As you know, last week was Education Go Get It Week! During our community circle, students shared their college & career dreams. They created pictures of themselves in their future careers and wrote about what they might like to study in college. Also, students explored some college websites. There were some delighted faces in the room when some of the kiddos found colleges that their parents attended. And of course, on Friday we participated in the Career Fair. Our class visited several guest speakers that presented information about the career. We even saw Gabriel's mom! Thanks to all our presenters for taking time out of their busy schedules to share their expertise. We learned a lot and I think everyone realized how important it is to get a good education! Here's what's happening in our class this week! Classroom News Reading: Our focus this week will be on visualizing, and questioning. We'll learn that good readers make a movie in their mind as they read and ask questions about the text before, during, and after reading. Also, we'll discuss the elements of fiction and how each element is important to the plot. Writing: Students will continue to lift the quality of their writing by using craft elements from our mini lessons. This week we'll practice show vs. tell again with an emphasis on using the five senses. Then we'll learn about crafting a good lead as well as a satisfying ending. By the end of the week, students will choose one of their personal narratives they have written to draft and publish. Science: Last week the kiddos had so much fun investigating light. They noticed that light reflected when directing a beam of light through water onto foil and that light is blocked by objects. We didn't have time for our heat investigations due to Education Go Get It Week, so...this week we'll investigate heat by creating solar ovens and experimenting with a piece of chocolate. During our morning laptop time on Thursday, students will explore a website about energy to determine how it is used and how we can conserve it. Math: We now have a great list of addition strategies on our anchor chart! I noticed many of the kiddos thinking about numbers more flexibly as we tried out various strategies. We started number talks this week which I am so excited to get going. Number talks, (where we solve equations mentally and discuss) are an important part of our math warm up as students use mental math, communicate their mathematical ideas, and further develop number sense. These also greatly improve fact fluency. This week we'll continue to work on addition, subtraction, estimating, and rounding. Upcoming Events: Friday, October 3rd- Spirit Assembly (students should drop off their backpack in the classroom prior to the assembly) Friday, October 10th- Cookout during lunch Monday, October 13th- Student holiday Highlights from last week! Light Energy Investigation Students observed radiometers in the room with flashlights. The objective was to try to use light energy to make the panels spin. At first, nothing happened, and then to our surprise when we turned the lights out the flashlights caused the panels to spin! The kiddos were so engaged! Using laptops to conduct a virtual investigation about energy on Stemscopes. Another light investigation! Using the laptops to learn about strip diagrams for addition and subtraction. Career Fair
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Classroom News Week of September 22-26 Reading: Students will continue to build their repertoire of reading strategies. I'll model how readers ask good questions, make connections, and visualize. Of course students will have opportunities to practice their strategies with partners and then during independent reading time. We'll read one of my favorite picture books by Chris Van Allsburg called The Stranger. It's the perfect book for showing kiddos how many questions they have once they start thinking about them. Writing: I have seen so much progress already in the students writing. I noticed they are trying to narrow down their topic to write a "seed idea" and they are beginning to add more details. We'll continue to learn about qualities of good writing with mini lessons on show vs. tell, (how to show something with words instead of telling), sequencing stories using exact details, good word choice, and strong leads. Science: The kiddos had a great time working together to devise a plan to make a radiometer spin. We were all so surprised that flashlights shining directly onto the panels in a dark room made them panels spin! Sometime this week, we'll take them outside and see how they react in the sun. We have one more light investigation to conduct and then we'll begin exploring heat/thermal energy. Later in the week students will get to build solar ovens and then test them out! Pictures will be added to the class website soon! Math: This week our focus will be on strategies mathematicians use to solve addition and subtraction problems including using base 10 blocks, a strip diagram, (part, part, whole), partial sums, (breaking numbers apart), using a number line, counting up, and compensation. We'll also begin rounding numbers and estimating. Don't forget this week is Education Go Get It Week! You received a flyer about it in the Thursday folder last week. You can refer to that to see what activities are happening this week for EGGI. Upcoming Events: September 22-26- Education Go Get It Week Tuesday, September 23rd- Picture Day Wednesday, September 24th- Early Release Day Highlights from Week of September 15-19 Students learned that sound is vibration while conducting a sound investigation using cans and salt. The goal was to make the salt move using only sound-that means nothing could touch the large can with salt on top! The kiddos had a great time trying to figure out how to make the right sound to move the salt. Every group was successful. A few groups even discovered how to make the salt bounce right off the can until they had no salt left on top. We learned that writers choose a seed idea to write about, not a big watermelon topic. For instance, a trip to the beach would be a watermelon topic, but catching sand crabs would be a seed idea. What a better way to remember that to observe a watermelon! And of course, everyone wanted to taste it. Look at those happy faces!
We have a busy week ahead of us for our 2nd five day week. See below for a glimpse of our learning this week and be sure to check out the photos and captions of highlights from last week. Classroom News: Week of September 15-19 Reading: Our reading workshop is running pretty smoothly now. The kiddos have been building their reading stamina each day and choosing mostly just right books. This week we'll learn that good readers make connections and visualize as they read. We'll continue to discuss and learn strategies to monitor and fix up comprehension. Writing: The kiddos now have plenty of ideas for writing that they generated the last two weeks. Now we'll start learning about qualities of good writing. Our big focus this week will be on choosing a seed idea, not a big watermelon topic, and zooming in. Also, we'll learn how to tell our stories step by step using details. Science: More energy fun this week! We only had time for one sound investigation last week, so we'll conduct another one this week in addition to light investigations. If time, we'll also explore heat/thermal energy. Math: Last week we started reviewing place value, since most of the kiddos demonstrated proficiency in multiplying by 5s & 10s. We will continue to practice these facts on a regular basis during our warm up or through math games. This week we'll learn more about place value and will begin adding and subtracting 3 digit numbers. As mentioned during Parent Night, students will develop various strategies for adding and subtracting to ensure conceptual knowledge. Social Studies: This week is Celebrate Freedom week! Students will learn about the constitution and celebrate our country. Upcoming Events Wednesday, September 17th-Constitution Day Thursday, September 18th-Chick Fil-A Spirit night 5:30-7:30 Reminders
Highlights from Sept. 8-12 Students had a great time exploring energy by observing everyday objects and determining the form of energy used. We especially liked the blow dryer! This week in math we learned how to make equal groups on a number line to multiply. The kiddos drew their own number line with their partner, then made jumps to show multiplication of 5s facts. They even showed the turn around fact on their number line and wrote the equation. Playing place value and multiplication math games! Sound investigation! Students explored various sounds that can be made using glasses and water. Each group figured out how to play Hot Cross Buns and/or Mary Had a Little Lamb with the glasses. I should have video taped-it was so cool to hear them play the songs!
I think we are finally settling into our regular daily schedule now that we have learned the routines and procedures. We are ready for a full week of learning! See below for what is happening in our classroom this week. Reading: Last week we learned about metacognition-such a big word! We learned that readers think about their reading, not just go on auto-pilot and read the words. Also, we learned that readers stop & think about the text. This week we'll begin leaving tracks of our thinking, (recording our thinking), something we'll do all year. We'll form reading partnerships so that every reader will have someone to share their thinking with, (that's when those tracks of thinking really come in handy). Students will also learn about strategies readers use when meaning breaks down. Of course, every day students will spend time reading independently. Writing: This week we'll continue to learn strategies for generating ideas which students will use to write personal narratives. Some of the strategies include thinking of an object to spark a memory, best/worst list, and using a heart map, (these are always a hit-be sure to ask your child what they included on their heart map later in the week). Science: Last week students read and watched video clips about famous scientists. They worked with partners to read trading cards and wrote a few interesting facts about that scientist. We didn't have time to share, so I'll make time for that tomorrow. We'll wrap this short unit up by learning about some science careers, and then dive into our next unit-Energy! Students will explore some objects at school and determine the type of energy the object uses. Also, students will conduct investigations about sound and light this week. For one of our investigations we'll need flashlights so if you have a flashlight your child could bring in, please have them bring it on Thursday. Math: This week we'll wrap up our unit on multiplying by 5's & 10's. So far the kiddos have used arrays, equal groups, strip diagrams, and pictures/models to represent multiplication. We'll add "making jumps on a number line" to our list of strategies. I have been amazed at the math work I have seen so far. I gave the students a multi-step problem to solve and they jumped right in and used their strategies efficiently to solve the problem. What a great group of mathematicians! We have more problems to solve this week in addition to some multiplication games to play to help with fact fluency. A note about fact fluency...While it is important for students to learn math facts with automaticity, it is even more important for them to gain conceptual knowledge of what multiplication means and what an equation represents. That is why we act out math problems, use math tools, draw representations, and use strategies to solve problems instead of just learning math facts. We'll talk a bit more about this tomorrow night at Parent Night. Making arrays with cubes to multiply. Making equal groups to multiply. Making a model with cubes to solve a multiplication problem. Exploring science tools! Decorating writing notebooks.
Hope you had a great 3 day weekend! It was nice having some time to relax after our first week of school. Our first week of the year was great! Here are the highlights from the week:
The Marshmallow Challenge!! Check out the gallery of photos below of the kiddos exploring math tools. Just double click the first photo to scroll through the pictures. This allows you to view the photos larger. This week we are jumping right into our content units, but we will continue to build our classroom community. Read below to find out what we are learning this week.
Reading: We'll start our reading workshop this week! Yay! On Tuesday, students will shop for books to keep in their bookbox. These will be the books they read during read to self time, (reading independently). We'll learn how to choose a "just right book", the role of readers during workshop time, how to set a purpose & goals for reading, and how to check for understanding while reading. Also, I'll model how readers think as we learn about metacognition. Writing: Our writing workshop will be up and running this week as well. We'll start by learning how writers come up with ideas for writing. Students will compile lists of people, places, and objects that spark memories for writing and will use these story ideas to write personal narratives. Science: Our fist unit is on science safety and science tools. This week students will explore tools scientist use and discover ways to be safe while conducting science experiments. Math: We began our first unit, (multiplying by 5's and 10's), on Friday by reviewing equal groups and skip counting by 5's. We'll continue this week with making equal groups, using a number line to multiply, and learning about arrays. Don't forget! Parent Night for 3rd grade is Monday, September 8th! |
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November 2019
Mrs. Swyers3rd Grade Teacher |