The Final 3 - Shape Town, Narrative Writing, & Explorer Research & Book Creator: The classroom looks very different now than it did a week ago. The table configurations are now set for tables of 1 and one table for 2. The tables are equipped with individual supplies gathered by the students prepared to complete their projects. The students have realized that with freedom comes responsibility. They have risen to the challenge of completing their 3 final projects independently. As they do so, the classroom hums with the sound of clicking buttons, scratching pencils, and inquisitive children. Literacy- Writer's Workshop: This week, as the students continued developing their narrative writing, they took a pause to gather feedback from their writing partners. Each student took a role of either editor or author and asked questions, complimented, and offered advice for how to improve the story. This is one necessary step in the writing process that will give them recommendations for revising their story. Maths: Along with finishing off shape town, the students have been studying counting patterns. The students demonstrated a wealth of knowledge with the 9's patterns as they showed a variety of strategies for how to find solutions when multiplying by 9. See what your child remembers and have them show and explain the strategy! Problem Solving Friday: Well, it may be the last of the problem solving on a Friday. The students have decided they are just too tired to do problem solving at the end of the week. After a short discussion, it has been agreed that problem solving should be moved to a new date and time, earlier in the week. The students are becoming increasingly more independent in their ability to choose appropriate strategies and solve accurately for the given problems. Today, they had to draw a diagram to solve a time measurement problem. Thank You!!!!!!: A huge thank you to all the parents who came out and helped decorate the hallways outside the Grade 3 classrooms. We appreciate your time, effort and creativity. Have a lovely weekend!
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As we head into the final stretch of the 1st term of school, the students have been encouraged to finish strong. Over the next two weeks of school, before the winter break, the students will have time to work independently each day. They have mapped out timetables for themselves on how they want to complete their 3 final projects for this calendar year: shape town, narrative story writing, & UOI research on an explorer. The students will move at their own pace within their self-organized timetable. They have clearly articulated checklists, rubrics, and resources to guide them on their journey towards completion. Assembly: Last weeks assembly was a buddy reading between elementary classes. This is the second buddy reading we have had. The first time around, grade 3 students read to grade 1 students. However, this time, the grade 1 students came to read to grade 3. It was lovely to see the grade 3 students coaching the new readers and challenging them to think about the text by asking questions. UOI: This week, the students have had a chance to preview a variety of explorers in order to choose one that most interests them to research further. They each conducted a brief bio of an explorer that was shared with the class and placed on the explorer timeline. Additionally, they watched a video on European Explorers to get a more complete picture of why and where they explored. Now that they have chosen an explorer, and located resources to research, they will begin their collection of information next week. Maths: The students are continuing in developing their multiplication facts. The students have made notable development on their basic maths facts check sheets. They have been graphing each one to show their growth over time. Many students made an observable leap in their score on the last check. They have been dedicated to practicing their math facts during our rotation time choosing activities and operations that are suited to their personal goals. Shape Town madness has taken over grade 3!!!! The students are so motivated and excited to build this town. They have decided to each create an individual section of town that will be placed together to create one big town. It took many lively discussions, but the town planning is complete and the architectural drawings have commenced. It has been a challenge for many students to draw from a "birds eye perspective". However, after many failed attempts, the students are beginning to soar. Once the town is complete they will place a grid with coordinates over top and create a master legend/key to finalize the project. Literacy: Narrative writing is a complex task with many overlapping elements that require a great deal of skill and intention. Over the last several weeks, the students have been learning about all these elements and have begun crafting their own stories. They will continue crafting over the next two weeks and see their stories to completion through the writing process. Many students have chosen their seed ideas, planned the plot, and started on a first draft. They will meet with a writing partner to receive feedback, revise and edit, and finally, create a published piece.
UOI & Literacy: In the upcoming week, students will learn the research skill of how to skim and scan a text to find essential information to specific questions. They will take their background knowledge of informational text features as a launching point for both their research and e-book creation. Additionally, they will now start basic citing of sources for their written information and web images. UOI: As the students delve further into the UOI, they are beginning to make connections between the ways maps have changed over time, and particular ages of exploration. Today, the students were able to identify a group of explorers that navigated various parts of the world by ships. When they added these explorers to the time line, they realized it was an "age of exploration". The maps provided evidence of the lands discovered. The students will begin relying on their previously learned skills in how to use informational text features to research. They will also learn ways to skim and scan a text to begin uncovering and recording information about an explorer of their choosing. ,Math & UOI: As part of the UOI, the students have been looking at mapping skills. Here are the skills they have been working on developing: - how to identify various locations on a map using a compass rose - how to use coordinates on a map to find specific locations or points of interest - how to identify various items on a map using the key legend and symbols - understand that symbols represents an object or location and has meaning - how to find maps in an atlas using the tables of contents - how to read mapping instructions and understand what they are looking for I think they are ready for an adventure!!!!! Math: The children are beginning to see patterns and connections with multiplication and division. They continued working on fact families and learned about "boss" numbers. To further see the connection, they practiced with "Back to the Start". Ask them about it and see if they can explain how it works. The children discussed and reviewed all the strategies they know how to use when solving multiplication problems. They will continue to use these as we work through multiplication. Here are some examples: arrays, repeated addition, equations, skip counting, & grouping. Literacy: The students are becoming more independent in their ability to decode unknown vocabulary words. During guided reading, they self identified unknown words, recorded them, and found ways to understand the meaning. Here are some things they tried: ask a table mate and talk about it, re-read the sentence and try to look for clues (e.g. is the word a proper noun, is it a city or country?), use a dictionary, or use an atlas to find the location of a particular place or route to better understand the context of the sentence. Although it took a bit of time and effort, the students are finding it is well worth it to understand what they are reading. They are also learning how to become more independent in their searches. We have fully launched into Word Study. After some introductions on routines, the students are now adding Word Study to their Daily 5 literacy rotation. Much like guided reading, word study is designed to meet the needs of your child at their level. The groupings are based on assessment data that will continually be re-administered and evaluated to be sure the students are working in their developmental zone. Word study is used to help children recognize and use both sound and spelling patterns, as well as, develop word meaning and usage. ![]() ICT & Other Stuff: G3 has a dedicated time slot once a week to work on their Weebly blogs. Returning students have been able to jump right in updating and adding new posts. They have also been kind enough to share their knowledge with the new students and assist them setting up and designing their blogs. All students have been introduced to the Weebly app and are beginning to use that as tool to add posts and write reflections. Genius Hour: Last Friday, the students cashed in on their collective achievement of filling the marble jar. Each day the class works together to transition in a timely manner. They are urged to assist each other in staying on task and show a caring attitude by helping one another. This is all done in an agreed upon amount of time. If they meet their time goal, they earn a marble. However, if they don't, we quickly reflect on what can be done next time to achieve the time goal. This process begun at the start of the school year and the jar was filled last week. They discussed options for their celebration and "genius hour" was chosen where they could design and build something of their choosing. It was simply amazing and delightful to watch their creativity flow. They were all so engaged. Many decided to work together to create "Jakebot", the classroom robot. Finally, a very Happy Birthday to Luciana & Nelson. We hope your special days were great! UOI: This week we had a guest speaker, Mr. Jensen. Mr. Jensen is a social studies teacher in the middle and high school. He engaged the students in a conversation to discuss the many reasons humans explore. They also got to watch an amazing video about zombie ants in the Amazon. The students also began looking at maps dating from 1030 to present day. Students observed and recorded ways maps have changed over time and thought about the reasons why. Literacy: Everyone knows that in order to grow a plant you must first plant a seed. The children thought about how stories they write are much the same. You start with one small moment and build a story filled with action, dialogue, thinking and emotion from there, and by the end you have a juicy watermelon story. In guided reading, students have begun to learn new words related to exploration. Additionally, they have begun to locate information in maps and diagrams, as well as, locate and record key information relating to a particular explorer. Maths: The children began using the compass rose to map out trails on a grid. They also began to identify coordinates on a map grid as well. Next week, they will have time to further practice these skills and create their own map that will culminate many mathematical skills they have been working on over the last few weeks.
The class discussed the commutative property in multiplication where the factors can be switched and the product will remain the same. For example, 7 x 5 = 5 x 7 because no matter which way you multiple the numbers you get an answer of 35. We further discussed that if this is true, we could write A x B = B x A to represent any factor combination. Fact families were used to show students the inverse relationship between multiplication and division. UOI: The "tuning in" activity for our new Unit of Inquiry was an Exploration Walk behind the school. The students were encouraged to discover their own natural curiosities by recording things they saw and heard on the walk. They also wrote down their own wonders/questions about the newly explored surroundings. These findings are displayed in the hallway between the Grade 3 classrooms. UOI: As the week progressed, the children had a chance to contemplate exploration in a few different ways. They used their prior knowledge to think about explorations and answer a few key questions: Why do people explore? How has exploration changed over time? & What are the effects or consequences of exploration? Some children found this challenging if they had limited prior knowledge on exploration. However, the children will complete this same task at the end of the unit to compare their learning over time. The students created their own mind maps to demonstrate their understanding of types of explorations. Here are a couple samples: LITERACY: This week Ms. Noye instructed our writer's workshop. She gave the students some amazing examples of how to make "outstanding openings" for their narrative writing pieces. The students were given a chance to practice writing openings with a partner and individually. Over the next several weeks, they will work to craft a writing piece using the narrative plot structure. Taking notes is a valuable skill that students will continue to refine over their years of schooling. The grade 3 students felt a real struggle and frustration note taking without teacher guidance or strategies. Once they realized this was intentional, they were both relieved and upset that I had let them suffer. However, they were given a Cornell form to use to take notes a second time. Strategies were discussed and the students walked away with an amazing page full of notes, main idea, and summary. Determining Importance will be a focus over the coming weeks both in reading and writing. This comprehension skill links closely with their ability to conduct effective research. Ask your child if they can explain the pasta/strainer analogy with determining the importance in a text. MATHS: Maths in our neighborhood, polygons, and more!!! The children had the challenging task of using pictures from everyday life (floors) to collectively come up with number sentences and word problems for their classmates to solve. Many students found it difficult to find just the right words to use when composing their word problems. It required collaboration from their classmates and some serious thinking. Some said their brains hurt afterwards.
Halloween: A big thanks to all the parents who helped with the Halloween decorating for outside the Grade 3 classrooms. The children and teachers thoroughly enjoyed the festive mood it brought to the halls. Also, a big thanks to those who contributed to the bake sale for the Halloween festivities. Your time and effort is greatly appreciated! UOI/Literacy: This week the children had a chance to extend & summarize their understanding around our unit on role models. Through their poster presentations, students explained their thinking around character traits of an individual, and how their choice of a role model reflects their own personal values. They extended their thinking during the weekly reflection where they also considered who or what shapes, or helps to determine, their beliefs and values. The students had one last opportunity to read and research an interesting person of their choosing. Once they read and planned, they created bio cubes to illustrate their findings. They had to research the following: time and place of birth, personal background, important events & challenges in the person's life, identify character traits based on actions, and famous quotes from that person. MATHS: The students extended their knowledge of transformation to repeating patterns and created transformation patterns this week. If you have a chance to see them, they are displayed outside the classroom door. The children also reviewed and extended their understanding of lines of symmetry and right angles. Ask your child if they remember how to recall the three different types of angles: right, acute, and obtuse.
Conferences: Thank you to all the parents that came to the conferences. It was beautiful to watch how confident and excited your children were to share their learning and goals. I hoped you enjoyed it and that the students feel a sense of ownership with their academic and social development. Maths: The children are becoming more confident with Problem Solving Fridays. Now that they understand the framework of questioning and are able to pull the key information for solving, they are become quicker at finding ways to work through and solve the problem. They have also begun to explain their thinking and teach others their chosen method for solving. The students had a chance to look at transformation of shapes: flip, rotate and slide. They will further demonstrate their understanding of geometric transformations next week when they create transformation patterns. Literacy: Much like last week, literacy has been intertwined with the UOI. As we read through biographies of amazing human beings, the children are encountering new words and ideas that they are finding both shocking and fascinating. Some of the words we have discussed are: segregation, racial prejudice, emancipation, determined, peaceful, persistent, and courageous. I encourage you to discuss these words with your children and find out the context in which they heard or read about them. Some of the literacy skills they have been developing are: asking thoughtful questions while reading a text (What do they wonder), making thoughtful predictions using their background knowledge (both individually and collectively) and lastly, identifying character traits of individuals based on their actions or words within the text. Grade 5 Interviews: The Grade 5 classes are exploring a unit on Conflict. They came to the Grade 3 classroom to gather information about conflicts and how to solve them. The Grade 3 students not only answered the questions, but in the words of the Grade 5 students were...."very mature and thoughtful in their responses". It was a fantastic way for the students to articulate their thoughts on how to resolve conflict in their everyday life at school. We have some amazing problem solvers in Grade 3.
A big thank you to the moms who came to decorate the hallway with festive Halloween/Fall decorations. The students in Grade 3, and beyond, are thoroughly enjoying them. ![]() MATHS: The students continued working with place value this week. They learned to use an abacus and discovered that when adding a bead to one particular place value it completely changed the number and value. Various other aspects of mathematics was practiced in our weekly MATHS rotation. This week the students were introduced to "Maths in our Neighborhood". Pictures are taken within our neighborhoods of everyday objects we see around us. Today's object was a park bench that had 4 seats and each seat had 8 wooden tiles. The students created number sentences and story problems using the picture as a starting point. It was fascinating how many different ways the problem could be written, stated, and solved. Literacy/UOI: The new UOI requires a great deal of reading and comprehension skills. The students have been collaborating and utilizing each others background knowledge to understand and construct meaning of new vocabulary words. They then use their understanding of those words to make thoughtful predictions of the unread text. This helps activate their minds and frame what it is they are about to read. Students have been watching and reading about a variety of interesting people from across time and place. Here are some of the individuals they have been learning about: Nick Vujicic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOzsjEmjjHsThe Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Ruby Bridges, J.K. Rowlings, & Bethany Hamilton. I also shared my role model, Maya Angelou. They have just begun to explore the questions: "What is a role model?" & "What are the characteristics of a role model?" They will continue to explore and uncover these ideas in the coming weeks. ICT: Well, it was an exciting week for ICT. The children created reflection videos about the successes and challenges they faced while making their informational book on forces. The students will use the documentation to add to their Weebly portfolios. The returning students have been assisting the new students in setting up their blogs. They are almost all ready to start posting away!!! There will be four categories students will showcase their work: Interesting, Challenging, Creative & Quality.
This has been a week of finishing off and new starts as we cross over from finishing one unit of inquiry to starting another. Literacy: The students completed their informational books on forces this week. They celebrated the completion by sharing their published pieces with the Grade 2 students. There were many proud faces and giggles of excitement upon the completion. A job well done! Maths: This week in mathematics the focus has been on place value: ordering up to the thousands, comparing using mathematical language and using number lines to find incremental values. We also began MATH rotations on Monday giving students time to practice their mathematical skills in a variety of different ways. M=math facts, A= at your seat, T= teacher time, H= hands on. Math facts is practicing skills related to the four operations. M= This week students practiced the mental maths addition strategy of take apart utilizing their place value understanding. A= students used tic tac toe spelling strategies to practice spelling place value words they identified as being challenging for them (e.g. thousand, million, ninety). T= this time was used for small group instruction on maths skills/concepts students find challenging. It allowed for extra guided practice time with teacher support. H= this was the favorite among the students this week. They used manipulates and games to practice a variety of maths skills. UOI: Central Idea: Choices of role models reflect the beliefs and values of individuals and societies. We have not yet discussed role models, but rather generated discussion around the understanding of beliefs and values. The students watched a very moving advertisement to start exploring these ideas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjnq5StX68g
The class has begun a chart to map their thinking around character traits, beliefs/values and actions of individuals that impact others. They have also begun to identify and create statements around their own beliefs and values. Please encourage your child to share what they have identified thus far. Have a lovely weekend! Happy Chuseok: A big thanks to the Korean teachers and all the parents that helped organize and run the school wide Chuseok event this morning. What a wonderful learning experience and opportunity to have some fun together. Maths: This week, students continued problem solving, practicing their time and mass measurement, and explored classroom numeracy games. UOI: The children had a chance to measure force using a Newton Meter. They measured vertically and horizontally to identify the various forces at work and how that affected the measured outcomes. The students also had conducted a Balloon Rocket Experiment to see if they could observe Newton's 3rd Law of Motion. This activity, while high on the fun list, was also a great way for opposing forces to come to life. (Please enjoy the videos below)
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AuthorWelcome to Grade 3 Green! I am Mrs. Deanna Wilson and I am excited for a wonderful year of learning ahead. Please feel free to contact me @ [email protected] Archives
May 2016
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