I'm sure the many of the kiddos are anxious for Halloween this week and for the 3rd grade choir performance. I hope you are able to join us Tuesday night for the wonderful program the music teachers have put together.
Here's a glimpse of our learning for the upcoming week. Writing: Due to practicing for the choir performance on Monday and Tuesday, we will only have a few writing lessons this week. We have some thank you letters to write, so we'll learn how to write a friendly letter with the correct parts of a letter. Also, we'll write a response to a conservation video. Reading: Our focus this week will be on nonfiction/expository. We'll explore text features and determine the purpose of each feature. I'll model how to use text features to predict what the text will be about and rev up your mind to read. Students will locate various text features and state how they help them as a reader. On Friday, we have an author visit. That should be a lot of fun! Math: We are wrapping up our multiplication unit with some problem solving and review before taking the test on Tuesday. Wednesday, we'll solve fall related problems to earn parts for a game. After the kiddos solve the problems, they will work with a group to figure out some clues leading to a rubber skeleton. Their group will exchange the skeleton for skeleton bone cookies. They will put the skeleton together and have a sweet treat! This should be exciting! Science: Finally, we are going to build our solar ovens and cook s'mores using heat energy generated from their oven. This is always a favorite! Then, we'll take the unit test on forms of energy on Thursday. Friday we'll meet with our kinder buddies for eslot so we won't have time to start a new unit. Upcoming Events October 30: Third Grade Choir Performance @ 6:30 November 2: Author Visit November 13: Field Trip to the Performing Arts Center
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Here's a look at the upcoming week. We have a few special activities this week including a presentation for International Week, an assembly Friday afternoon, and the Book Fair.
Here's a look at the upcoming week. We have a few special activities this week including a presentation for International Week, an assembly Friday afternoon, and the Book Fair. Writing: We are wrapping up our poetry unit this week. We'll learn more about figurative language and poetic devices and try them out as we write a few more poems. Then, students will choose one or two of their best poems to revise and publish. Next, we'll dive into expository writing. Reading: Just like in writing, we'll wrap up our poetry unit after reading a few more poems. Then, we'll learn about nonfiction text features as we begin exploring expository texts. Math: We'll continue working on multiplications. Students will use arrays, equal groups, number lines, tables, strip diagrams, and number sentences to represent multiplication as well as solve problems. Our focus this week will be on fours and eights facts as we continue to explore doubling, halving, and the relationship between facts. Science: I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will have a sunny, warm day this week to complete our heat investigation using solar ovens. This week we will build our ovens, investigate mechanical energy through a mystery science video/activity, and cook s'mores on our solar ovens. We'll finish up our energy unit with our district assessment on Thursday or Friday. Social Studies: Since this is International Week, we'll research our class country, China. Also, we have a presentation about Hong Kong from two of our parents on Tuesday. Upcoming Events Thursday, October 25: International Culture Fair 6:00-8:00 October 30Third Grade Choir Program 6:30 Solving Multiplication Problems using Equal Groups Mystery Science-Investigating Mechanical Energy After watching a Mystery Science video about spiders, we drew spiders and folded a piece of paper with yarn going through two folds to make a spider "crawl". There were very detailed directions to follow and these scientists were up for the challenge. Everyone was able to make their spider crawl-some even figured out how to make it go fast. So exciting to see mechanical energy in motion! Counting Collections I love seeing mathematicians sharing their thinking and so engaged in mathematical thinking. Partners organized and counted collections of items in various ways. The challenge is to think of efficient ways to group the items in order to count and record accurately. You can tell from the photos that lots of hard work went into making groups. Lots of great thinking happening! Exploring Heat Energy with Mystery Science In this investigation, we placed different types of candy in hot water to see which ones melted the most. At first, nothing happened because we realized the water was still cold. Then, when we tested the candies in hot water, some of them melted a lot while others just became slightly soft. This was part of a Mystery Science exploration. The kiddos loved smooshing the candy after it melted. Notice and Wonder-Discovering Doubling International Week Closing Assembly We were lucky to get to see two of our classmates, Angelina and Tiffany, participate in a dance to celebrate International Week. We also enjoyed a band from UT. What a great way to end the week! There's a lot going on this week, including picture day. Our class will have photos taken on Thursday, October 18th at 9:40. If you plan to purchase portraits, please send the picture envelop and payment by October 18th. Also, this week is Coins for Coats Week, (more info below).
This is the last week of the first grading period, (hard to believe). October 22 will be the first day of the second grading period. I will be updating grades throughout the week. Here's a glimpse of our learning for the upcoming week: Reading: More poetry this week! Our focus this week will be on imagery, inferencing, author's message, and main idea. At the end of the week, we will take a district assessment that includes a fiction and poetry passage. We will probably spend a few more days next week reading poetry, but I want to have the test on the first grading period. Writing: We'll continue to write poems while learning poetry elements to improve the quality of our poems including figurative language, imagery, line breaks, and emotion. Later in the week, we'll write a poem inspired by an object in nature. Students can bring in an item from nature to observe and write about. Math: This week, we'll work on twos, fours, and eights facts. The big idea is that we can double twos to figure out fours facts, and we can use double, double, double to determine eights facts. We will also learn how to use halving. Understanding doubling and halving builds flexibility and understanding about numbers which will help build the foundation for future math concepts. It is soooo much more than just memorization. Science: We had so much fun making kazoos last week to explore sound. We'll continue to explore forms of energy as we investigate light, sound, and mechanical energy. Don't forget to send in flashlights on Tuesday. Upcoming Events October 18: Picture Day October 15-19 Coins for Coats Week MONDAY = bring pennies TUESDAY = bring nickels WEDNESDAY = bring dimes THURSDAY = bring quarters FRIDAY = bring dollar bills (or $5, $10, checks made to "RRASC: Keep Round Rock Warm" etc). October 24-26: Book Fair Exploring Forms of Energy To introduce each type of energy, we rotated to different stations to identify the types of energy produced by common objects. Everyone had fun noticing heat, sound, mechanical, and sound energy. Making Straw Kazoos This is always a huge hit. All you need for this exploration is a straw and scissors. First you cut a triangle on the tip and then blow the kazoo. Then, you cut little pieces off the end to make different pitches. So cool! Noticing and Wondering to Understand Doubling & Halving My mathematicians worked hard to discover a big idea about doubling and halving as they observed arrays showing the relationship between the fives and tens facts. Working with Arrays and Multiplication We used Nearpod to explore arrays and solve various multiplication problems. Enrichment Time! Coding with Ozobots We had so much fun creating codes for an Ozobot, (a small robot that reads codes). The goal was to create a path with different codes. It was great to meet with so many parents on Monday. If you were unable to attend, I will send your child's conference form home on Thursday.
See below for details about our learning during the short week. Writing: We will be composing poems this week as we study characteristics of poetry and learn craft moves. Reading: Last week, we read and learned about free verse and humorous poems. This week we'll focus on narrative and lyrical poetry. Math: Our focus this week will be on the fives and tens facts. We'll discover and use the doubling and halving strategies. Here's a short video from our online math curriculum showing the doubling strategy. Also, we'll continue to solve problems involving multiplication, represent multiplication using arrays and equal groups, and find relationships in a table. Science: We'll discover different types of energy and how we use energy in our daily lives. Students will investigate sound energy by making a straw kazoo and creating different sounds with glasses of water. Upcoming Events October 18: Picture Day for our class at 9:40 October 16: Spirit Night at Chipotle October 22-26: International Children's Week Problem Word Problems Students worked in groups to solve a problem involving subtraction. They used a strip diagram to organize the information and then solved using different strategies. Ordering and Comparing Numbers on a Number Line To practice ordering larger numbers, I gave partners three different number lines. First, the kiddos generated numbers that would be between the benchmark numbers, Then, they worked together to determine where the numbers would go. This involves thinking about place value. Once all their numbers were on the number line, we wrote comparison statements using the symbols for greater than and less than. Investigating Oil and Water as a Mixture What happens when you add oil and water together in a vial and shake it? Is it a mixture? What if you add a few drops of dish soap? These are questions we answered as we combined oil and water to make a mixture. You might want to ask your child about the results. This would be a simple investigation you could do with your child at home. Working with Arrays We learned that arrays can be used to help solve multiplication problems. I gave partners an image of an array and challenged them to solve math questions they wondered about. For example, in an array of spiders two kiddos wanted to figure out the number of legs and eyes in a addition to finding out how many spiders. Practicing Addition with a Fun Game This is a favorite addition game that we have played several times as a class, (me against them). Now that my mathematicians know the game well, we played with partners. Be sure to ask your child about this game. It's a great one to play at home! Enjoying Poetry I like to start poetry units by immersing the kiddos in all different types of poems. My readers were so engaged. We created a chart to list features/characteristics of poetry that they noticed as they read. We'll add to this chart and revise as read more poetry over the next few weeks. Relationships in a Table Using Desmos After noticing and wondering about the relationship in a table, students practiced using tables in a Desmos activity. Part of the activity was to solve a problem about a broken gumball machine. Touch and Talk Vocabulary We kicked off our science unit on energy by sharing things we know about energy and matching images to vocabulary words. This is a great way to introduce terms for a new unit as well as activate prior knowledge. Making Goofy Pumpkins with Kinder Buddies After listening to a narrative poem about a square pumpkin, we created goofy pumpkins with our kindergarten buddies. I was really impressed with how well my third graders helped their buddy through the process. And the final products looked amazing! |
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November 2019
Mrs. Swyers3rd Grade Teacher |