Of course a day off is great fun...but we've got things to do! So, build a boat, and bring them on in! Just kidding...but only about the boat thing...we DO have a lot to finish up!
We had a great week and one of the highlights was meeting our Buddy Class...we have been paired with Ms. Kaberle's kindergarteners...we met them and spent some time outside getting to know each other. It is a really fun year for third graders because they get to be the "big kids." I was so proud of all of them for the way they interacted with their buddies! I put together a slide show below...click on the link and enjoy...
In Language Arts this week our focus was fables. We read fables and discussed the characteristics that define a fable. We discussed PERSONIFICATION and located examples of it in the fables. The kids answered comprehension questions about the different fables. I feel very certain that my class has a great handle on fairy tales and fables! We also worked on descriptive writing this week. The kids wrote 3-5 sentence commercials advertising their candy bars (more about the candy in the math summary below). And of course, we were working on our Ella final drafts. The kids are typing them and need one more computer lab session to finish up...one of the many things I need to do this coming week!!
In Math this week we continued with our candy production...the candy bars are made, ingredients and toppings added, the commercials are set, and then we worked on candy bar wrappers...they had to find the surface area of the candy bar wrapper, remembering that every square unit costs the company more...so the goal was to use as little as possible to create the wrapper. Now we just need to film our commercials (another reason you must build a boat!) We will be taking a unit quiz upon our return to school and heading into fractions...
We have been observing the parts of our organisms and discussing the scientific terminology for "the big claw" or the "hole from which the snail breathes"...your kids can probably tell you what the scientific names for those parts are, and how they help the organism survive. This is one of the things they will have to know for their science quiz next Friday. They have the drawings and labels in their science composition books. The rest of the quiz is really designed to see what was learned in the classroom, so there is not a lot to study.
ANOTHER thing we need to finish...about 2/3 of the class is ALMOST finished their state brochures...tomorrow was going to be a big day for COMPLETION...alas, we must wait (or build boats).
This coming week my plan was do to an election mini-unit. I have some great articles about both candidates and we were going to explore the world of electoral votes...I guess we'll see how many days we are there this week, etc...but just so you know...I have no intention of making this mini-unit about WHO they should vote for...it will be all about the candidates (the age appropriate versions) and about the election process.
Your kids continue to amaze me...when we were in the classroom this past week working on the laptops to publish the Ella stories, one student said, "I'm not sure which of these two projects we're working on right now is my favorite?!" Music to my ears.
Stay dry...
-Mrs. Wills
October 28, 2012
October 21, 2012
Snails, Crabs, Newts...Oh My!
So...I attended the Maryland Educators of Gifted Students conference on Friday...time really well spent...and THEN I got away for two days of sunshine, good friends, and SHOPPING! ;-) Drove from Rehoboth to my son's championship baseball game and I am just getting home now, hence the short post! We had such a great week...lots going on, so I put together this video to share one of the fun things we did this week...it has Science and Language Arts all thrown together...they read complex text about organisms, identified the important information, webbed it, collaborated with each other on ways to teach their classmates that info, and then presented to one another while the other students took notes! Wait 'til you see what they came up with! Click on the words "Snails, Crabs, Newts...Oh My!" below to watch!!
I promise a much more detailed post next weekend...and by the way, it was great conferencing with so many of you last Thursday...I have such an amazing class!
'Til next week....
October 13, 2012
Daphnia, Ella, Rectangles...Oh My!
No...I'm not speaking a made up language...those are some of the many things that filled our week...read on to find out more!
LANGUAGE ARTS
We are reading and writing a lot these days! This week the magazine Storyworks has provided some in depth conversations and work with PLOT in fiction stories. The story "Good Enough" was a wonderful example of an author's message, and although a few of the kids had trouble inferring all of the meaning, EVERYONE understood the author's message. It allowed for a wonderful "life lesson" conversation about what really matters about people. It was one of my favorite parts of this week, actually! In Language Arts/Science we are also reading for information about the organisms that have come to live in our room and about the ones we are expecting to arrive this week...daphnia, snails, fiddler crabs, and newts...I have found many articles that fit the reading levels of the kids in our room...and have been able to differentiate based on the rigor of the articles.
ELLA...is the theme in writing right now...your child is creating a wonderful ELLA tale...we have so many different versions in the classroom right now. This has been a step by step process...as you know, we have read and listened to A LOT of Cinderella versions...then we listed the important/necessary elements of an ELLA story...next the kids and I mapped out Bubba the Cowboy Prince on a graphic organizer that focuses on the rising action, climax, and falling action of a story....the kids then took their own ideas and filled out that same organizer to help plan their story. Now they are writing the story inserting all kinds of objects and dialogue to help showcase their THEME...this coming week they will meet with a peer to share stories and help shape each others writing...and then of course, we will publish these stories using the COW (have I mentioned how much I love the COW!!)
MATH
While working on multiplication the kids and I have been very busy...our work with factors led to an activity involving rectangles...this activity started off fairly simply...each small group was given a few numbers and it was their job to create as many rectangles as possible for each number. For instance, with the number 20 there would be six rectangles (1x20) (20x1) (4x5) (5x4) (2x10) (10x2)...we made rectangles for the all of the numbers 1-30...and then as we recorded the findings I was able to teach the definitions and SHOW them what perfect square numbers are...so we discussed square roots. I was able to teach and SHOW the definition of prime numbers...and the kids began predicting which numbers above 30 were prime. I like to tell you about these higher level discussions because when you see the rectangle papers come home you probably think..."my kid did this last year"...but a lot goes on with each assignment that you can't ever see! On the same note...we have been using some simpler multiplication to teach the kids all of the steps in solving word problems and explaining their reasoning. For instance, they solved a problem about soccer balls this week. They had to show nine groups of five and then subtract three based on the word problem. They could use any strategy to solve and different tools to check. In their explanation, they had to tie the operation they used to the wording in the problem...for instance, if they subtracted they needed to tie it to "because the team lost three of the balls." Or if they multiplied they had to mention that "there were nine groups of five so instead of adding nine five times, I multiplied." May sound picky, but a deep and thorough explanation is necessary in order for the reader (me) to understand the inner workings of your kids' amazing minds....so often they just want to say, well I multiplied because I had to. ;-) IN CLASS we have been working on how to use the distributive property when multiplying numbers like 3,245 x 6! And for those that have that mastered, next week we will be delving into 345 x 12 while the rest of us learn the most efficient way to solve these problems, the algorithm. This is a very long update on Math, but I want to make sure that you are aware that I am working to challenge all levels within the classroom, even though the homework may not reflect that all the time!
SOCIAL STUDIES
The kids are in the final stages of their travel brochures. I have 18 rough drafts in my bag to review this weekend...then the kids will put the finishing touches on their final drafts...they will hang in the classroom once they are finished, but the grade sheet will come home (just like the map project...it is hanging in classroom, but grade sheets came home this past week!)
SCIENCE
As I referenced above...we've started our science unit! We started off the unit observing daphnia, minute freshwater organisms! We used hand lenses and the microscope to get a close look at all of its body parts. We put them in vials and saw the changes in population of daphnia within just one week! You can actually see the brood pouch through the daphnia's clear shell (carapace), so the kids knew they were going to have babies soon! We also now have aquariums set up...the kids added the duckweed, anacharis, daphnia, and the snails this week. This coming week we will be receiving fiddler crabs and newts, and we will be discussing food chains, food webs and other organisms found in fresh water habitats.
FALL FESTIVAL AND PUMPKIN MATH
So...by now you have hopefully seen the letter informing you about our Fall Festival Party...thank you to all of the parents who have sent in the donation...our room parents and I really appreciate that! This week you will receive information about the day AFTER October 31st...otherwise known as November 1st...haha...I make myself laugh. Anyway...on November 1st from 9-10:30 we will have a fun activity called PUMPKIN MATH...and we need 4 or 5 parents to participate...the letter will ask if you are available and would like to come...it also lists some items we'll need donated for the activity...if you can't come, but can send in a pumpkin or one of the other items listed, please note that on the letter! I will take tons of pictures of both days, so look for an animoto video sometime the first weekend of November.
CONFERENCES
This Thursday I will conference with all of the parents I wasn't able to meet with in September. I look forward to sitting with you and discussing your child's progress. If you have anything in particular you'd like to discuss, shoot me an email so I can have any and all information you are looking for...also, if you've forgotten your conference time, please email me and I 'll send you a reminder.
Hopefully I haven't left anything out...have a great weekend!!
LANGUAGE ARTS
We are reading and writing a lot these days! This week the magazine Storyworks has provided some in depth conversations and work with PLOT in fiction stories. The story "Good Enough" was a wonderful example of an author's message, and although a few of the kids had trouble inferring all of the meaning, EVERYONE understood the author's message. It allowed for a wonderful "life lesson" conversation about what really matters about people. It was one of my favorite parts of this week, actually! In Language Arts/Science we are also reading for information about the organisms that have come to live in our room and about the ones we are expecting to arrive this week...daphnia, snails, fiddler crabs, and newts...I have found many articles that fit the reading levels of the kids in our room...and have been able to differentiate based on the rigor of the articles.
ELLA...is the theme in writing right now...your child is creating a wonderful ELLA tale...we have so many different versions in the classroom right now. This has been a step by step process...as you know, we have read and listened to A LOT of Cinderella versions...then we listed the important/necessary elements of an ELLA story...next the kids and I mapped out Bubba the Cowboy Prince on a graphic organizer that focuses on the rising action, climax, and falling action of a story....the kids then took their own ideas and filled out that same organizer to help plan their story. Now they are writing the story inserting all kinds of objects and dialogue to help showcase their THEME...this coming week they will meet with a peer to share stories and help shape each others writing...and then of course, we will publish these stories using the COW (have I mentioned how much I love the COW!!)
MATH
While working on multiplication the kids and I have been very busy...our work with factors led to an activity involving rectangles...this activity started off fairly simply...each small group was given a few numbers and it was their job to create as many rectangles as possible for each number. For instance, with the number 20 there would be six rectangles (1x20) (20x1) (4x5) (5x4) (2x10) (10x2)...we made rectangles for the all of the numbers 1-30...and then as we recorded the findings I was able to teach the definitions and SHOW them what perfect square numbers are...so we discussed square roots. I was able to teach and SHOW the definition of prime numbers...and the kids began predicting which numbers above 30 were prime. I like to tell you about these higher level discussions because when you see the rectangle papers come home you probably think..."my kid did this last year"...but a lot goes on with each assignment that you can't ever see! On the same note...we have been using some simpler multiplication to teach the kids all of the steps in solving word problems and explaining their reasoning. For instance, they solved a problem about soccer balls this week. They had to show nine groups of five and then subtract three based on the word problem. They could use any strategy to solve and different tools to check. In their explanation, they had to tie the operation they used to the wording in the problem...for instance, if they subtracted they needed to tie it to "because the team lost three of the balls." Or if they multiplied they had to mention that "there were nine groups of five so instead of adding nine five times, I multiplied." May sound picky, but a deep and thorough explanation is necessary in order for the reader (me) to understand the inner workings of your kids' amazing minds....so often they just want to say, well I multiplied because I had to. ;-) IN CLASS we have been working on how to use the distributive property when multiplying numbers like 3,245 x 6! And for those that have that mastered, next week we will be delving into 345 x 12 while the rest of us learn the most efficient way to solve these problems, the algorithm. This is a very long update on Math, but I want to make sure that you are aware that I am working to challenge all levels within the classroom, even though the homework may not reflect that all the time!
SOCIAL STUDIES
The kids are in the final stages of their travel brochures. I have 18 rough drafts in my bag to review this weekend...then the kids will put the finishing touches on their final drafts...they will hang in the classroom once they are finished, but the grade sheet will come home (just like the map project...it is hanging in classroom, but grade sheets came home this past week!)
SCIENCE
As I referenced above...we've started our science unit! We started off the unit observing daphnia, minute freshwater organisms! We used hand lenses and the microscope to get a close look at all of its body parts. We put them in vials and saw the changes in population of daphnia within just one week! You can actually see the brood pouch through the daphnia's clear shell (carapace), so the kids knew they were going to have babies soon! We also now have aquariums set up...the kids added the duckweed, anacharis, daphnia, and the snails this week. This coming week we will be receiving fiddler crabs and newts, and we will be discussing food chains, food webs and other organisms found in fresh water habitats.
FALL FESTIVAL AND PUMPKIN MATH
So...by now you have hopefully seen the letter informing you about our Fall Festival Party...thank you to all of the parents who have sent in the donation...our room parents and I really appreciate that! This week you will receive information about the day AFTER October 31st...otherwise known as November 1st...haha...I make myself laugh. Anyway...on November 1st from 9-10:30 we will have a fun activity called PUMPKIN MATH...and we need 4 or 5 parents to participate...the letter will ask if you are available and would like to come...it also lists some items we'll need donated for the activity...if you can't come, but can send in a pumpkin or one of the other items listed, please note that on the letter! I will take tons of pictures of both days, so look for an animoto video sometime the first weekend of November.
CONFERENCES
This Thursday I will conference with all of the parents I wasn't able to meet with in September. I look forward to sitting with you and discussing your child's progress. If you have anything in particular you'd like to discuss, shoot me an email so I can have any and all information you are looking for...also, if you've forgotten your conference time, please email me and I 'll send you a reminder.
Hopefully I haven't left anything out...have a great weekend!!
October 7, 2012
A Picture Perfect Post...
I'm going to post pictures to tell the story of our week...
What I wish every desk in every classroom could look like this EVERY day...
oh, how I LOVE the COW!!
Mrs. Humerick's class joined us to research Maryland...it was the state we used to model taking notes and finding specific information using the online resource CultureGrams.
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This week we continued listening to different versions of Cinderella. On Thursday, Ms. Johnson read Bigfoot Cinderella...definitely a favorite! Each student has read two to three versions independently and heard at least three others...we have dissected Cinderella like never before...we've discussed perspective, alliteration, theme, author's message, and every element of a short story...this coming week they will begin to write their own!
Then it was time to choose a state of their own to research. Each student chose a different state! Their end product is a brochure encouraging others to visit their state. They must include facts about physical geography, climate, and natural resources. They must have text and pictures. They must have a map and flag of their state. I can't wait to see their final products!
I introduced a second source for gathering information. After using CultureGrams we went to Encyclopedia Britannica for Kids and found new information there! The kids were very excited to visit different resources and gather information...you've never heard the room so quiet!! ;-)
In these photos, many kids are wearing headphones...they could listen to their state bird while researching their state. This was a BIG hit!
What else did we do? Well, one of my favorite lessons wasn't even planned. (I love it when that happens!!) We had headed to specials without putting away the computers, so when we returned from recess and lunch they still had them on their desks. I decided we'd use them for math. Each student used CultureGrams and visited the "population" page to look at the bar graph representing the percentages of ethnicity/race in their state. We had a great discussion about these bar graphs and then did a gallery walk to see how the different states compared and differed. THEN the kids found the population of their states...they wrote that very big number on a file card, and WITHOUT any talking, they lined up from smallest population to largest population. We made a circle around the room and then each student read the number aloud and told us the name of their state...from Rhode Island to California...our populations varied greatly!
I've been running different groups in math as we've delved into different strategies to use when solving multiplication word problems...I am so impressed at the work I'm getting out of your kids!
I hope you are warm and dry and having a great weekend!
We start Science this week...kids will be so excited!
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