CURRICULUM Language Arts Math Social Studies Science Art/Music PE/Health SCHOOL INFORMATION Calendar Current Events Cornerstone at Pedregal School     New Year's Resolutions Here are our student New Year's Resolutions for the year 2000. Keep watching for more student writing projects and related artwork. Spotlight on Literacy Our language arts series is called Spotlight on Literacy by MacMillan MacGraw Hill. The program integrates literature, grammar, spelling and writing. The Practice Book provides experiences that build skills in comprehension, vocabulary, contextual clues, point of view, study skills, inferences, etc. Please help students with this by asking them to read the directions for you and then asking them what the directions say. The Grammar Book provides practice in parts of speech, types of sentences, compound subjects and predicates, etc. When you are helping with this, ask the students to read the directions to you, break it down by steps, and have them tell you what they are to do. The Spelling Book clusters words with similar phonetic sounds and helps the students look for patterns, meanings, and utilize these with writing. Students will take pre and post spelling tests for each story. Spelling tests are every Friday or the last day of the school week. For homework, ten of the spelling words are to be put into an interesting story, with the remaining ten spelling words defined. This homework is due on Fridays (or the last day of the school week). These are the stories used each week to learn grammar, writing, and spelling through literature. There is a link to the current week's spelling words below. The Little Painter of Sabana Grande by Patricia Maloney Markun Lon Po Po by Ed Young Animal Fact / Animal Fable by Seymour Simon Meet an Underwater Explorer by Luise Woelflein The Terrible EEK by Patricia Compton Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg Opt: An Illusionary Tale by Ed and Arline Baum Science Magic by Alison Alexander and Susie Bower The Patchwork Quilt How My Parents Learned to Eat Ramona Forever On Granddaddy's Farm A Fruit & Vegetable Man by Roni Schotter Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry The Streets Are Free Sandra Speidel Cactus Hotel by Megan Lloyd Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett Tornado Alert by Franklyn M. Branley Storm in the Night by Mary Stolz Dream Wolf retold by Paul Goble Operation Rescue: Saving Sea Life from Oil Spills by Christina Wilsdon The Rooster Who Understood Japanese by Yoshiko Uchida Turtle Knows Your Name retold by Ashley Bryan Oral Language View our weekly oral language topics. Our Junior Great Books Series We use this series to aid the teaching of supporting answers, forming opinions, and writing creatively. Parents are utilized in discussions or shared inquiries. If you are here during Junior Great Books, please help students by asking questions about the story and asking them to refer back to the story to back up their answers. You can help them look for answers in the story book. Here are weekly spelling lists derived from the Junior Great Books stories that will be used during the weeks of Junior Great Books interpretations. The Master Cat by Charles Perrault The Fisherman and His Wife by the Brothers Grimm, translated by Lucy Crane The Little Daughter of the Snow Russian folktale as told by Arthur Ransome The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Anderson The Monster Who Grew Small by Joan Grant The Little Humpbacked Horse Russian folktale as told by Post Wheeler Ooka and The Honest Thief Japanese folktale as told by I.G. Edmonds The Brave Little Tailor by the Brothers Grimm, translated by Ralph Manheim Jean LaBadie's Big Black Dog French-Canadian folktale as told by Natalie Savage Carlson Caporushes English folktale as told by Flora Annie Steel It's All The Fault of Adam by Robert Graves Core Literature Books We have a variety of core literature books. The purpose of reading these books is to experience other forms of literature and develop an appreciation for well known authors. We stress comprehension here and will ask you to listen to readers. Please ask questions as you read, orally testing students for comprehension. Also, you can help students that are having difficulty with words, but let them try first and ask students to do the same. Some of the books that we read: 100 Dresses by Alice Dagliesh Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder Sarah, Plain & Tall by Patricia MacLachlan Charlotte's Web by E.B. White - Spelling Words Henry Huggins The Courage of Sarah Noble Library Books Everyday there is silent reading and time for students to develop an enjoyment for reading. This is usually the first thing in the morning. You can suggest books for your child to read. The library has a list of appropriate third grade books and we ask that each student have a book to read all the time. We will sometimes ask for a book talk for "What's Up" or a written book report as part of the regular class assignment. Also, they should be reading 20 minutes each day outside of school. We think that it is a good idea for parents to read with children and would recommend that families choose a book to read and do so as a family activity. Discussions about the book are helpful as it promotes listening skills and comprehension. Reading is the key to all of the subjects that students learn. They may not choose it as the first activity that they want to do, but if skills are there, they have a better chance of success in school and, more importantly, of enjoying it.