Week 13

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Week 12

Winter has arrived and our third grade otters thoroughly embraced the new season with enthusiasm and wonderment!  It was awesome that our crew was properly prepared to enjoy the elements (thank you!)  Even though it was a short week, we made each moment count!  In reading we continue to work on grasping the main idea in non fiction articles and think about the details that support the main idea.  Students continue to work in small groups to practice this task.  The engagement with this group during reading has been extraordinary!  In writing students continue to work on their non fiction teaching books.  They solidified their table of contents and learned about different structures of writing: cause and effect, problem-solution, main idea and supporting details. In math students continue to strengthen their understanding of multiplication.  The forest has turned into a wonderland with endless opportunities!  Students exhibited GREAT teamwork as they helped each other with shelters, invented new games, made snow sculptures and learned about fire safety.

Questions to spark conversation:
-What did you learn from the non fiction articles you read this week?
-What did you do during forest Friday?  How was it different?  What did you do in the circle?
-What non fiction teaching book are you writing?
-What multiplication problem did you and your partner work on during your skip counting exercise?

Week 10 & 11

These have been VERY busy, full days!  Thank you so much for coming in to school to learn more about your child's progress.  It's so exciting to think about how far they have come since the beginning of the year!
Last week we published our small moment narratives.  We broke into small groups with Mrs. Raney's class and with the support of our writing partners, read our stories to our group. Within our class we had a publishing party with special snacks.  We set up a book museum and students walked around enjoying classmate's writing pieces and crafted thoughtful comments. This week we moved on to non fiction writing.  Students came up with a topic they are experts in and have begun to write everything they know about their topic.  We are in the process of writing our table of contents and thinking of a logical sequence for our books.
In reader's workshop we have begun to focus on non fiction.  We are noticing different text features in our books and using these as a way to get our minds ready for the reading that will be done.  Toward the end of the week, partners read non fiction articles together and wrote about the main idea and examples that went with the main idea.  This is a tricky task that our 3rd graders took on with confidence!
In math we have moved on to multiplication.  During number corner students are using the equation height x length to figure out the area of arrays on our calendar.  We are also starting to learn about fractions (1/8, 1/4, 1/2.)

Questions to spark conversation:
-What did you do in the forest with the Growing Change teachers?
-What are you writing your non fiction book about?
-Can you find any arrays around the house?  What is the area of those arrays?