Week in Review: September 22-26

As you probably heard, we finally got to test out our solar ovens on Monday with some ooey, gooey s'mores. Oh my goodness...the good news was that they worked. The bad news was...that they worked...and the kids were a MESS! Melted chocolate was everywhere, thank goodness we were outside. We trooped into the bathroom right away to wash our hands after our sweet treat. It was a fun experience for the kids, and on Tuesday, they were asked to write a reflection about how their oven worked. Students took an open-note test on Thursday over forms of energy. Those will come home in Thursday folders next week, but of course, you can view their grades online anytime through Home Access Center.

In math, we began the week learning about rounding numbers. I used a strategy I read about on a teacher blog called the rounding highway and the students really seemed to grasp the concept that rounding is about finding the closest number (closest 10 or closest 100). We imagined numbers being mile markers on a highway, with exits at each of the 10s or 100s, and practiced identifying which "exit" would be closest to any given number. From rounding, we went into estimating in problem solving. And finally, on Friday, we learned a new strategy for addition called compensation. Ask your child to explain it to you! In a nutshell, it is this: 23 + 47 can be though of as 22+48 or 21+49 or 20 + 50, which is easy to calculate in our head that the total is 70. Essentially, they learned that you can take away from one part of an equation, and add it to the other part, to get easier numbers to work with.

In reading, we made text-to-text connections, comparing Judy Blume's The Pain and the Great One to Patricia Polacco's My Rotten, Redheaded Older Brother. Students worked through another issue of Time for Kids on Tuesday with the substitute while I was out. I look forward to next week's TFK edition, because I am done with reading testing, so we can go through it as a class and I can teach them strategies for answering basic comprehension questions.

In writing, the students did more work with Show Don't Tell. They were assigned an emotion to illustrate and write a paragraph about...without using the actual word! Readers will have to use the clues they give in their writing to determine what the emotion is. We should have a new bulletin board display of those projects by mid-week!

In honor of Education Go Get It Week, we spent some time researching various careers and working on our professional resumes. Next time you are at the school, be sure to check out our display of resumes outside the classroom. On Friday, we enjoyed the school-wide career fair. Our class saw presentations from a photographer, a family physician, a veterinarian, and many more.

Have a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to seeing my students again on Monday!

Week in Review: September 15-19

This week we have continued our study of energy in science with an experiment on Monday. Students observed that red food color disperses faster in hot water than it does in cold water, and concluded that heat makes molecules go faster.

We built our solar ovens, but have yet to use them thanks to this recent rainfall and cloudy skies. So the S'mores will have to wait till next week...just letting the anticipation build.

As this week was Celebrate Freedom week, we focused on the Constitution and good citizenship in social studies.

In reading workshop, we formed reading partnerships and discussed how to be a good listener and practiced the "turn and talk" strategy many times. Students received their first Time for Kids magazine, which we usually work with every Tuesday. This week, we learned how to code text based on our reading comprehension of a magazine article. Students  use certain symbols such as a check mark for "I already knew that" or a question mark for "this raises a question with me" or an explanation point for "this is exciting or surprising. The goal is to make sure they are actively thinking about what they read. We had our first weekly class checkout time in the library, it will fall on every Wednesday at 9am. And finally, the kids thoroughly enjoyed taking a Kahoot quiz (online interactive game-show style quiz. Mr Grubb, a 4th grade teacher, created a quiz with this new online tool for the Bluebonnet book The Day the Crayons Quit. It was an engaging story that I read aloud to the class, and then the kids showed off their comprehension skills in a competitive quiz game. Based on their enthusiasm for the quiz, I will definitely find ways to incorporate Kahoot in the future!

I think that writing workshop was my favorite part of the week! We are focusing on "show don't tell" which basically means that instead of writing, "I was really sad," a good writer will SHOW the reader that the character is sad. For example: "Tears streamed down my face as I waved good-bye. The lump in my throat made it impossible to speak, and my heart felt heavy." You will have to ask your kids about what I did to trick them on Wednesday, but after a great brainstorming session, we turned the sentence "My teacher was mad" into a well-written, descriptive paragraph. Side note: I was not really mad at them, but I sure scared them into thinking I was for a moment, to demonstrate my point!  It was priceless!

We did stations again in math on Monday to review the various strategies for solving a multiplication sentence. Tasks included laptop games to practice skip counting, number lines on the table (always fun to write on furniture!), an array matching game, and sticky note strip diagrams. They really seem to have mastered these various strategies and we moved on to a quick review of place value. We will start addition and subtraction strategies next week, along with rounding and estimating skills.

I have a couple of things to let you know about for next week. I will be out on Tuesday for TAG training and Ms. Satori will be my substitute. She is a 3rd grade parent, and has subbed for me before, so the kids are in great hands! It will be business as usual. Fall photos will take place on that day as well, so make sure to dress your child appropriately for that. Don't forget that Wednesday is an early release day at 12:45, and many of you have conferences scheduled. Email me if you have forgotten your time! Conferences are scheduled in 20 minute increments back-to-back, so please be on time. I will not be able to extend your time if you are running late. I will have progress reports available at the conference, but if your conference is not scheduled for Wednesday, I will send the progress report home in the Thursday folder. Have a great weekend!

Week in Review: September 8-12

Whew! We survived our first 5 day week!

In science, we have been learning about 4 major forms of energy (heat, light, mechanical and sound). The students have examined objects to determine what kind of energy they release,  made music with water in glasses, and worked with reflecting light beams from flashlights.

Playing Hot Cross Buns!

Learning how light reflects off of some objects

Next week, we will take a closer look at heat energy, and then we will use the knowledge we have learned about heat and light energy to design solar ovens for a little cooking experiment. S'mores anyone? The kids are really excited about this activity, but I will need your help with donations. Please see the email I sent on Friday for a list of items we need! And thanks so much for sending the flashlights this week, especially with such short notice!

We are continuing to learn various strategies to make us better readers in Reading Workshop, such as Back Up and Reread, Stop and Jot, and Check for Understanding. During Writing Workshop, we are still generating ideas and learning to distinguish between big "watermelon" ideas versus tiny "seed stories." Ask your child to describe the difference.

In math, we learned how to use an open number line to solve multiplication equations. We also spent a couple of days reviewing pictographs and using data from them to answer questions. On Friday, we used the laptops to log onto IXL Math, so they are now able to do that from home. Please encourage them to use this great online tool to work on their math skills. You can find a link for IXL on my websites page on this blog. Specifically, I would love to see them work through all of the place value units, and the first addition and multiplication units.

For fun this week, I introduced the kids to Go Noodle, which is a website with lots of active "brain breaks" for students. We will try one of these out whenever I see they need a chance to get some energy out. There are also calming brain breaks for when we need a moment to wind down. Below are a couple of pictures of the kids running hurdles. Hopefully, the classroom underneath us did not mind!

I hope you all have a great weekend. I am looking forward to some cooler temperatures, and possibly some rain!

Weekly Update: September 2-5

We had a great second week of school and I feel like we are finally settling into our routines and schedule.

This week in science, we studied tools that scientists use, different science careers and some famous scientists. When you come in for Parent Information Night on Monday at 6:45, you will be able to view the career trading cards each student designed around a scientific career of their choice.

Practicing our note-taking skills in a small group as we read about famous scientists.

We have moved smoothly into reading and writing workshops with several mini-lessons about reading independently and how to generate writing ideas. We also went for our library orientation and now they are able to check out three items at a time. We will visit the library weekly on Wednesdays, beginning the week of the 15th. This group of kids for the most part really seems to enjoy reading and writing. See the two photos below that I snapped during independent writing time...everyone is focused!

They love to share their writing too! They were thrilled when they got to use their highlighters to highlight their favorite lines of writing to share aloud. It's the little things in life....

In math, we are still working on the 10s and 5s multiplication facts. It is important for them to have quick recall of these facts, so please spend a few minutes a day going over the facts with them. It will have a huge impact! But even more importantly, I want them to understand the relationship between the 10s and 5s facts. Through some hands on work, they have discovered that 5s facts are the halves of 10s facts. For example, if they see a multiplication sentence of 8 X 5, they can think to themselves, "I know that 8 X 10 is 80, so half of that is 40." For many of them, this is quicker than skip counting by 5s eight times. These are big concepts for third graders, but knowing this helps improve their general understanding of the relationship between numbers. Below, you will see just a few of the ways we learned in math this week.

Race to Ten addition game

Practicing with 10s and 5s multiplication dot cards

Friday laptop games! Students played three games to practice their addition and doubling skills.

Problem solving is a big component of our math program. On Friday, I split the class into two groups. While half played laptop review games, I worked with the others on learning the 4-square method of problem solving. Then after 30 minutes, we switched. Splitting into two groups allows me to give more one-on-one attention to those who need some extra help. I was so proud of how well they did! The word problem was a two-step problem (they had to add and multiply) and they easily came up with at least 2 strategies to do this. I saw some great teamwork as students shared their ideas.

Next week will be our first 5 day week this year, so I hope we haven't been too spoiled by these last two 4 day weeks. I hope to see you all at Parent Information Night on Monday at 6:30. I will have a sign-up list for fall conferences there. If you are not able to attend, I will email you a list of available conference times. Have a great weekend!