Weekly Update

Reading Workshop:
We continued our mystery unit last week with students meeting in their detective clubs to discuss the chapters they are reading. We modeled for students how to keep track of important clues and possible suspects (see examples below). Supporting their claims with evidence is extremely important when recording ideas in their detective case file and when sharing their ideas during the detective club discussions.

Students write important clues on their "Clue Clipboard."

Students keep track of possible suspects and incriminating evidence on their Suspect List.

Writing Workshop:
This week students chose a "big idea" that they wanted to feature in the personal essay they are beginning to write. First, they learned to write an opinion statement in which they stated their opinion on a big idea.  For example, "I think all people should respect nature."  Students then created an idea/detail chart.  On the chart, they listed two reasons, or experiences, that supported their big idea.  They also wrote introductions for their essay.

Math:
We are continuing lessons in Unit 3: Measurement, Time, and Graphs.  This week students learned about metric units of liquid volume (milliliters and liters), customary units of units of weight (ounces and pounds), and metric units of mass (grams and kilograms).  They also practiced solving word problems involving liquid volume and mass.


Social Studies:
We have been busy on our Northeast region tour!  Since the last update when students were in Plymouth, MA, we have made additional tour stops in Boston, Massachusetts (where we learned about the Revolutionary War), the Erie Canal (where we learned about why it was built), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (where we learned about the declaration of Independence and the Constitution), and Hershey, Pennsylvania.  In Hershey, students took a virtual tour of the Hershey Chocolate factory as a way to learn about mass production.  They also worked on an assembly line as chocolate makers from the early 1900s to compare how many Hershey Kisses they could make in 5 minutes compared to how many Hershey Kisses are made by machines in 5 minutes at the factory.  Most groups made 20-30 Hershey Kisses, but that's not much compared to the 100,000 that are made in just 5 minutes at the factory!

Ready to travel to Boston, MA!

Photos of the tour stops are projected on the SMART Board while we travel.

Raghav and Elena work on their travel journal following a tour stop.

Example of a students' first 4 completed travel journals.

Hershey Kiss Assembly Line Jobs:

Cutter: Cuts a small square tin foil

Placer: Places the Hershey Kiss in center of tin foil square

Wrapper: Wraps foil around Hershey kiss

Inspector: Inspects the Hershey kiss to make sure it is covered and colors in a Hershey kiss on the inspection sheet if it passes the test.

Students enjoyed eating Hershey Kisses (that were not used on the assembly line) after the activity!

Watch the video below to see your child in action on the Hershey Kiss assembly line!!

All-Star of the Week:
Adam was our awesome All-Star of the Week!  He loved sharing and telling us all about his sharing sack items.  He also showed us some great family photos, each one with a detailed story.  He did a great job reading aloud "Charles the Ranch Dog," and he loved when his dad joined him as his lunch buddy!

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.