Third Grade Class Book 20072008

1
Third Grade Class Book 2007-2008

• Robein School
  Teacher Ms. Davies
• 200 Campus Ave.
  Email pdavies_at_robein.org
• East Peoria, IL 61611
  Phone [phone]

2
Parents Please fill out the form below and
return it to school so that I
will know you received this guide!

• I have received the Third Grade Class
• Book for 2007-2008.
• __________________
• Parent/Guardian Signature
• __________________
• Date

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WELCOME !2007-2008

• Dear Parents,
• My name is Pat Davies. I am your
  childs third grade teacher. I would like to
  welcome you to a new school year at Robein
  School! Thank you for entrusting your child to
  me. Together we can make this a great year for
  your child.
• Hopefully, some of the information in
  this booklet will be helpful to you. Please
  contact me whenever you have any questions. Part
  of my goal with this booklet is that it will
  enable you to hold your child accountable for
  homework, whether it is reading, studying, or
  paper work. Also, I hope it helps you to
  decipher marks I make on your childs papers.
  Finally, I want this booklet to give you some
  idea as to what some of my expectations are. If
  you have any suggestions to other material you
  think needs to be included, I would welcome them!

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Important DatesPage 1

• September 3, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . .Labor
  Day
• September 28, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . .School
  Improvement Day
• October 8, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . .
  Columbus Day
• October 19, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . .
  Teacher Institute Day
• November 1, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . Parent
  Teacher Conference Day
• November 2, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . Parent
  Teacher Conference Day
• November 22, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . .
  Thanksgiving Day
• November 23, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . .Holiday
  
• December 22-January 6 . . . . . . . .Christmas
  Vacation

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Important DatesPage 2

• January 7, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . School resumes
• January 21, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . Martin Luther King Holiday
• February 15, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . School Improvement Day
• February 18, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . .Presidents Day
• March 21-30, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . Spring Break
• March 31, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . .School resumes
• April 18, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . School Improvement Day
• May 9, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . .State Track Meet
• May 26, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . .Memorial Day
• May 30, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . .Teacher Institute
• June 2, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . Tentative Last Day
• KEY No School Days Early Dismissal
  (1130)

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REPORT DATES

• Mid Term Progress Report Dates
• Sept. 18, 2007
• Nov. 27, 2007
• Feb. 12, 2008
• April 22, 2008

• Report Card Dates
• Oct. 25, 2007
• Jan. 17, 2008
• Mar. 20, 2008
• June 2, 2008 (Tentative)

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Third Grade Discipline Plan
8
Further Consequences

• Students will not be allowed to go to a
  class party, field trip, or special event if one
  or more of the following occurs within 20 school
  days prior to a class party, field trip, or
  special event
• The student has had his/her name on the board 3
  or more times.
• The student has had 1 checkmark on 2 or more
  occasions.
• The student has had 2 checkmarks on 1 or more
  occasions.
• The student has been sent to the administration
  and issued a parental notification
  slip/consequence.
• The student has been suspended or expelled.

• Students will not be able to attend the
  behavior party if one or more of the following
  occurs within the grading period
• The student has had his/her name on
• the board 2 or more times.
• The student has had 1 check mark.
• The student has been sent to the
• administration and has begun the
• discipline procedure.
• The student has been suspended or
• expelled.

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Grading Scales

• Conduct, Effort, Work Study
• Skills, Art, P.E. Grading Scale
• Excellent Satisfactory
• E S
• E S
• E- S-
• Very Good Needs Improvement
• V N
• V N
• V N-
• Unsatisfactory
• U

• Academic Grading Scale
• 100 . . . . . . . . . . . . .A
• 94-99 . . . . . . . . . . . A
• 93 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-
• 92 . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
• 87-91 . . . . . . . . . . . B
• 86 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-
• 85 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .C
• 79-84 . . . . . . . . . . . . C
• 78 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-
• 77 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D
• 71-76 . . . . . . . . . . . . .D
• 70 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-
• 0-69 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .F

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READING

• Vocabulary When you see the challenge words on
  the spelling list come home, your child needs to
  read them
• orally to you. Discuss
  the words. Try to use them in your conversation
  during the week, and
• encourage your child to
  do the same. These words are the vocabulary
  words in our reading
• selection.
• Oral Reading I will have your child read orally
  to you. I will ask for a signed note with this,
  too. It is fine if
• your child reads to an
  older sibling, grandparent, baby-sitter, or a
  neighbor! They can
• sign the note, as well.
  While reading, your child needs to phrase the
  sentences correctly, read at
• a good speed, and read
  the words accurately. Question your child about
  the story as he/she
• reads to check for
  comprehension.

• Some of the reading skills your child will work
  on are
• Phonics- vowel pairs, consonant blends, digraphs
• Syllabication counting syllables
• Dictionary skills- guide words, entry words,
  pronunciation key
• Vocabulary- This plays a big role in reading
  comprehension.
• Comprehension literal and higher order
  cause/effect, predicting, drawing conclusions,
  sequencing, etc.
• Reading diagrams, graphs, and charts

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M A T H

• I have some guidelines for math homework.
  When doing a page out of the textbook, work must
  be done on
• lined notebook paper. Lines must be
  skipped, specifically, the one under the answer.
  Sometimes I ask
• your child to skip more than one line.
  That will occur when we begin regrouping.
• EXAMPLE 1. ___ _4_____
• ___3_____
• ___7____
• This line must be skipped.
• __________
• Your child needs to drill on addition and
  subtraction math facts at home. I find that
  students who know the
• facts well (without having to count to figure
  the answer) have more success with carrying and
  borrowing than those who do not. This is vital
  if your child did not really master these facts
  last year. We will be learning multiplication and
  division facts this year.
• Also, in solving story problems, your
  child is to write the problem and solution with
  labels by all parts of the problem and solution.
  Your child will need to do this on the state math
  exam in March this school year.
• EXAMPLE 4 apples 3 apples 7 apples
• With story problems your child will
  sometimes be asked to draw pictures, write
  sentences explaining the solving process, and
  show alternate ways of solving the problems.
  This is preparation for the state math test taken
  in March. This will be the first time your child
  has taken the state test.

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L A N G U A G E

• This year your child will be learning to
  write expository essays that include an
  introductory paragraph, 3 supportive paragraphs,
  and a conclusion paragraph.

• Each child will also be required to memorize
  a poem every other month, beginning with
  September. Recitations will be the last week of
  the month. I will have poem books available for
  student use. However, if you have materials at
  home, please feel free to use them. Poems need
  to six lines or more the first semester and ten
  or more the second semester. Students must
  provide a copy of the poem.

• Your child will focus on parts of speech
  and sentence parts. In addition, we will daily
  correct two sentences from a program called
  Daily Oral Language. I do not assign a grade to
  these sentences. However, after ten sentences,
  the class takes a test on five of the ten
  sentences. I do grade the test.

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SOCIAL STUDIES

• Your child has a social studies text, which
  he/she will take home periodically for reading
  and/or study. We will have tests in this
  subject. Social studies receives an A, B, C, D,
  or F grade this year.
• The focus of social studies is on
  communities. Students will learn about
  similarities and differences in communities in
  the United States and the world. We will
  complete outlines together. These outlines will
  serve as study guides.
• Map and chart reading are also a part of
  social studies. Your child will practice
  interpreting several types of maps and charts.
  He/She will be labeling continents and oceans on
  a world map. He/She will learn names of
  landforms.

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Science and Health

• These subjects are alternated during the year.
  Your child will have to study and take tests in
  these subjects. Students earn an A, B, C, D, or F
  grade in science and health. These books will be
  sent home for studying. We will study such
  topics as matter, simple machines, scientific
  inquiry, making good choices, and cells.
• The science information is challenging and
  will require your child to put forth real effort.
  At the beginning of each topic, I will send home
  a page listing the type of information your child
  will need to know for the test. Use that page to
  keep track of what your child needs to study.
• Your child will have D.A.R.E. this year. An
  East Peoria police officer teaches this once a
  week for five weeks. This deals with drug
  education. I stay in the room during these
  lessons.

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S P E L L I N G

• Note Periodically, you should receive a
• paper containing the list words for
  each
• of the next five spelling lists.
  Also,
• after the five lists, there is a
  review
• week. During the review week, your
• child reviews words from the previous
  
• five lists. During the review week,
• there are no challenge words.

• Most weeks of 4 or 5 school days, your
  child will have a list of spelling words to
  learn. This list will consist of list words and
  basic words, which are required to be spelled on
  the test day. Challenge words are to be tried,
  but they will not count toward the spelling
  grade. However, they will count in a year-long
  contest. One point is given for each correctly
  spelled challenge word on test day. Those points
  are tallied at the end of the year, and a prize
  is awarded for the top two point earners. If
  there is a tie, all involved will receive a prize.

• 
  Schedule for spelling during a normal week.
• Mon. A pretest is given. Your child
  should have this test when he/she comes home.
• Any words, which were
  missed, should be written five times correctly in
  cursive.
• Your child will also have a
  worksheet to complete.
• Tues. Study the words for homework.
• Wed. Again, your child will have
  homework to complete.
• Thurs. This is another night to study
  the words. There may be a worksheet.
• Fri. This is Test Day. A word is
  marked incorrect if an i is not dotted or a t is
  not
• crossed, etc. A reminder
  is given.
• If there is to be no spelling list for a
  particular week, there will be a note in the
  Friday newsletter telling you so.

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Handwriting

• Students will receive an A, B, C, D, or F
  grade in this subject this year. I will grade
  specific cursive papers. I will also put
  handwriting grades on papers of various subjects
  at times. The grading of handwriting is somewhat
  subjective. However, I have listed below what
  kind of handwriting constitutes an A.

• You will have or will be receiving a booklet
  that shows each cursive letter with a short
  explanation of how each letter is formed. Use
  that to help your child correctly form the
  cursive letters. If your child has been
  correctly writing the DNealian manuscript
  letters, the cursive strokes will come more
  easily.

• Correctly formed letters
• Letters are joined correctly with smooth strokes
• Letters are resting on the line
• Letters are made of smooth strokes
• Letters slant to the right
• Neat handwriting

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Symbols and Codes on Graded PapersPage 1

• wp Wrong problem
• This means your child miscopied the problem from
  the book onto his/her paper. Most usually, you
  will see this on math papers. I mark these as
  incorrect, and they count the same as a missed
  item. We do this to encourage accuracy.
• Misspelled word
• You may see this mark on papers from any subject
  area. I only circle words that were miscopied
  from the text or the board. Then one point is
  deducted for each misspelled word. I will take
  up to three points off for one word miscopied
  several times. I do this to encourage accuracy.
  Other misspelled words will have the correct
  spelling written by them, but no points deducted.
• mw Missing word
• This means that when copying, your child left
  out a word. One point is deducted for this.
• New Paragraph
• Where you see this symbol is where a new
  paragraph should have begun. I do not take
  points off for this, unless it was either the
  first paragraph of a report your child was
  writing, or it was a copying mistake. A copying
  mistake results in a subtraction of one point.
  On an assigned paragraph written originally by
  your child, five points would be subtracted if
  this happened on the very first paragraph.......

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Symbols and Codes on Graded PapersPage 2

• Missing ending punctuation
• Two points are deducted for this. The correct
  punctuation will be written inside the circle.
• Capital letter needed here
• The symbol will be under a lower case letter.
  Two points are deducted for this when the missing
  capital is at the beginning of a sentence. When
  it is elsewhere, one point is deducted.
• ? Insert a needed word
• This symbol means a word is missing in the spot
  where this symbol is seen. The missing word is
  needed for the sentence to be semantically
  correct. One point is deducted. This is used in
  student generated sentences.
• SI Skill or content introduced
• If you see the capital SI in the corner of a
  paper, then this is the first paper your child
  has done on this skill in third grade. It is my
  way of letting you know that your child will be
  doing more work in this area and has time to
  improve, as needed.

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H O M E W O R K

• General Information
• Homework is an integral part of third grade. I
  stress the importance of homework to the
  students. Habits and attitudes toward homework
  developed this year will have a great impact in
  years to come. Expect homework each day.
  Assignments generally should take 20 to 30
  minutes or less. Also, expect your child to have
  assignments written in his/her student handbook.
  Initial the handbook. Encourage good
  organizational skills

• Incentives
• A point will be added onto a students
  final average in each subject in which he/she did
  all homework assignments and turned them in on
  time.
• Consequences
• If your child does not put his/her name on
  the assignment, turn the assigned work in on time
  (first thing in the morning), or do the majority
  of the assignment, then a checkmark will go in
  the grade book under the appropriate subject and
  count as one-half point off your childs grade
  average in that subject area. Your child will
  spend his/her recess and free times to complete
  or redo that assignment. If that doesnt get the
  work done, then it will come home as additional
  homework.
• Signed Papers
• I ask that you sign F papers and return them
  to school. That way I will know you have seen
  the papers.

• Helpful Hints
• Your child needs a quiet place at home to do
  homework. Supplies should be in this place prior
  to beginning homework. Schedule a set time for
  homework to be started and completed. Many
  students benefit from doing homework when getting
  home from school. You should look over your
  childs homework to see that it is done neatly
  and correctly. This allows you to set standards
  for your child. If your child argues/fights
  about doing homework, it is generally an
  indication of either immaturity, an attempt to
  control the parent, or a difficulty of some kind.
  The difficulty could range from problems with a
  particular subject to a vision problem.

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MAKE-UP WORK

• It is about inevitable that your child will
  miss a day of school. If so, make-up work will
  be part of his/her experience. If not,
  congratulations!
• For every day your child is absent, he/she
  will have 2 days to make up the work. So, for
  example, if your child misses 3 days of school,
  your child would have 6 days to make that work
  up. Of course, if circumstances necessitate more
  time, we can work that out.
• If your child is absent, and you would like
  to pick up the days work, just let the office
  know or send me a note via another student. I
  will gather things up and have them ready at the
  end of the day. Your can either pick the items
  up or let me know to whom I can give them. I
  will send home books, notebooks, as well as a
  paper listing the assignments.
• If your child is absent, and you cannot have
  his/her work picked up, then the day your child
  returns to school, he/she will receive a packet
  for each day he/she was absent. The packet will
  contain the days work he/she missed, along with
  a paper listing the assignments.

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LATE WORK

• Late work is work that is not completed and
  turned in on the day it is due. If work is late,
  the subjects grade is affected adversely. Work
  one day late loses 10, 2 days late loses 20,
  and 3 days late earns a 0 (F). For example,
  lets say a reading paper worth 100 points is
  late one day. When I grade it, everything is
  correct. The grade would be 90, which is a B.
  If the paper is 2 days late, the grade would be
  80, which is a C. If the paper is 3 days late,
  the grade would be 0, which is an F. This is
  done to show that doing your work on time is
  important. Its an attitude and a work ethic
  that is beneficial in the workplace.

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Miscellaneous Information

• Crossword Puzzles
• If a crossword puzzle is part of an
  assignment, your child will need to print the
  answers.
• No Name Papers
• These papers have to be redone from
  scratch. Recess and break times will be used to
  redo them. The paper will be counted as late.
  If a student continues to not write a name on
  papers after these measures have been taken, then
  the student will copy a page from the dictionary.
• Headphones
• Computer headphones were listed as a supply
  item for each class here at Robein. I will have
  each student place his/her headphone in a
  provided zipped plastic bag labeled with his/her
  name. These bags will be kept in a container in
  the classroom and distributed when we go into the
  computer lab or when needed for use at the
  classroom computers.

• Music Recorders
• Music recorders will be stored in the same
  manner as the computer headphones. Your child
  will be allowed to take home the recorder so
  he/she may practice, but I will ask that the
  plastic bag remain at school.
• Kleenex
• The third grade supply list asked for 2
  boxes of tissue. I collect these. Then I put a
  box out for class use and replace it, as needed
  from the supply. If any are left over at years
  end, I pass those on to the fourth grade teacher.