December Snapshot of Events

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

It was great being able to see many of you at our Curriculum Snapshot last Friday!  Be sure to enjoy the pictures from the event at the end of this blog.

Friday will be our last day of school before Winter Break.   In the morning, all students will be able to participate in an all school Holiday Sing.   In the afternoon, our class will gather again in the Commons to eat holiday cookies while listening to several stories read by our administrators.  Our day will conclude with watching the Polar Express.   Students are welcome to wear their pajamas to school that day!

I hope that you have a wonderful, safe, and restful holiday season and Winter Break with your families!   I look forward to continuing to work with your child in 2014!  :)  See you all back on January 6th.    

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, inferencing, and determining the cause and effect of a concept 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 and adjusting and applying different reading rates to match text.

Grammar:

The students have been working with distinguishing between common and proper nouns, the rules of making a noun plural, and present and past-tense verbs.  

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.

Last week the students had fun practicing their multiplication facts by creating multiplication array cities.   This week the students are having fun being architect designers.   The students are responsible for creating a blueprint design of their dream home.   With their designs, they need to calculate the perimeter and area of each room they add to their home.  

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 3 sessions a week.  Our goal is to have all students have their addition and subtraction facts mastered by the end of February so that they 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.

Science:

All of the third grade classes participated in a month long Solar System UBD research project.   At the beginning stages, each student was put into a specific planet group.   Using websites and books, each planet group researched information about their planet and posted their notes into Googledocs.   

Afterwards, each planet group chose two Solar Award Categories that they felt their planet could win. The Solar Award Categories were:

• Strangest Atmosphere
• Wildest Temperature/Weather
• Best Name
• Most Earth-like Planet
• Most Interesting Moons
• Scariest Planet
• Most Beautiful Planet
• Most Unique Planet

Once the categories were chosen, each planet group had to write a persuasive paragraph that proved why their planet should win that specific category award.    All paragraphs were submitted to an award selection committtee.  

Together with the entire third grade, students were divided into specific selection committees that gathered in the Commons.   (Ex.:  The Strangest Atmosphere Committee).   Each committee was responsible for reading the persuasive paragraphs and narrowing down each category to the top three planets that they felt deserved to win that specific category based off of the evidence that was given to them.   

Back in the classroom, the top three persuasive speeches for each category were read aloud.   After the speeches were read, the students voted online into a program called Survey Monkey for the planet they believe deserved to win.   They also had to provide a reason for why they felt the planet should win the specific category.   All of the third grade votes were tallied.  

For the last part of the project, the students will meet back in the LMC for the Solars Award Ceremony on Thursday where the winners will be revealed. 

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

• We would like to thank Mr. O'Keeffe, Mrs. Saunders, Mrs. Silvestri, Mrs. Osterlund, Mrs. Petrusonis, and Mrs. Rogers for coming in to assist with our Reader's Theater groups for the months of November and December.  
• I also greatly appreciate Mrs. Barnett, Mrs. Ciccone, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Petrusonis, Mrs. Rogers, and Mrs. Silvestri for for coming in to do all of our copying over the past several weeks. We greatly appreciate your time!
• Thank you Mr. Murray for conducting a wonderful Art Appreciation lesson on mosaics for the students.
• A big thanks goes out to Mrs. Petrusonis and Mrs. Silvestri for taking time out of their busy schedules this week to help take inventory of our Science Light Unit bins!   
• Congratulations goes out to Mrs. Murray for the birth of her fourth baby girl Amelia (Millie)! :)

WEX Curriculum Snapshot Pics