Week in Review: October 27-31

This week we continued our study of elapsed time and money in math. We will have a test over these skills on Wednesday or Thursday.

In language arts, we published our personal narratives and had a fun Halloween Friday of writing spooky stories! We began to explore the features of non-fiction text such as table of contents, glossary, photos and captions, etc. and discussed how they help a reader understand informational text.

In science, we are jumping into our PBL project with this driving question: How can we educate others about the effects of plastic on earth and inspire them to make a change? We brainstormed questions that we think we will need to research and have worked hard at categorizing those questions so we can form inquiry groups that will focus on one specific aspect to research. 

On Friday, we spent our enrichment time creating T-shirt designs to be considered for our official "Earth Warriors" T-shirt. The third grade class will be voting on these soon! We also enjoyed meeting with our kindergarten buddies Friday morning.

We were treated to a jazz performance on Friday afternoon, thanks to the PTA. Speaking of the PTA, we got some great news on Friday. Our class tied with Mrs. Swyers class in a context to have the most members join the school PTA. We will be treated to a popcorn party next week! Thanks for your support!  I hope everyone has a great weekend, and a safe Halloween tonight. Remember to set your clocks back one hour when you go to bed Saturday night. I'm looking forward to the extra hour of sleep!

Week in Review: October 20-24

This week, we continued our study of matter in science. One of the properties we learned about is density, and students worked in groups to design a boat out of foil that would support the mass of 40 pennies while floating on water.

In math, we studied elapsed time, which is a challenging concept for third graders, but I think they have a pretty good grasp of it now. We will move onto money next week, which students always seem to enjoy!

In language arts, we finished the rough drafts of our personal narratives. Next week, we will publish our final copies, and move onto non-fiction texts and expository writing. We finished reading our beloved Rump during read-aloud time, and I am encouraging each student to take the Bluebonnet quiz over the book. We are so excited that the author of Rump is coming to visit in January, and we can't wait to get our hands on her next book!

As always, I try to incorporate lots of technology in our lessons, and this week students created a character trading card online to depict one of the characters they read about in a recent picture book. 

We also used Google classroom for the second time (a private, online learning community in which I can post and the students can submit assignments electronically). Last week, they annotated a PDF article with their personal thoughts, and this week, we learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and answered some basic comprehension questions about the article I posted.

Don't forget that this upcoming Wednesday is an early release day. Students will be dismissed at 12:45pm. We are excited to see our kindergarten buddies again that day!

Week in Review: October 13-17

I'm not doing an official blog update this week, as Monday was a school holiday, and then I was out Tuesday through Thursday for training. I was so happy to be back in class today, and to hear a great report from our sub!  

I have just a couple of announcements for next week:

1. Registration forms came home in Thursday folders yesterday, we just need you to verify that all of the info is correct, then sign / date, and return to school. I received 11 of them today, so that means there are still 7 out there. Please send those back on Monday!

2. I will be out Tuesday for my 3rd day of TAG training. Ms. Satori will be our substitute again.

3. Friday is PTA family movie night at 6:30pm in the cafeteria.

Week in Review: October 6-10

This week in science, we began studying states of matter. We will continue this study next week by exploring ways to test different properties of matter, such as temperature and density. We had two guest speakers during our science time as well. The kids really enjoyed the Geography Gameshow on Tuesday, and we all learned a lot about the United States.

On Friday, we were excited to hear from a real scientist about electricity. It was a HAIR-RAISING experience....ask your kids what I mean by that.

It was a busy week in reading and writing workshops, as we finished up thick and thin questions. We then moved into inferencing skills (using clues from the text, along with what we know, to come to a logical conclusion or prediction). I placed photos around the room and students had to infer what was going on in the picture. They did really well at this skill! 

Towards the end of the week, we reviewed the elements of stories including setting, plot and characters. Next week, we will delve into more detail on character development. Students are coming along nicely with their personal narrative rough drafts. We have had mini-lessons on strong leads, vivid verbs, and incorporating our five senses into our writing. We also took one day of writing to review common rules of capitalization and punctuation, so from here on out, I am going to expect to see proper capitalization in punctuation in all of their written work.

In math, we wrapped up our subtraction unit and spent two short days on perimeter. 

Next week, we will spend Tuesday reviewing for a test on Wednesday. The test will cover place value, addition, and subtraction. Our next unit will begin on Thursday and is a quick review of telling time, then moving into elapsed time (which will most likely be a new skill for them), followed by money.

A few news items for next week...don't forget that Monday is a school holiday for the kids. Teachers will be working, as it is a staff development day for us to focus on our Project Based Learning projects. I will be out Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to attend Capturing Kids Hearts training. Our entire school is being trained is this fabulous initiative, along with many other schools in the district. If you want to know more about it, you can read details here.

I hope the kids enjoy their 3 day weekend, and while I am excited about the CKH training, I will miss my class and look forward to seeing them on Friday!

Week in Review: September 29 - October 3

This week in science, we read a book called Common Ground, all about the problems our world faces if we continue using natural resources at our current rate. Students were grouped according to their interest (over-fishing, deforestation, overuse of fossil fuels, and water pollution and waste) and are working on designing and presenting a problem/solution poster. We will wrap these up on Monday.

This book and poster design was just a quick activity to get them thinking about natural resources as we get ready to delve into our Project Based Learning on conservation. On Friday morning, we joined with Mrs. Swyers class to do a quick write activity on what conservation means to us. It will be so interesting to see their growth in knowledge and thinking from what they wrote on Friday, to what they will be able to write by the end of the year about conservation. After the writing time, we dug through a pile of trash (clean trash, no worries!) and sorted it into different types of trash (plastic, paper, aluminum, etc.) It was interesting to see how plastic was by far the largest pile of trash!

Viewing pictures of landfills.

Sorting trash

Only one of TWO tables full of plastic trash

In writing, we focused on two important skills: writing a strong lead to catch our reader's attention, and using vivid vocabulary to really help our reader's visualize what we are writing about. This tied in really well with reading workshop, as we discussed how good readers visualize as they are reading.

Students draw a visualization as I read Night in the Country, without showing them the pictures!

We then reread the story as students shared their drawings.

It was interesting to see how our visualizations compared to the illustration in the book.

We also practiced reading non-fiction text with our weekly issue of Time for Kids. Now that our reading testing is done, I was able to spend time teaching strategies for reading comprehension and being able to find support for the questions.

In math, we are continuing with addition strategies, and began working on subtraction by midweek. Using a number line for subtraction proved to be a favorite strategy. We did lots of number line practice on the white board, and on our individual desks...writing on the desks is always a favorite activity of the students! We spent Friday afternoon playing review math games on the laptops, while I pulled small groups of students to check their understanding of the number line strategy.

Just an FYI for next week...I will be out on Thursday October 9 for my second day of TAG training. Mrs. Satori is scheduled to sub for us, but as we know from last time, sometimes issues come up (ie. sick kid at home), and it doesn't always work out. Even with the last minute change in subs last time, the class did a great job, and accomplished everything I wanted them to do.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Our family is off to Dallas to visit the State Fair with my younger sister.