Classroom Happenings in Room #307
***Most Recent Updates will be at the top of the page.***
Here are some things we've been working on in Classroom #307
5/3
Reading and Writing Workshop
SAS Preparation and Reading SAS Test
Biography Research-Students have started their research for the Living History Museum. Students have made their Biography choice and have started reading and gathering information about their person.
As a class we brainstormed what information is important about a person’s life.
Helen Keller Biography Study
Students received a research packet that they are working on
As a class we completing after we filled out one together on Helen Keller.
Free writing
High frequency third grade words and proper punctuation and grammar.
Nonfiction Texts-Reading and Answering nonfiction reading comprehension questions
Supporting Responses with Evidence from a Nonfiction Text
Reading and preparing for the Battle of the Books
Math
SAS Preparation and Math SAS testing
Geometry
Point
Line
Line segment
ray
Attributes and traits of polygons
Attributes and traits of quadrilaterals
Parallel lines, intersecting lines, and perpendicular lines
Right, Acute, and Obtuse angles
Triangles
Area
Perimeter
Topic Time
-Sheryl Faye came to our school before vacation and presented her one woman performance of Queen Elizabeth II. It was a fantastic show and the children were a great audience
-Students listened to the book, The Magical Yet by Angela DiTerlizzi. After they thought and wrote about things they can do in their lives, and something that they can’t do YET, but will be able to do with time and practice.
-Economics Unit
-Needs and Wants
-Goods and Services
-Supply and Demand
-Scholastic News
4/15
-Informative Writing
-Reviewing Timelines and our own timelines
-Students wrote their own autobiographies
-Launching our Biography Unit
-Students read many different biographies and are taking time to see who they would like to study for the Living History Museum
-Note-taking
-Free Writing
Math
-Equivalent Fractions: Use Models
-Equivalent Fractions: Use the Number Line
-Use Models to Compare Fractions: Same Denominator
-Use Models to Compare Fractions: Same Numerator
-Compare Fractions: Use Benchmarks
-Coding
-Dreambox
-Math Games
Reading/Word Study
-Helen Keller Biography Study
-Nonfiction Texts
-Reading and Answering nonfiction reading comprehension questions
-Supporting Responses with Evidence from a Nonfiction Text
-Reading and preparing for the Battle of the Books
-High Frequency Words
Topic Time
-Viewing the Solar Eclipse!
-Learning about the Solar Eclipse and why we need to wear glasses while viewing the solar eclipse
-Launching our Economics Unit.
-Needs and Wants
-Goods and Services
-Supply and Demand
4/8
Writing
-Sharing our Google Slide Extreme Weather Presentations. Each group presented in front of the class and did a fantastic job! I’m so proud of their hard work for this project. They researched and worked collaboratively on an extreme weather and finally presented their Google Slide presentation to the class.
-Informative Writing
-Free Writing
Math
-Fractions
-Coding
-Problem Solving
-Dream Box
-Math Games
-Lego time in the Learning Commons
Reading/Word Study
-Nonfiction Texts
-Reading and Answering nonfiction reading comprehension questions
-Supporting Responses with Evidence from a Nonfiction Text
-Nonfiction Scavenger Hunt
-Reading and preparing for the Battle of the Books
-Commas in a list
-Review of Common and Proper Nouns
-High Frequency Words
Topic Time
-Learning and getting ready for the the Solar Eclipse
-Scholastic News
-Being exposed to different people in history in preparation for our Living History Project
Technology
-Learning how to use Google Sheets and creating charts and graphs with our collected data.
-Playing Battleship on Google Sheets!
-Enjoying time using the April Choice Boards
Enjoying an unexpected April Snow Day!
4/1
Writing Workshop
-Informative Writing
-We are integrating Science and Extreme Weather into our Writing Workshop. Students have been note taking on the different kinds of extreme weather using sources from Epic, PebbleGo and Pebblego Next.
-Students made a top three list of what extreme weather they want to research and will be doing a group Google Slide project and presentation to the class. The choices for Extreme weather include floods, drought, blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, and thunderstorms.
-Students are in their Extreme Weather groups and have started their presentations.
-Each group is responsible for 6 slides.
Introduction Slide-Introduce your weather and who is in your group.
What causes this extreme weather?
What kind of damage does it cause?
What should you do/where should you go during this extreme weather?
Are there any interesting facts about your weather?
Final slide-maybe offer advice and/or suggestions to keep safe during your extreme weather.
-Free Writing
Math
-Number Lines: Fractions Greater Than 1
-Line Plots and Length
-Bits and Bricks Lego Coding
-Graphing and Analyzing Data
-Bits and Bricks Lego Coding
-Playing Multiplication Snake
Reading/Word Study
-Nonfiction Text Features such as Table of Contents, Glossary, Index, Captions, Maps, Labels, Illustrations, etc.
-Reading and Responding to nonfiction text
-Sound alike words
-High Frequency words
-Reading and getting ready for the Battle of the Books!
-Cursive
Topic Time
-Extreme Weather
-Scholastic News
-Current Events
-Women’s History Month
-Perseverance
-Reflecting on our Winter Goals and making steps to continue to succeed
-Reading Ivy the Very Determined Dog: A True Story by Chris and Maureen Harrington and talking about a Positive Mindset and how to turn a negative into a positive.
3/25
-Writing Workshop
-Informative Writing
-We are integrating Science and Extreme Weather into our Writing Workshop. Students have been note taking on the different kinds of extreme weather using sources from Epic, PebbleGo and Pebblego Next.
-Students made a top three list of what extreme weather they want to research and will be doing a group Google Slide project and presentation to the class. The choices for Extreme weather include floods, drought, blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, and thunderstorms.
-Students are in their Extreme Weather groups and have started their presentations.
-Each group is responsible for 6 slides.
Introduction Slide-Introduce your weather and who is in your group.
What causes this extreme weather?
What kind of damage does it cause?
What should you do/where should you go during this extreme weather?
Are there any interesting facts about your weather?
Final slide-maybe offer advice and/or suggestions to keep safe during your extreme weather.
-Limericks
-Opinion Writing Prompts
-Free Writing
Math
-Understanding Fractions as Numbers
-Dividing Regions into Equal Parts
-Fractions and Regions
-Number Line: Fractions Less Than 1
-Reviewing 3 digit regrouping addition and subtraction
-Multiplication and Division fact practice
Reading/Word Study
-Nonfiction Text Features such as Table of Contents, Glossary, Index, Captions, Maps, Labels, Illustrations, etc.
-Cursive
-Text Features
-Schwa sound in word-This is when a vowel has an unexpected sound. When there is a schwa, the vowel most often sounds like short u or short i. Examples: Salad, Boston, Mitten
Topic Time
-Extreme Weather
-Scholastic News
-Current Events
-Women’s History Month
-Perseverance
-Knowing it’s ok and human to make mistakes!
3/18
Writing Workshop
-Launching Informative Writing
-We are integrating Science and Extreme Weather into our Writing Workshop. Students have been note taking on the different kinds of extreme weather using sources from Epic, PebbleGo and Pebblego Next.
-Students made a top three list of what extreme weather they want to research and will be doing a group Google Slide project and presentation to the class. The choices for Extreme weather include floods, drought, blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, and thunderstorms.
-Limericks
Math
-Multiply by Multiples of 10
-Used an Open Number Line to Multiply
-Used Properties to Multiply
-Used Math Practices and Problem Solving to look for and use structure
-Word Problems
Topic Time
-Completing our scripts for our Who Would Win? Podcast. Each group conferenced with Mrs. Finley and finalized their scripts. We will be recording soon!
-Extreme Weather
-Scholastic News
-Current Events
-Saint Patrick’s Day
-Women’s History Month
3/11
Writing Workshop
-Preparing for the SAS writing assessment
-SAS Writing Assessment
-Persuasive Letter writing
-Completing two persuasive/opinion themed graphic organizers
-Typing our first draft of our Persuasive letter right on the computer
-Having a writing conference with the teacher and making revisions and corrections
-Practicing first and addressing an envelope to whom will be receiving our letters
-Hand delivering our finished Persuasive Letters
-Crossing our fingers to see if our requests will be considered and/or fulfilled
-Free Writing
Math
-Multiply by Multiples of 10
-Used an Open Number Line to Multiply
-Used Properties to Multiply
-Used Math Practices and Problem Solving to look for and use structure
-Word Problems
Reading/Word Study
-Nonfiction Text
-Contractions
-Cursive
-Adding ed to words that end in y such as cry t ed = cried
-Adding ing to words that end in y such as buy t ing = buying
-Completing our novel study of Because of Winn Dixie
Topic Time
-Completing our scripts for our Who Would Win? Podcast -Extreme Weather
-Scholastic News
-Current Events
-Women’s History Month
-Health Lesson with Mrs. Rocheleau
3/4
Writing Workshop
-Persuasive Letter writing
-Completing two persuasive/opinion themed graphic organizers
-Typing our first draft of our Persuasive letter right on the computer
-Having a writing conference with the teacher and making revisions and corrections
-Practicing first and addressing an envelope to whom will be receiving our letters
-Hand delivering our finished Persuasive Letters
-Crossing our fingers to see if our requests will be considered and/or fulfilled
Math
-Area of regular shapes
-Area of irregular shapes
-Problem Solving: Looking for and using math structure and strategies
-Practicing our Multiplication and Division skills and facts
-Math practice using Dreambox and XtraMath
Reading
-Celebrating Read Across America Week!
-Participating in Book Buddies with Mrs. Naber’s class
-Participating in Book Buddies with Mrs. McMullen’s class
-Response to Reading
-Answering Reading Comprehension Questions
-Listening to Audiobooks that foster Inclusivity
-Having Officer Kushmerek as a guest reader
-Practicing our Third Grade High Frequency Words
Topic Time
-Completing our scripts for our Who Would Win? Podcast
-Extreme Weather
-Scholastic News
-Current Events
2/19
Writing Workshop
-Opinion Letter and writing complete sentences for our reasons. We will be adding our examples to our reasons next week and starting our first draft of our letters
-What it means to "write to our audience"
-Creating and writing Valentine’s Day cards for others with our Cross Buddy Class in Mrs. Miller’s classroom
-Defending and supporting our “Would You Rather” Valentine’s Day edition opinions
-Free Writing Time
Math
-Area of Squares and Rectangles
-2 digit of 10 by one digit multiplication problems such as
20x6=120, 50x3=150, 30x7=210
-Applying Properties with Area and the Distributive
-Preteaching Line Plots
-Multistep word problems
-Elapsed Time
-Practicing multiplication facts
-Playing the Multiplication Math Game SNAKE
-Time on Dreambox
Reading
-Response to Reading
-Answering Reading Comprehension Questions
-Sound alike words weather and whether
-High Frequency Words
-Cursive
-Breaking words into syllables
-Vocabulary Words
Topic Time
-Chinese/Lunar New Year
-First written draft of our Podcast script
-Safety Lesson with Officer Kushmerek
Writing Workshop
-Opinion/Persuasive Writing
-Continuing to write opinion pieces and practice using evidence from the text to support their opinions.
-Group Research work for their podcast of “Who Will Win?” Animal Version.
-Students worked on independent writing projects. Some students are writing creative stories, Google slide presentations, poems, and personal narratives.
Math
-Connect Area to Multiplication and Addition
-Area to cover regions
-Area with nonstandard units
-Area with standard units
-Preteaching Elapsed Time
Reading
-Continuing to work on Inferring
-Students are using their own reading books to find deeper meaning in Inferential Thinking, Character Change, Theme, Author’s Message, and Problem/Solution
-Practicing High Frequency Words
-Cursive
Topic Time
-Weather
-Different types of clouds
-February Holidays
-Current Events
-Reading/Researching and working in small groups with Mrs. Finley on our Podcast Projects! We will be starting to write our scripts on Tuesday afternoon.
2/5
Writing Workshop
Opinion/Persuasive Writing
-Students are working on different opinion/persuasive writing prompts. We have been working on the following: Do you agree or disagree that students should be required to wear uniforms to school.
-Students are now providing evidence and examples to support their opinions.
-Students with similar opinions worked in pairs to come up with accurate examples and evidence to support their opinion.
-Students worked on independent writing projects. Some students are writing creative stories, Google slide presentations, poems, and personal narratives.
Math
-Using strategies to Multiply and Divide
-Students are writing and solving multiplication problems and division problems.
-Regrouping three digit addition problems (this is a concept that we practice often because it is a challenging skill for some students )
-Regrouping 2 digit and 3 digit subtraction problems (this is a concept that we practice often because it is a challenging skill for some students )
Reading
-Author Study on Chris Van Allsburg to focus on inferring
-Students are using their own reading books to find deeper meaning in Inferential Thinking, Character Change, Theme, Author’s Message, and Problem/Solution
-Vowel-Consonant-e Syllables
-Adding suffixes to Vowel-Consonant-e Syllables
-1-1-1 Spelling Rule- If a word has one syllable, one vowel, and one final consonant, the last consonant must be doubled before adding a vowel suffix
-lowercase cursive letters
Topic Time
-Weather
-February Holidays
-Current Events
-Reading/Researching and working in small groups with Mrs. Finley on our Podcast Projects! We will be starting to write our scripts very soon!
-Making Valentine's Day cards for the Veterans to be sent by Dr. Laura Landerman-Garber
1/29
Writing Workshop
-Opinion/Persuasive Writing
-Students are working on different opinion/persuasive writing prompts. We have been working on the following: Do you agree or disagree that students should be required to wear uniforms to school. Students made a T-Chart with Pros/Cons for Agree/Disagree. Students had to pick a side and write a paragraph with reasons to support their opinion.
-We are using the OREO acronym to help remember the format for Opinion Writing. Opinion, Reason, Evidence/Example, Opinion.
-We will be starting to use examples/evidence in our writing to help support our opinion. We will be using our School Uniform writing to do this next week.
-”A Book to Warm Up To”- book recommendation writing piece.
-Free Choice Writing
Math
-Using strategies to Multiply
-Solving Word Problems: Multiplication and Division
-Writing Multiplication Stories using our 5* Rubric
-Writing Division Stories using our 5* Rubric
-Regrouping 3 digit addition and subtraction
-Math Practices & Problem Solving: Looking for use and structure
-Extra practice on Math Multiplication Tables and Missing Products and Factors of parts of a multiplication table.
-Preteaching Area and Perimeter that we will be starting next week.
Reading
-Making inferences in our independent reading books and shared texts
-Reading and Researching on our group project Who Would Win? Animal projects
-Working on -v-e (vowel consonant e) syllable type. Students understand that the silent e makes the vowel say its name.
-Sound alike words such as mail/male, find/fined
-ive exception in words like active, give, live and captive.
-There are no words in the English language that end in v. There is an e that follows the v.
-Glued sounds like ost, ind, ild
-Real Words
-Dictation
-High Frequency Words
-Applying our skills in our reading and writing
Topic Time
Science
-The Water Cycle
-Atmosphere
-Evaporation
-Condensation
-Precipitation
-Collection
-Why we have seasons
-The Earth is tilted
-When we are tilted towards the sun it is summer. When we are tilted away from the sun it is winter
-Northern and Southern Hemisphere
-We experience seasons at different times because of Earth's tilted axis, and if you live in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere
-Equator
-Destinations that are close to the equator are hot, while places close to the Poles are cold
**After filling up our Happy Jar from Positive Actions, students voted and decided to have a PJ/Movie Day! After working. hard all morning on Friday, students enjoyed watching The Lego Movie together in the afternoon.**
1/16
Writing Workshop
-Opinion/Persuasive Writing
-Completing final draft of “To Save or Squish the Ant”
-Finishing complete sentences and ideas for Opinion sentence starters
-Journal writing
-Researching and Notetaking
Math
-Using strategies to Multiply
-Solving Word Problems: Multiplication and Division
-Writing Multiplication Stories using our 5* Rubric
-Writing Division Stories using our 5* Rubric
-Regrouping 3 digit addition and subtraction
Reading
-Inferring
-Inferring Puzzles
--Working on -v-e (vowel consonant e) syllable type such as hope, and other syllable types
-Reviewing plurals and suffixes
-drop the y and add i rule
-Cursive
-Sound alike words
-Real Words
-Dictation
Topic Time
Science
-Climate/Weather
-Students can describe and distinguish between the three different climates
-Polar Climate
-Temperate Climate
-Tropical Climate
-Students understand that weather is something that can change throughout the day, and it’s a temperature of one area
-Climate is the average weather in one area over a long period of time
-Students understand that temperature is the measure of heat
Social Studies
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement
Reading/Writing/Science/Technology
-We are working with Mrs. Finley on Podcasts based on the “Who will Will?” books by Jerry Pallotta. Students are in 4 different groups. Each group decided on two different animals to see who would win in a battle. Students have started researching and note-taking on their animals. They are off to a great start on this and full of energy and excitement!
We also had an awesome Guidance Lesson with Mrs. Turner on Empathy
1/8/2024
Happy New Year!
Writing
-Launching our new unit of study on Opinion/Persuasive writing
-Lesson on Audience in an Opinion/Persuasive letter. After reading the book, One Word from Sophia, students worked together making lists of different audiences that they might write a persuasive/opinion letter to. They also came up with different reasons why they would write to this person.
-After reading the book, Hey, Little Ant, students came up with reasons why to either Save or Squish the Ant in a graphic organizer. Students will complete their final paragraph next week.
-Students wrote Winter Academic, Behavioral/Social, and Personal Goals for 2024. They also wrote what they can do to accomplish these goals. We will reflect and check on them in a few weeks.
Math
-Fluently Multiplying and Dividing within 100
-Patterns for Multiplication facts
-Using a Multiplication Table
-Finding Missing Numbers in a Multiplication Table
Reading
-We started our unit on Inferring. Inferring is the practice of using your schema or background knowledge, and text evidence to draw conclusions.
- After reading, The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg, students had to come up with questions and make an an inference using text evidence to who the Stranger is in the book. We will be using many of Chris Van Allsburg’s books for this unit.
-Working on -v-e (vowel consonant e) syllable type such as hope, and other syllable types
-Reviewing plurals and suffixes
-drop the y and add i rule
-Cursive
-Sound alike words
-Real Words
-Dictation
Topic Time
-Launching our Science unit on Weather
-Scholastic News
-Winter Holidays
-Reflection and New Year Goals
12/18
-Writing
-Completing our first draft and revising our Holiday Gift of Kindness writing assignment
-Conferencing with a teacher and making necessary changes
-Writing our final draft of our Holiday Gift of Kindness writing assignment
-Creating Gifts of Kindness in the Classroom
-Free Writing Friday
-Choosing prompts from our December Writing Calendar
Math
-Practicing multiplication and division facts
-Solving Multiplication and Division Equations
-Understanding Balanced Equations
-Solving for the Unknown
-Fact Families
-Math Practices and Problem Solving
-Regrouping subtraction in 3 digit numbers
Reading/Word Study
-Reading just right chapter books
-Reading comprehension questions and short answer responses
-v-e (vowel consonant e) syllable type such as hope, and other syllable types
-Reviewing plurals and suffixes
-drop the y and add i rule
-Cursive
-Sound alike words
-Real Words
-Dictation
Topic Time-Social Studies/Science/Social Emotional Learning
-Wrapping up our Forces and Motion Unit
-Scholastic News
-Sharing our AWESOME inventions to the class! I am so impressed with their inventions and the ideas they came up with!
-Winter Holidays
-Kindness
12/11
Writing
-Sharing our Published Personal Narratives! Each student took a turn reading their Personal Narrative if they wanted to or read by a teacher in the rocking chair.
-December Christmas Free Choice Writing Prompts
–Starting our new Writing Gift Giving Assignment
-After reading the book Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen by Dyanne DiSalvo-Ryan we brainstormed together gifts students can give that have no monetary value, but are priceless in meaning and intention.
-Students completed a graphic organizer and a first draft of their assignment. They will complete their final piece next week.
Math
-Using Multiplication to Divide 8 and 9
-Dividing with 0 and 1
-Practicing multiplication and division facts
-Multiplication patterns even and odd numbers
-Graphing
Reading/Word Study
-Common and Proper Nouns
-Solidifying 1-1-1 Rule
-Dictating sentences
-High Frequency Words
-Third Grade Words
Topic Time
-Scholastic News
-Forces and Motion
-Learning about Hannukah and starting to learn about winter holidays around the world.
-Social Emotional Learning
-Ways to help others at the Holidays and throughout the year
-Technology Lesson with Mrs. Finley
12/4
Writing
-Dictionary Skills
-Students were introduced and taught how to use a dictionary
-Students learned different parts of a dictionary
-Students were introduced and showed understanding in using guide words and entry words
-Working with a partner, students completed a dictionary mystery and had to look up words and answer questions
-Personal Narratives
-Writing about our favorite Holiday small moment
-Creative stories
Math
-Wrapping up Applying Properties and Multiplication Facts for 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8.
- Using Multiplication to Divide
-Relating Multiplication and Division
-Using Multiplication to Divide 2, 3, 4, and 5
-Using Multiplication to Divide 6 and 7
-Playing math games to help solidify our facts and to have fun
Reading/Fundations
-1-1-1 Rule (doubling a consonant when adding a vowel suffix)
-sound alike works
-cursive
-articles a and an
-reviewing suffixes: ed, ing, est, y, ful, less, etc.,
-forming plurals with s and es
-Practicing sounds, words and sentences
-Playing Sparkle to practice our words
Topic Time
-Learning about Thanksgiving
-Gratitude
-Scholastic News
-Forces and Motion
-Health Class with Mrs. Rocheleau about healthy eating
11/20
Writing
-We spent time working on fictional characters and fictional writing.
-Students worked on a fictional character’s external attributes. Students connected external attributes to physical character traits when we learned about them during our character unit in Reading Workshop.
-Students worked on a fictional character’s internal attributes. Students connected internal attributes to personal character traits when we learned about them during our character unit in Reading Workshop.
-Writing Thanksgiving writing assignments and prompts
-Completing our final revisions of our published personal narratives
Math
-Solidifying the Distributive Property. This is a property that we will continue to work on this year.
-Practicing our math facts
-The Associative Property: Multiply with 3 Factors
-Math Practices and Problem Solving: Repeated Reasoning
-The Associative (Grouping) Property states that the order of the factors does not change the product. For example: (3x4) x 2= 3 x (4x2)
Reading/Fundations
-Reading Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen independently and completing reading comprehension questions
-Comparing and contrasting characters in Molly’s Pilgrim by using venn diagrams
-Spelling high frequency words and sound alike words
-Correctly spelling and understanding when to add -s or -es in plural nouns
-Correctly reading and spelling one-one-one words and understanding when to add a bonus letter.
-Students understand when they have a 1-1-1 word and adding a vowel suffix they need to add a bonus letter. Example: Ship-Shipping.
-Students understand when they have a 1-1-1 word and by adding a consonant suffix they do not need to add a bonus letter. Example: Ship-Shipment.
Topic Time
-Scholastic News-Current Events
-In science we are continuing our forces and motion unit. Students participated in a challenge invention and had to create their own catapult.
-Students catapulted small pom-poms to see if their invention worked and were successful
-Students reflected on their own invention and brainstormed ideas on how to improve it.
-Students compared and reflected their inventions with a classmate
-Learning about Thanksgiving
-Reading the book Gratitude is my Superpower by Alicia Ortega and sharing what we are grateful for.
-Understanding what Gratitude is and how to express gratitude and thankfulness to others
-Learning to play Prodigy with Mrs. Finley during Technology class.
-Participating in a whole school Town Meeting on Friday afternoon
11/13
Writing
-We worked with a partner on reading short stories from George and Martha books series to find the setting, problem and solution to fiction stories.
-Looking at the illustrations in the stories and discovering what clues they provide to the reader
-We used the strategies we learned and discovered to help shape and create our own fictional stories
-Writing our own fiction stories from our illustrations
-Continuing to work on and type our Published Personal Narratives and illustrations.
Math
-Applying Properties: 3 as a Factor
-Applying Properties: 4 as a Factor
-Applying Properties: 6 as a Factor - We will continue to work on this next week
-Applying Properties: 7 as a Factor - We will continue to work on this next week
-Applying Properties: 8 as a Factor - We will continue to work on this next week
-Using Dreambox and XtraMath in the classroom
-Playing math games to practice our math facts
Reading/Fundations
-Reading Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen whole class and independently.
-Base words and suffixes
-Sound alike words some, sum, son, sun
Topic Time
-Scholastic News
-Reading about Current Events and answering questions
-Science-Forces and Motion
-Learning, reading, and answering questions about Veteran's Day
Safety lesson with Officer Kush
Performing at the Veteran’s Day Concert and doing an AMAZING job!!!
11/06
Writing
-Students had a lesson about typing a paper on a Google Docs. Most students are choosing to type their Published Personal Narratives on the computer.
-We’ve started the publishing process of our Personal Narratives
-We are following the COPS Revise/Edit Checklist. Students read their piece carefully and use a colored pencil to make all corrections. They are doing a great job using their resources to make editing revisions. After they have done all revisions they meet with me for a final conference. Students will start typing or handwriting (student’s choice) their final piece and add an illustration to their writing. Lastly, we will celebrate our published pieces with students taking turns sharing their pieces aloud to the class if they wish.
The COPS Editing Checklist includes:
C-Capitalization
0-Organization
P-Punctuation
S-Spelling
-Halloween Quickwrites
Math
-Students are working on solidifying their math facts. This new topic will introduce new tables we have not learned yet.
-The Distributive Property-This is a challenging concept and one that we will be working on throughout the year.
-Students use the Distributive Property to solve problems involving multiplication within 100. They use the Distributive Property to break a large array into two smaller arrays. Students are learning to write a multiplication fact as the sum of two other multiplication facts.
-Playing Math Games to practice our multiplication facts
Reading/Word Study
-Celebrating Character Day! Students completed and shared their Book Reports orally in front of the class dressed up as their character. I’m very proud of of their hard work and ability to orally present and answer questions about their book.
-Working on reading and writing Third Grade High Frequency Words
-Cursive k
-Enjoying Reading Time with our First Grade Book Buddies in Mrs. McMullen’s Classroom
Topic Time
-Celebrating and learning about Halloween
-Celebrating and learning about Day of the Dead
-Learning about Veterans Day
Technology-Students are enjoying using Mrs. Finley’s October/November Choice Boards. Mrs. Finley has given the students difference choices in different subjects and content areas.
10/30
Writing
-We’ve started the publishing process of our Personal Narratives
-We are following the COPS Revise/Edit Checklist. Students read their piece carefully and use a colored pencil to make all corrections. They are doing a great job using their resources to make editing revisions. After they have done all revisions they meet with me for a final conference. Students will start typing or handwriting (student’s choice) their final piece and add an illustration to their writing. Lastly, we will celebrate our published pieces with students taking turns sharing their pieces aloud to the class if they wish.
The COPS Editing Checklist includes:
C-Capitalization
0-Organization
P-Punctuation
S-Spelling
Math
-Multiplication Facts: 0, 1, 2, 5, 9, and 10
-Math Practices & Problem Solving: Model with Math
-End of Topic Check-in
-Pumpkin Math
-Students made estimations in weight, height, and circumference before gathering data.
-Students gathered and recorded actual data and compared it to a classmate.
Reading/Word Study
-Children completed their Character Chapter Books and will be completing their Book Reports next week
-Character Traits
-Physical Traits
-Personal Traits
-Reading our own character chapter book for our character unit
-Using our shared text, Because of Winn Dixie by Katie DiCamillo to understand characters, character traits, and how characters, like people can change throughout the story
-Using text evidence to support our findings in our reading
-Review of Fundations Unit 1 Concepts
-Practice of Third Grade High Frequency Words
-Playing Sparkle to practice spelling words
- Cursive f
Topic Time
-Continuing with our Forces and Motion Science Unit
-Making cards for the “Holiday Cards for our Military Challenge”
-Hollis Primary School is partnering with Dr. Laura Landerman-Garber once again to help reach her goal of one million cards.
-As a class we have discussed what the United States Military is and the different branches and jobs of the military.
-We are learning about Veterans Day and the importance of celebrating and remembering our country’s Veterans and Military men, women, and family members.
-Scholastic News
-Students really enjoyed reading and learning about the Titanic
10/23
Math
- 9’s Table
All the different patterns with the 9’s table! There are a lot of cool patterns with the 9’s table. The ones place decreases by one, while the tens place increases by one. Example: 18, 27, 36, 45, 54. When the multiple of 9 is broken down it equals nine. Example: 18 1+8=9, 27 2+7=9, 36 3+6=36.
-0’s Table
-1’s Table
-Identity (one) Property of Multiplication- Any number times one is that number. 8x1=8
-Zero Property of Multiplication- Any number times zero is zero. Zero is the BOSSS! 9x0=0
-10’s Table
-10’s Table Patterns. The ones place always ends in zero and the tens place increases by 1. Example: 10, 20, 30
-Facts Test
-Math games
Writing
- Personal Narratives
-Students completed a graphic organizer and first draft for a new personal narrative. This personal narrative will be published, and students will go through the publishing process of editing, revising, conferencing and either typing/handwriting their piece, illustrating and sharing their writing to the class (if they would like to).
Reading/Word Study
-Character Traits
-Physical Traits
-Personal Traits
-Reading our own character chapter book for our character unit
-Using our shared text, Because of Winn Dixie by Katie DiCamillo to understand characters, character traits, and how characters, like people can change throughout the story
-Using text evidence to support our findings in our reading
-Sound alike words know, no, right, write, witch, which
-Homophones
-Homonyms
-There, their, they’re
-Review of closed syllables, glued sounds, closed syllable exceptions
Science
-Launching our Forces and Motion unit in science
-Balanced and unbalanced forces
Social Emotional Learning
- We read the book, Confidence is my Superpower by Alicia Ortego. We shared different mantras that we use to help boost our self-confidence. We talked and shared different ways to reframe our thoughts to make them positive ones, and how we have a choice on how we can act, say, do, believe.
Technology
-Block Coding
Playing with our new games at dismissal time. Thank you again for your generosity! The students love playing with the games!
10/16
Writing
-Personal Narratives
-We focused on Ideas for Powerful Endings which include:
-Something Surprising
-Asking a Question
-Exclamation
-Something funny
-Lesson learned or moral
-Sharing a strong emotion
Math
-Multiplication facts and seeing patterns
-Multiples of 2, 5, and 9
-Products
-Multiples
-Regrouping with 3 digit subtraction
-Math games
-Problem Solving
-Dreambox
Reading/Word Study
-Character Traits
-Physical Traits
-Personal Traits
-Reading our own character chapter book for our character unit
-Using our shared text, Because of Winn Dixie by Katie DiCamillo to understand characters, character traits, and how characters, like people can change throughout the story
- Reviewed letter sounds, blends, and digraphs
-cursive letter b
Topic Time
-Government Three Branches of Government
-Why is democracy important
-What is a citizen?
What makes someone a good citizen?
Meeting our Cross Buddy Class for the first time this school year! We met with Mrs. Miller’s 6th grade class! We spent time getting to know each other and played math games. It was a wonderful time, and we look forward to hosting the next visit!
10/6
Writing
-Working on Leads and Hooks to our Personal Narratives. Students learned and practiced different ways to “hook” a reader in their personal narrative writing. These leads include: Talking Lead, Sound Effect Lead, Action Lead, Snapshot Lead, Question Lead, and Flashback Lead.
-Students practiced leads with sentence starters.
-Students worked on creative stories of their choice during free choice writing.
Math
-Completing Topic 1 in math on Understanding Whole Numbers in Multiplication and Division.
-Playing math games
-Using Dreambox and Xtra Math
-Practicing our math facts
-Math Morning Work page that preteaches many concepts students will have this year. This week we were introduced to Volume and Capacity.
-Challenging ourselves with puzzles from Greg Tang. Thanks to the PTA, teachers receive a free subscription to Greg Tang packs. These are challenging logical and mathematical packs that enrich student learning.
Reading/Fundations
-Students are reading their Character Day chapter books in class in preparation for their Character Day project.
-Making connections to our characters
-Reading conferences
-Working on Glued Sounds: all (like in fall), an (like in fan), and am (like in ham)
-exceptions to the closed syllable rules which include olt, old, ost, ind, and ild.
-cursive letter b
Topic Time
-Learning that our Government is based on the Constitution. We have discussed what Checks and Balances is and why it is important for our government. They understand that our Government has three branches, the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch.
-Learning about Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We read the book Encounter by Jane Yolen that puts the reader in the shoes of a young Taino boy. The Taino tribe was the tribe that welcomed Columbus and his crew to the new world. We also read the author’s note from Jane Yolen about what happened to the Taino tribe and culture. Students completed a Prediction activity on this topic.
-Reading, discussing and completing activities from Scholastic News Magazine that cover current events in the USA and around the world.
-Working on a special Art Character Project based on our Character Book Study.
10/2
Writing
-Listening to the mentor text Aunt Flossie’s Hats and Crab Cakes Later by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard and writing a small moment about a hat that we have and a special moment tied to it.
-Transition Words. We went over Transition Words to show time, show location, to compare, to contrast, to add information, to emphasize an idea and to conclude or summarize.
-Understanding what transition words are and working on shared writing entries to add transition words to make the writing better
-Transition Words are used to show time, location, to compare, to contrast, to add information, to emphasize an idea, and to conclude or summarize. Students have a resource page with transition words in their Writing Folders.
-Students looked over their journal entries and added transition words to their own writing to make it better.
-Quickwrite
-Understanding Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives
-Listening to the mentor text, Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and finding the rich words and phrases and drawing a picture of what we see
-Adding rich words and phrases to our own writing
Math
-Problem Solving
-Finding and applying patterns
-Division
-Multiplication and practicing
-Playing “Multiples” Game. Students have games available for the multiplication tables from 2-12 to choose from.
-Using Dreambox and Xtra Math
Reading/Fundations
-Working on our Reading Fluency
-tch or ch
/ch/ can be spelled two different ways. Use tch at the end of a word after a short vowel. Use ch when it follows a two-letter vowel or consonant.
-cursive letter h
-Using Epicto read books and listen to audio books
-Starting our Character Unit of Study with the book Because of Winn Dixie by Katie DiCamillo
-Students picked out Just Right chapter books on Friday to read that they will be using during our Character Unit of Study. This book’s character is one that they will portray and dress up as (if they want to dress up) on Character Day on 10/31. A notice about Character Day is going home in backpack mail today.
Topic Time
-Continuing with our Government unit
-Current Events
-Social Emotional Learning
Technology class with Mrs. Finley.
We also had our first Guidance lesson with Mrs. Turner. As a class we built our classroom toolbox for our Zones of Feelings.
9/25
Writing
-Writing Complete Sentences
-Finding juicy words for our writing. Instead of using “nice”, use “considerate”.
-Personal Narrative writing
-Using the 5 W’s and 1 H to our writing.
-Who?
-What?
-When?
-Where?
-Why?
-How?
-Using our 5 senses to help paint the picture in our writing
-Using our resources to help with spelling
-Enjoying some creative writing time
Math
-Using Dreambox technology in the classroom
-Using xtramath to help with our fact fluency
-Understanding Multiplication and Division of Whole Numbers
-Arrays and Multiplication
-The Commutative Property- This property states that you can multiply numbers in any order and the product is the same.
Examples: 5x2=10 and 2x5=10, 3x6=6x3
-When you multiply a number by 2 you are doubling the number
-Division as Sharing
-Division as Repeated Subtraction
Reading/Fundations
-Closed syllable concept
-Closed syllables have one vowel, the vowel is followed by one or more consonants (closed in), and the vowel sound is short. Some examples include: cup, whip, last.
-Reviewing the sounds of the alphabet
-What is a vowel?
-What is a consonant?
-What is a syllable?
-Cursive letters l and e
-Completing our first read-aloud, Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
-Using our Reading Comprehension strategies in our shared and independent reading
-Monitoring for meaning in our independent reading
-Retelling and identifying elements of fiction in our shared and independent reading
Topic Time
-Celebrating Constitution Day
-What is the Constitution?
-Why is the Constitution important to the citizens of the United States of America?
-Launching our Government unit
-What are the Bill of Rights?
-Scholastic News
-Weather
-Incorporating some Spanish words in our GoNoodle movement breaks!
9/18
Students are off to a great start to the 2023-2024 school year! We have been taking time to establish routines and procedures across the curriculum and the classroom.
Writing
-Launching Writing Workshop
-Using the Mentor Text, Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills to remember we are all authors!
-Sharing where we find and draw inspiration from for our writing and creating our own Passion Heart that shows through pictures and words what we are passionate about.
-Focusing on our first unit of writing-Personal Narratives
-Enjoying some free writing time of our choice
Math
-Taking time to review place value and reading large numbers
-Understanding what the value is of a digit in a number. For example in 2,486, the value of 4 is 4 hundreds or 400.
- Understand Multiplication and Division of Whole Numbers
-Multiplication as repeated addition
-Multiplication on the number line
-Arrays and Multiplication
-Playing Math Games
-Practicing our math facts
-Learning about Bossy 0 in Multiplication. Any # times 0 equals 0.
-Learning about the Number 1 as a mirror. Any # times 1 is that number.
Reading
-Launching Reading Workshop
-Understanding what a “Just Right Book” is and why it is important to pick a book that is just right for you! Reading should be FUN!
-Understanding that reading is not just being able to read the words, but also understanding what you are reading.
-Building our Reading Stamina after summer vacation
-Understanding the different genres of reading and what they are.
-Working on Elements of Fiction whole class with our shared read-aloud, Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
Topic Time
-Establishing what a classroom community looks like
-Creating our Classroom Rules together
-Creating our Goals for the 2023-2024 school year
-Creating our All About Me Posters
-Sharing our Summer Shares with each other
-Leading Morning Meetings and participating in Show and Tell
-Reading and discussing Scholastic News and current events that are happening in the USA and around the world
-Practicing our Breathing and understanding why Breathing is so important!
-Learning breathing strategies we can use to help calm our minds and our bodies. One example is breathing in as you smell a flower, and breathing out when you blow out a candle.
-Enjoying some extra recess time while the weather is cooperating
-Having a wonderful time hosting Book Buddies with Mrs. McMullen’s first grade class.
-Participating in a fun math lesson with Mrs. Giles
-Moving our bodies in GoNoodle movement breaks. Your children love to dance!