Busy Thanksgiving Week

I look forward to meeting with all of you at conferences this coming week.  I hope you will find the conferences informative.  Due to time constraints, all conferences will be strictly kept to 15 minutes.  If, however, you have any questions or need further clarification on your child's progress after meeting with me, please feel free to email me or call me at school.  I am always happy to talk to you further!

We've had a busy two weeks in Room 29 doing a lot of work in cooperative groups.  One strategy I am trying out with the new math curriculum is to cut apart the problem set questions worksheets students would normally work on independently at their seats and have the kids work in small groups of 3-4 to answer one of the problems together, draw/explain their strategy on a poster, and then teach it to the class.  One of the best ways to be an "expert" at anything is to teach it (something we are learning as we work on our informational stories in Writer's Workshop).  I've found that it has been really helpful for students to verbalize their thinking about their work.  Furthermore, working cooperatively gives students a chance to learn from each other as well as well as do some more hands-on learning.  Thus, far the kids have loved these experiences, so I plan on continuing this strategy throughout the year.

This week we took a little break from our standard math curriculum to work on a Thanksgiving themed activity.  Students had $50.00 with which to create a menu for a group of animals using specific foods at various prices without going over budget.  They had a blast working together in small groups coming up with their menus and then creating posters to show there work.  Please go to our Edline page and look under the Math sidebar heading to find some great pictures of everyone hard at work.  

In language arts, we continue to work with non-fiction texts, talking about how text features help readers better understand the material.  

Some of those strategies tie in nicely with our unit on non-fiction, informational writing in Writer's Workshop where students have learned a variety of "structures" to "try on" to help organize their writing.  We are now in the process of putting the final touches on our drafts to finish our books.

Mr. Bassett is working on experiments with matter in science 3 days a week with our class.  The children will continue to work with him for an addition 3 weeks or so before moving on to learn about pollution and conservation with Ms. Bengston.

The week of Thanksgiving, we watched a couple of very informative videos put out by Plimoth.org.  Students got to see the real-life re-creation of Plymouth Plantation and learn about the pilgrims and Native Americans of the 1600's.  Students also worked on Chrome Books to follow a Native American child and a Pilgrim child along the way to uncover the truth about the first Thanksgiving and the pilgrim and Wampanoag way of life back in the 1600's.  We also read several articles in our guided reading groups about how the pilgrims and Wampanoag tribe lived.

Additionally, in social studies, students did a lot of independent research on the internet to complete posters about Connecticut.  Look for their work in the Social Studies sidebar on Edline!  Lots more great pictures there!

I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving with family and friends!

Remember that Wednesday, December 3rd is an early release day for afternoon conferences.

Also, Wednesday, all students will be taking the OLSAT test.  It is very important that all students be on time for school on December 3rd as we will all be taking the test promptly at the beginning of the day.

Week in Review--a little late

I apologize for not having an update last week, but I was very sick and out the entire week.  I do, however, want to give you a brief overview of what I left for the substitute to do with the children while I was out.

Reader's Workshop:  Everyone continues to work in non-fiction books.  This week students read a non-fiction book from our classroom library, identified and defined key words, wrote about the author's purpose, and listed important facts and information.  They also began a Top 10 list of information they will share on a poster with the rest of the class.

Writer's Workshop:  This past week, students worked on elaborative techniques to expand their non-fiction, informational stories.  They used rubrics, conferencing, and peer feedback to check, monitor, and edit their work.

Science:  We began our second rotation in science.  Students now meet with Mr. Bassett three times a week to learn more about matter.  Mr. Bassett does some fun experiments, so I know everyone will really enjoy his class.

Social Studies:  We worked on map skills and learned more about the State of Connecticut.  Students put their investigative techniques to work doing research online for a Connecticut Scavenger Hunt project I put together for them.

Math:  Believe it or not, we are already half way through module 2 in math.  Students took the mid-module assessment and went on to learn about how to round numbers to the nearest 10 and 100 using a number line.

Students were honored to share Veteran's Day with Nora's grandfather, a Marine Corps Veteran.  He came to our class to share his experiences and students had a chance to ask him many questions about his service to our country.  Afterwards, students worked on writing Thank You notes to him for all the time he took with us.

Week in Review

I will post a week in review later in the week.  Unexpected illness.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!

We have a great week in Room 29 doing all sorts of exciting Halloween learning activities which culminated in our fantastic Halloween party on Friday.  Thanks to our room moms and volunteers for all the great food and fun!

All our students did such a great job on their mystery mask project.  They had fun parading through the other 3rd grade classrooms in their masks!  Aren't they adorable!

This week in Language Arts students worked on a non-fiction text features scavenger hunt using National Geographic for Kids magazines and some of their non-fiction texts from our classroom.  They had to find various text features, cut them out, and paste them down in a folder.  Everyone had a great time looking for captions, maps, charts, headings, and all sorts of other text features that help readers better understand non-fiction stories.

In Writer's Workshop, students learned how to organize their writing into sub-topics and create chapters for the non-fiction books they are writing.  They also learned how to "try on" new structure/strategies to help them organize their thinking and come up with new ideas.  Some of the structures we learned about were:  boxes and bullets, pros and cons, and cause and effect.  Students had plenty of opportunity to try on these strategies to see which ones worked best for them and their topics.  I am learning all kinds of great information about hockey, swimming, soccer, polar bears, Himalayan cats, and many other topics about which your children are experts as I conference with kids and look over their work.

In science, we spent time reviewing for our unit ending test on rocks and minerals and took the test.  Next week, students will be moving on to learn about Matter with Mr. Bassett!

Students got the chance to be the teacher this week in math.  First, they worked in cooperative groups on elapsed time problems.  Each group had to solve their problems and display their thinking on chart paper.  Later, students worked in small groups at their tables to answer questions about weights.  Then they had the chance to come up to the Smartboard and teach their question and strategy to the rest of the class.

In addition to our regular activities, this week we had some special fun because of Halloween.  For morning work, children had the chance to write their own, original spooky stories.  They also worked with partners to create an original mystery, which they shared with the class.

On Friday, we had a fabulous time eating goodies, playing games, and making crafts during our Halloween party.  Please see pictures of all the fun on our Edline page under the Rockstars at work and Play heading in the right hand sidebar.

We have successfully filled up our classroom bucket again!  Congratulations to everyone in room 29 for their great behavior, their kindness to others, and their hard work.  We will be having a celebration of reading/pajama day on Friday as a reward.  There will be a note with further details going home in your child's folder this week.

A reminder that there is no school on Tuesday due to election day!  Don't forget to get out and vote!

Hope everyone had a happy, safe Halloween!