We have been hard at work in science learning about Rocks and Minerals and in Social Studies learning about Australia.
In science the children are wearing the hat of a scientist (figuratively speaking) and are performing tests on their set of 12 minerals in order to observe some of the properties of the minerals. They have used flashlights to test whether their minerals were transparent, translucent, or opaque. They have also used black and white tiles to see whether each mineral left a streak when scratched across the tiles, which tested the minerals' identifiable color. This week they will be observing the luster of each mineral to determine whether they are glassy, waxy, or dull. The children are recording all of their observations as they perform each test, and will use these observations to try to identify each mineral at the end of the unit.
In Social Studies our third graders are wearing their author hats. Each child has chosen an Australian animal to research and will be writing a non-fiction book about the animal. Before Miss Smith left she taught the class about writing an informational paragraph, which must contain a topic sentence and supporting details. We are now building from that to write longer informational pieces about these unique animals. The children will also think about non-fiction text features, such as headings, pictures, captions, bold words, glossaries, etc and decide which text features would be helpful in teaching their readers about their animal. The children are already getting excited as they research their animals and find out amazing facts and they are looking forward to getting to the Rough Draft part of the writing process where they can put their notes into sentences!
Be sure to ask your child about their amazing animal at home. I know they will be able to tell you many fascinating facts!
Monday, October 27, 2014
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Farewell September!
It's hard to believe that we are almost into October already! The children (and teachers) have settled into a routine and things are running smoothly in third grade.
We are almost finished with our second unit in the Journeys program and I am already seeing the benefits of using a program that integrates the components of our Balanced Literacy framework. Students are introduced to new vocabulary words on the first day of a new lesson and hear those words in the context of a short read aloud, a fiction story, and an informational text. They see those same words in Guided Reading books at their instructional level as well. The target skill for the lessons- Summarizing in Lesson 1 and Drawing conclusions in Lesson 2- are also carried over into students' Guided Reading lessons so that each child has an opportunity for more practice of that particular skill as it relates to his/her Guided Reading book. The children are doing a great job!
In word work students have studied short vowel sounds and the long vowel sound that comes from words that have a Vowel-Consonant-final e. They sorted simple words that had these patterns, and then learned how to look at words with more than one syllable like confuse, pollute, and amusement and use what they know about the vowel sounds to break those longer words apart and read them correctly.
This past week we also had visitors from the Troy Lodge of Elks come into our classroom and donate a personal dictionary to each student. The Elks members spoke of the importance of Learning to Read so that you can Read to Learn, and it was wonderful for the children to hear this message from members of their community. By coincidence, a segment of our Journeys lesson this week also began to teach students the skill of reading dictionary entries and selecting the most appropriate meaning of a word, so this visit from the Elks was well-timed!
Check back soon for more updates!
We are almost finished with our second unit in the Journeys program and I am already seeing the benefits of using a program that integrates the components of our Balanced Literacy framework. Students are introduced to new vocabulary words on the first day of a new lesson and hear those words in the context of a short read aloud, a fiction story, and an informational text. They see those same words in Guided Reading books at their instructional level as well. The target skill for the lessons- Summarizing in Lesson 1 and Drawing conclusions in Lesson 2- are also carried over into students' Guided Reading lessons so that each child has an opportunity for more practice of that particular skill as it relates to his/her Guided Reading book. The children are doing a great job!
In word work students have studied short vowel sounds and the long vowel sound that comes from words that have a Vowel-Consonant-final e. They sorted simple words that had these patterns, and then learned how to look at words with more than one syllable like confuse, pollute, and amusement and use what they know about the vowel sounds to break those longer words apart and read them correctly.
This past week we also had visitors from the Troy Lodge of Elks come into our classroom and donate a personal dictionary to each student. The Elks members spoke of the importance of Learning to Read so that you can Read to Learn, and it was wonderful for the children to hear this message from members of their community. By coincidence, a segment of our Journeys lesson this week also began to teach students the skill of reading dictionary entries and selecting the most appropriate meaning of a word, so this visit from the Elks was well-timed!
Check back soon for more updates!
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Third Graders Can Do Amazing Things!
We are off and running here in third grade! The students have done a wonderful job making the transition from the comfort of the K-2 wing up to the 3-5 wing with all of the "big kids".
A big idea that we have been talking about in these first days of school is all of the things that we can do as individuals and as learners that we are proud of. Outside our classroom is a list of "I Can" Statements that celebrate the many achievements of third graders. We have singers, athletes, dancers, jewelry makers, and more! Inside our class, posted on the front board, is a chart listing all of the academic "I Can" Statements that we are proud of.
This week we are celebrating the following "I Can" Statements:
In ELA- We can ask and answer questions to show that we understand the stories we read, and use evidence from the text to support our thinking.
In Math- We can find patterns in addition and explain them using what we know about how numbers work. We can also count by 1's, 10's, 100's, and 1,000's to 10,000.
In Science- We can think and write like a scientist by describing what we see, feel, hear, and smell.
And in Social Studies- We can identify our continent, country, state, and town.
Aren't these wonderful accomplishments? Be sure to congratulate your third grader for achieving these goals!
Please be in touch any time if you have any questions about what we are learning in class.
I hope to meet you all at Open House on September 17th at 7:00 pm.
A big idea that we have been talking about in these first days of school is all of the things that we can do as individuals and as learners that we are proud of. Outside our classroom is a list of "I Can" Statements that celebrate the many achievements of third graders. We have singers, athletes, dancers, jewelry makers, and more! Inside our class, posted on the front board, is a chart listing all of the academic "I Can" Statements that we are proud of.
This week we are celebrating the following "I Can" Statements:
In ELA- We can ask and answer questions to show that we understand the stories we read, and use evidence from the text to support our thinking.
In Math- We can find patterns in addition and explain them using what we know about how numbers work. We can also count by 1's, 10's, 100's, and 1,000's to 10,000.
In Science- We can think and write like a scientist by describing what we see, feel, hear, and smell.
And in Social Studies- We can identify our continent, country, state, and town.
Aren't these wonderful accomplishments? Be sure to congratulate your third grader for achieving these goals!
Please be in touch any time if you have any questions about what we are learning in class.
I hope to meet you all at Open House on September 17th at 7:00 pm.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
News From Third Grade
Dear parents,
I asked the children to let me know what they thought you would like to know about our learning. Here are a few entries I received...If I'm being honest, they are the only entries I received. Hopefully I get more student input in the future! Here is what they wanted you to know...
"In math we finished up division with a test. Then Mrs. Curran found out we needed some more help with division. When we finally got it we started fractions. Now we are continuing fractions."
by Cooper
"We are getting better and better at math facts." by Melissa
"We are learning in science about chemicals. We are mixing chemicals so we can see what happens to it. We are observing it. One looks really cool. My partner is Bella. We take turns. It is really fun." by Kaya
Here's what I can add to what the children wrote...
In math we are learning about fractions. We have done several hands-on activities to explore the idea that fractions are equal parts of a whole. Recently the children partitioned a piece of paper into equal parts by folding it. They then shaded in one of the equal parts to represent the unit fraction. Next, they cut out each of the equal parts and arranged them into a piece of art. We displayed each work of art in our Fraction Museum and as the children toured the fraction museum they recorded the unit fraction and the fraction of unshaded pieces in each piece of art hanging up.
We have a quiz this week on what we've learned so far about fractions. Next week we will continue exploring fractions as spaces on a number line.
Before our winter break we did an author study of Tomie DePaola. We compared three of his popular picture books- Strega Nona, Strega Nona's Magic Lessons, and Tony's Bread. We discussed similarities and differences between the characters, settings, problems, and solutions in these stories. Since Tomie DePaola writes and illustrates his books we were also able to discuss they way his illustrations add to our understanding of his stories. We are now moving our focus to reading informational texts!
I asked the children to let me know what they thought you would like to know about our learning. Here are a few entries I received...If I'm being honest, they are the only entries I received. Hopefully I get more student input in the future! Here is what they wanted you to know...
"In math we finished up division with a test. Then Mrs. Curran found out we needed some more help with division. When we finally got it we started fractions. Now we are continuing fractions."
by Cooper
"We are getting better and better at math facts." by Melissa
"We are learning in science about chemicals. We are mixing chemicals so we can see what happens to it. We are observing it. One looks really cool. My partner is Bella. We take turns. It is really fun." by Kaya
Here's what I can add to what the children wrote...
In math we are learning about fractions. We have done several hands-on activities to explore the idea that fractions are equal parts of a whole. Recently the children partitioned a piece of paper into equal parts by folding it. They then shaded in one of the equal parts to represent the unit fraction. Next, they cut out each of the equal parts and arranged them into a piece of art. We displayed each work of art in our Fraction Museum and as the children toured the fraction museum they recorded the unit fraction and the fraction of unshaded pieces in each piece of art hanging up.
Before our winter break we did an author study of Tomie DePaola. We compared three of his popular picture books- Strega Nona, Strega Nona's Magic Lessons, and Tony's Bread. We discussed similarities and differences between the characters, settings, problems, and solutions in these stories. Since Tomie DePaola writes and illustrates his books we were also able to discuss they way his illustrations add to our understanding of his stories. We are now moving our focus to reading informational texts!
Monday, January 13, 2014
New Year, New Learning!
Happy 2014! After our vacation and two extra snow days off from school we jumped right back into learning last Monday.
In math we are learning about division. We touched on this earlier in the year, but we're back at it and taking it a bit further than we had in the beginning of the year. An emphasis of this chapter is that multiplication and division are inverse operations (although we haven't used that term...we talk about "fact families"). Students need to see that if they know the multiplication fact 6 x 8= 48, they can also work backwards to find out that 48 divided by 8 equals 6. We are also learning division with regrouping and a remainder. This is brand new learning for third graders, but they have been focused and persistent and they are doing great!
In ELA we have been reading some poetry. The students can identify stanzas and lines within a poem and use stanzas and lines as a reference to provide evidence to support their thinking about the poem. We have emphasized that when reading a poem, just like when we read any type of text, we read for meaning and need to be able to talk and write about what we've read. Be on the lookout for a new "Book in a Bag" this week, although this week it will technically be a "Poem in a Bag". In writing we are starting to immerse ourselves in biographies so that the children can write their own biographies. Each child has been given the task of finding a biography about a person they are interested in learning about and which is at an appropriate (easy) reading level for them. Before they can write a biography they need to read a biography!
This week we are starting a new science topic with a hands-on kit. We will be studying chemicals- don't worry, they aren't hazardous chemicals! The children will be performing scientific tests on various unknown chemicals and recording their observations in order to later identify the chemicals. The kids are excited to get started!
We have finished learning about Kenya in Social Studies and our next stop is Japan!
In math we are learning about division. We touched on this earlier in the year, but we're back at it and taking it a bit further than we had in the beginning of the year. An emphasis of this chapter is that multiplication and division are inverse operations (although we haven't used that term...we talk about "fact families"). Students need to see that if they know the multiplication fact 6 x 8= 48, they can also work backwards to find out that 48 divided by 8 equals 6. We are also learning division with regrouping and a remainder. This is brand new learning for third graders, but they have been focused and persistent and they are doing great!
In ELA we have been reading some poetry. The students can identify stanzas and lines within a poem and use stanzas and lines as a reference to provide evidence to support their thinking about the poem. We have emphasized that when reading a poem, just like when we read any type of text, we read for meaning and need to be able to talk and write about what we've read. Be on the lookout for a new "Book in a Bag" this week, although this week it will technically be a "Poem in a Bag". In writing we are starting to immerse ourselves in biographies so that the children can write their own biographies. Each child has been given the task of finding a biography about a person they are interested in learning about and which is at an appropriate (easy) reading level for them. Before they can write a biography they need to read a biography!
This week we are starting a new science topic with a hands-on kit. We will be studying chemicals- don't worry, they aren't hazardous chemicals! The children will be performing scientific tests on various unknown chemicals and recording their observations in order to later identify the chemicals. The kids are excited to get started!
We have finished learning about Kenya in Social Studies and our next stop is Japan!
Monday, December 16, 2013
Last post of 2013!
As we enter our last school week of 2013 and I reflect back on all that the children have accomplished already, I can say that I'm really proud of them and I look forward to seeing what 2014 brings!
One big focus for us these past several weeks has been improving our multiplication fact fluency. The children have been charting their progress as they tackle each set of times tables. It's been really wonderful to see the pride on each of their faces when they see that they have beaten their previous day's score or are ready to move on to the next set of times tables. The children have become really great at the routine- we spend only a few minutes at the beginning of math class practicing their facts and the payoff has been well worth it. It's my hope that these third graders will knock the socks off their fourth grade teachers when they see how strong they are with their multiplication facts!
In ELA we've been exploring literal and non-literal language. The children enjoyed learning idioms and reading Amelia Bedelia books- if you are not familiar with Amelia Bedelia, she's a housekeeper who takes her instructions very literally and hilarity ensues. This week we will be reading some poetry, which is also full of non-literal language!
I hope that your families have a safe and happy holiday season!
One big focus for us these past several weeks has been improving our multiplication fact fluency. The children have been charting their progress as they tackle each set of times tables. It's been really wonderful to see the pride on each of their faces when they see that they have beaten their previous day's score or are ready to move on to the next set of times tables. The children have become really great at the routine- we spend only a few minutes at the beginning of math class practicing their facts and the payoff has been well worth it. It's my hope that these third graders will knock the socks off their fourth grade teachers when they see how strong they are with their multiplication facts!
In ELA we've been exploring literal and non-literal language. The children enjoyed learning idioms and reading Amelia Bedelia books- if you are not familiar with Amelia Bedelia, she's a housekeeper who takes her instructions very literally and hilarity ensues. This week we will be reading some poetry, which is also full of non-literal language!
I hope that your families have a safe and happy holiday season!
Monday, December 2, 2013
Sneak Peek of 3C (Devin)
It's been a while since we've updated, but the children and I are here to catch you up on what we've been doing. When you see a student's name next to part of this post, you will know who contributed that idea!
Math- As we started using the textbook for math class we saw that we could use number lines to show a multiplication problem. When you look at a multiplication problem, like 10x3, you can show that on a number line by making 10 skips of 3 to get to 30. (Leo)
We also learned the 9's finger trick- when doing a multiplication problem by 9 you can use your fingers to help you get the answer. For example, when solving 9x3, you would put your 3rd finger down and look at how many fingers are up to the left of that finger (2) and how many fingers are up to the right of that third finger (7) and then you know your answer is 27. (Cooper)
Students are continuing to use their personal white boards to solve problems from the math book at their desks. Students can't write in their brand-new textbooks, so it's important for them to have these white boards to show their work. (Lauren)
Science- Students got Mineral Identification cards and had to read about the properties of specific minerals and then match the mineral described on the card with a sample of the mineral they had been studying during this unit. (Devin)
We finished our Rocks and Minerals packet and then had a test about it. The students had to study minerals that they had never seen before and use tools to perform tests on them. They described their minerals on new Mineral Profile Sheets. (Bella, Kassidy, Cooper)
Social Studies- As many people finished their Australian books they have been writing more about Australia in their writing notebooks. (Tyler)
Students finished their Australian Animal books and read them to second graders and fourth graders- and Mr. Bordick and Mrs. Yodis stopped by as well! (Missy)
Students also read about sports in Australia and the United States and filled out a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting sports in these countries. (Samantha)
Students took a quiz about what they had learned in class about Australia. (Cooper)
Reading- Students filled out lots of Read One, Win One slips and put them into the box in hopes of winning a prize. Mrs. Curran drew a slip out last Monday and Riley won a new book, Fly High, Fly Guy. (Lauren)
Students were working for two weeks on a green independent work packet. They had to complete activities about the books they were reading independently during reading. (Kaya)
We have been learning how to describe characters from the inside, which is called Character Traits. (Leo)
We've been reading different books and trying to describe the characters in the books using the list of character traits in our reading notebooks. (Lauren)
Stay tuned for the next report!
Math- As we started using the textbook for math class we saw that we could use number lines to show a multiplication problem. When you look at a multiplication problem, like 10x3, you can show that on a number line by making 10 skips of 3 to get to 30. (Leo)
We also learned the 9's finger trick- when doing a multiplication problem by 9 you can use your fingers to help you get the answer. For example, when solving 9x3, you would put your 3rd finger down and look at how many fingers are up to the left of that finger (2) and how many fingers are up to the right of that third finger (7) and then you know your answer is 27. (Cooper)
Students are continuing to use their personal white boards to solve problems from the math book at their desks. Students can't write in their brand-new textbooks, so it's important for them to have these white boards to show their work. (Lauren)
Science- Students got Mineral Identification cards and had to read about the properties of specific minerals and then match the mineral described on the card with a sample of the mineral they had been studying during this unit. (Devin)
We finished our Rocks and Minerals packet and then had a test about it. The students had to study minerals that they had never seen before and use tools to perform tests on them. They described their minerals on new Mineral Profile Sheets. (Bella, Kassidy, Cooper)
Social Studies- As many people finished their Australian books they have been writing more about Australia in their writing notebooks. (Tyler)
Students finished their Australian Animal books and read them to second graders and fourth graders- and Mr. Bordick and Mrs. Yodis stopped by as well! (Missy)
Students also read about sports in Australia and the United States and filled out a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting sports in these countries. (Samantha)
Students took a quiz about what they had learned in class about Australia. (Cooper)
Reading- Students filled out lots of Read One, Win One slips and put them into the box in hopes of winning a prize. Mrs. Curran drew a slip out last Monday and Riley won a new book, Fly High, Fly Guy. (Lauren)
Students were working for two weeks on a green independent work packet. They had to complete activities about the books they were reading independently during reading. (Kaya)
We have been learning how to describe characters from the inside, which is called Character Traits. (Leo)
We've been reading different books and trying to describe the characters in the books using the list of character traits in our reading notebooks. (Lauren)
Stay tuned for the next report!
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