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.

Weekly Update

All-Star of the Week:
Mackenzie was our fabulous All-Star last week!  She enjoyed a special lunch with her mom on Friday.  The class loved hearing her favorite book, Frederick, by Leo Lionni.  We also liked learning more about Mackenzie as she shared her photos and items from her sharing sack.  Mackenzie enjoyed a special poem from her mom too.

Reading Workshop:
We continued our mystery unit last week with students meeting in their detective clubs to discuss the chapters they are reading. We modeled for students how to keep track of important clues and possible suspects (see examples below). Supporting their claims with evidence is extremely important when recording ideas in their detective case file and when sharing their ideas during the detective club discussions.

Writing Workshop:
Students have continued to be immersed in our new writing genre--persuasive essays.  They have written flash drafts about various topics they feel strongly about.  After choosing a strong example, students completed another persuasive map, which includes a thesis statement or claim and three reasons or evidence.  If students could not come up with more than one reason to support their claim, they knew they would need to pick a different claim.  Students also conducted surveys to include as evidence to support their claim.

Math:
Last week we focused on multi-digit subtraction.  Once again, students learned to create a proof drawing first so that they were able to understand the concept of "ungrouping."  We spent lots of time practicing the traditional method of ungrouping from right to left and then practiced subtracting across zeros.  We will continue to practice three-digit addition and subtraction this week.  Right now we are planning for our Unit Test to be Tuesday, February 9.

Skate World:
It was good to see some students from our classroom (and a few extras) enjoy the Skate World party!

Michigan Science Center Field Trip:
Students enjoyed visiting the Michigan Science Center.  Our field trip started on the top floor of the museum where we explored the current traveling exhibit--Toytopia.  Next we saw a Junior Astronomer show in the Planetarium where we learned more about the sun, moon, and stars.  Then we went for a "ride" and got a little wet as we learned more about engineers in the Toyota 4D Theatre.  After lunch we visited the DTE Sparks Theatre where AJ had a "hair raising" experience.  The last show we caught was the Chrysler Science Stage Show where students learned some experiments they could try at home.  Students also had time to explore the many exhibits throughout the center.  You can check out photos from the trip in the slideshow below or click HERE to see the photos individually.

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.