Weekly Update

Reading Workshop
Students were introduced to the reading genre, mystery.  They began the unit brainstorming what they know about the mystery genre and played an "eye witness" game to test out their detective skills.  Students spent two days learning important mystery vocabulary words and played a mystery match game to pair the new vocabulary words with their matching definitions.  Each detective received their Detective Case File and mystery chapter book.  Students worked together in their Detective Clubs to make predictions before reading.  They read the title, looked at the picture on the cover, read the Table of Contents, and read the back cover of the book to help them make predictions.  They also received their first assignment and began reading their mystery chapter book.

Writing Workshop
We began our next writing unit--Personal Essays.  To begin this unit, students are immersed in reading and understanding personal essays before they begin to write their own essay.  Students learned personal essays have a "Big Idea" or theme.  The essays we read aloud in class had themes, such as: Reach to do the Impossible, People Who Help Others in Little Ways are Heroes, Don't be in a Rush to Grow Up, and Give People a Chance.  Students also learned writers support big ideas from stories with evidence from their own lives.  They tried to think of moments in their lives that matched the themes from the essays we read aloud.  These moments will be saved for possible essay ideas.  Examples of student work are below.

Math
We started our Measurement Unit by discussing Customary Units of Length and Capacity. We reviewed how to measure objects with a ruler to the nearest 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch.  We also learned how to create a line plot using a set of data.  Then we answered and asked questions about the data by reading the line plot.  Students also solved capacity word problems.  Your child should be able to name the units of liquid volume from largest to smallest--gallon, quart, pint, and cup.  We also discussed the fluid ounce, which is actually the smallest unit of liquid volume.  We learned there are 8 fluid ounces in 1 cup.

Science
Our next science unit, Light and Heat, is under way.  Students have sorted pictures of light sources versus non light sources.  They learned the moon is not actually a light source--many were surprised by this fact.  They also discovered light travels in a straight path through an investigation with a flashlight and index cards.  Knowing that light travels in a a straight path, helped students understand shadows. (If the sun is behind you, your shadow will be in front of you.)  They also had fun creating shadow puppets in class.

All-Star of the Week
Brayden was our awesome All-Star last week!  He enjoyed a special lunch with his dad on Thursday.  The class loved to hear about his great dance moves in his parent letter.  They begged him the rest of the week to show off his "Michael Jackson moves."  We also enjoyed Brayden's "Look and Find" read aloud, his adorable baby pictures, and his special items from his sharing sack.  Our All-Star even showed off his new glasses!  We think he looks great wearing them!

Other Happenings from the Week
A local chapter of Kiwanis Club visited Hill to deliver and donate a dictionary to each third grade student.  Students were astonished to learn the longest word in the English language is over 1,000 letters long!  Thank you Kiwanis for our new dictionaries!!

The highlight of the week was the iPad Roll Out Day!  Students were so excited to finally receive their iPads!  Last week a separate email was sent out with more details about the iPads.  So far students have learned how to create "Math Talk" videos using Educreations, log-in to Raz-Kids and Storia to read books, log-in to Xtra Math to practice math facts, and send emails from their Troy Google address!  You will receive more communication about the iPads as we share how we are using them in the classroom.  There were A LOT more pictures of the actual Roll Out Day, but I don't know what happened to them ;-(

Weekly Update

Reading Workshop:
We finished up our unit on Bringing Characters to Life and also finished our class read aloud, Because of Winn Dixie.  As a culmination of our novel and to reflect on the characters in the story, students completed a visible thinking activity that we call The 4 C's.   The 4 C's are explained below along with examples of student work.

Connections: What connections can you make between the text and your own life?

Concepts: What big ideas or lessons did you learn from the text or from the characters in the text?

Challenges: Choose a characters in the text and describe the challenges he or she had to overcome in the story.

Changes: Choose a character in the story and explain how his or her attitude, thinking, or actions changed during the course of the story.

Writing Workshop:
Students continued drafting their stories this week while focusing on tools to help make their stories sound more like a "movie in their mind."  We revisited a variety of writing tools including using effective dialogue and choosing strong verbs.  However, our main lessons focused on a concept called, "Show, Don't Tell."  We want students to SHOW emotions in their stories, not just TELL us how they are feeling.

TELLING  The curtain was about to open, and I would be on stage. I was so nervous.

SHOWING: The curtain was about to open, and I would be on stage.  My palms were sweating, and my knees were shaking.  The butterflies in my stomach felt like they were doing gymnastics.  I tried to speak, but nothing came out.

Students enjoy sharing their "Show, Don't Tell" examples in our Author's Chair!

Math:
We finished unit 2 in math.  As you know, this was a challenging unit as we introduced 2-step story problems and order of operations.  We spent a great deal of time in class reviewing all concepts learned in this unit, and students took the final test on Friday.  The corrected test will come home this week.


Social Studies:
We continued our Northeast region tour this week with a 2-day stop in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  After learning about the Pilgrim's voyage to America, students pretended to be actual Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower who had to make to make a decision about what type of government they thought would work best in their colony.  Students were given 4 options (below) and did a chalk talk to express their opinions about each option with their classmates.  After the chalk talk, students learned about the Mayflower Compact in which the pilgrims created an early form of democracy.  Click HERE to watch more videos about Pilgrim life and the Plymouth Plantation.

Option #1: Rule by 1 Wise Man

Option #2: Rule by 5 Smart People

Option #3: Rule by Adult Makes Only

Option #4: Rule by People Over Age 10

These 4 scenarios were glued to the middle of the chalk talks.

Students silently "debated" and discussed their opinions using different color markers. 

We hang chalk talks in our classroom as a way to remember our thinking.

There is no talking during a chalk talk, just writing.

Weekly Update

Reading Workshop:
We are finishing up our "Bringing Characters to Life" unit by focusing on character change.  We continue to use Because of Winn Dixie as our mentor text to study characters whose struggles have led them to change in some way or another during the course of the book.  Students are also using their own books that they are reading to think more deeply about how those characters are growing and changing as well.  We also revisited The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane to reflect on how Edward's character changed during the story.  Students used the sheet below to record their thoughts.

Writing Workshop:
Students finished the Story Mountains that they created last week and began a first draft of the story that they planned out.  We reviewed how to start with a strong lead and will review other strategies that make narrative stories more exciting.  As students draft, they are using the checklist below as a guide to make sure that they include all of the writing tools we have taught them so far.

Students use this checklist as a guide so that they know what to include and what we will be looking for when we assess their stories.

Math:
We are at the end of Unit 2.  This week's lessons introduced students to what we call "order of operations" and 2-step story problems.  Students learned that when a problem includes more than one type of operation (+, -, x, /), there is an order of operations to follow when solving the problem.

Order of Operations Rules

1. Solve problems in parentheses first.

2. Solve multiplication and division BEFORE solving addition or subtraction.

Example #1:  7 + 3 x 4 = ?
In this problem, students should solve 3 x 4 =12 first and then add 7 + 12 = 19

Example #2: (4 - 2) x 5 = ?
In this problem, students should solve 4 - 2 = 2 first and then multiply 2 x 5 = 10

We then solved story problems in which there were 2 steps.  Students were asked to write equations with more than one operation to show the 2 steps that they completed to solve the problem.  This is challenging for students, so we spent multiple days on this skill.  Below is an example of a 2-step story problem and the multiple operation equation that was used to solve it.

Example of 2-Step Story Problem with Equation

Social Studies
We began our tour of the Northeast Region last week, and we are having a great time! We have made stops in West Quoddy Head, Maine, and Mount Washington in New Hampshire.  Our next stop will be in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Students sit in a train formation with conductors leading the way as we begin our journey through the Northeast region!

Students follow along in the textbook as we listen to our "tour guide" on an audio CD. 

Students write travel journals after they visit each tour stop and also include a drawing of a sight that they "saw."

RED RIBBON WEEK

Hill school celebrated Red Ribbon Week in school with fun spirit days to help students demonstrate their desire to be healthy and drug-free!

Monday: Sock it to Drugs (Crazy Sock Day)

Tuesday: "I Dream of a World Without Drugs" (Pajama Day)

Wednesday: "Team up Against  Drugs" (Husky Team Shirt Day)

Thursday: "Being Drug-Free is No Sweat!" (Sweatshirt Day)

Friday: Red Ribbon Day (Wear Red)

Fire Safety

Students enjoyed their first of 3 sessions they will have this year on fire safety!

All-Star of the Week

Pearl was our awesome All-Star this week!  She shared a special doll (among other things) in her sharing sack and loved reading aloud her favorite book to the class.  She gave detailed descriptions of the photos that she brought, which helped us learn more about her family.  On Thursday, she enjoyed a special visit from her lunch buddies!