. I am trying also to supplement our non-fiction studies with 3rd grade social studies and science curriculum materials for comprehension practice. We progress monitor these students weekly with a one minute fluency reading. Please continue to support at home by asking your students to break down unfamiliar words into the parts we've learned in class. The more they do this instead of guessing or giving up - the quicker decoding will come for them!

Math
We will be finishing up chapter 1 next week. Our test date is slated for Friday. Please look for the Chapter 1 study packet in your child's homework pocket or math folder. On Thursday, we will once again practice problem solving and math extended responses. This is higher level thinking in math so it is difficult for the students - we will be getting in a lot of practice with this!

Math RTI
My RTI group is working on really gaining automaticity, accuracy, and speed with regards to our basic math facts. We will also continue to work on adding with regrouping and subtraction with borrowing to keep this fresh in our minds. The new skills we have been concentrating on include place value and number sense (evens/odds, patterns, numberline work, etc.). The students seem to be feeling pretty confident in this area!

English
This week's prompt: Think about the last few days... how have you used your sense of smell? Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence. You could even make this into a creative story!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-09-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
We are pretesting with List #6 on Monday of next week. Please remember that if your student receives a 90% or higher they will be working from the "challenge" list of words for their homework. All homework is due on Friday and if your student is taking the posttest, that will be Friday as well.

Reading
We will focus on the reading strategy inferencing. The students will use basal reading stories, supplemental short stories, and possibly novels to extend their practice of understanding what they read. Students will learn new vocabulary words from stories they are reading. We will also continue to work on an extended response where we use ideas from the text combined with our own ideas to answer a question.

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is working on both fluency and comprehension daily. For fluency we are starting back at phonics practice and decoding words using the Lexia and Wilson interventions. Please help support your student and ask them to "tap out" unfamiliar words or break them down into familiar parts/sounds. For comprehension, we are using the "Soar to Success" guided reading model with a variety of fiction and non-fiction materials. I am trying also to supplement our non-fiction studies with 3rd grade social studies and science curriculum materials for comprehension practice. We progress monitor these students weekly with a one minute fluency reading. This week the students had difficulty remembering the 2 sounds that the letter "u" makes: "oo" and "uh".

Math
We are starting Chapter 1 next week. We will discuss number grids, using a numberline, and place value. We have also started taking mixed addition and subtraction fact tests on Fridays (not timed) so that the students are continually working on this. We also started discussing the "T-chart" for math which means taking a word problem and breaking it down into steps but afterwards explaining in words both what you did to solve the problem and why. This is historically difficult for students, but we are starting early and will practice often.

Math RTI
My RTI group is working on really gaining automaticity, accuracy, and speed with regards to our basic math facts. This can only aid in the understanding and accuracy of larger math problems, word problems, etc. We also have reinforced the concepts the students are learning in the classroom (4 digit addition with regrouping and 3-4 digit subtraction with borrowing and across zeros). We have also started skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s, and 10s while discussing even and odd. We use hands on activities, technology, and movement to increase comprehension and motivation to continually practice the procedures involved. We have established baseline scores and goals through our AIMsweb computer program and will be starting to progress monitor these students shortly.

English
This week's prompt: If I could change the world, I would... Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your response. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence.

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-09-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
We are pretesting with List #5 on Monday of next week. Please remember that if your student receives a 90% or higher they will be working from the "challenge" list of words for their homework. All homework is due on Friday (even though it is an early dismissal day) and if your student is taking the posttest, that will be Friday as well.

Reading
Next week we will continue to highlight summarizing and sequencing using materials differentiated for our classroom's various reading levels, and will be extending our knowledge through written responses. We will also assess our third graders on their ability to sequence events from text.

Reading RTI
My Tier 3 RTI group is working on both fluency and comprehension daily. For fluency we are starting back at phonics practice and decoding words using the Lexia and Wilson interventions. Please help support your student and ask them to "tap out" unfamiliar words or break them down into familiar parts/sounds. For comprehension, we are using the "Soar to Success" guided reading model with a variety of fiction and non-fiction materials. I am trying also to supplement our non-fiction studies with 3rd grade social studies and science curriculum materials for comprehension practice. We progress monitor these students weekly with a one minute fluency reading.

Math
We are continuing to work on subtraction into next week. Borrowing across several digits as well as subtracting across zeros have historically been difficult concepts to master for students at this grade level. Lots of practice at home is key. We are looking at possibly testing on Chapter 4 (Subtraction) next week. Please see the assignment notebooks for specifics. We will do lots of review beforehand and the study packet will really come in handy for example problems, etc. Please also continue to practice the addition and subtraction flash cards.

Math RTI
My RTI group is working on really gaining automaticity, accuracy, and speed with regards to our basic math facts. This can only aid in the understanding and accuracy of larger math problems, word problems, etc. We also have reinforced the concepts the students are learning in the classroom (4 digit addition with regrouping and 3-4 digit subtraction with borrowing). We use hands on activities, technology, and movement to increase comprehension and motivation to continually practice the procedures involved. We will be starting to progress monitor these students shortly. More information to come!

English
This week's prompt: Imagine you are being honored with a special award. How did you earn it? Practice "turning around the question" and start your response with words right from the question. For example... "I was honored with a special award for..." Try to elaborate and add exciting details to your story. Make it into a paragraph and think of 6 sentences to support your topic sentence.

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-09-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
We are pretesting with List #4 on Monday of next week. Please remember that if your student receives a 90% or higher they will be working from the "challenge" list of words for their homework. All homework is due on Friday and if your student is taking the posttest, that will be Friday as well. My spelling students will always have their homework stapled together as a packet to help them keep all required parts together.

Reading
Now we will start to put the reading strategies we have learned to great use while reading various types of literature. We will always be reviewing/using all of the strategies, but for the coming weeks we will highly focus on the strategies of sequencing and summarizing. The students will use basal reading stories, supplemental short stories, and possibly novels to extend their practice of understanding what they read. As a third grade we are really highlighting oral and written responses to what was read and will integrate this throughout. We will also work on an extended response where we use ideas from the text combined with our own ideas to answer a question.

Math
We took our first chapter test today and will need to complete it on Monday. Please note that after we complete each chapter we will be going through our math folders to place un-needed papers in the "keep at home" pocket. Please help the students clear out the keep at home pockets nightly. Right after part two of our test, we will be starting Chapter 4 on Subtraction. We start off with a quick review of the subtraction touch math strategy and then discuss fact families, double and triple digit subtraction with regrouping, and subtracting across zeros.

English
My focus for the English section of my blog will be shifting from the classroom (please consult the blogs of your child's classroom teacher for this) to general writing tips and prompts for daily writing journals. I write in my blogs all the time about the importance of daily writing - even if it is just a sentence a day. If your student has a notebook by their bed try to get them into the habit of recording a dream (in complete sentences) that they had the night before or recording a wish they have for the coming day. Be creative and this can be fun for kids!!

This coming week's prompt: When I get older, I want to be a ___________ because...

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-09-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling
We are pretesting with List #3 on Monday of next week. Please remember that if your student receives a 90% or higher they will be working from the "challenge" list of words for their homework. All homework is due on Friday and if your student is taking the posttest, that will be Friday as well. My spelling students will always have their homework stapled together as a packet to help them keep all required parts together.

Reading
Next week we will continue to teach the students how to utilize the essential reading strategies. In our classes we will demonstrate how the application of these strategies will maximize student comprehension of a range of literary materials.

Math
We will continue to study addition this coming week in math. We will focus on a lot of review and practice adding two numbers that have more than 3 digits each. We will be taking our first math chapter test next week as well. Please remember to use the study packet in your student's math pocket as a reteaching guide as well as for extra practice. The book at home is also a great reference. Please note- the students will only be tested on the mastery skills: chapter 3: lessons 2, 4, 5, and 6. We did not touch on estimation here and it will not be required on the exam. We will talk about rounding in a chapter to come.

English
We will continue working on Chapter 1 in our English textbook next week. We will be talking about subjects and predicates in class as well as run-on sentences. We are hoping to test for Chapter 1 by the end of next week.

If your student sees me for writing instruction periodically or has a writing goal, please note that as of today I will be sending home "Nemo" for a weekend of fun with one family (this rotates alphabetically by 1st name). If your student brings home Nemo on a Friday - please have fun with him and make sure your student writes in the journal about their adventures together. (one page at least). They need their name and the date at the top of the page. Nemo and the journal need to be returned to me on Monday for a ticket. I will then edit their work and return it to them for a re-write and another ticket when the re-write is turned in. This is essential to the writing process. They won't have to do it every week but I would like it to be totally their own work the first time so we can see growth, etc. THANK YOU! Feel free to have your student free write, you edit, then have them re-write at home on a daily or weekly basis outside of this as well. The more practice a student gets with writing sentences and paragraphs the more fluid they become.

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-09-02T05:56:00.000-07:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

I want to thank all of the parents who came out to our curriculum night last night and I know Miss Conley will be excited to meet those of you coming to her night on Tuesday. It really means a lot to us that you support us as your students' teachers and support your child's education. THANKS!

Spelling
We are pretesting with List #2 on Tuesday of next week since we are not in session on Monday. Please remember that if your student receives a 90% or higher they will be working from the "challenge" list of words for their homework. All homework is due on Friday and if your student is taking the posttest, that will be Friday as well.

Reading
The third grade starts off our reading curriculum by teaching the students to use various reading strategies. We model the use of these strategies while reading high interest picture books to the class. We then will spend the year extending the use of these strategies while reading a variety of literary materials to aid in comprehension. This coming week, we will learn about predicting, inferring, and visualizing.

Math
We have started our Math curriculum with Chapter 3 - Addition. Next week we will discuss rounding/estimating, adding 2 digit numbers, 3 digit addition, and adding big numbers. Unless we decide to spend a bit more time on one of these lessons, our perspective test date for Chapter 1 will be 9/14. Be sure to look for the study packet of reteach pages to review with your student as we go and/or as a guide before the test. In addition to our chapter lessons, we will also continue working on our problems of the day (see if your student can remember the number sentence - including the answer.. when they come home each day), mad minutes (after refreshing ourselves with touchmath), and daily minute skill reviews.

English
We will continue working on Chapter 1 in our English textbook next week. We have already discussed what a sentence needs (capital, end mark, who/what...noun, what happened..., verb) to be a sentence and the types of sentences (command, exclamation, statement, question). Next week we will focus on subjects and predicates as well as run-on sentences. In English class we may periodically take in class graded reviews, but we will always study/review in class right beforehand so please do not be overwhelmed by these. They are a great way to show if the students are understanding small chunks of material before the end chapter test.

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!

2011-08-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

What's in the Forsman Future?

Spelling

The classrooms are starting the year off with a back to school list of spelling words. The routine is that we take a pretest on Mondays and if your student misses 2 words or less they are on the challenge list for the week. They receive different homework and do not have to take the Friday posttest because their initial score will count for that. If your student misses 3 or more words on the pretest they study that list and receive a chance to improve their score on Friday's posttest. They will be assigned homework on Monday as well. All homework (challenge or not) is due on Friday. My spelling class will start with me on September 6th. We do the exact same words and procedure as the other 3rd grade classrooms.

Reading

Like with Spelling, my Reading class will start with me on September 6th. The entire 3rd grade will be starting the year off with "Recipe for Success" this coming week and the week following we all begin the Reading curriculum by teaching the strategies for good comprehension. If your student is in my Reading class, we will be following the third grade curriculum just like all the other rooms, but you will want to check this blog for notes and other information pertinent to my class specifically.

Math

Math classes will start on September 1st (next Thursday). All 3rd graders switch classrooms for math and this year I am co-teaching with Miss Stetka. We will share more of how this will look at curriculum night.

English

English classes for Miss Conley and Mrs. Csorba will start this coming MOnday with Chapter one in our English Grammar textbook. These are the classrooms that I will service, check in on, etc. I will be working directly with certain students in my classroom at this time for the writing units only.

If you have any questions about when or how your student will receive services feel free to contact me anytime! I look forward to working with each of your students and have enjoyed meeting them already!

Tune in next Friday for more Forsman Fun!