Social Studies

Social Studies is one of those subjects that does not have a "FCAT" (now FSA) test correlated to it, but it still remains high on the priority list. Today the students brought home Social Studies work that you are welcome to check over. I know many of you were concerned about this grade. These three assignments will be graded and added to help boost the Social Studies grades.

Here are some expectations that the students should follow in order to complete their assignments:

1. Each section that is based on a heading should have 3-4 bullet points from the section in the text. 
2. Each section that has blank lines at the bottoms asks for a summary. The summary should be based on the entire text of that section. Each summary should be 5-7 sentences and include text-based evidence or details from the bullet points above.
3. Some sections of the text ask specific questions. Please make sure these are completely answered. 

Thanks for your support and all your efforts to help enforce the level of expectations at home and school.

Close Reading

Last week we began a new reading strategy that Duval County is fully supporting. It's called a close (s- as in sight) read. There are three parts to the close read that we started last week. Here is a brief synopsis of these steps:

• Part 1- read the text and review the vocabulary words that are unfamiliar
• Part 2- annotate the text focusing on the main idea of the text
• Part 3- answer text-dependent questions

A close read is a strategy that helps the students better understand the text by reading the text multiple times, using the vocabulary words to increase understanding, and answering questions that can only be answered by diving back into the text.

Here is a chart that explains some of the steps to completing a close read:

Feel free to ask your child about the importance of a close read. What was their favorite part of this process?

Week 4

Swim America! 

Swim America is a "field trip" to the Fletcher High School swimming pool. The kids are given the opportunity to swim and learn about the 4 specific strokes that are used for competitions. This year we unfortunately have only 3 days in the pool. We will be swimming on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week (that's the 15, 17, and 19th). Our time is from 8:45-9:45 am. Please send your child with his/her swimsuit on, sunscreen on, a change of clothes, and a towel. If your child is used to goggles, please pack these, as well. Swim America is a great week for all of us!

Here is the basic rundown of our days next week:
Monday- come ready for SA, swim from 8:45-9:45, come back and change, head to lunch, second half of the day will be dedicated to instruction
Tuesday- full day of instruction
Wednesday- come ready for SA, swim from 8:45-9:45, come back and change, head to lunch, second half of the day will be dedicated to instruction
Thursday- full day of instruction
Friday- come ready for SA, swim from 8:45-9:45, come back and change, head to lunch, second half of the day will be dedicated to instruction

With all of this being said, PLEASE RETURN THE SWIM AMERICA PERMISSION SLIP TOMORROW OR ASAP!

Thanks for all your help! Oh, and maybe do a dance to the weather gods for no rain :)

If you would like to volunteer, please fill out the bottom half of the permission slip with the days that you can volunteer. We always enjoy the help and the kids love to see their parents in a bathing suit.

Starting Week 3

 The three-day weekend sure did go by quickly! Hope you were able to enjoy yours.

Our Monday, I mean Tuesday was packed!

Today the kids received some important information:
1. Individual FCAT data from 3rd grade
2. A green sheet that explains the importance of PTA and many misconceptions we have about it
3. A blue sheet that explains some information about Open House and if you would like to join us in the SAN PABLO ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE at 7:30 on Thursday

Grammar homework was also given today for the first time. We are not doing spelling words this week. The grammar homework introduces a rule, "Comma in a series," has the students edit some sentences, and write some sentences of their own using the rule. See what I did there??

Feel free to ask your child about the importance of annotations and the rules you should follow when annotating! We are wrapping this topic up by the end of the week.