October 3

Resources this week: We always go outside for recess on non-resource days!
Cox:
Tuesday: pe
Wednesday: art
Friday: music
Kluge:
Monday: music
Wednesday: art
Friday: pe

ELA: Reading homework this week will be different. Students brought home a Reading At Home log on Friday. It will be due this Friday. Parents are asked to sign the log before it is turned in.

This week we will finish working with The Boy Who Loved Words. Please ask your child to share some of the awesome new words we learned!


Tuesday, we will read The Incredible Book Eating Boy. Click on the cover to watch a teacher read it aloud.

We will also discuss reading stamina and talk about what it means... Students will also self-assess their reading stamina and set goals to improve. We will look at individual data from our baseline assessments and our first reading fluency check to determine our reading strengths and where we need to work. Students have a "Monitoring My Progress" folder in class. They keep their bookmarks in the folder to continually update how many books they have read. Students also have bar graphs they color to see growth throughout the year on their assessments such as their Lexile level and their fluency rate.

MATH: This week in math we will solve word problems involving time intervals within 1 hour by counting backwards and forwards using a number line and clock, and adding and subtracting on the number line.  The students will also solve problems involving elapsed time beyond 1 hour.  They will measure weight and liquid volume in metric units.  We will compose and decompose a kilogram with hands-on exercises to reason about the size and weight of 1 kilogram, 100 grams, 10 grams, and 1 gram.  We will work on developing estimation strategies by reasoning about the weight in kilograms of a series of familiar objects to establish mental benchmark measures. We will be solving one-step word problems involving metric weights within 100 and estimate to reason about solutions and decompose a liter to reason about the size of 1 liter, 100 milliliters, 10 milliliters, and 1 milliliter.

Homework:

Module 2 Lesson 4

envisions lesson 12-5

Module 2 Lesson 5

Module 2 Lesson 6

Things to do at home:

·         Use a clock to tell time and to solve elapse time problems

·         Practice decomposing or taking apart  a number for example; 333 = 300 + 30 +3

·         Talk about the different units of measure and practice solving problems using different units of measure

·         Continue practicing multiplication facts 2-5

SCIENCE: This week in Science we will complete our Chapter 1 open book test Tuesday.  We will begin our new chapter on the properties of matter.  We will identify properties used to describe objects, such as size, shape, color, texture, and hardness and compare and contrast properties of objects.  The students will also describe the similarities and differences of two or more properties.

September 26

It's BOOK FAIR week! We will preview the book fair on Monday. Students can bring in money to purchase books all week.



Wednesday is an early release day.

Resources this week:
Cox:
Monday: pe and media   Please return all library books!
Tuesday: art
Friday: music
Kluge:
Tuesday: art
Wednesday: music
Friday: pe

ELA:  This wee the RHW will involve literary text (chapter book). Please see the spelling tab above for this week's spelling words!

After completing our end of unit assessment, we will compare and contrast two texts written by the same author which is an important third grade standard. Students will organize their thoughts on a T chart during work centers this week. They will compare Nasreen's Secret School and The Librarian of Basra. 

We will begin unit 2 with a great book, Thank You, Mr. Falker. This text is more complex than our previous books. Click the book cover for an online reading of the book.

We will work through the close reading cycle using familiar routines.

• Capturing the gist
• Identifying unfamiliar words
• Somebody - in - wanted - but - so...
• Answering text-dependent questions
• Focusing on determining meaning of vocabulary from the text

When we read new text, one of the things we do is write down words that are unfamiliar to us in meaning. This is something students can do at home when they are reading independently. If they write the word and page number, you can talk about what they think the word means based on the clues in the text when they finish.

At school, after we identify an unfamiliar word, we use 2 strategies:

1. Reread the sentence or paragraph the word is in and think about the possible meaning using text clues.

2. Plug - it - in strategy: Substitute another word that you came up with based on clues in the actual sentence. 

MATH:  This week in math we will continue solving two-step word problems involving all four operations, and determining the reasonableness of our answers.  We will complete Module 1 lessons Tuesday and prepare for our end of module assessment.  Please review our “Study Guide” with your child to help prepare him/her for the end of module 1 assessment on Friday.  We will begin to explore time as a continuous measurement and relate skip-counting by fives on the clock and telling time to a continuous measurement model, the number line.  We will be counting by fives and ones on the number line as a strategy to tell time to the nearest minute on the clock. The students will begin solving word problems involving time intervals within 1 hour by counting backward and forward using the number line and clock. 

Example of two-step word problem:

There are 4 boxes with 6 binders in each one. Three brothers share the binders. How many binders does each brother get?

Example of time problem: (students may use a number line, tape diagram, clock, or skip counting strategy to solve this problem)

Christine has 12 math problems for homework. It takes her 5 minutes to complete each problem. How many minutes does it take Christine to finish all 12 problems? 

Homework:

Complete study guide review for module 1

Module 2 Lesson 2

Module 2 Lesson 3

Study for End of Module Assessment Friday (use study guide sent home on Monday)

Things to do at home:

·        Practice telling time using an analog and digital clock

·        Use clock to practice skip counting by fives, counting backwards and forwards

·        Continue practicing multiplication facts 2-5

·        Practice solving 2 step word problems

SCIENCE: This week in Science students will complete Chapter 1 lessons on “The Practice of Science” and will begin reviewing for our end of chapter open book assessment next Tuesday.  We will review tools scientists use, science safety rules, scientific method, observations and inferences and reasons scientists must maintain accurate records of their explorations.

September 19

Mid-term progress reports will be sent home on Monday. 

Picture Day is this Thursday, September 22!





Field trip permission slips to the Super Scientific Circus at the Thrasher-Horne Center in Orange Park were sent home on Thursday. Click the graphic below for more info.

Resources this week:
Cox:
Monday: pe
Tuesday: art
Thursday: music
Kluge:
Tuesday: art
Thursday: pe
Friday: music

ELA: This week our spelling words will all have the short or long /e/. We will use two new vowel teams -ee and -ea. Our RHW sheet will be the back of last week's sheet and students will use informational text to complete the responses.

We will read That Book Woman this week and continue determining the gist of excerpts, discovering new vocabulary, and using our SIWBS organizer to find the central message of the book. This text is challenging as it is written in the Appalachian dialect with terms that are unfamiliar to us. We will also build background about the topic of the Pack Horse Librarians of the 1930s and 1940s who took great risks to deliver books and magazines on horseback to the remote areas of southeastern Kentucky. Click below on the book cover to listen to the book.

Below is the Somebody - in - wanted - but - so organizer we use. This can be used to help determine the central message of any literary text which includes a problem that is solved.

Our paragraphs about our last book, Nasreen's Secret School are turning out really well. We will be hanging them in the hallway after we share them with classmates!

MATH: This week in math we will continue learning about the commutative property to solve word problems using arrays.  We will use the distributive property as a strategy to find related multiplication facts. The students will apply the distributive property to decompose units and will begin solving two-step word problems involving multiplication and division and assess the reasonableness of answers.

Example of solving word problem using arrays and commutative property:

Ms. Williams draws the array below to show the class seating chart.  She sees the students in 4 rows of 7 when she teaches at the front board.  Use the commutative property to show how Ms. Williams sees the class when she teaches at the side board.

This array shows 4 rows of 7 

This array shows 7 rows of 4

Example of number bond to decompose units:

Examples of distributive property used to decompose units:                                   

Distributive Property of Multiplication

                                      

7 x 9 = 7(4 + 5)
         = (7 x 4) + (7 x 5)
         = 28 + 35
         = 6

 same as 7 x 9 = 63

Homework:

Lesson 16

Lesson 18 (Study for 3’s multiplication quiz Wednesday)

Lesson 19

Lesson 20

Things to practice at home:

Practice multiplication facts 2-10

Use arrays to model multiplication (2 x 5 or 2 rows of 5, 4 x 4 or 4 rows of 4)

Continue practicing math facts using distributive property to break apart large multiplication facts

Write word problems and solve using tape diagrams or number bonds.

SCIENCE: This week in Science we will continue discussing ways scientists collect and record data during their investigations and reasons why it is important for scientists to maintain accurate records of their work.  We will begin to learn how scientists use their observations to infer and make explanations.    

                     

September 12

Thank you parents who were able to come to Open House last week! Please contact us if you any further questions or would like to set up a conference.

PTA membership update... Mrs. Kluge's class only needs 3 more memberships and Mrs. Cox needs 5 more. Please join if you can so we can go to the reptile show. Thank you!

This Wednesday is an early release day with dismissal at 1:35.

Progress Reports will go home on Monday, September 19.

Fall pictures for the yearbook will be Thursday, September 22.

Resources this week:
Cox:
Monday: art
Wednesday: music
Thursday: music
Kluge:
Monday: art
Wednesday: pe
Thursday: pe
Friday: music

ELA: Students brought home a new spelling list Friday. Please see the Spelling tab above if you misplace the list. Also, a new reading homework sheet was sent home on Friday. Note that the Tuesday response has been eliminated so students can use our Somebody - in - wanted - but - so organizer to find the central message of their chapter book.

This week, for several days, we will focus on learning how to write a strong and organized paragraph about Nasreen's Secret School. We will use a graphic organizer to write our paragraphs, but first will look closely at a paragraph written about our first text, Rain School. This will help us see a finished product as a model. We will color code to see the different components.

Our graphic organizer will look like this:

Topic sentence
     Detail #1
          Explain with first piece of evidence from the text
          Explain with second piece of evidence from the text
     Detail #2
          Explain with first piece of evidence from the text
          Explain with second piece of evidence from the text
Conclusion sentence

Our next story in our unit focusing on the great lengths people around the world go through to gain the power of reading and education is:

This book tells the story of a boy from Appalachia who is reluctant reader.  After repeated visits by a traveling librarian, the boy sees the joy and value in reading. 

MATH: This week in math the students will solve two types of division situations.  Division problems where the group size is unknown and problems where the number of groups is unknown using factors of 2 - 4.   Students will use tape diagrams and arrays as tools to compare and analyze problems.  Students will use arrays and tape diagrams to practice solving division problems and transition to problem solving using abstract division and multiplication equations. The students will skip count objects in models to build fluency with multiplication facts using units of 4.  We will continue using the distributive property of multiplication to solve math problems. 

Example of tape diagrams:

Homework:

Lesson 12

Lesson 13

Study for Mid-Module assessment

Lesson 14

Complete 1 i-Ready lesson

Things to practice at home:

Practice labeling tape diagrams to solve problem situations (homework problems this week include tape diagrams for practice).  Ask the following questions as you are solving problems:

·         Am I looking for a part? 

·         Am I looking for a number of parts? 

·         Am I looking for the whole amount?

·         What is my model showing me?

Discuss and practice analyzing problem situations comparing different unknowns. 

Ask your child how what the quotient represents affect the way a tape diagram is represented/drawn?

Continue using arrays to help solve multiplication problems using the distributive property (break apart property) to solve multiplication problems.

Practice multiplication facts (2, 3, 4, 5)

SCIENCE: This week in Science we will continue our discussions of science safety rules and how scientists observe and infer during their explorations.  We will discuss the importance of scientists maintaining accurate records and communications.

Week of September 5

ELA:

We will not have a reading homework sheet nor a spelling list this week due to not having school last Friday or Monday this week.

This week, we will change gears and begin a social studies unit on communities, citizens, and laws. We will identify the specific text features found in this informational text and determine why the author would include them and how the text features help us as reader to better understand the content. We will also determine the main idea of a section of text and the details that support it. This is a challenging standard and we will work with it a lot this year. 

We will also continue our close reading of Nasreen's Secret School. This story has great new vocabulary and we will repeat our work with gist and finding the central message using our Somebody - in - wanted - but - so tool to find it.

Math:

This week in math students will continue to build fluency with math facts using the array model and familiar skip counting strategies.  We will continue to manipulate arrays to study the commutative property. The students will continue distinguishing rows from columns and noticing that the meaning of the factor changes depending on the orientation of the array (commutative property of multiplication).  Students will be writing the 2 different multiplication sentences to interpret the same array (different orientation).

For example:

We will begin to introduce the distributive property as a strategy for multiplication.  The students will use arrays to decompose unknown facts as the sum or difference of two known facts.

For example: 

                                           7 threes = 5 threes + 2 threes

                                            7 x 3 =    5 x 3     +      2 x 3       

                                           21      =     15       +        6

Things to practice at home:

Interpret products of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 5 x 7 as the total number of objects in 5 groups of 7 objects each.  Apply properties of operations as strategies to multiply and divide.  Examples: If 6 x 4 = 24 is known, then 4 x 6 = 24 is also known. (Commutative property of multiplication)

Homework:

Lesson 9

Lesson 10

Complete 2 i-Ready lessons

Practice 2, 3, 4, 5 math facts at home

Science:

This week in Science we will continue our discussion on the “Scientific Method”.  We will look at  the tools scientists use while making their observations and procedures they follow during their science explorations.

August 29

What a great second week! A reminder that this Wednesday is Early Release with dismissal at 1:35. Also, next Monday is Labor Day and is a school holiday.

Resources this week:
Cox:
Tuesday: media
Thursday: pe
Friday: art

Kluge: 
Monday: media and pe
Tuesday: music
Friday: art

ELA:
Check out these photos of our first "carousel" activity viewing illustrations from books we will use during this reading module. We worked on communicating in a group and working together to produce one main idea.

This we will read Nasreen's Secret School, the story of a young girl in Afghanistan, who faces many obstacles to be able to go to school and learn. We will read the text closely and use the same organizational tools we used with Rain School to determine the gist and lesson of the story. We are becoming familiar with the term, gist.

The gist is the main idea, what the page, section, chapter, or book is about. The gist does not include many details, but at the same time can be supported with details.

When we read closely, we read a text numerous times, each time with a different purpose or focus. One focus we have is to make note of words that are unfamiliar in meaning to us as we read. We then go back in the text and try to use context clues to determine the meaning of the new word.

Example: Poor Nasreen sat at home all day because girls are forbidden to attend school. Because the author writes "poor Nasreen" and tells us she is staying at home, we can guess that forbidden means not allowed. We can use the "plug it in" strategy and see if "not allowed" makes sense and it does. Poor Nasreen sat at home all day because girls are not allowed to attend school.

MATH:

In math the students will continue learning to distinguish between the number of groups and the size of groups to write multiplication facts.  They are learning to use arrays, counting rows and how many in a row, to write multiplication facts.  They will continue to create pictures, multiplication equations, and number bonds to model their understanding.

This week we will continue to work on understanding the meaning of the unknown as the number of groups in division and interpreting the unknown in division using the array model.  We will use the Read, Draw, Write (RDW) strategy to solve math problems. The students will also begin to study the commutative property of multiplication by manipulating arrays.  They will notice that the meaning of the factors in a multiplication sentence changes depending on the orientation of the array.

For example: 

This array has 4 rows and 3 columns. It can also be described as a 4 by 3 array.

The array can be rotated to show 3 rows of 4 or 3 by 4.

These arrays can be used to model division.  The problem will determine which way to draw the array.

For example:

Bob has 12 star stickers.  He puts them into 3 boxes.  How many stickers will be in each box?

                                                    12 ÷ 3 = 4 

There will be 4 stickers in each box.

Math Vocabulary:

Array – an arrangement of objects into equal rows and columns

Multiply - an operation showing how many times a number is added to itself

Equal groups – same number of objects in each group

Factor – number of groups and the number in each group

Equation – a statement that two expressions are equal, for example 4 x 3 = 12

Divide – separate into equal groups

Things to do at home:

Practice making arrays at home.  Talk about changing the orientation of your arrays and write the multiplication equation.

Create your own multiplication and division word problems and write the equations for the problems.

Look for groups of things at home.

Practice multiplication facts.

Math Homework:

We will have Module 1 Lessons 4,5, and 6 as homework this week. At this time the specific days will vary due to early release and science baseline testing.

SCIENCE:

This week in Science we will continue learning about the scientific method.  The students will discuss testable questions and reasons why scientists must keep accurate records during their explorations.

                                        

August 22, 2016

Welcome to week two of third grade! Our first week was very busy, but wonderful! We are really enjoying our new students! On Monday, students will bring home their Weekly Conduct Reports. Please initial at the bottom and return it the next day. It is blue. This will come home each Monday.

You have probably heard that we started our baseline testing and we will have one more day of math on Monday. The tests are 80 minutes each day. This week, we will take the Achieve 3000 levelset assessment which will calculate the appropriate Lexile or reading level for each student. We will also take the iReady math diagnostic. These tests are online.

Resources this week:
Cox:
Tuesday: art
Thursday: pe
Kluge:
Thursday: pe

On non resource days, we almost always have recess!!! Our school population has grown so we will be gaining additional resource teachers which means more frequent resources! Yay!

ELA:
On Friday, a reading homework sheet was sent home with a letter explaining the expectations. We went over this together in class in great detail. Students should be reading at least 20 minutes, 4 times each week. The short written responses on the homework sheet should be based on what they are reading. It is not due until Friday. This will be a regular routine… Friday to Friday. It does require a parent signature.

Spelling will not begin until next week.
                                         
The overall theme for our first nine weeks is how reading is powerful and how people around the world go to great lengths to access books and read. Our first text is Rain School. This week, we will learn a new term... "gist". The gist is the main or central message, what is text is all about. The gist does not include a lot of details. We will use a great tool to help us determine the gist.

SIWBS

Somebody (the main character)...

in (setting)...

wanted (motivation)...

but (problem)...

so (resolution)...

When we think about these specific elements and put them together, we can usually determine the gist or main idea of fictional text. We can tell someone the gist of a paragraph, a chapter, or even a book. This is a good strategy students can use at home to talk about what they are reading.

This week, we will read Rain School several times and will lift evidence from the text to answer questions. Students will use sticky notes to mark text that supports their answers. 

We will also revisit the strategy of using clues in text (context clues) to help us determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Example from Rain School:

"He gathers grass and saplings with the other children, and they make a roof."

To figure out the meaning of saplings, we can use context clues...  If Thomas gathers the sapling, it must be a noun, because he can pick it up. Also, he picks it up with the grass, so we can guess it might also be part of a plant. They use it to make a roof, and we have seen roofs in pictures made of grass and branches from trees. So a sapling must mean something like a branch.

During our writing lessons, we will begin to draft personal narratives in our writing journals using ideas from our memory cards and our idea lists. I will share some of my personal stories, too. 

Math:

In math this week we will introduce multiplication with the concept of repeated addition to find totals.  The students will use counters to make equal groups of a specific number. They will learn to recognize equal groups of counters as units and count units using language of groups and unit form: 4 equal groups of 3 counters make 12 counters, or 4 threes make 12.  The students will relate the equal groups of objects in scattered forms to the array model, making the connection between 1 equal group and 1 row in array models. They will distinguish between the number of groups and the size of groups as they count rows and how many in a row to write multiplication facts.  We will start modeling dividing a whole into equal groups and will create pictures, number bonds, and multiplication equations to model understanding. 

Things to Remember:

Array – repeated rows of numbers or objects

Multiply - an operation showing how many times a number is added to itself

Equal groups – same number of objects in each group

Factor – number of groups and the number in each group

Equation – a statement that two expressions are equal, for example 4 x 3 = 12

Divide – separate into equal groups

Math Homework:

Module 1 Lesson 1

Module 1 Lesson 2

Module 1 Lesson 3

Things to do at home:

Practice skip counting by 2’s, 3’s and 4’s at home. 

Practice drawing model representations or groups and ask your child to analyze the model. 

For example:                  

XX           XX       XX

How many times do you see a group of two? Have them count the groups, write the number sentence, and say the words together.

3 groups of 2’s

3 x 2 = 6

Science:

This week in Science we will discuss that scientists raise questions about the natural world, investigate them through explorations and develop explanations based on their explorations.  We will begin to understand that scientists question, discuss, and check each other’s evidence and explanations.