Dear Parents,

This is a great year to begin a homework routine if you haven’t already established one.  In the third grade students will have approximately 30 minutes of homework to complete each night.

To reinforce the importance of organization, a weekly assignment sheet will be sent home on Mondays or the first day of the school week. The first sheet will go home on Wednesday, September  5^th.  The students will use this to keep track of homework assignments, upcoming projects, and nightly reading. The weekly spelling list will be printed on the back of the assignment sheet starting Monday September  10^th . This form should remain in your child’s take home/ bring back folder throughout the week. Please write any concerns and/or questions you may have in the “comment” section, as it will be checked daily.  Students will have some simple homework the first couple of days of school that will be due the next day after it is assigned.  This homework is just information about the students that I will use in class “get to know you” projects.

Initially, some students may take longer to complete their homework depending on how easily they adjust to new routines and how well they manage their time.  It is not beneficial for any child to spend hours on the given homework, so I request that your child tries to work within the allotted time frame (approximately 30 minutes each evening) completing as much as possible.  If your child is unable to complete an assignment, please attach a note explaining any difficulties you encountered with the activity or the length of time needed to complete the homework.  Communication between home and school is the key to successful homework routines.

Only neat and quality work will be accepted.  Students are responsible for turning in their homework first thing in the morning when it is due.  Students are expected to do their own work and only ask for parent support after they have given it their best effort.

THIRD GRADE HOMEWORK:

J Everyday Math Home Link worksheets-always due the next day

J Wednesday-A Social Studies, Health, Writing or Science extra assignment to be returned the next day, Thursday

JA minimum of 20 minutes reading each night for our “Coyote Readers”

JBook celebrations (reports) – 3 throughout the year

JPractice spelling words for Friday’s spelling test

MATH:

The first math worksheet will be sent home Monday, September 10^th.  Math worksheets are due the next day.   The worksheets are from our new Everyday Math curriculum and are labeled “Home Link” up at the top.  Frequently, students will be bringing home their Student Resource Book which they can use as an aid if they have questions about their homework. 

Your child should be able to complete the math independently, or with little assistance from you.  If you find yourself reteaching concepts, or your child reaches the frustration level please attach a note explaining the problems you encountered so that I can address them in class.

WEDNESDAY HOMEWORK:

Each Wednesday your child will come home with an additional piece of homework that is due the following day, Thursday.  This homework will vary from geography map skills, science, language arts, and unfinished class work. 

COYOTE READERS: 

To begin the year, students will be expected to read 20 minutes every night.  Students will need to record the number of minutes read on a daily basis.  Student should also total up their minutes for the week.  The assignment sheet will be turned in on Mondays.  The students have a “Coyote Reader” chart in their reading folder with their name on it along with a monthly goal.  The students will add up their weekly minutes and total them up on the coyote chart at the end of every month to see if they met their monthly goal. 

BOOK CELEBRATIONS:

There will be 3 book projects this year. Every child will be required to read a designated genre/book, create a specific project, and give an oral presentation to the class based on the book.  The emphasis of this assignment is to assist students in reflecting on their reading, making connections between the content and their own lives, practicing public speaking and time management. 

SPELLING:

The focus of the spelling curriculum is to spell high frequency words correctly not only on the weekly spelling tests on Friday, but more importantly, in everyday writing.  On the back of the weekly assignment sheet will be the “regular” weekly list of spelling words along with a list of challenge words that have to do with other curriculum areas of study. If your child is easily mastering the regular words they should practice the challenge words.  If the regular words are proving to be a challenge they should just stick to the regular list and not worry about the challenge words.  Or your child could choose to do the regular list and a couple of words off of the challenge list.  In a nutshell, everyone will be tested on the regular list and students can choose the number of words they are comfortable with mastering on the challenge list.

Students receive the following reward for neat and completed homework:

1 Jochim dollar for meeting their weekly reading goal

25 cent token for turning in Wednesday night’s homework on time on Thursday

25 cent token for returning math homework on time and bringing back the Student Resource Book when it is sent home