Week 9

There was an amazing amount of positive energy in 3U this week!  Students really came together to celebrate our classroom and school community during our unity day festivities!  We played a fun "game show" about what it means to be a bystander or an upstander.  

Our personal narratives are almost ready to be published!  Students worked with great enthusiasm to follow the revision-editing process and type up their first piece in Google Classroom.  In math we launched unit 2 on multiplication.  We are beginning to understand that multiplication is repeated addition.  In reading we are learning to retell with an emphasis on the big parts of the story and using this information to help predict what might happen next. In Science we our first summative on the "Power of Flower." 

QUESTIONS TO SPARK CONVERSATION

• How can you be an upstander?
• What are characteristics of various trees you see in the forest?
• What is happening in our read aloud, "Stone Fox?"
• What is your personal classroom goal?

Week 8

The weeks seem to be moving quickly now!  Third graders were excited to find signs of the changing season outside at recess.  Our unit on recycling culminated this week with an on-demand informational writing piece.  It was thrilling to watch the class as they crafted their passionate opinion pieces, illustrating all they have learned!  In math we worked through solving multi-step double (and triple!) digit story problems with more confidence.  At the end of the week, students took an end of unit assessment.  Our focus in reading workshop this week was using the strategies of envisioning (making a movie in our minds of what is happening in the story) making predictions.  Students are getting more practice in writing a summary after they finish a book (making sure to include: characters, setting, problem and solution.)  Our week ended in the forest with a group of Dartmouth student teachers from "Growing Change."

Questions to spark conversation:
-What was the focus during our time in the forest this week?
-Where are you in the writing process (making revisions, working on a lead, typing up final draft?)
-What was special about Friday's reading workshop?
-What happened in lodges this week?

Week 7

The highlight of our week was the "summer day" we spent at Riverview Orchard.  Students explored in small groups and conducted an apple investigation.  This inquiry included describing the traits of an apple, drawing a diagram and graphing the number of seeds.  The time went by way too quickly!  Back at school we are finishing up our unit on recycling and getting ready to write our first informational piece using 2 different sources.  Our focus in reading this week has shifted to comprehension.  We are learning to stop as we read and ask ourselves, "Who are the characters in this part?  What just happened?  Does this fit with something that already happened, or is this new?"  In math this week we worked on figuring out multi-step story problems.

Questions to spark conversation:

-What happened on your field trip?  Did you make any new discoveries?

-Why do some pumpkins grow to be SO big?

-What do I need to show when solving a story problem?

-What happened during forest Friday?

Week 6

We persevered through a rainy week with enthusiasm!  The structure of our math block has become smooth and purposeful.  Students rotate from one activity to the next in small groups.  The focus this week was adding double digit numbers using a number line.  We learned a new game called, "Frog Jump."  The time during our reader's workshop seems to fly by as our readers are so focused on their books.  Partners and small groups are reading the same book, responding to questions in their reader's notebook and having discussions together about big ideas in the story.  In writing workshop this week our writers choose their favorite small moment story to write a "flash draft (they start with a good lead and write as much as they can without stopping.)  Before beginning flash drafts, students rehearsed what they wanted to say with a partner.  Finally, our class created recycling posters to enter into a contest that Casella is holding.  The winners will be chosen this spring to have their pictures featured in the 2020 Casella calendar.

Questions to spark conversations:
-Why are crab apples different than apples that come from the store?
-Where are we going on our next field trip?
-What is the small moment story that you worked on this week?
-What makes a good lead?