1. Welcome to Curriculum Night 3 rd Grade Mrs. Cooper 2015-2016

2. Classroom Management  Monthly Behavior Contract- please look at it nightly, and sign it monthly.  Students start each day with 5 “pillars”.  Students receive one warning, and then pillars are taken for breaking any of our class promises.  Warnings are not given for severe infractions.  Not bringing homework= loss of 2 pillars.  Students who have kept 4 or more pillars per day may participate in grade-level recess.  Students who keep 20 or more pillars per week participate in Success Club on Friday.

3. Homework Presented weekly, but with daily due dates. Students need to read a minimum of 60 minutes per week and obtain a parent signature.  *Mon. night (due Tues.): Word Problem/ Computation / Spelling (activity from menu)  *Tues. night (due Wed.): Word Problem/ Computation / Spelling (activity from menu)  *Wed. night (due Thurs): Word Problem / Computation / Spelling (activity from menu)  *Thurs. Night (due Fri.): Reading Comprehension Sheet with questions/ Word Problem / Computation / Spelling (activity from menu) Once weekly, students are expected to complete an activity off the math menu. This can be either a simple fact recall practice or one of the various math games we will learn this year. We are in “Training” right now in terms of Homework expectations: Schematic representations, written explanations and justifications, underlining passages to support answers, complete sentences, quality handwriting. Once students are more comfortable with the expectations, homework will not be accepted until standards are met.

4. Curriculum  Using the AZ College and Career Ready Standards in Reading, Language Arts, and Math in 3 rd Grade  http://www.azed.gov/standards-practices/common- core-state-standards http://www.azed.gov/standards-practices/common- core-state-standards

5. Highlights of What We Will Learn  Reading: More of an emphasis on Non-Fiction Text and its many forms. Many reading elements integrated thematically around a weekly piece of foundational text from new reading adoption.  Math: MULTIPLICATION, fractions, problem solving, logic are highlights this year.  Science and Social Studies: Integrated and embedded within the Language Arts time- Rocks, Plants, Light and Sound, Government, Explorers, Famous Americans.

6. A Method to the Madness: Structures and Strategies of Rm. 29  Math: emphasis on problem solving, schematic representation, writing and justifying our reasoning, critiquing and analyzing the logic of others. Introduction of multiple strategies or processes for computation methods.  Reading: Daily 5 structure. Constantly setting and evaluating personal reading goals on CAFÉ strategies. Emphasis on comprehension. Later in the semester: Formal Note Taking!  Writing: formal 5 paragraph essays with introductions, conclusions, main ideas and details: for all forms of writing. Use of the “Idea Closet” graphic organizer.

7. Changes from 2 nd to 3rd  AZ Merit testing in spring- Reading, Writing, and Math.  Official grades on the report card in Math, Reading, Writing, Science and Social Studies. Grades will be presented in a percentage form and must be checked on Infinite Campus.  Some weekly testing in ELA done on the computer rather than paper form.  No paper report cards or progress reports this year- all done through the Infinite Campus Portal. Please sign up for an account if you have not already.

8. Conferences  Mark your Calendars!  August 26th(afternoon only)  August 27 th (afternoon and evening) Sharing of data and goal setting for the year.

9. Field Trips  We are planning several field trips this year! All are in the final planning stages.  All field trip fees or tax credit donations must be made online and applied on the Infinite Campus Portal. Please pay by September 1 st.

11. Thank you for Coming to Curriculum Night!