Classroom Snapshot: Weeks of Sept. 19th-Oct. 6th

I hope that you all had a wonderful long holiday weekend with your families. We certainly couldn't have asked for better weather. Let's hope that it stays this way for quite a while!

Here's what has been happening in our classroom:

Reading:

Together, we read a non-fiction story called Penguin Chick where the students learned how to find the main idea and important supporting details of a story. Click here to find additional activities for students to work on at home to go along with this story. Independently, I also assigned students short chapter books that were appropriate to their reading level and had them practice finding the main idea and details for each chapter in their book.

The students also had fun reading a realistic fiction story called The Perfect Pet. During this time, we discussed how most fictional stories have some sort of problem and several steps involved in order to find the solution to the problem. Feel free to click here for your student to find other activities to go along with the story we read. Later in the week, the students given a short chapter book to read and they performed various activities and questions that allowed them to practice finding the problem and solution to their story.

Throughout vocabulary time, the students have been working with homographs. These are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings. Additionally, the students have also been using the website called Dictionary.com to learn how to find the various definitions of words having multiple meanings.

I'm more excited than anyone to tell you that our reading benchmarking is finally finished! As a result, novel groups will be starting on Tuesday. I have placed your child in a group and provided them with an appropriate novel that I feel matches their reading strengths and capabilities. Guided reading time involves assigning students chapters to read independently, having them answer comprehension questions about their book, and meeting with their group for a novel group discussion. Throughout the year, your child may be moved to a different guided reading group depending on their needs. If your child has a difficult time finishing their guided reading assignment during the schedule 60 minute guided reading period, they will be asked to finish it that night for homework.

Grammar:

Over the past two weeks, the students have been working on determining the difference between finding the subject and predicate in a sentence. We also have been learning the proper way to combine two sentences that are alike by using a comma and the words "but" or "and" to make one compound sentence.

During literacy time, the students had fun practicing these skills with the following web pages. Click on these links to view and play the web site games at home: Rags to Riches and Compound Sentences.

Spelling:

A big thanks goes out to all of the parents that are working with their student on spelling each evening. Please continue to make sure that they are sorting their words correctly into their various spelling categories. The goal of our spelling program is for the students to learn and retain the spelling rules and word patterns for future use in their writing. The nightly spelling sorts and activities will help your student to reach this goal.

Because of the shortened week, the students will not be assigned any spelling homework or have a test this week.

Writing:

Over the past couple of weeks, the third graders have been working harding during WEX time using the concept of "showing details" in their writing. Showing is the skill of using precise observations, descriptive details, and expressive language to demonstration emotion, create images, and present evidence within our writing. The students have been learning the difference between telling the reader what is happening in their writing versus "showing" the reader. For example, instead of telling the reader "I was cold", the students have learned that they can better show how the person is feeling by saying, "I was shivering outside on my front porch as I zipped up my coat". Thus, we are learning how to write details in our work that are more precise and authentic to the reader.

Math:

We have been very busy with Unit 2 in math that involves adding and subtracting whole numbers. The students have been working hard learning about fact families, extensions of addition and subtraction facts, "What's My Rule?" problems, parts-and-total number stories, and comparision number stories.

Last week, the students learned how to add up three-digit numbers using the "Algorithm Method". This is where the students add up the numbers in the 100's column first, the 10's column next, and the 1's column last. I know that this method proved to be frustrating to some parents because this is not the same way that they learned how to add up numbers when they were in 3rd grade. Please don't worry though! Soon, the students will be shown how to add up three digit numbers using the traditional method of regrouping. After the two methods have been practiced, I will let them choose if they want to add up numbers using the Algorithm Method or the Regrouping Method.

Social Studies:

Throughout the rest of the Illinois Unit, the students continued to learn about the major historical events that occurred in Illinois in becoming a state in the Union. We also briefly discussed how the historical events of the Civil War and World Wars I and II affected the population, growth, and economy to our state. Our unit concluded with learning about various state facts our state that included our state bird, flower, fossil, flag, animal, tree, fish, and insect. The students did a great job on their end of the unit test last Thursday! Our next unit will involve learning about all of the Midwestern states.

A BIG THANK YOU goes to all of our parent classroom volunteers!

We would like to thank Mrs. Bolithon for putting together our classroom calendar of volunteers. We would also like to thank Mrs. Moran for sending out weekly email reminders to the volunteers for their upcoming duties. If you did not receive an email of the schedule and you believe that you were on our volunteer list, please let me know.

We were able to have our first Reader's Theater at the end of September. This is where the students are put into a small group with a parent and asked to read aloud from a short play script. We certainly appreciate Mr. Nesbitt, Mrs. Gainulin, Mrs. Bolithon, Mrs. Grant O'Hara, and Mrs. Jones for coming in to assist and monitor each of our groups!

I also greatly appreciate Mrs. Moran, Mrs. Bolithon, Mrs. Filippelli, and Mrs. Silvestri for coming in to do all of our copying. We greatly appreciate your time!