What's Happening in Mrs. Hynek's 3rd Grade Class?: December 2012

Wow! It's hard to believe that we're already well into Trimester 2! The kids have been working so hard and are starting to get deep into the routines of being 3rd grade learners.

We hope that you can join us at our Curriculum Snapshot this Friday, December 14th from 2:45-3:30 pm in our classrooms. We also invite you all to our All School Holiday Sing next Friday, December 21 from 3:00-3:30 pm in the Commons. Have a wonderful, safe, and restful Winter Break with your family and friends!

Here's what has been happening in our class:

Literacy Time:

Over the past month, we have been working on the CAFE comprehension literacy strategies of asking and generating questions throughout our reading, voracious reading, summarizing, distinguishing between fact and opinion, and determining the author's purpose when we read. Additionally, our class has been focusing on the reading fluency strategies of rereading text when we don't understand the meaning of what we read, adjusting and applying different reading rates to match text, and using punctuation to enhance our phrasing when we read.

Grammar:

The students have been working with distinguishing between common and proper nouns, the rules of making a noun plural, and the rules of making a noun possessive.

During Daily 5 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:

Writing:

Our class is nearing completion of our Personal Narrative Unit in writing. During Writer's Express (WEX) time, our class continues to work hard learning about the important elements to include in a personal narrative. Together, our mini-lessons have been focusing on writing our paragraphs in a more logical and organized manner. In addition, we are continuing to make sure that our work focuses on a single moment in time. Our lessons have also been stressing the importance of having a logical structure that focuses on one event, utilizing strong verbs, good sensory detail, and proper sentence mechanics in our writing.

Currently, the students have picked a final piece from all of their daily writing that they would like to perfect and enhance. As a result, the students are typing their pieces into Googledocs. Afterwards, they will conference with me for suggestions of corrections and enhancements. Our goal is to have our final pieces finished by break.

Math:

The students just finished Unit 4 in math that focused on introducing multiplication and division fact strategies, using arrays to demonstrate the meaning of multiplication, working with multiplication and division word problems, determining the area of rectangular shapes, and collecting data to discuss the topic of probability and chance.

The students have been doing a spectacular job of practicing their math facts on Xtramath.org! I have certainly noticed quite a difference with quicker recall and memorization of their facts because of this practice. I appreciate all of you parents making sure that they are practicing their facts at least 5 sessions a week. Our goal is to have the addition and subtraction facts mastered over the next couple of months so that students can begin to memorize their multiplication and division facts. Your student is welcome to practice their facts over Winter Break, but please know it is not a requirement.

Social Studies:

Last week our students started a new Illinois Unit. Currently, the students have been put into Native American groups. During this time the students are online researching and recording notes in Googledocs about a specific Native American tribe that lived in Illinois. Afterwards, the students will be using their research to create a project that will present their informational findings to the class.

We hope that you received our invitation to view our research process at our Curriculum Snapshot Event this Friday, December 14th. Please stop by our room anytime between 2:45-3:30 pm to watch the learning process in action!

Science:

The students are continuing to learn about the Solar System during Science time. Throughout the past couple of weeks the students have been recording, discussing, and analyzing the moon's phases and the causes of the phases. In addition, we have been discussing and looking at star constellations.

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

We would like to thank Mrs. Birenbaum, Mr. Lemancik, Mrs. Marchetti, and Mrs. Ingemunson for coming in to assist with our Reader's Theater groups for the month of November.

A big thanks goes out to Mrs. Vittore and Mr. Lemancik for coming in to assist with our Box Top Pizza party last month!

I also greatly appreciate for Mrs. Marchetti, Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Kurak, Mrs. Hall, and Mrs. Ingemunson for coming in to do all of our copying over the past couple of weeks. We greatly appreciate your time!

We would also like to thank Mrs. Vittore and Mrs. Hall for coming in last week for a spectacular Art Appreciation lesson about mosaics. The students had a blast making their own mosaics that will be displayed in our hallway.

Enjoy some pictures from our Art Appreciation event:

Emma enjoyed dancing with her dance team Spectrum at the Arlington Heights Tree Lighting Ceremony.

Cole celebrates Thanksgiving with a table of 36 family members!

Lucas enjoyed having a hockey tournament with his Uncle Nicholas on Thanksgiving Day at his Grandparents' house.

Kayla had fun with her family on Thanksgiving.

Snapshots of Gianni having fun over break!

Ethan and his family made a beautiful swag (door hanger). After each Thanksgiving meal, his family has a tradition of always making a holiday art project together.

Payton has a blast at the Kalahari in Wisconsin Dells!

Peyton and her family drove all the way to Texas to visit her relatives on Thanksgiving. This is a picture of the beautiful sunset they saw in Oklahoma on their road trip down.