Dear Third Grade Parents,

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving Break spending time with family and friends.  I know I sure did.  I am now looking forward to this special time of Advent as we prepare to celebrate the birthday of Jesus.  This has always been a favorite time of year for me.  I cannot wait to share it with my third graders.

Please be sure to check this week's Curriculum Update to see all that we will be up to.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Curriculum Update for the Week of December 1, 2014:

Religion:  Advent introduction- preparing for the Son of God; Saints of Advent- Lucy, Nicholas and Mary; Begin chapter 10:  Jesus teaches his followers how to pray; praying by ourselves and with others;

Math:  Add and subtract time; Solve word problems involving time; Read and create pictographs; Read and create bar graphs with multi-digit numbers

Reading:  Continue in guided reading groups- Chasing Vermeer, The Courage of Sarah Noble, Sarah, Plain and Tall, Stone Fox

Social Studies:  Begin Chapter 4:  A changing way of life for Native Americans; Preserving the culture; Indian Island

Science:  Begin Chapter 5:  What is an ecosystem?;  Places for living things; Parts of an ecosystem; How living things get energy; food chains;

Language Arts:  Spelling unit 11;  Spelling Test on Friday;  Begin Advent writing piece- "How My Family Prepares for Jesus' Birthday

Music:  Continue to practice for Christmas pageant;  Practice recorders and learn new songs

Art:  Continue to work on self-portraits


This week should be a quiet week.  Tomorrow the third graders will be receiving the Sacrament of Penance.  We will be reviewing the steps of penance so each student feels prepared for this special sacrament.  Also, don't forget, this Friday is the first Friday of the month and there will be an all-school mass on Friday at 11:15.  Please feel free to come and join us as we celebrate the mass together as a school community!

Have a wonderful week.  Thank you for all you do to make Stella Maris Academy an amazing place to learn.  Take care and God bless.

Sincerely,
Ms.  Eileen Griffin
Your Third Grade Teacher

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Third Grade Parents,

Let the holiday happiness begin!  This week is promising to be quite busy with learning the best we can despite the four half days and SMA's upcoming Spirit Run this Thursday.  Please be sure to look over this week's Curriculum Update for a tentative schedule of what we are covering this week in third grade.

Curriculum Update for the Week of November 17, 2014:

Religion:  Continue Chapter 9- professing our faith; the Apostles' Creed; the Holy Spirit guides the Church

Math:  Telling time; telling time before and after the hour; elapsed time; Continue to review multiplication tables

Social Studies:  Continue to read and discuss What Was the First Thanksgiving

Science:  Finish and review chapter 4- animal life cycles

Reading:  Continue to read and discuss Ramona Quimby, Age 8- chapters 6-9;  meet in guided reading groups

Language Arts:  continue and finish Thanksgiving paragraph; Spelling test on Friday

Art: Continue to work on self portraits; Art Literacy with Mrs. Daly on Monday

I hope all of you have a blessed and restful Thanksgiving.  Thank you for all you do to help make Stella Maris Academy an amazing place to learn.  Take care and God bless.  See you this week during Parent Teacher Conferences.

Sincerely,
Ms. Eileen Griffin

Dear Third Grade Parents,

Thank you to all who were able to come and celebrate SMA's annual All Saints' Day celebration.  It was a great day of celebrating our Catholic role models and heroes of faith.  I especially enjoyed seeing all of the costumes and hearing the students' reports.  We still have a few more to get through, but so far, so fabulous.

Thank you, parents for guiding your third grader through the process of creating a power point presentation.  I know it was not an easy task, but I knew the end results would be worthwhile.  The presentations are outstanding!

Tomorrow the third graders and their sixth grade buddies will go on their walking field trip to Casa de Manana to visit with our senior friends and begin the Veterans' Day celebrations a day early.  We are planning to sing some patriotic songs and deliver some decorated cards.  I think it will be a valuable experience of community outreach and I know the students are looking forward to putting their Christian Service in action.

Please be sure to review this week's Curriculum Update!

Curriculum Update for the Week of November 10, 2014:

Religion:  Finish and review Chapter 8;  Chapter 8 Quiz on Friday;  Finish Saint power point presentations

Math:  Metric units of liquid volume; customary units of weight and metric units of mass; solve word problems involving liquid volume and mass; Telling time;  Study 5 times tables!!!

Social Studies:  Continue to read and discuss What Was the First Thanksgiving;

Reading:  Continue to read and discuss, Ramona Quimby, Age 8;  complete comprehension activities for chapters 3-6;  Continue guided reading groups

Language Arts:  Grammar:  End of the unit test on Monday- subjects, verbs, prepositions and prepositional phrases, complete subjects and complete verbs. Students will be able to use their list of prepositions to assist them;  Spelling:  Unit 10 Test on Friday

Science:  Finish Chapter 4-  animal life cycles: butterflies, frogs, and mammals

I hope everyone has a fantastic week.  Thank you for all you do to help make Stella Maris Academy an amazing place to learn.  Take care and God bless!

Sincerely,
Ms. Eileen Griffin
Your Third Grade Teacher

Happy November!

Dear Third Grade Parents,

This week marks the start of the second quarter of third grade.  As I told the class last Friday, new quarters mean a fresh start and many of the students were excited to hear that, to begin again and to work toward greater successes.  I know they can all do it!

Here is this week's Curriculum Update.

Curriculum Update for the Week of November 3, 2014:

Religion:  Continue Chapter 8- the Apostles lead the Church; the popes and the bishops are the successors of the Apostles;  the Marks of the Church;  Saint Report due Friday!

Math:  Unit 2 Review;  No Unit 2 Test!;  Begin unit 3:  Customary units of measurements; customary units of liquid volume

Reading:  Begin 2nd quarter novel study:  Ramona Quimby, Age 8- chapters 1-3;  guided reading groups- read and discuss group novels

Language Arts:  Finish review of unit 1- subjects, verbs, imperative sentences and prepositions;  Unit 1 Test on Thursday;  Spelling unit 9 Test on Friday

Social Studies:  Read "What Was the First Thanksgiving" and complete comprehension activities and graphic organizers

Science:  Continue Chapter 4- inherited and learned behaviors;  animal life cycles- frogs, mammals and butterflies

I hope everyone has a fantastic week.  Don't forget, this Friday is our All Saints' Day mass and procession.  Come watch the students dressed up as their saints as they parade into the church.  I hope to see you there.

Thank you for all you do to make Stella Maris Academy an amazing place to learn.  Take care and God bless!

Sincerely,
Ms. Eileen Griffin
Your Third Grade Teacher        

Dear Third Grade Parents,

Yahoo! We are officially finished with the IOWA Assessments.  This week we are continuing on with our regular curriculum schedule.  Please see the Curriculum Update below to see what we are learning in third grade this week.

Curriculum Update for the Week of October 27, 2014:


Religion:  Begin Chapter 8: The Apostles lead the Church with Peter;  The Pope and the Bishops are the successors of the Apostles;  Saint Report due November 7- if for some reason your student does not have access to Power Point, a regular written report answering all of the questions will be fine

Math:  Multiply with multiples of 10; building fluency with 0's-10's;  Focus on Mathematical Practices; Unit 2 Review;  Unit 2 Test next Tuesday!

Reading:  Read and discuss close reading article on the history of the Jack-o-Lantern and complete comprehension activities;  Continue in guided reading groups

Social Studies:  Finish chapter 4- the culture and customs of Native Americans;  Read and discuss "Time for Kids"- complete article discussion questions

Science:  Continue chapter 4- review lesson 1; how offspring are like their parents; learned and inherited behaviors

Language Arts:  Grammar-  review of prepositional phrases, subjects and verbs-Test next Wednesday;  Spelling test on Friday;  Writing piece on "My Halloween Costume"

Lastly, I would like to thank Nino's mom for coming in to read a few "lost" Dr. Suess stories.  It was a fun treat the whole class enjoyed.

Have a fantastic week!  Thank you for all you do to make Stella Maris Academy an amazing place to learn.

Take care and God bless!

Dear Third Grade Parents,

Welcome to another week of fun and excitement in third grade!  This is our final week of the IOWA Assessments and come Thursday, the third graders and I should be back on to our normal schedule.  So far the assessments have been going smoothly and the students have been working hard and trying their best to stay focused.  Results should be available some time in November.  Until then, it's onward and upward for the SMA Third Grade!


Here is a tentative Curriculum Update for this week of October 20, 2014!

Religion:  Finish Chapter 5- Review and discuss saints, martyrs, the Gospels and the Apostles;  Chapter 5 Quiz on Thursday;  Begin Chapter 6- the Church Year

Math:  Continue Equations and word problems;  First Step Questions for two-step Problems; Make sense of two step word problems;

****Just a reminder, please be sure to review the multiplication facts with your child every night.  Knowing their facts is crucial to your child's understanding of our daily math lessons.  

Reading:  Close reading article, "All About Pumpkins";  Read and discuss article and complete comprehension exercises

Social Studies:  Continue unit on Native Americans- Trade and government, sharing resources;  Customs, folklore, religion and storytelling;  Time for Kids magazine and comprehension activities

Science:  Read and discuss, "The Life Cycle of a Pumpkin"

Language Arts:  Grammar:  Review of compound subjects and compound verbs; Types of sentences- imperative sentences;  Writing:  Writing piece all about pumpkins;  Spelling Test Unit 7 on Friday

Art:  Cousteau Undersea Collage-  Learn about value and create tints and shades using white, black and blue paints;  Learn about space, in order to create an under sea collage and learn about scientist Jacque Cousteau and his love for the oceans and ocean conservation

Looks like another busy week ahead.  As always, thank you for all you do to help make Stella Maris Academy an amazing place to learn.  Have a fantastic week!  Take care and God bless!

Sincerely,
Ms. Eileen Griffin
Your Third Grade Teacher

Happy Columbus Day!

Dear Third Grade Parents,

I hope all of you had a fun and relaxing holiday weekend.  Thankfully the weather was perfect in typical San Diego fashion.

This is a big week for the students of Stella Maris Academy.  Please be sure your students are at school each day and on time during the next week and a half as we will begin the IOWA Tests first thing in the morning.  As for this week's Curriculum Update, well…  stay tuned until next week.

This week in third grade should be relatively quiet in terms of new material to be presented.  Due to the IOWA Tests, I am hoping to keep things light and simple.  You will see the occasional math sheet come home to keep those multiplication facts at the forefront, but for the most part, please do not expect to see much homework this week.  The IOWA Tests can take a lot out of the students and rather than overwhelm them, I want to use this week to review or do some fun fall themed activities.  As for tests or quizzes, I am only going to give a spelling test on Friday.

Thank you for checking in every week to keep on top of all things third grade.  I really appreciate your interest and support.

Lastly, if anyone is able to spare the time, the third grade class is still in need of a parent to teach the Junior Achievement Lessons.  If you are able to help, please let me know.

I hope all of you have a wonderful week.  Thank you for all you do to make Stella Maris Academy an amazing place to learn.  Take care and God bless!

Sincerely,
Ms. Eileen Griffin
Your Third Grade Teacher