ONE ISAT DOWN!!

The Ellis Elementary Third Grade has met and exceeded their proficiency goal on the Language Usage ISAT assessment. Next week all third graders will be taking the Reading portion of the ISAT exam. Remember to have a good breakfast and a good night's sleep. Our class will take the exam on Friday, April 24th at 8:40 in the morning. Take your time and read slowly through all the questions. You can do it!! You have already done so well!!

Our story this week is one of my favorites. The title is Poppa's New Pants, by Angela Shelf Medearis. It has a surprise ending--wait and see what happens in the story, you will love it. Also, on Monday, we begin the last six-week grading period. New AR goals will be made. They will not be as lofty because we have less than 6 weeks to meet the goal. Please continue signing the reading logs every night. The reading log is part of their reading grade. The spelling list for the week concentrates on the spelling words that begin with a and be.

• begin
• again
• around
• before
• away
• about
• alive
• because
• ahead
• between
• behind
• ago
• they
• want
• awhile
• beyond

For the next two weeks in math, we are going to do a comprehensive review on math concepts. Some concepts will be a review, others are math concepts we are in the process of learning. Please continue reviewing basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts with your child. These are things that will appear on the Math ISAT assessment. Following is a list of concepts we will be reviewing:

• basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication strategies
• using time and temperature as a measurement
• angles, symmetry, area, and perimeter
• graphing and organizing data
• fractions
• division
• counting money and counting back change

In science, we are starting a health unit and also beginning to watch the life cycle of a painted lady butterfly. We have the caterpillars in a jar and they are hungrily eating their way into a fat, healthy chrysalis.

We have sent out notices for our classroom talent show. We would love everyone to participate. A permission slip was sent home for parents to sign. The individual talent show is scheduled for Friday, May 15th. The combined talent show is scheduled for Thursday, May 21st.

Questions of the week:
What is the difference between an auto-biography and a biography?
What is the difference between fiction and non-fiction?
What is realistic fiction?