Friday, January 15, 2016

Weekly Update

All-Star of the Week: A.J. Miller:
AJ was our amazing All-Star last week.  On Monday, she brought it her sharing sack.  She shared her Incredible Kid Award that she received last year, a bandana that was special to her dad and some photographs of her and her family.  She was taken to a special lunch with her mom for her lunch buddy day and read her favorite book The Book With No Pictures



Reading Workshop:
Students were introduced to the reading genre, mystery.  They began the unit brainstorming what they know about the mystery genre and played an "eye witness" game to test out their detective skills.  Students spent two days learning important mystery vocabulary words and played a mystery match game to pair the new vocabulary words with their matching definitions.  




Writing Workshop:
In writing, the students were given a question...."Do you want to convince others to agree with your opinion about something?" Not to our surprise...the students responded with a firm YES...and they were then introduced to our new unit in writing, persuasive essays!  The students first looked at a mentor text and analyzed what the writer did well.  Together, we created a "Noticings Chart" to refer to throughout the unit.
Using the information and experience from this whole group lesson, the students were then challenged to name 3 strategies that the writer did well from another mentor text (written by a 3rd grade student not at Hill) using the SeeSaw app on their iPads.  This was a very engaging activity because it allowed the students to respond on their iPad in real-time.  They could pose questions to each other, provide feedback instantly to each others' thinking and "like" others comments on the class feed.  You can ask your child to log into SeeSaw and they can pull up the lesson for you to see.  The photos below show the 3rd grade essay that was being analyzed as well as the screenshots of various student responses.


Toward the end of the week, the students were exposed to various Persuasive Essay-styled picture books.  Here you can see that the students read the book Spoon and used evidence from the text to prove why spoons are the best type of utensil in your kitchen!  This lesson helped students realize the format for this type of writing.  They learned that the key to making a persuasive essay effective, is to include at least three main reasons to support the thesis statement and those reasons must be supported with facts and specific examples.
 
Lastly, the students read the book Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type.  Using their SeeSaw App again, the students were required to type 5 sentences in their response.  They had to state their opinion, give three reasons why their opinion is "right" and re-state their opinion in the concluding sentence.  Throughout the unit, we will expect them to also include add-on sentences that have specific facts/examples to support those three reasons  You'll see one of our third grader's independent writing work below.

Math:
Last week in math, the students were taught how to round to the nearest ten.  If the number is less than halfway to the next ten (ones place is a 0-4); round down.  If the number is exactly halfway between the two tens (ones place is a 5) or more than halfway to the next ten (ones place is a 6-9); round up.  They also learned multi-digit addition.  Proof drawings are an important part of being accurate with multi-digit addition and students should be using these when doing their independent class work and on homework.  You will see how the students came up to the SmartBoard to draw proof drawings throughout the week.
Here you can see Maya starting to combine/group ten ones in the problem 359+245.  Once the group of ones is circled, she would write a new "ten stick" above in her proof drawing.

Madison then circled a group of 10 ten-sticks...she would then make a new square (value of 100) as part of her proof drawing. Using the proof drawings of both Maya and Madison led the class to find the sum of 604 to the problem 359+245 = ?

You can see in the problem above that Dimitri is trying to find out the error in the Puzzled Penguin problem.  168 + 78 = 948.  What you'll notice is that the Penguin did not align his numbers correctly when trying to add them in an equation format.  He put the 7 of 78 under the hundreds place in 168.  Proof drawings are taught and expected in student work because then they won't have errors lining up their addition problems like you see in the photo above.  If the penguin made a proof drawing to solve...an answer in the 900s would be very unlikely. 

Science/Social Studies:
Last week, the students reviewed the main concepts for both the Northeast Region in Social Studies and Light and Heat in science.  Study guides came home for both and your child was taught how to use Quizlet to study.  Some tips on Quizlet include...
  • Click on the "flashcards"tab to practice.  You can choose to start with the term or the definition.

  • Click on the "learn" tab to practice.  This is different from flashcards because you can't tap to see the answer.  You need to type in an answer or click I don't know.

  • Click on the "test" tab to take a practice test.  These are short answers, multiple choice and true/false questions.

  • Click on "scatter" to play a game.  You need to click on the two matching cards  They will light up green if you are correct and red if you are incorrect.  This game times you as well. 






Monday, January 11, 2016

Weekly Update

All-Star of the Week
Hannah was our fabulous All-Star of the Week last week.  She enjoyed a special lunch with her mom at the beginning of the week.  We enjoyed all of the pictures she shared with us and loved listening to her story, Family Pack.  It was also fun to hear stories about Hannah from her mom and dad.  We thought the picture of her when she fell asleep on her mom's shoulder was adorable.  Hannah went home on Friday with many great compliments from her classmates!



Writing Workshop
Students worked so hard all week to publish their expert reports.  The spelling and sentence structure in the final books were edited by us.  Then students recopied their writing into the final booklets.  Their final booklets include a cover, table of contents, introduction, four chapters, conclusion, glossary, and about the author page!  The booklets are currently hanging in the hall but will come home at some point.  We think you will be impressed with your third grader's expert report!




Math
We have started Unit 4.  So far we have focused on understanding place value.  Students used Secret Code Cards to build numbers at the beginning of the week.  These cards helped students understand and visualize the worth of each digit in a number.  Students have learned to write numbers in standard form, word form, and expanded form.  Students have also practiced making place value drawings.  We taught how to round to the nearest hundred as well.  At the end of the week, students practiced Math Talk in small groups as they each took a turn explaining how they solved two word problems from their math journal.








Science
Students have done many investigations throughout our Light & Heat Unit.  After learning that light travels in a straight path, students discovered light bends or refracts as it passes from one material to another.  In one investigation students placed a pencil into a cup of water and noticed the pencil looks bent.  In another investigation students learned heat energy from our hands can be used to melt an ice cube more quickly than an ice cube melting in a cup.  Students have also discovered the difference between transparent, translucent, and opaque materials.  Students' favorite discovery, however, was optical illusions.  Optical Illusions can use color, light, and patterns to create images that can be misleading to our brains.  They trick our brains into seeing things which may or may not be real.  Students enjoyed watching the following YouTube video...