What am I thankful for?

...for a pilot program that brings electronic readers into our classroom!  It's amazing how much MORE motivated your kids are with a Nook...we really enjoyed our time with them!!

...for having such a great class that earns enough Soaring with Prode stickers to celebrate with cushions and a movie!

...and for twenty-seven amazing students who make my job fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!!  Enjoy your families!!

Happy Sunday!

Happy Sunday!

Here is how this past week went down...

Language Arts
This week we finished up our novels in the Nooks...it has been so much fun having electronic readers...both of the stories were so fun to read and discuss.  As you know, our main focus during these novels was using text evidence when answering a question...being able to cite the exact spot in the text that proves the answer.  This will be a year long theme in our work with fiction.  This coming week we will take a little time to talk about our novels' themes...the author's message...and then we will move right back into reading non-fiction to continue our work with main idea and key details.  We will also be focusing on the ability to retell and paraphrase what has been read.

This week we will also be focusing on writing our commercials for our candy bars.  The candy bar project got a little lost in the Fall Festival, end of quarter "ness", but will resurface Tuesday!

And then finally, we will begin a new formal writing piece...the narrative.  This will be a month long series of lessons, graphic organizers, drafts and then eventually, a final product.  But first, we must explore the elements of a narrative.

Math
Last week we were working with fractions and problem solving.  The kids created Fraction Critters using fraction circle pieces, they worked on finding fractions of an area, and we solved lots of two step word problems.  The kids are really becoming expert problem solvers.  I love to see messy papers with words underlined and lots of "thinking on paper"...I really want them trying to solve these alone at home...I'd rather a kid come in with a paper and a signature from you meaning he/she tried alone, than for you to help them solve it.  I cannot tell who needs what support if it wasn't completed independently.

This week we will be moving into small groups based on a pretest...the plan is to knock out any misconceptions with subtracting large numbers!  I will be modeling the algorithm and looking for the students' mastery of it, as well as being able to subtract using other strategies...the more strategies the kids have, the deeper their understanding...the better suited they are for harder math in the future.  Of course, for those kids who have the algorithm mastered, they will be applying those skills to word problems and more challenging activities. 

Social Studies
Our current social studies unit is Economics.  We will be using a video series called, "Econ and Me" (say it fast and you'll get it,) as well as our consumable textbooks to learn about scarcity, opportunity cost, supply, demand, consumption, production, interdependence, and so much more!  The kids will apply this new knowledge in a week or two when they become part of a company and create a product to sell to their third grade friends.  More to come on this amazing project we call "Entrepreneurs!!"

THINGS TO KNOW:

1. Your child's science project is due next Monday, November 25th!  Rubrics were sent home yesterday to help the kids check their work and strive for an A+!!  See your child's Take Home Folder for details!
2. Tomorrow is "Kick Off  American Education Week" so kids are encouraged to wear sneakers and their UES spirit wear or school colors. 
3. Friday, November 22nd is a two hour early dismissal.  The magnet school day ends at 12:30.
4. Next week is a CRAZY schedule!!  Monday the kids arrive 4 hours late...so they should get to school at 12:15 (no lunch at school that day).  Tuesday is a three and 1/2 hour early dismissal...so school ends at 11 am (lunch at school this day).  And on Wednesday the kids have off school!

I have some fun pictures of the kids reading on their Nooks...but my computer is acting up, so I'll save them for my next post...

Hope your weekend was great!  I'm looking forward to sitting down with all of you soon and discussing your child's progress in third grade.  

Sorry for the delay...

We celebrated Kate's birthday this weekend...had four basketball games...I read 27 sets of meaningful sentences...and also did all the other regular stuff like laundry, cleaning, church, etc...hence no post...but a Monday post is better than no post, right?!?!

We have been so busy the past few weeks...here is what we've been up to...

Language Arts

We are almost finished reading two different novels...How to Steal a Dog and Young Fredle.  Both of these novels have wonderful themes and are beautifully written.  We are having deep discussions within group using text evidence to support our thinking.  We have defined difficult vocabulary using both the context and our Nook dictionaries.  The students have been asked to answer thought provoking questions using the text to help support their ideas.  I tell the kids all the time there are many facets to a Reading Comprehension grade...written answers are just one...participation in discussions (listening and contributing) is an important part as well as their ability to cite evidence when in a discussion.  They have to be reminded often that just because they think something about the book, doesn't mean it is true...they must find something in the story that makes them think/feel that way.  I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know your child as a "thinker" during this unit.

We have also been working on writing.  We have been doing some research on the brain...I read a book and they took notes...they read an article and highlighted important information, and now they are responding to a writing prompt using that information...take a look...

I have a friend who is a scientist at Johns Hopkins University.  She told me that they are doing research on the brain, but they are in a heated argument.  Some scientists think that the brain is a muscle and others think that it is an organ.  Some scientists think that the brain controls everything we do, and others think that all emotions are controlled by the heart.  And then, they are in an argument because some think that the brain is full size at birth and others think that the brain grows as the body grows.  As you can see, these scientists are confused!  Please use your graphic organizer to write an informative paragraph about the brain.  I will take your paragraphs and give them to my friend the scientist…maybe then they can STOP ARGUING!

Remember…an informative paragraph has…

·       a topic sentence

·       at least three facts that support the topic

·       details that make the facts interesting

·       a concluding sentence

·       strong conventions (capital letters, punctuation, spelling)

I am anxious to read their paragraphs!  In LA, the students also continue to work diligently towards publishing stories in Writer's Workshop.

Science
We are finishing up our unit in Science.  In the past two weeks we have been exploring Food Chains and Food Webs using many different resources.  The kids read from the Sciencesaurus textbook to gather information, they have taken notes while watching a video on Discovery Streaming titled "YOU in the Food Web", and we've had many discussions using our own aquariums as examples.  We had to send our live organisms back to the Science Center on Friday...we were sad to see them go...it is so much fun to observe live organisms!  We start a new Social Studies unit later this week!

Math
7/7 of our class is studying fractions right now!  :-)  We are busy identifying parts of a whole, parts of a group, and parts of a number.  Recognizing denominators is very important when working on this concept. We also explored adding fractions with like denominators.  I was so tickled when someone said, "Mrs. Wills, can we work with adding fractions of unlike denominators?!"  Um...yeah!!  The kids have built critters using fraction pieces, recorded those fractions,  and will applying that skill as they identify which fractions of their candy bars have certain fillings, toppings, etc.  The kids have also been participating in lots of "math talk" and problem solving.  They have been solving fraction word problems in pairs and independently.  We will continue with fractions through this week.

OTHER STUFF...
Conference reminders will come home on Friday...please read BOTH half sheets and return BOTH of them the following Monday, so that I can prepare for our meetings.  I am only given 15 minutes to spend with each of you, so I ask that you think about what you'd like to discuss in particular...if we need more than 15 minutes, we can schedule a separate meeting at a different time.  Since I am meeting with TWENTY SEVEN different sets of parents, please be understanding when I cut off the discussion at the appropriate time interval...all it takes is ONE late conference to throw off ALL the others!! Thank you ahead of time!

Grandparents Breakfast is this week...Wednesday and Thursday...RSVPs were already due.

Book Fair is here!  Your child got an opportunity to preview the Book Fair and create a "wish list"...it is open each day from 2-7:30 pm Mon-Thurs and 2-5:30 on Friday... it is also open during Grandparents Breakfast from 8-9am.

Have a great week...we plan to!

Fall 2013

My blog post for the week is not necessarily an "academic post"...but  needless to say, when we weren't celebrating Fall we were working our "academic tails" off!  

I will update what we've been working on academically next weekend!  

TWO REMINDERS: 

1.  Please call the office to schedule a conference if you haven't done that yet.  I will be sending conference reminders home sometime in the next 10 days.

2.  Tomorrow your child will bring home a piece of writing...I NEED THE WHOLE PACKET BACK!!  I believe that you need to see what they're writing and how they are scored, but I have to keep these pieces...so me sending them home is risky...please help me by reviewing the work with your child tomorrow night and sending it back TUESDAY!  Each student that returns it Tuesday will receive THREE tickets...that's how badly I need it returned.  Thanks for your help with this!

Click on "Fall 2013" to watch the video.  

Enjoy!

Fall 2013