Weekly Update

Happy Valentine's Day!
Students enjoyed passing out their Valentines Friday afternoon.  Once they were done passing out their cards, they spent time looking through the goodies in their boxes.

Research Workshop
Students spent time this week turing their notes into paragraphs.  They've written a topic sentence, 3-4 supporting details, and a closing sentence.  They have a total of 6 paragraphs to write about their country.  Paragraphs are written about a variety of topics, including: sports, food, clothing, school, holidays, houses, land and more!  Students who have finished writing the rough drafts of their reports are beginning a Keynote presentation about their country using an iPad.

Math Workshop
We continued our place value unit this week.  We focused on rounding to the nearest ten and hundred and practiced estimating sums and differences.  We also learned how to solve three digit addition problems in three different ways.  After students solved the addition problems using one of the numerical methods, they were required to prove their answer through a proof drawing.  Below are pictures of the three numerical methods for multidigit addition and a picture of Gloria and her proof drawing.

Science
We began our new unit, Structures of Life.  Last week we investigated several different fruits, including: ugli fruit, Chinese and Indian bitter melon, starfruit, horned melon, winter melon, tomatoes, peppers, kiwi, and apples.  We opened the fruits up to take a closer look at the properties of seeds.  We counted the number of seeds in each fruit and discussed the following properties: texture, size and color.  This week we learned about hydroponics.  We "planted" four different types of seeds in sprouters.  We hope to grow the seeds using only water.

All-Star of the Week
Brock was our class All-Star this week.  The class enjoyed his sharing sack items and read aloud.  We also enjoyed hearing his wonderful parent letter.  We were surprised to learn Brock can dance, but we couldn't get him to dance in class for us!  Brock's mom was his special lunch buddy on Thursday.

Weekly Update

Research Workshop:

Students spent the entire week finishing up their notes on the 6 different topics they chose to research for their country report.  They used the sticky notes they had previously inserted into their country books to locate information.  Lessons were taught about paraphrasing (not copying exactly) the information in the text, but this is certainly a difficult concept for 3rd graders who are embarking on their first major research project.  At the end of the week, students began writing topic sentences for the paragraphs they will compose this week using the fact fragments in their notes.

Math:
We began Unit 4 this week: Multi-Digit Addition and Subtraction.  The first lessons focused on place value review.  Students worked on building numbers with their "Secret Code" cards.  (See picture below) and solving word problems with place value.  Next week we will practice rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and nearest 100.

Here is a look at the "Secret Code" cards and how we used them in class.

Social Studies:
We made some exciting stops this week on our Southeast Region Tour!  We jumped aboard a riverboat and traveled down the Mississippi River to visit Memphis TN.  We then chugged out to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico before heading to New Orleans, Louisiana.  In New Orleans, we learned about Hurricane Katrina and had a mini Mardi Gras celebration.

All aboard the Natchez Steamboat for our trip down the Mississippi!

Students wore beads and masks to take part in the festivities.

We listened to 4 different types of music famous in the south: Dixieland Jazz, the Memphis Blues, Cajun Music, and Kentucky Bluegrass.

As students listened to each type of music, we played, "Name that Musical Style."  They tried to hear the different instruments to determine the type of musical style.  

Cajun Music!!

Abby thinks she hears Cajun Music!

We made traditional King Cakes for our celebration!

Nanthana, Emma, Alex, and Allison helped frost the King Cakes.

Purple, yellow, and green sprinkles were added, the official colors of Mardi Gras.

Time to eat!

Jack is ready to eat!

Alina and Abigail were the lucky students who found a prize in their piece of king cake.  They will have good luck all year!!

Alex was especially excited about this tour stop because her parents lived in New Orleans!

Grace writes a travel journal to tell what she learned during the tour stop.

All-Star of the Week:
Nanthana was our Star of the Week!  We loved seeing her photos and listening to her read aloud her favorite book, Wise Up, Silly Owl.  Her parents created a very special book with heartfelt poems about Nanthana.  The class loved hearing them read aloud.  Below is a photo of Nanthana with her lunch buddies!

Weekly Update

As a teacher, it is moments like the picture below that melt my heart.  Devon and Zain listened intently to Orlando read aloud about spiders from a magazine.  It's so fun to be in the middle of our nonfiction unit.  Students' minds are like sponges, and they love to learn all of the interesting facts and details they are reading about!

Research Workshop
Students continued their country research this week.  They began taking notes on each of their subtopic webs.  Each day they are learning a new strategy for taking notes.  We focused on taking notes as fact fragments versus writing complete sentences.  This has proven to be a bit tricky for students, but we will continue working on it.  We also discussed the difference between an important fact versus an interesting detail.  Although interesting details can be facts as well, we want students to only take notes on the most important facts about their subtopics.  Students learned they can use text features, such as captions, to take notes as well.  Soon all of their hard work taking notes will be turned into complete thoughts as they write paragraphs about each topic.

Math Workshop
We wrapped up Unit 3 this week.  The unit test covered the various skills which were taught throughout the unit, including: reading and creating a bar graph, telling time, measurement, and elapsed time.  The test will go home on Monday.  Please take some time to go over the test with your child and work on correcting any problems he/she may have missed.  Elapsed time word problems were by far the trickiest concept from this unit.  We hope to revisit this skill again this year.  If you notice your child is struggling with it a bit, please work on it at home as well.  

Science
We also finished up our Light & Heat unit.  Students learned many new concepts from this unit through different investigations in class.  Your child should be able to give you a few examples of light sources and tell you light travels in a straight path.  He/she should also understand light bends, or refracts, when it travels from air to water.  During one of our last investigations, students discovered ice melts faster in your hands versus a plastic cup because your hands provide heat energy.  We will begin our next science unit this week.

All-Star of the Week
Students wrote the nicest compliments to Emma on Friday!  They loved the items from her sharing sack and her read aloud, Duck! Rabbit!  We're still wondering if it was a duck or a rabbit...cute story!  Emma also enjoyed two very special letters from her mom and dad!  Below is a picture of our All-Star with her lunch buddies; her mom and grandma brought her sushi!

Weekly Update

 Research Workshop:
We started country research this week, so we are now combining reading and writing workshop into research workshop.  We will do research workshop 2 times during the school day.  Students were so excited to pick their countries and get the library books they will be using for their research!  They created webs to determine the 6 main topics they want to research about their country.  Sample topics included food, clothing, housing, holidays and festivals, school, animals, etc.  Using the table of contents and the index in their books, students placed sticky notes on the pages in their books that included information about their topics.  This task was in preparation for the notes they will begin taking this week.

Math Workshop:
We began the week doing more lessons on elapsed time number stories.  This is a challenging concept for students, so we have been spending extra time doing these types of problems together in class.  Students also began lessons on graphing.  They studied bar graphs and pictographs to interpret information and answer story problems using the graphs.

Social Studies:
We are currently on a region tour of the Southeast that we began right after winter break.  We started our journey in Florida with tour stops at Everglades National Park, JFK Space Center, Disney World, and we are now in Jamestown, VA.

We started our tour on a fishing trawler!

We headed to the Florida Everglades and took an airboat ride to see the many birds and animals.

Our tables were our pretend boats!

We had a "Disney Day" in Orlando, Florida!

Students brought in Disney souvenirs and displayed them on their desks.

Students walked around our "Disney Museum" to check out each other's souvenirs.

Emma gets her sailor cap back on to travel to the JFK Space Center!

Students write travel journals after visiting each tour stop.

Weekly Update

Reading Workhosp:
We began our Informational Unit.  Students reviewed the following nonfiction text features: table of contents, photograph, caption, index, glossary, heading, and subheading.  We spent time locating these text features in various informational texts and discussing the purpose of each one.  Students also learned how to infer unfamiliar words within informational texts.  They practiced inferring unfamiliar words using sentence clues and by reading ahead.  Students also listened to a read aloud of a biography about Martin Luther King, Jr and learned how to complete a timeline.  Then they were assigned a picture book biography of their own and completed a timeline.

Math Workshop:
The second half of our measurement unit has focused on telling time.  We have learned to tell time to the minute and 5 minute interval.  Students have also practiced solving several elapsed time word problems.  The elapsed time word problems are tricky for many students.  We will continue to practice elapsed time in class.

Science:
Students enjoyed visiting the Michigan Science Center.  Our field trip started with a show called "What's Up?" in the Planetarium.  We also caught a show in the DTE Sparks Theater where Allison had a "hair raising" experience and Devon became a Jedi for a moment.  In the Toyota 4D Theater we went for a "ride" and got a little wet as we learned more about engineers.  We also learned more about the states of matter during a hands-on experiment with "pink slime."  Students also had a lot of time to explore the many exhibits throughout the center.



All-Star of the Week:
Stephanie was our All-Star this week.  She shared her favorite book, Goodnight Moon, and several photos with the class.  She also enjoyed a special lunch from Subway with her mom on Friday.  Students wrote many nice things about Stephanie in her compliment card booklet.