Curriculum Night Mrs. Goepfert Waterford School District

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Curriculum NightMrs. GoepfertWaterford School
District
Mission Statement We guarantee to every student
the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to
become an effective citizen of the world. We
refers to everyone the school board, citizens,
staff, administrators, parents, and business
leaders.

• Agenda
• Curriculum
• Language Arts
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies
• Enrichment Classes
• Art
• Computer Lab
• Library
• Music
• Physical Education
• Miscellaneous information

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What We Can Do To Help Our Children Learn

• Listen to them and pay attention to their
  problems
• Read with them every day.
• Tell family stories.
• Limit their television watching.
• Have books and other reading materials in the
  house.
• Look up words in the dictionary with them and use
  an encyclopedia.
• Share favorite poems and songs with them.
• Take them to the library and get them their own
  library cards.
• Take them to museums and historical sites.
• Discuss daily news with them.
• Go exploring with them and learn about plants,
  animals, and local geography.
• Find a quiet place for them to study.
• Review their homework.

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Reading / WritingCelebrate Literacy!

• Three ways that children learn to read
• Teacher led instruction
• Shared learning approaches
• Independent learning
• Types of Reading in Class
• Book Clubs
• Teacher read aloud
• Group reading
• Individual reading
• Focus on Writing for 3rd grade
• Personal narrative
• Letter writing
• Journal writing
• Fiction
• Non-fiction

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Friday Journals
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Spelling

• We build a foundation of spelling skills. The
  foundation is built through the use of dictionary
  and proofreading skills, word patterns, dictation
  and individualized weekly spelling lists.
• Spelling Schedule
• Friday - new spelling list, Mix and Build
• Monday - Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check
• Tuesday - Buddy Check
• Wednesday - Making Connections
• Thursday - Buddy Test
• Making big words
• Personal words to learn lists
• Dictation

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Sample Making Connections
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Mathematical Thinkingat Grade 3

• Investigations in Number, Data and Space is a
  mathematics curriculum that supports all students
  as they learn to think mathematically.
  Investigations have been carefully designed to
  engage students in key mathematical content as
  they develop number sense, learn to visualize and
  describe geometric relationships and collect and
  analyze real data. As they explore mathematical
  problems in depth, students work together, use a
  variety of concrete materials and appropriate
  technology, and express their mathematical
  thinking through talking, drawing, and writing.
  We will investigate the following units during
  this year
• Mathematical Thinking
• Things That Come in Groups (multiplication and
  division)
• Landmarks in the Hundreds (number system)
• Combining and Comparing (addition and
  subtraction)
• Fair Shapes (fractions)

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Math uses thinking skills.
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16 squares
This quick and easy Math assessment is used often
in class. Many of the questions are on the
overhead or are given orally. For example, write
the number 3,011.
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Science

• Textbook Science for Life and Living Patterns
  and Predictions
• Main Concepts Covered
• Sound and Music
• Forces and Motion
• Structures
• Nutrition
• Animal Life Cycles
• Earths Water
• Moon cycles
• Magnets
• Patterns

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Social Studies

• Our textbook is Living in Our World. The Social
  Studies theme for 3rd grade is Communities in
  Michigan and beyond.
• Main Concepts Covered
• Elements/History of a Community
• People, Places and Cultures
• Location, Movement and Connections
• Skills reading maps, time lines, diagrams and
  graphs
• Natural/Human Resources
• Economics
• Purpose of Government/Common Good
• In addition we will be actively participating in
  a Postcard Geography Project exchanging postcards
  with other 3rd to 5th grade students from around
  the world. We will research information about
  Waterford and Michigan for our postcards. We
  welcome donations of 21 stamps for the
  postcards.

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Enrichment Classes
Mrs. Goepferts enrichment class schedule will
be added to presentation before curriculum
night. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Fr
iday
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Grades
A

• A - Work is all correct and exceptional in some
  way. Work is completed independently.
• B - Work is all correct, but not exceptional.
  Work is completed with little or no help.
• C - Work has some correct answers, but lacks the
  quality in one or more of the following
• neatness
  
• poor coloring
• didnt follow directions
• Work is completed with little help.
• D - Work attempted, but mostly incorrect. Work
  is completed with a lot of help.
• Papers without grades, but marked.
• Ö Completed and exceptional
• Ö Completed satisfactorily
• Ö- Incorrect or incomplete
• Math Journal Grade

Grading Scale 100 A 99-94 A 93-90
A- 89-87 B 86-84 B 83-80 B- 79-77 C 76-74
C 73-70 C- 69-67 D 66-64 D 63-60 D- 59-0 No
Grade
9 number correct 10 number possible
Great Job!
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Homework

• Your student will have homework every Monday
  through Thursday night. The homework assigned is
  in subjects that have been covered or discussed
  in class. Your student should be able to
  independently complete their homework. You will
  see the following regular homework assignments
• 15 minutes of nightly reading
• Weekly math worksheet or Funbrain.com due on
  Fridays
• Weekly spelling homework due on Thursdays
• Students who have not completed classroom
  assignments during school time may complete the
  work at home. In additional, students may have
  other occasional assignments.

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Math Homework
Students may do the weekly Math homework sheet or
they may go to www.funbrain,com and complete
enough quizzes to total 30 questions. The
password is My Time.
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Reading at Home
The best thing you can do to improve your childs
reading is to encourage their reading at home.
One of the best incentives for a child to want to
read is to have good reading role models at home.
Children learn by example.

• If they have trouble with a word
• dont just tell them the word
• Use these strategies
• say, blank, read ahead and come back
• use picture clues
• look at the beginning and ending sounds
• Ask yourself
• Does it look right?
• Does it sound right?
• Does it make sense?

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The Animal School
Once upon a time, the animals decided they must
do something heroic to meet the problems of a
new world. So they organized a school. They
adopted an activity curriculum consisting of
running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make
it easier to administer the curriculum, all
animals took all the subjects. The duck was
excellent in swimming, in fact better than his
instructor, but he made only passing grades in
flying and was very poor in running. Since he
was slow in running, he had to stay after school
and also drop swimming in order to practice
running. This was kept up until his webbed
feet were badly worn and hew as only average in
swimming. But average was acceptable in school,
so nobody worried about that except the duck.
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The rabbit started at the top of the class in
running, but had a nervous breakdown because of
so much make-up work in swimming. The squirrel
was excellent in climbing until he developed
frustration in the flying class where his teacher
made him start from the ground instead of from
the treetop down. He
also developed a charlie horse from
overexertion and then got a C in
climbing and a D in
running. The eagle was a problem child and was
disciplined severely. In the climbing class he
beat all the others to the top of the tree, but
insisted on using his own way to get there.
At the end of the year,
an abnormal eel that could
swim exceedingly well,
and also run, climb
and fly a little, had
the highest average
and was
valedictorian.
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The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought
the tax levy because the administration would not
add digging and burrowing to the curriculum.
They apprenticed their children to a badger and
later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start
a successful private school. Does this fable
have a moral? George H. Reavis Chicken Soup
for the Soul
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Preparation for
the Real World

• Memorization
• Is usually only short term remembered for a test.
• No one expects students to retain all they
  temporarily memorize.

• In the real world workers
• Are never asked to memorize anything that is not
  used daily or that can be easily and accurately
  looked up.
• Use calculators to avoid costly mistakes, or have
  a coworker double check their work. Mistakes are
  not tolerated.
• Look up what they dont know so they can use it
  correctly.
• Math and science, beyond simple problem solving,
  are left to college-trained experts or
  specifically taught if the skills are needed.

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Skills worth learning in school.

• Parents, teachers and students agree on
• Reading
• Writing
• Calculation (Math)
• Science
• Computer Literacy
• Memorization (only parents and teachers agree on
  this one)

• Skills Valued in the work place
• Reading/Writing
• Computer Literacy
• Problem Solving
• Applying Knowledge
• Leadership
• Cooperating
• Speaking
• Listening