Literacy: Poetry and Non-Fiction Reading and Research
Here is what we will be doing through April:
The students will be reading poems from our library and will be recording those they appreciate most in a poetry journal. At the end of the unit, they will copy five poems from famous authors in a mini poetry book.
The students will also be reading from various resources including nonfiction books, encyclopedias and websites to take notes about the habitat, description, structural adaptations, and behavioral adaptations of the species of penguin they have chosen to study. If you are able to take your child to the public library to help them choose, evaluate, and check out resources for their research, that would be great!
Writing: Poetry and Penguin Research
Currently, the students are working on these goals: see yourself as a writer; write with an audience in mind; include a creative title; include details that entertain the reader; use suggestions to revise your writing; and use proper conventions.
After SBA testing, the students will be involved in two writing tasks. First, we will read and write many different types of poems. Students will select their best poems to write in a mini poetry book. They will also copy five poems from famous poets that appealed to them.
Second, the students will be conducting research about one species of penguin. They will use several different resources to take notes in a notebook, a sort of precursor to taking notes on notecards. Once the research is complete, each student will have three choices for the type of format they follow. Here are the choices:
1. Fiction story with penguin facts: The student writes a fiction story yet includes facts about a particular penguin.
2. Report: The student writes a report about a particular penguin.
Regardless of the format, students will complete a research notebook complete with a bibliography. The final copy will be in a hard cover book the students will construct, complete with illustrations.
Spelling
If your child needs challenge words, I will add words from our curriculum to his/her “Words to Learn” list. Spelling dictation sentences will also become a part of the unit tests beginning with Unit 3.
April:
Unit 8: Irregular verbs; spelling patterns for /s/ (s, ss, ce, ci, and cy);
similes; homophones; contractions
Unit 9: Spelling patterns for long /i/ (y, igh, ind, i, and i-consonant-e);
prefixes and suffixes; irregular spellings; compound words;
homophones
May:
Unit 10 : Spelling patterns for /j/ (j, ge, gi, and gy); spelling patterns
for /s/ (s, ss, ce, ci, and cy); spelling patterns for /o/ ( o, al,
au, and aw); homographs; prefixes
Unit 11: Words with "silent" letters; r-controlled vowels; homophones
Math: Unit 10: Measurement and Data
In this unit, the children will review and extend their previous work with measuring length, weight, and capacity. Measurements will be recorded in graphs and frequency tables. There will be many hands-on activities to help students use measuring tools correctly.
The students will also review and extend their learning of landmarks of a set of data such as maximum, minimum, range, median, and mode. Students will learn how to calculate the mean (average) to analyze and compare measurement data.
There are three main areas of focus for Unit 10:
- To review units, tools, and measures of weight, length, and capacity;
- To introduce the mean of a set of data;
- To gain experience with plotting points on a coordinate grid
To help develop the concept of dividing with and without remainders, you can play this game at home with your child (directions are in the Student Reference Book):
Division Arrays, p. 282
Multiplication facts will continue to be the focus this quarter. Once all students have passed their facts tests, we will continue to practice these facts daily; however, there will be no assessment at the end of the quarter.
The new edition of Everyday Math has added an “Open Response” item to each unit test. The children must show how they answered the problem by "Organizing" by drawing pictures or completing charts, tables, or diagrams, "Calculate" writing number models, and "Explaining" by answering the question in a sentence. Students are also encouraged to show another solution to the problem.
These problems are multi-step problems that have multiple solutions. We will complete a practice open response item in class, either independently, in partners, in cooperative groups, or as a whole class. I will provide feedback to students on this practice item to help them be successful when completing a similar problem for the test. A ten-point evaluation sheet will be attached to your child's practice problem. The goal is to earn 8-10 points. Eight points is considered to be proficient, and 9 or 10 points is advanced. Your child should use this score to set goals for improvement. The final evaluation will have this chart attached as well. This information will be recorded by your child in his/her data notebook along with a reflection to encourage goal setting.
Since using reference skills is an emphasis in third grade, I am encouraging students to use their Student Reference Books (SRB's) first when they need assistance. Encourage your child to do the same by noting the "SRB" icon on the Home Links. When children learn to look up information themselves, they tend to remember it better than if they are simply told the information. Becoming independent learners is a goal for all third graders.
Technology Projects: Famous Artist Power Point Presentation; Chemical Reactions Graph Using Excel; Three-Dimensional Solids Web Using Word ; Travel Brochure about Imaginary Island Using Publisher
Our final technology project of the year involves using Microsoft Publisher to create a travel brochure for their imaginary island. The students will be expected to use descriptive language to persuade people to come visit their island and its many attractions. Students will insert pictures they have drawn after using the scanner in the lab to scan and save their images to their folders.
The students have used Excel to enter data reflecting changes in temperature when we combined baking soda and vinegar, then hydrogen peroxide and yeast to make and print graphs. They will recognize how much easier it is to make graphs using technology rather than a pencil and a straight edge! These graphs are stapled into your child's Scientific Thinking workbook and will be in the portfolio.
All students are finished with the final copies of their persuasive letters. Rough drafts were typed in the computer lab. Next, I provided suggestions for improvement by inserting typed comments. The students revised their letters and deleted my comments to print a final copy. The scores for this piece of writing are in your child's portfolio.
The students worked in groups to identify the properties of one of six three dimensional solids. They used Word to create a web that displays those properties. Next, students used their artistic skills to draw a scene featuring the 3-D solid they were assigned--in as many situations and areas as they possibly could. Finally, all webs and scene illustrations will be combined in a group mobile that displays the solids as either polyhedrons or not polyhedrons.
As an extension of Ms. Gold's "Artist in a Bag" project, the students are creating one slide about their artist that will be merged into a class Power Point presentation. The students must choose a color scheme (warm colors, cool colors, or complementary colors) and must consider the elements of art when designing their slides.
They are learning to add text, photos from a file, Auto Shapes, Word Art, and to format these elements as well as the background to create an aesthetically pleasing composition. They will type the information you helped them find for their Artist in a Bag book reports into text boxes and/or Auto Shapes.
The students will also access pre-approved web sites to enhance their learning in all subject areas.
Social Studies: Imaginary Island Project
We will soon finish our science kits for the year, leaving the final quarter for learning the social studies standards. The students will be involved in what I call, “The Imaginary Island Project.” A list of questions related to all the areas we will study will be clipped into your child’s homework folder. Please take a few moments to discuss ideas with your child in relation to the questions.
This is a very creative project that requires students to learn about our country in terms of geography, history, government, the economy, the environment, and our culture and then apply their knowledge through an island nation they invent themselves. First, the students will trace, color, and label a world map. Next, they will draw, color, and label a political and physical map of their islands. We will transform our physical maps into 3 dimensions by creating a relief map with salt-dough clay. That covers geography—see the list of questions soon to be in the homework folder for what is next!
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