Mrs. Thorp’s Third Grade Blog

Now is the time of year when parents start to think about what their child should or could be involved in after school to keep them busy.  Soccer?  Scouts?  Football?  Dance lessons?  Violin or piano lessons?

While all of these are great ideas and wonderful ways to keep busy, being too busy is not good for most children.  Here are some ideas to think about:

1. Children work hard during school and need down time,  time to just do whatever they want,  time to just “chill out”.  A good standard to follow for children 6-10 years is 2-10 hours a week of extra-curricular events.
2. Remember homework comes first.  Don’t let your child grades slip because of being over committed.
3. Don’t let your child’s extra activities prevent your family from sitting down at the dinner table together.  Family life is important and eating together every night is a good way to discuss the events of the day.
4. Keep bedtime the same every night.  Don’t let extra activities last so long that your child cannot settle down to sleep at night.
5. Finally, if you notice that your child is crankier than usual or is not wanting to participate in the activities that are scheduled, don’t be afraid to pull back a bit.  Take a look and reassess the situation.

Whatever you do with your child, remember that the goal is that your child become a happy and well adjusted child.

Any comments?  Feel free to leave a comment.  Always interested in what parents and teachers think.

Remembering that educating your child is team work between the teacher and the parent,

I came across the following ideas from HotChalk, an online learning environment, that parents can read.

10 Ways Parents Can Support Teachers

1. Get on the radar. Introduce yourself to your child’s teacher(s) at the beginning of the school year. Let them know you’re planning to be involved in your student’s academic life and you’re looking forward to ongoing communication.
2. Establish the best method for quick contact. Ask the teachers about the best, most timely method for contacting them, and tell them how best to contact you, as well. Options might be email, text messaging, instant messaging, cell phone or home phone.
3. Attend scheduled school events. Show your involvement by showing up at as many school events as you can, including back to school, open house, holiday events, PTSA meetings, and especially parent-teacher conferences.
4. Volunteer. If possible, volunteer a few hours a week or a month in your child’s classroom. Other possibilities include chaperoning field trips, school dances, car washes, fundraisers or other events.
5. Stay updated on your child’s progress. Ideally, you will be able to see your child’s homework assignments, grades, test scores and progress reports online via an education portal, learning management system, class web site or other digital system set up by the school or district. If this is not available, encourage the school administration to set up an easy to use digital resource, such as classroom web pages. Set up regular times to visit the school and chat with the teacher informally, or check in regularly with friendly emails or phone calls to see how your students is progressing and what you might do to support his or her learning.
6. Share your expertise. Organize a phone or email tree to parents in your child’s class. Ask parents about their areas of expertise and see if they might be willing to donate some time to help out the school with any needs they might have. For instance, if they have technology skills, they might help them build a web presence. If they have writing skills they might send out regular parent newsletters with updates on what students are doing in class, and what is coming up.
7. Talk to your child about responsible Internet practices. Every school should have an AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) that’s sent home for parents to sign. Be sure to ask your child about this document, and then sit down with him or her and go over the different elements of the policy to be sure you both understand what is acceptable and safe behavior online.
8. Spearhead a tutoring or homework help program. Math tutors, writing coaches and adults or older students who can help walk students through their assignments can often be the different between success and failure.
9. Help expand classroom resources. Point your child’s teachers to Web resources they’ll find helpful. For instance, there are numerous online tutoring sites (such as Hotmath.com) that offer free or low-cost help in core subjects, and HotChalk.com offers thousands of free, eacher-tested lesson plans in all curricular areas.
10. Raise funds. In today’s cash-strapped world of education, fundraising can be crucial to schools’ ability to purchase the education resources they need. Beyond traditional methods, such as bake sales, writing and winning grants can mean serious money for technology, digital resources and other 21st century teaching tools. For detailed guidelines on how to write successful grants, visit HotChalk.com and see the Funding 101 series.

Now that it is August, parents and children are gearing up for school. Along with buying new school clothes, shoes and school supplies, getting your child back into a bedtime routine is on your list of things to do.

How much sleep does your child need? How can you help your child get to bed on time so that he is ready for school in a few weeks?

First of all it is wise to start a few weeks ahead of time to get your child into that “early to bed, early to rise”mode. Gradually wake your child up 10-15 minutes earlier so that by the time school starts, getting up at 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. is not too hard for them. Once your child starts getting up earlier, he will start going to bed earlier too.

What can you do to help your child?

• Alert your child about an hour before bedtime that he will need to get ready for bed in an hour. Do the same in a half hour.
• Keep a routine. A bath or shower, brush teeth, a quiet board game, reading a book, listening to soothing music are all ways that some parents use to help settle their children so that they sleep. Try to do the same things every night.
• Be consistent with the time your child goes to bed on school nights.
• Avoid caffeine drinks after supper or better yet all together.
• Avoid T.V. watching, video games, and computer before bed. They seem to stimulate rather than calm your child down.

A school age child needs between 9-12 hours a sleep a night. You know your child the best and can usually tell if he needs more. Some signs of not enough sleep may include:

• not wanting to get up in the morning in a happy mood.
• falling asleep after school.
• being too tired in school (ask your child’s teacher).
• being grouchy and hard to get along with.
• falling grades where your child used to do well.

Need more information? You can go to All About Sleep.

Let me know how this works for you.

What can you expect from your third grader when it comes to being responsible with his/her backpack?

First of all it is your third grader’s responsibility to take care of his own backpack. What does this mean in every day life? Your child should

• put into his backpack what he needs for his day at school. It is not Mom or Dad’s job to do this. If your child forgets to put something into his bag, let him take the consequences at school. He will remember next time.
• remember to give to you any communications that his teacher sends home. Parents can ask if there is any notes from the teacher, but parents should refrain from going through the backpack searching for any communications from school.
• be responsible to hand in his homework when he gets to school and put into his homework folder any papers that need to be done at home for homework.
• put homework into his backpack as soon as he finishes it.
• have his backpack ready to go and sitting by the door (or other designated place) before he goes to bed, so that it is ready for the morning rush.

I know that this seems like a lot for some third graders to do and that it may take a few months to get into this habit. However, if your third grader can learn these simple steps to being organized with his/her backpack, it will carry over into all of his school years and you will be surprised how responsible your child will become.

I used to tell my third graders that when they followed the above steps that the Backpack Monster would not get their homework and eat it. It is amazing how many children loose their work to that hungry Backpack Monster when the homework is not taken care of in a responsible way!!

Let me know how this works for you or if you have any other ideas that have worked for you!

Many parents want to know what their child should know before he/she gets to third grade. Well, first of all, at the beginning of the year third grade teachers do a lot of reviewing because many children forget what they have learned over the summer. Plus third graders all come into third grade at various stages in their learning. But what is helpful is if your incoming third grader can:

• add and subtract math facts quickly (without using their fingers or touchmath).
• can tell time to the nearest quarter hour and even possibly to the nearest five minutes.
• can count money up to a dollar.
• can read numbers up to 999.
• can count to 1000.
• can skip count by two’s, five’s and ten’s.

What can you do as a parent to help your child?

• buy or make some flash cards to practice math facts.
• practice skip counting while you drive in the car. Get the whole family involved, each taking a turn with the next number.
• let your child count the change in your purse or pocket.
• ask your child to tell you what time it is at various times during the day.
• find some math games online. One place is A+math. I found the nonjava worked the best on my computer.
• play games like Yahtzee where your child has to keep score by adding numbers.

Let me know how this works for you. I would be interested if anyone has anymore ideas.

The ancient Olympic Games began with just foot races. Now there are so many more. All track and field events are given the title “Athletics”. The track and field events are about running faster, jumping higher, and throwing further than anyone else.

Why not try some kid-friendly versions of some of these games?

• Shot put: Use a large marshmallow, go onto your driveway or backyard. Have your child throw the marshmallow as far as he can. Measure the distance in meters and centimeters. Record the distance and try again.
• Javelin: Use an ordinary straw for the javelin and do the same procedure as you did for the shot put. Remember to measure in meters or centimeters.
• Discus: This time use a paper plate for your discus. Take turns seeing how far you can throw the paper plate. Measure the distance.

When you are done, find out how well the USA Olympians did in the same events. Ask your child if he thought it would easier or harder to do the real thing.

Stay tuned for more ideas about the Olympics to do with your child.

In a few days the 2008 Olympics will start in Beijing,China.  Use this time to have some learning fun with your child.  From eating TV dinners while watching the Olympics to creating some games that your children play, this Scholastic site for parents has some great ideas.

Don’t feel compelled to do them all, but doing a few will be fun for you and your children.  Let me know what you think. Are there any other ideas that you have used with your children?  Let me know, I would love to hear from you.

There are lots of fun ways to review math skills over the summer. Today I will show you one game online that will challenge your child’s thinking and review some adding skills.

The game is called Make 15. In this game your child competes against the computer to make three numbers that add up to 15. Parents, try is first. It is a little challenging!

Let me know what you think. I will post more games and ideas to review math skills over the next week or so.

As I stated in my page About Me, I believe that parents are a child’s best and most important teacher. As we begin the month of August and both parents and children are starting to think about school, I want to encourage parents to help this next school year the best ever for their child.

I read this article about how to help your child succeed on James Dobson’s Focus on the Family website that says lots to parents.  He offers 7 steps to the secret of your child’s academic success.

I would be interested in anyone’s comments on this article after you have read it.