October 29

Here is our day from our guest blogger, Mya!

Today in science, we learned about the sun. It is the closest star to Earth. It gives energy to all the other planets in our solar system!

We also learned multiplication strategies. And practiced word problems using them. We got to take turns teaching the class what strategies we used to solve problems.

In writer's workshop, we worked on our spooky stories. We learned ways to grab the reader's attention by using exciting beginnings.

In reading, we learned about inferring. We talked about how we can use text clues and our schema to infer. We did a fun group project too! We all got four items from Mrs. Petrauskas' purse and we had to infer things about her. We call these groups "HOT groups." This stands for Higher Order Thinking.

We also had music. We did a song with instruments and learned to square dance.

October 28

This week, we are focusing on multiplication strategies and properties. We created an anchor chart as a reminder. Please have your child refer to this chart on any homework that might need some reviewing! (Just FYI, groups is the same as draw a picture!)

 

Since we are focusing on similes and metaphors, we all will be creating simile and metaphor self portraits. The students have the directions attatched to their star homework. Here is an anchor chart to remind the students of the difference between the two:

 

I was very much impressed by the cereal box projects that were presented today! I saw a lot of hard work go into the creation of these new cereals! I could tell it was the first presentation in front of a group of people for some of us, so there will definitely be more presentation lessons in the future. :)

I loved the creativity with the back of the boxes and the prizes inside! These kids rock! Take a look at at some of the finished projects:

 

October 14

Here are today's happenings from our guest blogger, Landon:

"We had PE today. We learned about the Southwest Region of the US. We went over multiplication strategies and made shapes from tangrams. We started narrative writing by coming up with some ideas that we could write about. In reading we started the Socratic Seminar by getting articles about Jane Adaams. We highlighted questions, thoughts, and connections on the article."

To add to what Landon so perfectly listed, our class is starting something called Socratic Seminar. This activity stems for Socrates. He believed that students should not be given the answers to questions, but should develop their own thinking about a topic. This comes through open discussions and forums about pieces of writing that have been read several times. This can be a little tricky for third grade kiddos, but we are determined to tackle this amazing activity. We are starting with the basics- just learning how to have an appropriate conversation without raising your hand. This can be tricky since the students are so accustomed to doing this. In an everyday conversation, do you raise your hand? No. But you do know the appropriate time to respond to a comment or question. We are learning to do that in an academic setting! We will keep you posted on our progress with this activity and new style of learning!

Have a great Monday!

October 11

Happy Friday!

Today was a super fun pajama jamming day!

Unfortunately we had all of our testing to do, but we snuck in some learning fun along the way!

We finished our landforms projects! We have been studying the 7 Habits of Happy Kids (more on that later!) and one of the traits is making a plan/goal. We tied this trait into making landforms. The students had to sketch out 9 different landforms that we have been learning about: mountains, hills, valleys, plains, peninsulas, islands, rivers, oceans, and glaciers. We discussed how different landforms help to classify the five regions in America.

After sketching and planning, the students created the landforms on a paper plate- acting as the globe. The students then painted and labeled each land form. The projects turned out awesome! Take a look!

 

 

 

 

 

We also had our first "Meet The Author" event with Olivia's mom! We had a great time learning all about portraits and drawing portraits of each other. Thank you so much for putting this lesson together for us, Ms. Z! We loved it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 10th

We have been going full steam ahead with our academics! Phew! These kiddos are being packed with information! I am so impressed with all of their learning stamina!

In reading we have been talking about context clues. We learned that context clues are "words around an unknown word that help you understand that unknown word." We have added hand gestures to help us remember the definition. Ask you child to show you! We then identified the four types of context clues and came up with examples of each. Here is our anchor chart:

 

The students then worked in small groups to decipher unknown words using only context clues. Their favorite part was when there were "alien words" (made up words) that the students had to figure out. For example, one of the words was "bloggert." The word was used in a story about two girls outside in winter. They were having a bloggert fight and then had to wipe snow from their faces. The students inferred that the bloggerts were snowballs!

 

We have also been working with plural nouns. Here are the rules we have been following:

 

We practiced today with a game of four corners. In each corner, I put a rule (drop the y add ies, add s, add es, and irregular). I gave the students a word and they had to go to the correct corner that the rules follows. Who knew plurals could be so much fun?!

 

We also have been working hard at our multiplication. So far, we have our 0's, 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's memorized. The kiddos have made flashcards and they pull them out whenever they have a free minutes and practice them over and over. Our whole multiplication unit will start soon, but the students should be practicing these times tables all the time!

 

In writing, we are finishing up on our opinion pieces. The kids are doing great! They have created planning webs, are making edits, and have really great arguments! I am impressed with what I have been seeing! Just look at these awesome writers!

 

Have a great day....remember- pajamas tomorrow!!

 

October 8th

Hello Rock Stars!

 

We are going to play a little catch up for the few days we have been off the blog (technical difficulties!)

 

Congratulations to Will for being our September Kid of Character for the trait "Fairness." He was chosen as our class nominee because he makes fair choices, is responsible for his actions, and shows fairness throughout the classroom and at recess. We are so proud of him! He was honored at the award ceremony last week. It was so awesome that his mom, dad, and sister showed up to support him (and bring me back some yummy cake from the banquet! Thanks!!) He also earned an orange bead for his lanyard and we wore orange in support of him! The students can earn beads from adults around the school for making good choices. Way to go, Will!!!

 

 

We also began our literacy centers. We have five centers in our room and the students go to one a day. All students will go to all five centers in a week. (They love this time!) You can see each one illustrated below.

 Here students are working on writing. They can choose to work on a piece of writing they haven't completed from writer's workshop, read a story and pick a response to write, or complete a grammar activity.

 

 Students at listening center listen to a story (to help with fluency) and respond to the story in their reading response journal.

 At word work center, they students can choose a variety of activities to work on spelling words- stamping, writing in different colors, pyramid spelling, even making up a song using the spelling words. The center also provides games and activities that come from our skills block.

 At read to self center, students read from chapter books, picture books from the library, and read poetry that our class has learned. They love getting cozy in our library and reading!

 Students in action!

 At partner center, the students take turns reading scripts as if performing a story. After finishing, each script provides them with comprehension questions to test each other on.

 

Here are a few more pictures from the fun run! I love this first official class picture we took...and the rock and roll one we took too! It totally fits our personalities!! I love these kiddos!

 Racing!

 Mr. Strickland dressed as Russel from "Up!"

  All smiles and dance moves!

 

 Rock and Roll!

 A job well done!