Hello! My name is Mrs. Pearce and I am thrilled to be your teacher this year.  I hope that together we can make this the best school year yet!

There are a lot of fun activities planned and a lot of new and interesting things to learn.  In reading, we will explore different reading strategies and learn about a variety of genres.  We will read some great picture books, as well as fun and exciting novels!  In writing, we will learn about the writing process and the 6 + 1 traits of writing.  You will have an opportunity to write your own stories, poems, ABC books and more!  Through our school's Wolf's Den publishing, you can publish and illustrate your very own stories!  We will also be doing some genre studies in writing, where we will explore different styles and types of writing.  I hope that each and every one of you will find a style of writing that you really like and love to do! 

Math will be a blast this year!  We will continue to do KWCL problem solving and reviewing those addition and subtraction facts.  In January, we will begin our multiplication fact tests!  Each week you will receive a multiplication quiz.  After you pass ALL of the quizzes, you will earn an extra special reward! We will also learn more about symmetry, congruency, division, probability, fractions, geometry and more! I hope you will enjoy playing some fun math games during our math work stations. A favorite computer and problem solving activity among the third graders is Fizz and Martina!  I am sure you will enjoy this program as well. 

We will have a lot of fun during our Foss Science Units!  We have three exciting and interesting units.  Our first unit is called Ideas and Inventions.  You will not only learn about some neat inventions and inventors, but you will get to first hand relive some of the discoveries!  In our Sound unit, you will be creating instruments and making a lot of fun sounds!  In Water you will learn about surface tension and have wax paper water drop races!  

In Social Studies, you will be learning about our community.  We will explore how to find our community through the use of directions and maps.  We will also learn about immigrants and where people came from to help form different communities.  The best part about Social Studies is our Economics Unit!  In this unit, you will learn about our economy and create your own business.  In school, the businesses will create their products or plan out their services to sell at the Economics Fair.  You will also learn about supply and demand as well as scarcity. 

You will have an opportunity to participate in our class reading program called W.E.B. (Wonderfully Exciting Books).  Each night you will be asked to read for 20 minutes.  You can choose your own book, magazine, newspaper article, etc. to read.  Make sure to write down all of the information on your W.E.B. reading log and have your parents sign it.  Each week, you will meet with one of our wonderful W.E.B. volunteers and talk about all of the exciting things you read that week. Plus, if you met the reading goals for the week, you will earn a prize.  Each month, you are encouraged to read at least one book from a certain genre.  If you do, at the end of the month, you will earn an extra bonus! 

 There are a lot of ways to earn rewards in our classroom.  In our classroom, we have Pearce Pride Cards.  You will be able to earn these cards for good behavior, positive choices and for completing assigned tasks/jobs.  Every other week, you can use the Pearce Pride Cards you earned to buy prizes at our Pearce Pride Redemption time! Students that are "Caught Being Good" can also earn a Positive Pack.  If you come to reading groups prepared, you will earn a sticker for your incentive card.  As you fill up a row, you will earn a prize and when you fill up the whole card, you will get to pick out a book.  Our class is also very fortunate, for we have a clean desk fairy.  This fairy comes a few times during the school year and checks out some of the desks.  If you desk is clean and neatly organized, she will leave you a little reward. So, be sure to keep your desk really clean!!

Please make sure that you are prepared and organized each day.  You will receive a W.O.L.F. Binder during the first week of school.  You are very privileged, as you are the only class to have one.  We will go over what is inside of it and how to take care of it.  This binder will help you to become very organized (especially if you put everything in its proper place).  Check out the supply list and make sure you have these for the start of school.  If you haven't gotten an Indian Prairie Assignment Notebook yet, you can get one at the school office.  If you start to run out of any supplies (such as glue sticks or pencils), make sure to let your parents know so that you can get more!  We have snack time each day, so please remember to bring a healthy snack with you every day. Also, you will need to have a book to read each day during our daily Read to Self time.  You can bring one from home, choose one from our classroom library or choose on from the school Learning Media Center.

I even have my own classroom website! You can check it out at www.mrspearcesclass.com.  There are a lot of fun things to explore on this site.  You can see pictures of our classroom, check out your homework assignments for the week, check out fun websites just for you and much more!

Enjoy the rest of your summer and I look forward to seeing you at Meet the Teacher day on Tuesday, August 24th from 2:30-3:15 PM and on the first day of school, Wednesday, August 25th!  Come ready to have fun and learn! I can’t wait to meet you!

Sincerely,

 Mrs. Pearce