Welcome to Third Grade!

2008-2009

        I’ve anticipated some of your questions and, hopefully, have answered many of them on the following pages.  If you have any more, just ask!

Fruit Break:  Third graders do not go out for morning recess, but instead will have a ten to fifteen minute ‘fruit break’ at about 10:15.  During this time, your child may have a fruit or vegetable snack at his desk.  Fruit cups or applesauce cups are fine snacks to have for fruit break.  No other snacks will be permitted at this time.  (Fruit Roll Ups, Gushers, etc. are not considered fruit.)  Children certainly do not have to eat a snack during fruit break.  They may use this time to visit the bathroom, finish class work, or socialize quietly. 

H2O:  I do allow my students to keep water bottles on their desks during the day.  This practice helps us to stay hydrated so that we are ready to learn.  It also helps to alleviate long lines at the water fountain.   There are a few more rules pertaining to water bottles in the classroom which we will discuss as a class on the first day of school.

Grading System:  All tests and special projects are graded on a letter grade basis.  These are based on the following (school wide) percentages:

A+ : 98-100%           B+: 90-91%         C+: 79-80%          D+:  69-70%

A : 94-97%               B : 84-89%           C :  73-78%          D :    64-68% 

A-: 92-93%               B-: 81-83%           C-:  71-72%          D-:   63%    

F:  62-0%

Class work is graded on a less formal basis.  If your child receives a  ‘- 0’ (or minus zero), on his paper, that simply means that he has completed a perfect paper.  (A ‘-2’ means that  2 answers are incorrect, ‘-3’ indicates 3 wrong answers and so on.)  

Any class work papers which are not completed satisfactorily will receive a ‘PC’.   This stands for ‘Please Correct’ and requires that the student correct the assignment and return it to me in the Friday Folder on the following Monday.

Some other notations that you may see on assignments are:

·        T –  A ‘T’ may be written by your child or by me on the top of a paper or next to a particular sentence or problem.  It means that the assignment was not completed independently, but with assistance from me.  Sometimes, we do entire assignments together as a class, and at other times, children need individual help.  (I do not offer individual assistance on tests, of course.)

·        PC Neatly – Here is an indication that I am not particularly concerned about the content of an assignment, but rather its general presentation.  It may need to be rewritten in neater handwriting or it may need to be reorganized so that it becomes more ‘readable’.

·        OK – I usually write this after an assignment has been corrected to my satisfaction.  Sometimes, I may also write ‘OK’ when an assignment, like handwriting, is acceptable but unremarkable.  An ‘OK’ does not affect your child’s report card grade.

·        NCS – This acronym stands for ‘Not a Complete Sentence’.  We strive to write answers in complete sentences in third grade.  (We begin our Language curriculum with this subject, and work throughout the year to master it.)  This can be a difficult concept for some and that is why we practice it on most of our class work.

·        * (asterisk) Most asterisks appearing on papers will be written by your child.  They often mean that a particular word, problem or sentence is worth “bonus points” and is considered to be extra credit.  If your child successfully completes a bonus problem, he will receive extra points.  If he attempts a bonus problem, but is incorrect, no points are deducted.  I  encourage the children to try these, but it is always their choice.

Sometimes we also draw asterisks to draw attention to  especially important information.

Spelling:   This year, we have a relatively new spelling curriculum which coincides with our Treasures reading series.

 If you have older children who have been in my third grade class in the past, please keep in mind that our weekly spelling format has changed.  The children will be tested on 20 words each week.   Every six weeks we will have a unit review test which will cover 30 – 35 words from the previous five lessons.

On Mondays, the class takes a pre-test, which is an informal practice test on the words for that week.  They correct the pre-tests themselves and use them to study their words for the final test on Friday.   We have no need for a spelling textbook this year.  Each student will receive a consumable spelling workbook instead.  Pages will be removed as we complete each lesson.

          Occasionally, a student may receive a perfect grade on a pre-test.  If this occurs, that child will be excused from taking  the final test on Friday.  (I’ll still expect all homework and class work to be completed for the week.)  On final test day, I will have a special spelling assignment for these children to complete as the rest of the class is taking the final test.

          In December or January this procedure will be modified since we will begin to write our spelling words in cursive.  I will give you more details about those changes at that time.

Report Card Grades:  Your child will receive an academic/behavioral report card at the end of each quarter.  These grades are based on your child’s class work and test grades.  Work completed at home does not factor into a quarterly grade.  

Homework Policy:  The class will have written assignments on most Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.  On Thursdays, their homework will be to prepare for Friday’s spelling test and to practice their memory verses which I will listen to on Fridays as well. 

          Each Friday, I will send home a ‘Friday Folder’ which will contain most of your child’s class work from the previous week.   Please review the folder’s contents with your child over the weekend.  Any ‘pc’ or ‘please correct’ papers should be returned with the folder on Monday morning.   Please do not return any other papers.

          When a child forgets his homework, he will miss 15 minutes of recess that day, and will complete the assignment during that time if possible. (If the Friday Folder  is not returned on Monday morning, it is considered to be forgotten homework.)  Please do not bring your child’s homework to school for him if it is forgotten.  While I appreciate parents’ efforts in doing this, I will still count that homework as late.    I hope that you agree that completing and returning homework on time encourages accountability and responsibility in young children.  That said, everyone gets one free forgotten homework pass per quarter because we all have those difficult mornings once in a while!

          Your child should complete as much of his homework as he can by himself.  However, I certainly recognize and expect there to be times when your child needs assistance.  You’ll find that our math assignments have some very thought provoking problems to solve, and I think that it is quite appropriate for you to discuss and work those out with your child.  Homework is usually an assignment given to review and practice skills recently presented in class.  If your child finds an assignment especially difficult, please assist him and indicate this to me on his paper.

Discipline Policy:  One of the joys of teaching in a Christian school, is that I am able to incorporate the Gospel as well as God’s Law into my discipline plan.  We are all sinners, but we are all forgiven as well!  We will often discuss forgiveness, tolerance and Christ like behavior.   I will encourage the children to bring their troubles to God in prayer and we will often pray together about such things.

 While I try to use positive reinforcement as much as possible, sometimes it is necessary to present negative consequences as well.  In third grade I have a binder that contains a loose leaf  page for each student.  If it is necessary for me to address a child’s behavior, I will ask that child to enter the date and description of misconduct on his personal page in the binder.  Hopefully, this will serve as a warning and the behavior will stop.  If any student has ongoing issues they will be dealt with accordingly, and I will certainly contact you.

Cursive:  In third grade we make that exciting change from manuscript to cursive writing.  The boys and girls are usually very motivated to learn cursive, and this is often enjoyable for them.    I’ll start to teach cursive as soon as school begins, but the class will continue to complete their work in manuscript until December or January.  At that time, we will begin the transition by taking our spelling tests in cursive.  Slowly we will increase our cursive writing in the second semester until we are writing all of our assignments in cursive in the spring.  The shift is gradual, relatively easy for most of the children, and very gratifying for all of us.

          Please note that at St. Paul’s, we teach traditional cursive instead of modern cursive (also know as the D’Nealean style).  If you choose to purchase supplementary materials for your child to practice at home, please be sure that you buy the traditional cursive most commonly published by Zaner-Bloser.