Week of October 13th

      
It was so nice to be able to enjoy recess outside this week after the many rainy days! It's hard to believe the end of our first nine weeks is near. Monday, October 20th is the last day of this grading period. Friday, October 24th will be a teacher planning day.

We will begin taking our first CGAs (curriculum guide assessments) on Tuesday, October 22nd. This will be a good opportunity for students to show all they have learned during the first nine weeks! We will provide a more detailed schedule of the assessments soon.

Both classes are in need of hand soap. If you could possibly donate, we would greatly appreciate it! Also thank you for sending in box tops!

           
Individual school pictures are this Thursday, October 16th!

Also, we are nearing the end of the PTA membership contest...

Here is the link to print the membership form. There is a tab at the top of the blog!

http://bsepta2014.blogspot.com

Resources this week:
Monday: ART
Wednesday: MUSIC
Friday: PE

READING: I hope you had a chance to read the excellent written response about the character, Gloria Dump, in the graded work folder this week. I was very proud of how students supported their understanding of this new character by citing text evidence - Gloria's actions, words, and thoughts. It's great to see them do this automatically when they write about characters now. They are learning new words to describe the traits of a character. We have moved from nice, happy, mad... to brave, determined, responsible, honest, boastful, etc.

This week, we will focus on this question: How does what the author said earlier in the text help me understand what is happening now? This helps us understand that the relationships between the characters build on what happened earlier in the story. These relationships change and become stronger. The relationships have an effect on the characters and events in the story. We will relate this to the concept of cause and effect.

WRITING: As we finish our prequels to Because of Winn-Dixie, we will work on creating endings that will provide the reader with closure, bring everything together, or show a change in the main character. We will also meet with peers to revise and edit our drafts.

LANGUAGE: This week, we will review and work with base words and affixes (prefixes and suffixes). Below is a chart showing the affixes we will focus on this week:

PREFIX	MEANING	EXAMPLES
dis-	not; the opposite of	disagree, disorganized
un-	not	unhappy, unknown
re-	again	rewrite, rearrange
pre-	before	preview, preschool
mis-	wrongly	misbehave, misunderstand
SUFFIX
-ly	in a way that is	bravely, softly
-ful	full of	beautiful, forgetful
-able	able to be	bendable, respectable
-less	without	penniless, friendless

MATH: This week in Math we will focus on the following points:

• Understanding multiplication as combining equal groups
• Identifying the number of groups, the number in each group, and the product in a multiplication situation
• Understanding the relationship among skip counting, repeated addition, and multiplication
• Writing and solving multiplication problems in context

Homework:

Monday: Unit 5 pgs. 1-2

Tuesday: Make a “picture of things that come in groups” and write the multiplication equation

Wednesday: Unit 5 pg. 9

Thursday: Study Multiplication Facts 0, 1, 2

Friday: Continue studying multiplication facts 

SCIENCE: This week in Science we will continue studying our “Ocean Biome”.  We will learn about the different animals that live in the various layers of our oceans.

Week of October 6th - 10th

Resources this week:
Tuesday: Music
Friday: PE

Wednesday is Early Release!

READING: We will read chapter 9 in Because of Winn-Dixie and students will independently analyze a new character, Gloria Dump, based on her thoughts, words, and actions (evidence). Students will be writing a 2 point response about their new understanding of Gloria based on what they have concluded by reading chapter 8.

We will also read a social studies article from KidBiz 3000 about money and allowance. We will talk about how it is important to distinguish one's own point of view from that of the author of the text. Developing one's own point of view about a text indicates that the reader not only comprehends the but also has thoughts and opinions about the text. If this takes place, the reader can compare his thoughts and feelings to that of the author.

Late in the week, we will continue reading Because of Winn-Dixie with a new focus: cause and effect. Students will refer back to earlier events in the novel and determine how they are contributing to what is currently happening. They will begin to realize that what characters do affect later events.

LANGUAGE: In language this week, students will form and use regular and irregular plural nouns.
To form a regular plural noun, an -s (lesson - lessons) or -es (fox - foxes) is usually added to a singular noun. Sometimes we have to remove a y and add -ies. (baby - babies)

Irregular nouns do not have regular rules:

singular	plural
foot	feet
mouse	mice
tooth	teeth
sheep	sheep
fish	fish
man	men
woman	women
child	children

WRITING: As we continue to work on writing our "prequels" to Because of Winn-Dixie, we will learn how to add actions, dialogue, thoughts, and feelings of characters to make them more interesting and developed.

MATH: This week in Math the students will continue solving subtraction problems that involve finding missing parts, comparisons, and reason how changing the numbers affect a subtraction problem.  The students will determine effective strategies for solving subtractions problems and ways to represent a subtraction situation.  Please continue to review the addition and subtraction strategies learned in class.    

Homework:

Monday – Unit 3 page 69

Tuesday – Study for “Travel Problems” and “Distance Riddle” assessment   

Wednesday – Unit 3 pages 77-78

Thursday – Unit 3 page 81

SCIENCE: This week in Science we will be completing our studies on “Matter and Its Properties”.  We will be conducting a variety of investigations changing solids into liquids and measuring the volume of different objects.  We will have an open book assessment on this unit Friday.

September 29 - October 3

Resources this week:
Tuesday: music
Thursday: PE
Friday: art

At the bottom of the reading log this week, it states students may work on i-Ready reading or KidBiz 3000 1 or 2 days. Please have students record this as their reading at home for that day! The links to these online programs are always on the right side of the blog. Thank you!

READING: This week we implemented Socratic seminar discussion groups into our reading block.

We created guidelines to help our discussions go smoothly. Then students looked at chapter 6 in Because of Winn-Dixie and independently recorded evidence that showed the emotions of Opal and the Preacher. 

We met back as a group and they discussed. During the discussion, students don't raise hands but speak as they would in a grown up "business meeting". They did a great job and are learning to accept the opinions of others that may differ from their own and also build on each other's ideas.

We also took the i-Ready reading and math diagnostics on laptops in our classrooms...

This week as we read chapters 7-9 in Because of Winn-Dixie, students will continue to look at what the characters do, what they say, and what they think. All of these behaviors lead the reader to identify character traits and feelings based on patterns. Below is an organizer we will use as we read.

Analyzing Characters:
Collect Evidence: what the character does, says and thinks	Patterns: Find what is common among your notes about your character (look for patterns)	New Understanding: How is this character moving the story forward?

LANGUAGE: We will learn the function of adverbs in sentences this week. LAFS.3.L.1.1b

ADVERBS… describe verbs in 3 different ways

How?	When?	Where?
quietly loudly softly slowly quickly carefully really well	after before now later never today tomorrow yesterday	inside outside here everywhere somewhere upstairs downstairs anywhere

Click the link for an adverb activity!

MATH: This week in math we will continue working with our addition strategies.  Addition strategies covered include breaking the numbers apart and then adding by place, adding one of the number in parts and changing the numbers in order to make them easier to add.  We will begin learning subtraction strategies such as subtracting a number in parts, adding up, and subtracting back.  Please continue to review the following strategies at home.

Addition Strategies:

Adding by Place:	Adding one number on in parts:	Changing the numbers:
394 + 175 =	349 + 175 =	349 + 175 =
300 + 100 = 400	349 + 100 = 449	350 + 175 = 525
40 + 70 = 110	449 + 50 = 499	525 – 1 = 524
9 + 5 = 14	499 + 25 = 524
400 + 110 + 14 = 524

Subtraction Strategies:

Subtracting in parts:	Adding up:	Subtracting back:
451 – 187 =	451 - 187	451 - 187
451 – 100 = 351	187 + 13 = 200	451 – 51 = 400
351 – 80 = 271	200 + 251 = 451	400 – 200 = 200
271 – 7 = 264	13 + 251 = 264	200 – 13 = 187
		51 + 200 + 13 = 264

Homework:

Monday:  Adding by Place Addition Problems

Tuesday:  Adding one number in parts Problems

Wednesday:  Changing the numbers addition Problems

Thursday: Unit 3, pp. 59-60

   

                                                            

SCIENCE: This week in science we will continue learning about the properties of matter, describing and classifying objects, and exploring the changes water undergoes as it changes state.

September 22 - 26

Progress Reports went home on Friday. Please sign and return.
We will send home Graded Work folders on Tuesday.
PDQ Spirit Night is Thursday!
The gift wrap fundraiser ends on September 26.
The Fun Run is going to be rescheduled for January.

Resources this week:
Monday: music
Wednesday: Kluge - computer (Early Release)
Thursday: PE, Cox - computer
Friday: art

READING: On Friday we finished an informational article about a robotic suit designed to help humans. One of our third grade reading standards is to determine the main idea of a text, recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea. Below is an example of how we are doing just that!

Students labeled informational text features and underlined details which support the main idea.

This answer restates the question followed by 3 key details that are cited directly from the text.

Click on the picture below for online main idea practice!

This week we will focus on character development using chapter 6 of Because of Winn-Dixie. We will meet some new characters and talk about the difference between major and minor characters. Students will look at what the characters do, what they say, and what they think. All of these behaviors lead the reader to identify character traits and feelings based on patterns. Below is an organizer we will use as we read.

Analyzing Characters:
Collect Evidence: what the character does, says and thinks	Patterns: Find what is common among your notes about your character (look for patterns)	New Understanding: How is this character moving the story forward?

LANGUAGE:  LAFS.3.L.1.1b This week we will discover how adjectives describe how a noun feels, looks, sounds, and tastes. 
Example: The salty pretzel and the scent of fresh popcorn made me want a glass of cold water.
Salty describes how the pretzel tastes.
Fresh describes how the popcorn smells.
Cold describes how the water feels.

WRITING: We continue to develop our Because of Winn-Dixie "prequels".

MATH:

This week in Math we will be reviewing place value, rounding to the nearest 10’s, 100’s and 1,000’s and using rounding to estimate the sum of addition problems. We will focus on accurately adding 2 and 3 digit numbers by developing strategies that rely on knowledge of place value and on breaking numbers apart. 

Example of breaking numbers apart and recombining them to solve addition problem:

36 + 59 =

30 + 50 = 80

6 + 9 = 15

80 + 15 = 95

Example of adding on one number in parts:

                                     74 + 38 =

                                     70 + 30 = 100

                                     4 + 8 = 12

                                     100 + 12 = 112

Homework:

Monday - Rounding to nearest tens worksheet

Tuesday – Rounding to nearest hundreds worksheet

Wednesday – Rounding to nearest tens and hundreds

Thursday – Unit 3 p. 53

Friday – Assessment (Addition Strategies)

This week in Science we will continue learning about matter.  We will learn how to find the mass of objects and make inferences about the size of an object and its mass.

SCIENCE:

This week in Science we will continue learning about matter.  We will learn how to find the mass of objects and make inferences about the size of an object and its mass.

Week of September 15 - 19

First of all, thank you so much for such a great turn out at Open House! We appreciate you coming to find out about third grade. We will be contacting you soon to set up a conference if you requested one.

Resources this week:

Monday - D: music

Wednesday - A: PE Please bring a water bottle and wear sneakers!

Thursday - B: art

BookFair: Our Fall Book Fair is coming up this week (Sept 15-19).  The book fair will be open from 9:00am-2:30pm Monday thru Friday and Thursday evening from 6-8pm for Family Night.  Students will be visiting the book fair with their class Monday and filling out "wish lists".  You may purchase books from their list by sending in cash or check with your child any day, or you are welcome to come in anytime during our open hours to browse and/or purchase.

Please join PTA! The BSE class membership contest is underway.  PTA has created a poster in the cafeteria which they will update weekly with standings.  The deadline is October 31st...so our class participation percentage on October 31st will determine our class party!  They already have a few classes nearing the 50% popcorn party.  The next level is 75% (ice cream party), 90% (pizza party), and if a class reaches 100%...it will be a surprise!! PLEASE join if you have not already - $6.

Here is the online form... PTA FORM

READING: Our standard this week is for students to be able to ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring directly to the text as a basis for the answers. We started annotating as we read Because of Winn-Dixie last week and will continue to do so. We discussed the fact that some answers will be found later in the text and some questions may never be answered. That's okay... all questions are valid and demonstrate thinking and understanding about what is being read.

Here are the question starters we will continue to use as we annotate this week. They are great to use at home also!

• Why...?
• I'm curious about...
• I wonder...
• What does it mean when...?
• Is (character name) feeling...?
• Does (character name) think...?

Students read with a pencil in hand and annotate questions that come to mind as they read.

An example of annotating as we read.

FLUENCY: Check out the Fluency tab above! Periodically, I will add a new poem. Reading poetry aloud is a great way to improve your fluency. Practice reading the poem several times to read it smoothly, with expression, and not too fast or too slow! 

LANGUAGE: Verbs in the past, present, and future tense.  The key to determining the tense is to think about what the sentence is saying and when the action is occurring... in the past, in the present (right now), or in the future.

Click below for online practice with this.

TACKLING TENSES QUIZ

WRITING: Students are completing their narrative maps for their "prequel" to Because of Winn-Dixie. This week we will plan our characters in detail by sketching him or her, describing how the character looks, how other characters feel about the character, how the character interacts with others, and how the character acts, feels, and talks. Students will do this for all major characters in their narrative stories.

Students will also decide if the story will be told in the first person - by a character in a story, or in the third person - by a narrator outside of the story.

Finally, we will begin our first drafts of our stories!

MATH: This week in Math we will focus on solving addition problems with 2 and 3 digit numbers up to 400 by breaking numbers apart and recombining them.  We will develop strategies for solving addition problems by focusing on how each strategy starts.  We will also find the difference between 2 and 3 digit numbers by using multiples of 100 as a landmark to solve subtraction problems.

Homework:                                     

Please practice finding numbers on the 1,000 chart and telling which hundreds chart it is on.  (Remember that each hundreds chart is named by the last number on the chart.) 

Assessment will be on Wednesday.

Monday: Unit 3 pg.  42

Tuesday:   Unit 3 pp. 44-45

Wednesday: Unit 3 p. 51

Thursday: Unit 3 p. 53

SCIENCE: This week in Science we will complete our Chapter 1 “Practice of Science” lessons.  

We will begin studying Chapter 3 “Matter and Its Properties”.  

September 8 - 12

Our Open House is this Thursday at 6:15. Both classes will meet in room 124 for our presentation and then students can show parents around both classrooms. We truly hope everyone will be able to attend. This is an opportunity for parents to hear first hand information about third grade from us. 

We took the first session of our reading curriculum guide assessment Friday. Session 2 will be on Monday.

Resources this week:
Tuesday: PE  Remember to wear sneakers and bring a water bottle!
Thursday: ART

Wednesday is our first EARLY RELEASE at 1:35.

Reading: As we read Because of Winn-Dixie, we will continue our focus on characters. Students will think about what the author wants us to know about Opal, Winn-Dixie, and Opal's father, the Preacher. Mid-week, we will learn a new term: 
Annotate: When we read with pencil in hand, show the tracks of our thinking, and interact with the text.

An example of annotating. This shows a page from chapter 1 of Because of Winn-Dixie with questions about what is happening in the text.

Annotating text increases comprehension by keeping students engaged while reading. It also helps them reference the text to support their thinking with text evidence.

We will talk about "question starters" we can use as we annotate. These are great to use when reading any fiction book. They are great to use at home too! This week's R.A.H. log has a back side and asks students to write 3 questions they have as they read their chapter books at home.

• Why...?
• I'm curious about...
• I wonder...
• What does it mean when...?
• Is (character name) feeling...?
• Does (character name) think...?

Language: LAFS.3.L.1.1 We will work with 3 types of pronouns this week. Pronouns take the place of a noun.

Personal (can stand alone): 
me  her  him  it  them  us  you   he  she  I

Possessive (comes before a noun): 
his  her  my  our your

Indefinite (names someone or something that is not specific): somebody  everyone  nobody  everybody

Spelling: short a and e... See Word Work tab above for this week's list.

Vocabulary: See Vocabulary tab above for our words this week.

Writing: We will begin planning a narrative related to Because of Winn-Dixie. After creating individual plans, we will write stories telling about the events leading up to Winn-Dixie entering the grocery store.

Math: This week in Math we will be using our understanding of place value to solve multi-digit math problems and to help us continue practicing rounding whole numbers.  We will be identifying and explaining patterns in math using our 1,000’s chart and we will decompose numbers into expanded form. 

Home Learning:  Practice rounding numbers to 10’s, 100’s, and 1,000’s place.

Homework:

Monday: Unit 3 pp. 13 & 20
Tuesday: Unit 3 p. 22D
Wednesday: Unit 3 p.24
Thursday: Unit 3 pp. 28-29
Friday: Unit 3 Assessment

Science: This week in Science we will continue discussing the importance of communication in the scientific process and explore our ocean biome in more detail.

Family Literacy Fair

Florida State College will host a Family Literacy Fair on Saturday, September 20th.

Time: 10:00 - 2:00
Location: North Campus - 4501 Capper Road, Jacksonville FL 32218 - Main Courtyard
Phone: 904 766-655

Door Prizes, Free Books, and Food!

Poetry - Storytellers - Reading Activities