Week 6 & 7

October 12, 2019

LITERACY

Writing: The students finished their elaborative detail writing project about the season of fall. I began this week by reading Thankful by Eileen Spinelli to the class. This book inspired our follow up class discussion about things were are thankful for in our lives. The students reviewed the structure of an acrostic poem and wrote about the things they are thankful for in the style of an acrostic poem. As the students shared their poems with their peers, I have to admit that I got a little misty eyed. So sweet and thoughtful.

Reading/Phonics: Congratulations to the second 3D student to read a total of 600 minutes at home!!!! He hopped in his car and drove to the first pit stop - Canada!

During these last two weeks the grade 3s learned two new spelling rules: "Magic E" and "When Two Vowels Go Walking". The students get several opportunities to work with the spelling list words throughout the week and were given an informal test at the end of the week. Their spelling list reflected these words and included the high frequency Oddball Words WHERE and COULD and Bonus Words OCTOBER and THANKSGIVING. Practicing these words at home is strongly encouraged.

Our "Making Words" mystery word this week was THANKFUL. Students are given a set of scrambled letters and asked to create 2,3,4,5,6 letter words using only the letters provided (ie. A U F H K L N T). Once the students come up with a few of these words independently they pair up with a peer and try to come up with some more words together. Finally, we come together as a class and the students share the words they have created and try to figure out what the mystery word is. Most of the students were able to guess the mystery word right away.

Conventions/Grammar: This week, the students learned how to turn common nouns into proper nouns. As soon as they name a common noun it becomes a proper noun but they have to remember that all proper nouns begin with a capital letter.

Handwriting: The students have continue to practice cursive with "loop group" letters. These letters include l, e, h, f, b.

MATHEMATICS

The students were introduced to ordinal numbers and how to solve word problems using ordinal numbers. They are learning how to describe ordinal numbers with numerals and with words, for example, 34 would become thirty fourth or 34th.
The Grade 3s practiced their basic facts of +4 and +5 in the form of Mad Minutes. Their personal goal was to get more equations solved each day. On Thursday, we had our final Mad Minute of the week and I am happy to report that all of the students improved compared to their scores on Monday. Way to go 3D!

SCIENCE

Last week, the students explored the rock cycle and how one rock can undergo many changes and transform into new types of rocks. For example, an igneous rock can erode and can break down into sediment.The sediment is cemented and compacted and in turn becomes a sedimentary rock.

Earlier this week, the students learned how rocks and soil are connected. They brought in soil samples from their backyards, playgrounds, river valley, gardens, etc. to examine in the classroom. They were introduced to the terms organic/inorganic. With each item they found in their soil sample the students had to decide and label whether an item was organic or inorganic.

As we wrap up our Rocks and Minerals Unit, the students are creating flash cards to study vocabulary that will be featured on their unit test at the end of next week. They will be bring their Lapbook and flashcards home to study on Tuesday. They started to study for the test by quizzing a peer on the vocabulary words.