Montclair Elementary

 

Summer Skills for Rising Third Graders

2008-2009

 

Dear Parents of Rising Third Graders,

 

The Third Grade teachers at Montclair would like to extend an early welcome to your child.  We look forward to meeting and working with you next year.

 

Third Grade is a year of great change.  We often say that in first and second grades, children “learn to read”.  In third grade, they “read to learn”.  Daily reading is an important part of our curriculum.  Here are some suggestions of how to keep up with summer reading and be well prepared for the third grade.

 

Ø      READ, READ, READ.  Your child has made great strides during the school year.  Please continue to have him/her read EACH DAY!  Current research suggests that the single greatest contributing factor to a child’s academic success is the amount of time spent reading easy books independently.

 

Ø      Be a part of our  WONDERFUL summer reading program.  Your child has received information about how to be a part of this and it can be done right at your local libraries!  It’s fun and it’s free.

 

Ø      Read to and with your child and let them see you reading.  There is no greater effect on a child than modeling positive reading skills.

 

Ø      WRITE, WRITE, WRITE!  Have your children do many things with writing like: make grocery lists, write thank you notes, and create letters to friends and family.  E-mailing others and writing fictional stories will help with skills over the summer.

 

Ø      Practice addition/subtraction facts to 20 for speed and accuracy.  Flash cards in the house and car are great ways to practice math facts a little at a time.

 

 

      SUGGESTED SUMMER REVIEW TOPICS/ACTIVITIES FOR RISING THIRD GRADERS

 

The summer months are a great time to relax and take a break from school.  However, your child is expected to remember all of the concepts that he/she worked hard to master this year!  This is often very difficult to do after a 2 ½ month vacation without some practice/review.  Please plan for some time to review and practice second grade skills during your summer vacation.  To help you in this endeavor, we have compiled a “Top Ten” list of things to practice for Math and Language Arts.  Thanks for your support in working to keep your child’s second grade skills sharp!!  Have a terrific and safe summer

 

                                                                             

 

 

NUMBER SMART (MATH)

 

1.      Practice addition and subtraction facts.  On the first day of third grade, you should be able to quickly recall these facts (at least 20 problems in 2 minutes)!  No counting on fingers!  These can be practiced anywhere (e.g. in the sand at the beach, sitting by the pool, in the car while traveling, keeping score during a game, on the sidewalk using chalk, or playing catch-say a math problem and then toss the ball/the catcher has to say the answer.)  Flashcards and playing cards are often helpful!  Challenge other family members to a Mad Minute!

 

2.      Practice counting coins and making change.  There are many opportunities to count money during the summer months (e.g. buying ice cream or paying for a movie).  Count and write amounts up to $2.00 correctly,

 

3.      Practice telling time using digital and analog clocks.  (While at the pool, talk about how long you have been swimming, how many minutes until break time, what time the movie starts, etc.)  Include you child in planning the day’s schedule – this really helps children in developing a concept of time.

4.      Practice adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers with and without regrouping.  Sidewalk chalk or “playing school” are both great ways to practice this!

 

5.      Practice Number Sense (even/odd, place value-ones/tens/hundreds, greater than/less than).  Play “Mystery Number” by giving clues about a mystery number.  (For example, I am an even number greater than 10 and less than 20.  If you skip count by 4s you will say me.  I have a 6 in the ones place. What number am I?) Your child should be able to work with numbers from 0-999.  Estimating quantities is also great practice.

 

6.      Practice skip counting forward and backward by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 10s.  Skip count by 2s starting from numbers other than 2! (3, 5, 7…..or 32, 34, 36…)  Group objects and skip count them. This is a great way to get ready for multiplication (5 groups of 3 is 5x3=15).

 

7.      Practice measuring.  Summer projects are a fun way to measure-inches, feet, yards, miles, gallons, quarts, pints, cups, pounds, and degrees (e.g. yard work, cooking, planning trips, watching the weather to plan activities, measuring how far you swim or ride a bike).  We also learned metric measurements (centimeters, meters, kilometers, liters, grams kilograms).

 

8.      Review flat shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval) and space shapes (sphere, cone, cube, cylinder, rectangular prism, pyramid/triangular prism).  Build things out of empty shape containers, go on shape scavenger hunts, have shape snacks, make picture using shapes!

 

9.      Practice fact families.  Give your child 3 numbers in a fact family.  Your child should be able to identify the 2 addition and 2 subtraction problems. (2, 8, and 10: 2+8=10, 8+2=10, 10-2=8, and 10-8=2).  Watch for related facts!

 

  • There are many fun math software programs available.  Math Munchers and Treasure Math Storm have been popular this year in our computer lab!

 

  • Try visiting Prince William County Schools or Montclair Elementary websites to find more educational internet link! Go to the funbrain or aplusmath websites!

 

 

 

 

 

WORD SMART (Language Arts)

 

  • Read, read, read!  Your child needs at least 30 minutes daily of sustained, silent reading (independent reading) in order to maintain the progress that he/she has made this year!  Your child is used to reading silently first thing in the morning at school, which easily could be continued at home.  It is a great way to start the day and we find that children are more rested, which enables them to more effectively practice their reading skills.  Make sure that your child is practicing with books that are at an appropriate level.  At this age, we find that children are so excited to read chapter books that they do not select picture books, which they perceive as “too easy”.  Please encourage them to read a variety of books as we have discussed many times that the length of a book is not what makes it a good book (refer to Summer Reading List).

 

  • Discuss story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution).  Have family book talks to discuss things you like or dislike about books you are reading!  Ask your child questions about what they read!

 

  • Practice retelling a short story or one chapter of a story.  Retellings include all the details of what happened from beginning to end!  Retellings should be in the same order as in the story and should include character names.  Helpful words in a retelling are:  first, next, then, after that, and finally or last.

 

  • Practice summarizing a short story or a chapter of a story.  Summaries should only include the most important elements. (Look for summaries on the back of books for examples).

 

  • Practice writing good second grade sentences and paragraphs.  Paragraphs should have a good topic sentence to start and a closing sentence to wrap up.  They should focus on a main idea.  Watch for correct capitalization and punctuation; correct spelling of second grade words, correct word endings, and sentences that make sense.  Sentences should include interesting details and should sound interesting when read aloud. **Letter writing and postcards are terrific summer practice.  Some children also enjoy writing in a journal.  (If you are traveling, make a travel journal!).

 

  • Practice spelling!  Review words from the agenda-look for patterns and word families (e.g.  – at family: cat, splat, hat, that etc.)  How many new words can you find in a word family that we studied?

 

  • Review nouns (person, place or thing), verbs (action words), adjectives (describe nouns), and adverbs (tell about verbs/how you do something). Mad libs type games or charades are great practice!

 

  • Practice lower case cursive letters!  Practice making cursive letters in the sand or use yarn.  Trace a letter on someone’s back and have them guess it.

 

  • Practice a-b-c order!  Dictionaries are a fun way to practice!  This is a good skill to practice for those who enjoy “playing school”.

 

  • Do a summer research project!  First, think of a topic. (Make sure there are second grade level resources available for the topic).  Next, think of several questions about the topic (What do I want to know?).  Then, find your facts to answer your questions (use books, encyclopedias, computer, etc.).  Take notes and finally share your information (oral presentation, book report, poster, etc.).

 

-          There are many fun Language Arts software programs available.

 

-          Try visiting the website of a favorite author!  There is a great Magic Tree House site with many fun activities for kids:

                  www.randomhouse.com/kids/magictreehouse

 

-          Scholastic News also has an interesting website!

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/scholasticNews.jsp?FromBrowseMod=true&Ns=Pub_Date_Sort|1&CurrPage=scholasticNews.jsp&TopicValue=Scholastic%20News

 

These websites are AWESOME resources for students and their families:

http://www.pwcs.edu/montclair

http://www.portaportal.com/maciog