Weekly Update

All-Star of the Week: Jason

Jason was our amazing all-star this week.  He shared many neat photos of his parents and siblings.  He also brought in a guitar that his brother had made...many of the students wanted to hold it and try it out.  Lastly, he had a special lunch with his mom and shared his favorite book Harry the Dirty Dog.  Thanks for being an awesome all-star Jason!

December Holiday Party:

We started off the week with a VERY fun holiday party. 

Mrs. Bourkoulas and Mrs. Frisen planned a very fun afternoon.  The students broke into 4 different teams and played a lot of games.  Below you'll see them flexing their muscles in preparation for the competitiveness that ensued minutes after...

Each team broke into 2 smaller teams for the Snowman bean bag toss game.

After the bean bag toss, the students went out in the LGI to have a snowball fight.  Unfortunately I couldn't quite capture the action in this game because the students were running so fast that every photo turned out blurry! Here you can see them listening to the rules of the games and hiding behind their post!  

For a little "cool down" activity, the students made a popcorn snowman craft.

 

 

 

Next...they raced against each other to build a snowman out of toilet paper.

 

The party ended with a snowman potato-sack race and a candy buffet.  The students had to estimate how many candy canes were in this snowman and the winner got to take it home.  Sean estimated 32 candy canes and the exact amount was 32 candy canes! He then decided to share his winnings with his classmates!

Thank you to ALL of the parents for donating items for the party, for donating your time by coming in and helping to run each station and to Audrey and Dimitri's moms for planning/organizing/running such a FUN celebration! We know how much time and effort goes into these parties and we can't thank you enough!!!!

After the party, it was back to business (the 3rd graders were SO excited!!!!).

Writing Workshop:

Last week in writing, the main focus was on finishing our nonfiction draft booklets.  The students were taught how to write a conclusion to their informational book as well as how to write an "About the Author" page.  The rest of the time was spent finishing up previous chapters and then editing and revising their work so that it is ready for publication when we return in January.

Reading Workshop:

Last week in reading, the students were exposed to biographies.  This was a sneak-peek of what's ahead in reading in the new year!  Make sure to have your child read 20 minutes a day over break to help maintain their skills.  Remember to log-into Raz-Kids and use that resource when you're traveling from destination to destination and don't have your home libraries available to you because you're on the go!

Math:

Last week in math, we were learning about horizontal and vertical bar graphs, line plots and how to interpret data using various graphs/tally charts and frequency tables.  We also spent a few days reviewing for the Unit 3 math test.  When we return from break, we will be starting our unit on place value.

Social Studies:

In social studies last week, we traveled to Plymouth Plantation and learned about the pilgrims and the Mayflower.  The students were surprised to hear how tight the living quarters were on the ship as well as how seasick many of those on board became.  Our third graders then recorded important facts learned in their Regions Tour binder and added souvenirs to their Northeast Region scrapbook page.  The next stop in our journey was Boston.  Here the students learned that this was the starting point of the Freedom Trail and that Boston Common is the oldest park in the country.  When we return from our December break, we will continue to travel the Northeast with a very fun stop in Hershey, Pennsylvania..."the sweetest place on Earth!"

Happy Holidays:

We hope you have a wonderful holiday break with your families.  We are so lucky to work with such amazing kids and parents.  Looking forward to a great 2016!

Weekly Update

All-Star of the Week:

Adrien was our all star last week.  He started the week off with a special lunch.  He also shared photos of his family and him.  The students were amazed at all of the places Adrien has visited.  He brought in some unique souvenirs from Africa and a medal that he received--his peers were mesmerized by his sharing sack!

Mrs. Hartley's Kindergarten Class

We are buddies with Mrs. Hartley's kindergarten class.  On Tuesday, your third grader was paired up with a kindergarten student and together they built mini gingerbread houses out of milk cartons and graham crackers.  In the photos below, you'll see the partnerships working together---they LOVED being the mentor and helping their little learner out!

Reading Workshop:

Last week we reviewed the various text structures---

Descriptive

Sequential

Cause and Effect

Comparison

The students were expected to later in the week, identify the text structure in a book of their choice and apply an appropriate graphic organizer with important information from the text to better comprehend what they were reading.

Writing Workshop:

We have been working on our nonfiction draft booklets.  Last week the focus was on writing add-on sentences after the topic sentence of each paragraph.  Next, they learned how to use topic specific vocabulary in their paragraphs.  Once they determined those topic-specific vocabulary words, they learned how to make a definition box using those words just as the authors of our mentor texts did.

Math:

Time! Time! and More Time!

Students learned how to tell time by first, reading the time on the clock.  For example, the students might say that the time was 3:27.  We then determined how many minutes after and how many minutes before the next hour it is when telling time (27 min. after 3  or....33 minutes before 4:00).  We also looked at Elapsed Time problems in both a table format and in story problems.  The students then used a number line to help them add and subtract time.   

Weekly Update

All Star of the Week:

Maia C was our all-star of the week.  She shared some adorable photos from when she was little.  The students loved seeing her with her grandma's dog and the one of her trick-or-treating in her costume. She shared her favorite book My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza and her parent letter---we couldn't believe that she started talking at just 10 months old but thought it was very fitting for Maia's sweet personality! Her mom surprised her on Thursday by coming in to have lunch with her and her friends.  You were a great all-star Maia!

Writing Workshop:

Last week in writing, we were finishing up our introductions and topic sentences in our nonfiction draft booklets.  We also had an opportunity for some creative writing experiences--the students LOVED using the Seesaw app to type a fictional piece using emojis. Below are some photos of the mini-lesson example and some beginnings of student stories....

Above: Mark Y's creative emoji story

Above: Daniella's creative emoji story

Reading Workshop:

In reading last week, the students were focusing on learning the various text structures in nonfiction texts: Descriptive, Sequential, Cause/Effect or Comparison.  They used graphic organizers to then pull the important information from those various text structures to better comprehend what they were reading.

Math:

In math last week, the students were working on solving story problems using the various capacity and weight measurements.  In the photos below, you'll see how students approach the problems by using different strategies.  This is a great way for them to model a solution and teach their peers another way to arrive at a solution.  Students then engage in "math talk" and compliment each others' strategies or ask questions to clear up any confusion.  It also shows them how they can check their work -- when students don't arrive at the same solution, we discuss as a class where the error is and how to make changes to be successful.  

Above: Alice is drawing circles.  Each circle represents 10 ml.  She drew 37.5 circles and then crossed out 25 of them.  That showed her a solution of 12.5 circles = 125ml.

Above: Sean started at 250 and added 50 to get up to 300.  He then knew he had to add 75 more to get to 375.  Therefore, he added 50+75 = 125 ml.

Ryan drew the 2 containers of water.  One being 12 ml and the other labeled 18ml.  He combined those two containers to = 30 ml.

Maia used a number equation to add 18+12 = 30 ml.

Yousif is taking the 28L of hot chocolate and dividing it by the 4 hours.  Then you see him using his count bys to determine the solution.  (4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28) = 7L.

Maya P is drawing a math mountain to solve the above story problem.  She is solving for 50/10 = 5ml.

 

Mark D used a number equation...he knew he needed to divide but used his knowledge of fact families to solve for _____ x 10 = 50.  You can see he then arrived at an answer of 5ml.

After focusing on our story problems...the students were introduced to our next big concept of unit 3...TIME!  They practiced telling time to the nearest 15 minutes--the students are expected to tell time and say it various ways.  For example, if the clock says 3:45...the students need to be able to write three forty-five or a quarter to 4:00.  Then they practiced telling time to the nearest five minutes and lastly, to the nearest minute. We will continue to study time all next week too!

Social Studies:

ALL ABOARD! The students wore a Pilgrim or conductor hat to board the Northeast Train for our tour.  Our first stop...West Quoddy Head in Maine. The students learned that the sun rises there before any other part of the country and is the easternmost point of the U.S.  After that stop, they were given souvenirs and added them to their Region binders.  After leaving West Quoddy Head, the train took them to New Hampshire---stop #2 Mt. Washington.    The students learned Mount Washington is known for having the world's worst weather.  It has severe winds that can reach up to 253mph.  Everyone held onto their seats after reading that one! Next week, we will continue our tour of the Northeast!