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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November 2019
Mrs. Swyers3rd Grade Teacher |