Weekly Wrap-Up

Not a lot to report for this week! Monday was a relaxing day with our flashlight read-in and a fun math Jeopardy review game.

Congratulations to the boys who beat the girls by 30 points! Then of course, Monday and Tuesday were taken up with testing.

In math, we jumped right back into fractions and spent Thursday and Friday using fraction circles, fraction bars, and paper strips to explore equivalent fractions.

We have finished revising and editing our persuasive letters and will get those typed up when we have our laptop day on Tuesday next week. On Friday, I gave all of the students a lengthy spelling pre-test from a list of words that a typical third grader should be able to spell. Based on those results, I will determine each student's spelling lists for the last few weeks of school. Speaking of that....can you believe there are only 5 weeks of school left?!?

We also spent some time preparing for our Warrior Walk for Water. Some students designed invitations, others made posters, and two small groups began working on informational displays that we will share at the walk.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up

Let me apologize in advance that there are no pictures this week. It just seemed like a super short week. I was out on Monday, home with a sick kiddo! And then of course, there is no school on Friday, so I only had three days with my students.

In language arts, we continued working on our persuasive letters and hope to have those mailed off by next week. For reading, I flipped things around and instead of reading a passage and answering questions...they had to WRITE the test questions. Students formed partners or small groups and chose a picture book to read. They then worked with their partners to develop 5 "test questions". They covered summary, sequencing, context clues, purpose of a picture, and theme or lesson. I think it was challenging for them to think backwards, and the greatest part is...they didn't even realize how much they were reinforcing their skills in these areas. The tests are all found on our Websites Page.

For social studies, we delved into researching Kenya. We studied the important landforms there and practiced some mapping skills. Students got to explore two greatly informative websites about life in Kenya.

This was our last week in math to review for the STAAR test so I tried to mix it up with a variety of activities: laptop games, I Have / Who Has games, problem solving with a partner, and lots of other hands on review.

On Monday, we are going to have a relaxing day with a flashlight read in during our morning language arts block. (Please send a flashlight with your child and ask him / her what they plan to read!) The afternoon will be spent learning more about Kenya and planning for our upcoming Walk for Water.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up

In language arts, we are continuing persuasive writing, but this time students are paired up and writing to convince someone to conserve water or to become involved with H2O for Life. They chose their audience and it ranges from our district superintendent, to our friends and family, to our nation's President.

For reading, we are practicing more with cause and effect and took a practice STAAR test broken up over two days to give me one last look at the skills I need to reteach in the next week. Overall, they did great!

Tuesday was exciting as we finally got to "erupt" our volcanoes! The kids had a great time, but more importantly, they were able to make some scientific observations about the changes to their volcano's structure after the eruption.

Next, we are moving on to landforms in science, and will spend some time looking at landforms in Kenya, to tie in with our Water Warrior project. The primary school we are raising money for is located in Kenya.

In math, we are continuing to review skills learned this year, focusing on money, rounding, addition and subtraction, and reviewing geometry terms this week. Students took a practice STAAR test on Monday and did really well! I think the actual test will be a piece of cake for them...as long as they take their time, use their strategies, and check their work! My 5th grade daughter, Emily, joined us on Friday during math time. She led the students in checking their warm-ups, then we split the class into two groups for some geometry review, and she managed one group. The kids enjoyed having her in class, and she enjoyed getting to know the kids that she hears me talking about so much!

On Friday after school, to celebrate Global Youth Service Day, many of our students joined up with other third grade Water Warriors to prepare for our May 13 Walk for Water. Each class painted a unique banner, our banner says, "Do your part, be water smart!" Some students partnered up and created posters to carry during the walk, while other worked on writing songs, chants and poems. We ended the afternoon by watching a couple of videos made by other schools partnering with H2O for Life to see the kind of work they are doing.

Remember that next week is a short week...no school on Friday for Good Friday. Have a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up

This week in language arts, we began talking about persuasive writing. Fair warning parents...letters came home on Friday from your child trying to persuade you of something! :) We focused on context clues in reading, another important skill for the STAAR test.

In math, we wrapped up probability which was super easy for the kids. Now we have begun a general review of all skills learned this year, beginning with place value and money this week. We will continue this review until the STAAR test in later April.

Students really enjoyed the soil shakes experiment. They added water to their soil samples, gave it a good shake, and then let it settle into layers. Most samples clearly showed three distinctive layer like we had learned about from our textbook. They wrote reflections about all they have learned throughout this unit on soil and those went home in Thursday folders. On Thursday and Friday, we focused on volcanoes again, and are building models of volcanoes that we will have "erupt" on Monday. They are looking forward to that for sure!

I sent home a pretty big Scholastic book order...5 different order forms. With the book fair being in May, I most likely will not send home another order, so this is our last one for the year. Please consider placing an order for your child by Thursday April 10. Each order that we get as a class allows me to earn free books for our growing classroom library. Thanks in advance for your support, and have a great weekend!