3-308 Research Slideshow

November Writer's Workshop

Character Essay

Unit Goals:

•      Students will write multiple drafts of essays (and will publish at least 1) that clearly states an idea about a character in one book.
•     Students will support the character idea with 3 examples from 1 book.
•     Students will organize the essay into paragraphs.
•      Students will write in complete sentences.
•      Students will use precise, descriptive words.
•      Students will capitalize proper nouns such as names of characters and titles of books.
• Students will use voice to make their writing more engaging.
• 

The purpose of this unit is to learn how to track, build on, and articulate an idea that writers are having about their character across a book.  

November Reading Workshop

November Reader’s Workshop

In November, we are continuing our reading work on inferring character traits based on what the characters say, do and think.  We are working on noticing the characteristics of people with particular traits.  For example, a careful person is someone who does things with care or doesn’t rush or make mistakes. 

Another focus of this unit is building our character trait vocabularies.  Students will be given a bank of character trait words connected to their behaviors.  We are working in small reading groups and one-to-one conferences. 

Our new writing unit is closely tied to this reading unit, as students will be writing about the characters in the books they read. 

At the end of November, we will assess our students' reading by giving a grade-level assessment.  Then we will begin our fiction guided reading groups.  

November Math Workshop

Unit 2 (Rounding, Addition, Subtraction)

In this unit, the students will use place value understandings and the number line as tools to round two-, three-, and four-digit measurements to the nearest ten or hundred (3.NBT.1, 3.MD.1, 3.MD.2).
Students will use estimations to test the reasonableness of sums and differences precisely calculated using standard algorithms.

Students will demonstrate understanding in every step of the addition and subtraction algorithms with two- and three-digit numbers, as 10 units are changed for 1 larger unit or 1 larger unit is changed for 10 smaller units (3.NBT.2).  Students will use these skills to solve addition and subtraction word problems.

The following are links to websites to help your child at home:

http://www.mathplayground.com/grade_3_games.html

http://www.abcya.com/third_grade_computers.htm

http://www.softschools.com/grades/3rd_grade/math/

Upcoming tests:

The students will continue to work on their multiplication and division fluency with weekly, timed quizzes. Please continue to practice and memorize multiples and multiplication facts.

There will be a rounding mid module quiz and an addition/subtraction end of unit assessment. 

November Read Aloud

GRADE  3 READ ALOUD  IN:

For the month of November, Grade 3 students will be immersed in NON FICTION books. We are currently reading books about the:

S O L A R    S Y S T E M

We have been learning about this topic through different nonfiction sources such as:

• articles
• books
• biographies
• videos
• photos
• internet research

Students have been learning about various nonfiction strategies as well as learning how to navigate through a nonfiction book by understanding different non fiction text features such as:

 Starting next week, Grade 3 will be shifting gears and moving back into the world of REALISTIC FICTION. 
We will read a wonderful story  called, Because of Winn-Dixie.  

Here is a sneak preview of what the book will be about...

Opal Buloni and her preacher dad move to little ol' Naomi, Florida from little ol' Watley, Florida. Even though it's a new place, ten-year-old Opal isn't digging it. She misses her friends, her home, and her mother who left her when she was a little girl. Life is pretty sad and she is lonely.  

Enter Winn-Dixie, a cute stray dog that Opal befriends as he ransacks aWinn-Dixie grocery store. The lovable mutt falls in love with Opal and the preacher, they fall in love with him, and voila! Opal's summer suddenly takes a turn for the better.

Thanks to Winn-Dixie's easygoing nature, he manages to introduce Opal to new friends in Naomi—the little old librarian, Miss Franny; the alleged witch, Gloria Dump; and the shy pet store worker, Otis. Opal spends each day swapping stories with these new friends, despite taunts from the neighborhood bully patrol.

Things go on like this for a while, and then Opal and Gloria Dump plan a shindig. Opal invites everyone, including the bully patrol. Everything is going swimmingly until a storm comes and poof! freaks out Winn-Dixie, who is ridiculously afraid of thunderstorms. Poof again! Winn-Dixie disappears.

Opal and her dad search and search, coming up with nada. Then, as her dad tries to convince her to give up, Opal has a break down.  Opal realizes that her mom isn't coming back, but she has a father who loves her, friends who love her, potential friends to love her, and she'll be okay.

Once again, students will continue to work on their read aloud goals. They will take part in daily book discussions where they will be encouraged to think deeply about the text and explore different literary devices.  

Your child will come home with reading response questions. Please ensure all questions are restated, and answered with specific text details.

Punctuation, capitalization and grammar count!!!

As always, thank you for your continued support!

Happy November!

October Math

Math 

In math this month, the students will continue to work on multiplication and division strategies to solve two digit by one digit examples and word problems on the topic.

Our unit will be moving into Engage NY Module 3. This 25-day module builds directly on students’ work with multiplication and division in Module 1. Module 3 extends the study of factors from 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 to include all units from 0 to 10, as well as multiples of 10 within 100. This allows students to build fluency with facts involving a particular unit before moving on. 

Ways to Help at Home

Please work with children to assist them in becoming more fluent and faster at answering 2 by 1 multiplication and division problems.  Do drills, flash cards or the following websites at home, several times a week.

Websites

www.multiplication.com

www.fun4thebrain.com

www.kidsnumbers.com/multiplication

www.mathplayground.com

Upcoming Tests

The mid module assessments were given the week of 10/5

A multiplication/division quiz (to check the students' fluency and understanding of word problems will be given the week of 10/12)

The end of unit assessment will be given at the end of the month once the entire unit is complete

October Read Aloud

In Read Aloud, we have been reading and enjoying the book, FRINDLE.

 

Students think Nick is creative since he created the word, FRINDLE

 Students are practicing how to actively  engage in meaningful conversations.  Many of our students are actively participating in group discussions BUT we still have a few that are quite timid. Please ask your child, “How was Read Aloud today?” Did you participate?  

 Eventually, we want all students to take part in book discussions as it plays an integral part in our learning.

At this time, you may have noticed that students come home daily with a Read Aloud response question.  This question is always based on that day’s reading and used to assess students’ understanding of the text. Please ensure that all answers are clearly RESTATED and answered with SPECIFIC TEXT DETAILS.  Everyone has been working very hard on this and improvement is already noted! 

REMINDER!!

Vocabulary Tests will be given based on the following “character”  words.  Students will be assessed on their ability to use the words in proper context.  These words are used daily in class during conversations.

Here are the words for this unit…

STRICT

CREATIVE

CLEVER

GREEDY

TROUBLE MAKER

COURAGEOUS

REPUTATION

LEGENDARY

LAZY

As always, thank you for your continued support!

Upcoming Read Aloud work will focus around reading nonfiction informational text…. We will share further information as the unit gets closer!