Weekly Update

Reading Workshop:
In our nonfiction unit this week, students reviewed the different text structures they've learned so far: descriptive, sequential, comparison, and cause & effect.  On Tuesday, students were given different articles to read and had to determine the text structure based on what they've learned about how different text structures are organized.  Later in the week, students learned how to teach others about what they read by revisiting the main idea/detail hand concept (see photos below).  They read different books from Storia on the iPad and met with their partners to teach each other what they learned from the text.

Writing Workshop:

Students are continuing to work on their expert reports.  They are currently writing descriptive paragraphs for each subtopic in their 4 chapters.  They learned the concept of "add-on sentences" to help them provide more details about each subtopic.

Math:

We continued work in Unit 5 this week.  Students were introduced to the concept of comparison bars. Students used these bars to organize the information in a comparison word story.  The larger amount goes in the large rectangle, the smaller amount goes in the smaller rectangle, and the comparison (more or fewer/less) goes in the circle.  A question mark is put in the box that students are trying to solve.  This graphic organizer helps students see the numbers as a fact family and then determine whether they need to add or subtract. The photos below show how a student would draw the comparison bars for two different comparison word stories.

Cursive Handwriting:

All 3rd grade students in Troy are introduced to cursive handwriting.  We teach the students one letter at a time.  We focus on the correct formation of the letters and how the letters connect to one another.  Students are currently learning the lowercase letters.

Social Studies:
We continued our travels in the Midwest Region this week with tour stops at Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Soo Locks in Michigan.  Students watch You Tube videos about how Mount Rushmore was created and how the Soo Locks work.  They even got to see a boat being raised up from Lake Huron to Lake Superior as it went through one of the locks.  Students continue to write travel journals for each tour stop as they travel.

Class Store:
The class store was open on Wednesday!  Students enjoyed spending their hard-earned All-Star cash on some of the new items at the store!

St. Patrick's Day:
Even though St. Patrick's Day at school was a Husky Team Day on which students were asked to wear their yellow class t-shirts, we made sure to still add some green to the festive day.  Students enjoyed green bagels for breakfast in the morning!

All-Star of the Week:
Amir was our awesome All-Star this week!  He loved sharing special items from his sharing sack and telling the class about his family photos!  The class was amazed to see him doing flips and jumping off a high diving board!  His dad wrote a very special letter about Amir to the class, which he absolutely loved.  He also enjoyed a yummy McDonald's lunch with his mom on Lunch Buddy Day!

Fire Safety:
Students had their final fire safety session on Thursday.  After a short lesson in class, students practiced proper evacuation during a smoke house simulation.

Mystery Readers:
The students continue to absolutely LOVE having mystery readers in our classroom!  Check out the photos below to see who visited this week!  Please let us know if you'd still like to visit our classroom as a Mystery Reader during the month of March!

Zavier's mom read The Night I Followed the Dog on Monday afternoon.

On Tuesday morning, Emma C.'s dad read a nonfiction Fly Guy book.  The class learned a lot about sharks!!

On Wednesday morning, Miruna's mom read a book called The Little House.  It was one of Miruna's favorite books growing up!

On Wednesday afternoon, Reed's great Uncle Darrell told the class the Greek story of Icarus. 

Uncle Darrell builds model planes and enters them in contests.  He showed the class some of the planes he has built!

He also created paper airplanes for each student and taught them how to fly the planes. 

Ava's paper airplane went the furthest, so she was given a special model airplane to take home!

Alaina's mom read The Story of Little Babaji on Friday morning.

Megan's mom wore her pajamas on Cozy Read-In Day and read Bearsie Bear and the Surprise  Sleepover Party on Friday afternoon!

Weekly Update

Reading Workshop:
Students are really enjoying our informational unit in reading workshop.  At the beginning of this week, students learned strategies for determining the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary words by using context clues.  They were also introduced to the idea of text structure.  Not all nonfiction texts are organized in the same way.  They read books organized in a descriptive text structure, a sequential text structure, and a comparison text structure.  We are lucky to have a subscription to Scholastic's Storia School Edition where students have access to a variety of awesome texts.  For our lessons, we created book collections for the different text structures.  Students can access Storia at school or at home.

Students read a descriptive text and organized the information that they read using a descriptive web.

Students worked with a a partner to read a book from the "Who Would Win?" series in Storia. After reading the text, they completed a Venn Diagram to compare the two animals.

Writing Workshop:
Students are continuing to plan and now draft their expert reports.  Students had already brainstormed subtopics to support their chosen topic.  This week those subtopics became chapter titles as students began writing a rough draft of their report.  They learned to write an introduction and revisited the concept of a topic sentence.  They are now writing information about each subtopic as a separate chapter.

Math:
Students took the Unit 4 math test in class last week.  It will be coming home this week for you to review.  At the end of the week, we started Unit 5: Writing Equations to Solve Word Problems.  Lessons will focus on solving word problems with unknown addends and unknown factors.

Social Studies:
We have begun our tour of the Midwest Region!  So far, students have visited St. Louis, Missouri, the farm state of Iowa, and Dodge City, Kansas.  In Dodge City, students dressed up like cowboys/girls and learned about cattle drives.

All-Star of the Week:
Ava has been looking so forward to her special week, and it did not disappoint!  The class loved seeing her special medal and trophy that she brought in her sharing sack as well as some awesome photos of her family and herself as a baby.  On Tuesday, she read aloud her favorite book "If you Give a Pig a Pancake."  On Wednesday her parents joined her in the cafeteria and brought her favorite meatball sandwich from Subway!

Mystery Readers
It's been SO fun having Mystery Readers in our classroom!  If you would still like to be a mystery reader during the month of March, just send us an email so that we can let you know what dates and times are still available.

Adam's Mom came dressed as a pirate!

Jaxon's mom read a Fly Guy book.

Megan's grandma read a Tacky the Penguin book.

Elexis's grandma read Dad's Bald Head.

Mahee's Mom visited on Friday.

March is Reading Month:
Our class read so many minutes during the first week of March that we are currently in first place.  If you have been in Celebration Hall lately, you'll see that our balloon is flying the highest!  On Friday, students had the exciting opportunity to read a favorite picture book to our preschool buddies (see photos below).  Don't forget, next Friday, March 20th is Cozy Read-in Day.  Students can wear their P.J.'s to school!