Weekly Update

All-Star of the Week:

We didn't have an all-star this week.  This gave us more time to finish our mystery read-aloud book A - Z Mysteries Detective Camp.  Many of the students said that they had a copy of the book at their house and we reading it at home as well!

Writing:

In writing, the students learned 5 different ways to write an effective lead to hook the reader: a talking lead, sound effect lead, action lead, snapshot lead and a question lead.  In cooperative writing partnerships, the third graders took their claim (from the persuasive maps that they worked on last week) and wrote each type of lead.  Then, they selected the one that they felt was their best, most convincing lead to use when drafting their persuasive essay. 

 

 

David and Yousif

 Maya and Maia

Marc and Alice

Jordan, Ryan and Levi

AJ and Eden

Ben and Hannah

Dimitri and Sarah

Audrey and Adrien

Jason and Mark

Brooke and Daniella

Reading:

We continued our Detective Clubs in reading workshop. Students were assigned chapters to read as well as dates to meet to discuss what was happening in their mystery books.  Students discussed any new suspects, clues that they picked up on when reading and shared predictions about how the mystery might be solved. 

Eden adding clues to her case file.

Levi reading his assigned chapters.

Detective Club Meeting: Small-Group Work

Math:

In math, the students reviewed multi-digit addition and subtraction.  They used their knowledge of addition to help problem solve with subtraction.  Proof drawings continue to be helpful in computational accuracy--when students stack the numbers vertically, they're not always recognizing when to ungroup and when not to.  You can see in the photos below, students sharing their proof drawings and problem solving methodologies.

Yousif solved an "anytime problem" to warm up our mathematical minds before a lesson.

Daniella solved an "anytime problem" to warm up our mathematical minds before a lesson.

David is showing the class how math mountains can help us recognize the relationship between addition and subtraction.  The students also learned that math vocabulary is also important to know!

Maya is making a proof drawing.  Here you can see that she recognized that she needed to ungroup.  She has crossed out a hundred and made 10 ten-sticks. 

Hannah is making a proof drawing for 653 - 438 = ?

She realized she needed to ungroup.  She crossed out one ten stick and made 10 ones.  Then she is crossing out 438 to get her answer of 215.

Eden made a proof drawing for 750 - 559 = ?

She crossed out a hundred to make 10 ten sticks.  She crossed out one ten stick to make 10 ones.  Then she took away 559. She was left with 1 hundred, 9 ten sticks and 1 one = 191.

Social Studies:
In social studies, the students continued their region tour of the Southeast.  My parents randomly sent me photos of their visit to the Kennedy Space Center (they live in Celebration, Fl) the day after I taught that stop from our textbook so the students were able to see a number of photos and videos from that stop that were not in the book (see below).  Next, they did a Visible Thinking routine called "Step Inside" where they wrote to explain what life was like from the astronaut's point of view.