Weekly Update

Reading Workshop:
We are continuing to focus on ways nonfiction readers "read with power."  We began the week building on our main idea lessons from last week, but we took it a step further.  Students practiced finding the main idea of a section or chapter in their nonfiction books and then determined the details that supported the main idea.  We also reviewed strategies for determining the meaning of unfamiliar vocbulary words.  At the end of the week, students were introduced to 3 different text structures: descriptive, sequential, and comparison.  It is important for students to recognize that nonfiction text can be organized in different ways.

After determining the main idea, students used sticky notes to identify the supporting details.

They recorded the main idea and supporting details on this graphic organizer.

Students recorded unfamiliar words and marked HOW they determined the meaning.

Students identified sections of their books that were organized in a descriptive text structure and recorded the descriptive details they learned about the topic.

Writing Workshop:

Students officially chose a topic for their informational "expert" reports and determined 4 categories of information they knew about their topic.  Those categories became the chapters in their rough draft booklet.  After reading many examples of introductions in nonfiction books, students wrote their own introduction for their report.

Math:

After completing an "extended response" performance assessment for Unit 4 on Monday, we began Unit 5: Writing Equations to Solve Word Problems.  Students first reviewed the concept of math mountains (which are similar to fact triangles).  We then used related facts (fact families) to solve and write addition and subtraction equations.  Students also learned how to solve word problems with unknown addends and unknown factors.

Social Studies:

We began our tour of the Midwest last week!  So far, we have traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, the farm state of Iowa, Mount Rushmore, and Dodge City, Kansas.  In Dodge City, the students learned about cattle drives and even pretended to work at a cowboy employment agency.  They made "help wanted" posters to advertise the specific jobs that are needed on a cattle drive.

March is Reading Month Activities:

Students are having lots of fun with our March is Reading Month calendar activities.  They are also doing tons of reading.  In the first week, the class read a combined 3,700 minutes!  Keep up the awesome reading!

St. Patrick's Day: We ate green bagels and read limericks, a style of poetry that originated in Ireland.

I "Mustache" You to Read: Students wore silly mustaches while reading on Wednesday!

Mystery Readers:

We had our first Mystery Readers visit the classroom this week.  Let us know if you'd still like to come read!

Mrs. Cruz read a Patricia Polacco book on Monday.

Calin's sister read to the class on Friday.

All-Star of the Week:

Sameeksha was an awesome Star of the Week!  She brought very special things to share in her sharing sack including wonderful family photos.  Her parents wrote an incredibly thoughtful letter to the class telling us more about Sameeksha, and they even included some funny stories about her when she was younger.  She read one of our favorite books, The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, which was a perfect choice for reading month!  Her mom joined her in the cafeteria for Lunch Buddy Day on Wednesday.

Skate World Party:

It was so fun to see so many Room 13 All-Stars at the annual Hill School Skate World party on Wednesday!  A great time was had by all!

Weekly Update

Reading Workshop
We have started our Informational Units in both Reading and Writing Workshop.  In reading, students have learned to "preview, predict, and tap prior knowledge" before reading an informational text.  They have also learned how to pause and paraphrase.  When students use this strategy, they pause at the end of a paragraph, think about what they've read and paraphrase the information they recall in their own words.  Students also learned how to locate the main idea of a paragraph.  They practiced this strategy with their reading partner.  Students reread paragraphs from their assigned informational texts to locate the main idea of several different paragraphs.

Writing Workshop
In writing, students were asked to create a list of topics in which they feel they are an "expert."  After choosing a topic from their list, they began by writing as much as they knew about the topic.  Students were also taught to determine categories of information for their topics.  First, they told their writing partners the categories and corresponding information using their fingers.  Then, they wrote more about their topics in categories in their notebooks.

Techie Texts Day
Thank you so much for purchasing Scholastic books for your child this year!  We were able to purchase several nonfiction ebooks for the iPads using bonus points which we've earned from your orders.  Students enjoyed reading the ebooks on Friday!  They will have another opportunity to read the ebooks on Thursday during our computer lab time.

Math Workshop
We wrapped up Unit 4 this week.  We practiced multi-step word problems, corrected the unit reviews and took the Unit 4 test.  Look for your child's test in his/her homework folder tomorrow!

Science
The crayfish have finally arrived!  Students have been anxious to meet the crayfish since we started our Structures of Life Unit about a month ago!  Each table took a closer look at the crayfish and completed a "See, Think, Wonder" activity.  For example, students may have noticed the crayfish has 2 antennae (See); they may have thought the crayfish uses its antennae to smell (Think); they may have wondered if the crayfish uses its antennae to communicate (Wonder).  Small groups shared their thinking and wondering with one another.  This week we cleaned out the water the crayfish had been living in and fed them.  We have tried to separate the crayfish by size into two tubs, however, we have one crayfish who is quite a bit bigger than all the others.  Only a few brave students have tried to pick the big one up!  Maddie is holding it below.

All-Star of the Week

Alina was our amazing All-Star this week!  Her parents put together a very special presentation for her which they shared with the class.  It was so nice to see many great pictures and learn so much about Alina!  She also enjoyed lunch with her parents on her lunch buddy day.  Students enjoyed her sharing sack items and her beautiful pictures!  They also loved hearing her read aloud so much they wanted her to read it again when she finished!  The class wrote very sweet compliments to her on Friday to end her special week.

Weekly Update & International Festival

International Festival:
The students did an outstanding job at the 2014 International Festival!  We were so proud of their hard work as we watched them perform on stage!  Their costumes were impressive, and we loved tasting the delicious foods from the many different countries!  Check out the slideshow below to enjoy some photos from the festive event. (Double click on the slideshow to view larger versions of the photos and download individual pictures.)




Mrs. Clippard, a parent of a Hill 3rd grader, took even more awesome photos from the event and posted them on a public Shutterfly account.  In her album, you will find TONS of great pics of the students including individual catwalk pictures and students reading their facts at the microphones.  Here is the link to her album: https://hillpto.shutterfly.com/pictures/404

Research Workshop:
All students finished their final country books last week.  This week we will grade the books using a rubric that the students actually used to assess themselves last week.  The books will come home at the end of this week or the beginning of next week for you to read.

Devon shows us the cover of his country book.

Brett is proud of his Germany book.

Gloria did a great job on her paragraph pages in her final book.

Math Workshop:
Last week we spent time looking closely at the relationship between addition and subtraction.  Using their prior knowledge of fact families, students were asked to rewrite addition problems as subtraction problems and vice versa.  We also spent more time specifically on subtraction.  Students practiced deciding when to "ungroup," which is essentially like "borrowing" in the traditional method of subtraction.

All-Star of the Week:
Audrey was our awesome All-Star last week.  We loved seeing the photos she chose to hang on our All-Star board and enjoyed listening to her tell a story about each one.  The class also loved seeing the items she brought in her sharing sack, especially the astronaut helmet you see in the photo below!  On her Lunch Buddy Day, Audrey was lucky enough to have both of her parents and her grandma join her in the cafeteria!

Weekly Update

Research Workshop
Students worked on their country reports in their final draft booklets this week.  They learned how to write meaningful captions and draw illustrations which match each of their paragraphs.  They spent time copying each of their rough draft paragraphs into final drafts.  Students also learned how to write a bibliography in order to give the author's credit for the research they did.  We are so proud of how the students are taking their time to transfer all of their hard work into their final booklets!  The students can't wait to share their final products with you!

Math Workshop
This week students continued to practice adding three-digit numbers.  They also learned how to subtract across three-digit numbers.  We taught three different methods for subtraction as seen below.

Next, we practiced subtracting across zeros (i.e. 500-239).  Students do not necessarily need to show their work with a proof drawing every time if they don't feel the need to; however, students must show their "ungroupings."  Take a close look at the work that is done in the magnifying glass in the picture below.  The number that has been crossed out and the new hundreds, tens, and ones written above is an example of showing "ungroupings."

We ended the week learning two subtraction methods using place value drawings--ungrouping from the left and ungrouping from the right.

Science

This week we compared the mass of our dry lima beans to the mass of lima beans which had been soaked in water for a day.  Students also opened up the soaked lima bean to check out the inside of the seed and look more closely at the embryo.  We learned about the different stages of a seed's life as well.  Students learned the following new vocabulary words: root, seed coat, stem, leaves, cotyledon.  We discussed that early growth is called germination.  Each student also chose a bean seed with roots from either his/her minisprouter or the class sprouter to plant in our hydro-grower.  Our bean seeds are now floating in water mixed with plant nutrients and sitting in the windowsill for some sunshine.  We hope to have some luck with the hydroponic method of growing plants!  Stay tuned!

All-Star of the Week

Zain was our All-Star this week!  He enjoyed a special lunch with his dad on Thursday.  The class loved listening to his read-aloud, Bugs that Go Bump in the Night, and his parent letter.  We also enjoyed Zain's items from his sharing sack!  Zain is a good friend and students wrote many nice things to him for his compliment book on Friday.