Snow in Texas and December already ... two things I have trouble believing.

All:

I can scarcely believe that we are nearing the end of our first semester -- they're 3 1/2 graders!

At this midpoint, there are so many things to celebrate.  I just did another round of reading assessments with your children and I have seen growth from every single child.  Some students when up as many as 4 levels.  Hopefully this reflects new confidence and enjoyment of reading as well as improvement.

In math we are beginning our unit on Geometry.  This will mean a SHORT review of 2D shapes, remembering vocabulary and lots of discussion about the characteristics of different quadrilaterals.  It comes up every year so I'm going to give you the parent short course:

That square is a special kind of rectangle
The rhombus is a special kind of parallelogram
Technically, all four of them are parallelograms and quadrilaterals.  It blows my mind a little.  I don't think I could think this "think" until I was in high school.

We'll move onto 3D figures, more vocabulary and more characteristics to describe.

In science we've begun a study of soil and have invited a few worms into the classroom to see how decomposition works (maybe).  

In language arts we'll wrap up our study of literary non-fiction and move on to traditional tales to round out our understanding of different genres.

The new year will bring all kinds of exciting learning for 3rd graders including our economic fair and living museum.

But for now ... as we are headed to our holiday break, continue to remind your kids to do their best at their jobs so that we can enjoy our upcoming vacation.