Mrs. Pieters Third Grade Adventures IMPORTANT DATES THIS WEEK March 13-1:00 Dismissal for MS/BVIS Conferences March 14-1:00 Dismissal for Elem./HS Conferences March 16-No School/Snow Day March 17-No School Story of the Week America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle

AR READING THIS QUARTER ENDS MARCH

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* Assessments will be Friday, March 24 due to the short week.

David Adler tells the true story of Gertrude Ederle. Although she nearly drowned at the age of seven, ten years later she was the top swimmer on the U.S. Olympic team. She went on to become the first woman to swim the English Channel. At one point during the swim, her coach encouraged her to come out because her leg had gone numb, and she wasn’t able to kick properly. She yelled back, “What for?” and kept swimming. She beat the men’s record by nearly two hours. Vocabulary of the Week America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle (Biography) by David A. Adler Illustrated by Terry Widener Practice reading the following words, understand what each word means, and practice using each word in a sentence:

1. celebrate: to do something special in honor of a special person or day. Do you celebrate your birthday each year? 2. continued: kept up; kept on going. The movie continued for nearly three hours! 3. current: a flow or stream of water. The swift current of the river made it impossible to cross. 4. drowned: died or caused to die under water or other liquid because of lack of air to breathe. I could have drowned if I hadn’t been wearing my life jacket. 5. medals: pieces of metal, like coins, that are given as prizes or rewards. She won four gold medals in the Olympics. 6. stirred: mixed something by moving it around with a spoon or stick. He stirred the sugar and Kool-Aid together. 7. strokes: single, complete movements made over and over again. The swimmer used powerful strokes to complete the race

Spelling List of the Week 4-4 Suffixes –er, -or, -ess, -ist

1. dentist 2. editor 3. artist 4. hostess 5. actress 6. swimmer 7. seller 8. tutor 9. tourist 10. organist 11. lioness 12. shipper 13. chemist 14. investor 15. conductor Challenge Words 16. announcer 17. pharmacist 18. journalist 19. commuter 20. pianist