It is with great enthusiasm and pleasure that I introduce myself as your child’s third grade teacher. I would like to welcome you and your child to third grade at Blackrock School. This truly is a wonderful place to grow and learn!

Please feel free to contact me at brunokerry@coventryschools.net or at 822-9450 if you have any questions throughout the school year. I truly value your thoughts and concerns.

Kerry Bruno

Monday: Physical Education
Wednesday: Art Education
Thursday: Library and Media Education
Friday: Music Education

Students are learning about fractions.  Our benchmark fractions are halves, thirds, fourths, sixths and eighths.  Students need to be able to understand equivalent fractions, as well as compare fractional amounts.  As always, they will need to apply these newly learned skills and concepts to problem solving situations. The website, abcya.com (fraction tiles) offers a fun way for students to explore fraction concepts.   In addition, students will learn how to use a matrix in order to solve combination problems.  Students will explore probability by understanding and applying the terms, "less likely", "more likely" and "equally likely".  Students will need to determine if a game is fair and be able to change an unfair game to make it fair.

Thank you for assisting in the mastery of addition and subtraction facts.  Students performed very well on our recent school-wide assessment of multidigit addition and subtraction!  Keep the practice going!

Visit the following websites for additional support for your child: funbrain mathplayground, aplusmath, learningplanet, primarygames, abcya, dositey, ixl, apples4theteacher, kidnumbers, thinkfinity, mathfacts and bigbrainz.

Each morning, students are engaged in Guided Reading.  During this time, children are introduced to new vocabulary and practice using many comprehension strategies.  Oral and written response to text takes place daily.  Students have been working hard to identify the most important ideas in text.  Students are required to identify main ideas, as well as differentiate between significant and insignificant details.  This is a challenge for all. Using the text to support thinking is also an ongoing  practice during guided reading.  Some readers are learning strategies to decode unfamiliar words and all are making strides in using self-monitoring strategies, as well as reading with fluency.

There will be a refocus on the following comprehension strategies this month:  making predictions based on evidence, generating questions before, during and after reading, clarifying, as well as summarizing.


Are you looking for great book choices for your child?  Check out www.readkiddoread.com for suggestions.

Each month this year, your child has had the opportunity to earn both a perfect homework award, as well as a perfect organization award. 

Perfect homework awards are given to children who have turned each homework assignment in on time and  all requirements of the assignment have been met.

Perfect organization awards are given to children who have maintained a neat and organized desk, including all materials within the desk, such as folders.  Assignments which need to be returned to school in a timely manner have been, as well.

Soon, students will be engaged in a unit about economics.  They will be learning many new important vocabulary words and concepts.  Students will create a small business as a culmination to this unit, but for those of you who have had children experience third grade mini-society, this year's unit will look a lot different! 

Water, water everywhere!  Students have been excited to investigate water.  They have learned many new concepts!  Ask your child what s/he has learned about this vital earth material.  A critical component of our science program is science notebooking.  Students are required to maintain an organized notebook which reflects student thinking, as well as our learning.  Prior to investigating, students are presented with a focus question for each investigation and are asked to make predictions.  While investigating, students collect data in the form of pictures, words and/or numbers.  After investigating, students write a claim which states what has been learned (revisitng the focus question) and provide evidence for their claim.  Predictions are often revisited, as students see which of their predictions are supported by their data and which are not.

Spring science unit:  Structures of Life, including plants, crayfish and bess beetles!
 

Each week, your child is introduced to new spelling patterns and/or rules.  Blind sorting, speed sorting, recording and extending are some of the activities your child engages in, throughout the week, in order to support mastery of these patterns and rules.  Thank you for your continued support with spelling homework.

Students are drafting a piece about a special family tradition.  Thank you for supporting your child by helping them brainstorm ideas which can be used in this piece.  They are following the story diamond for organization.  Ask your child what this means.  Our current focus as we draft is on writing clear details (and lots of them!).  Once pieces have been drafted, students will be engaged in a series of mini-lessons, which will serve to enhance their writing.  Dialogue, onomatopoeia, and similes are some of the writer's tools that will be applied to make your child's story even more interesting.  This piece will be put in a class book, which is published by a real publisher, Student Treasures Publishing.  Order forms will be sent home soon so you can own your very own copy!

Blackrock Elementary
Kerry Bruno