Classroom News!

Hi there!  

Here is what we’ve been working on in the third grade these past 10 days:

Mathematics

Count things by 1's? Not us! We are well into our multiplication unit. The students are excited to be learning new, efficient strategies for calculating repeated addition of things that come in equal groups. We started the unit by brainstorming lists of all the things that come in groups of 2, 3, 4, 5 up through 12.  Students made posters of multiples and growing patterns; exploring multiplication fact families and seeing multiplication as repeated addition, equal groups of objects, and skip counting. They learned new games, “Loops and Groups”, and “Roll-a-Rectangle”, in which they practiced finding the product of two numbers between 1 and 10.  Students practiced using arrays to model multiplication word problems, and then recorded their own videos to demonstrate their understanding.

click here to watch an example!

click here to watch another example!

 

Finally, students worked together to create a gigantic multiplication and division table, where every possible product resulting from factors 0-10 was illustrated with a rectangular array and arranged in a table. The children had a discussion around the multiplication table, noticing some different patterns: zero property, some “rules of thumb” for calculating 1’s and 10’s facts, and much more. We’ll continue to add to that discussion as Jamie and I push their thinking.  

Writing

Students have been finishing up their nonfiction expert articles, and are learning to use an expository organizational structure to write an article with 3 or more paragraphs that includes:

• a well-developed topic using factual information with supporting

details and simple transitions to link ideas

• an introductory paragraph with a lead and a clear focus or indicating statement about what the topic is

• a concluding sentence or paragraph that uses a transitional phrase and

connects to the introductory paragraph

This last week we’ve been revising to improve the flow of our pieces.  This week we’ll be using an editing checklist for grade level conventions including:

• Ending punctuation

• Capitalization

• Commas in a series

• Checking for spelling errors

We’re also blogging!  Inspired by classmate Gabrielle’s blog, the students have created their own using KidBlog (a safe, teacher-moderated, interactive student blogging platform).  On Friday we practiced logging in and making our first introductory post.   

Click here to visit our KidBlog!

Reading

We finished reading I Have a Dream: The Story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , and also read and discussed a few other shorter picture books about Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement, including: Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down,  I Have a Dream (the award-winning picture book from Kadir Nelson featuring actual audio CD of Dr. King’s Dream speech, which the kids listened to with reverence!),  and Martin’s Big Words.

Click here to see what students have been thinking and writing about as they comment in real time during our online book discussion of the MLK biography!  

We continue our daily core practices of sustained, silent independent reading time, as well as practicing reading out loud to partners to work on oral fluency.     In addition to reading nonfiction that supports our inquiry into rocks and minerals, kids have been exploring the children’s news website Tween Tribune Jr., where they can read high-interest articles and practice sharing their ideas and comments in an online forum:

This coming week, I will be meeting with students one-on-one for a second round of Developmental Reading Assessments (DRA) to check in on their progress since the fall.

Science

Goodbye! Goodbye!  We’ll miss you, salmon fry!   We had a successful release of our salmon fry into the Multnomah Channel.  Thank you, parent chaperones!

In Rocks, Minerals, and Geology, students learned about the three main types of rock, how they cycle through the environment in the Rock Cycle, and properties that geologists look for to identify rocks as igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic. We also explored specimens of new “mystery” minerals, and through the process of inquiry students figured out that rocks are comprised of minerals! This week we will be learning a series of geologist’s tests each day, so that next week students will be able to assess a given specimen and use their findings to identify what it is.  Exciting!

Upcoming Events:

• This Tuesday, January 28 - Free intro workshops for Parenting with Positive Discipline and Yoga for Kids – 6-7pm at SIA  (click here for more information)

• Thursday February 6 – Monthly a.m. Field Study at Wapato Park

• Friday February 14 – Field Trip to Rice Museum of Rocks and Minerals (click here to sign up for chaperoning)

• Friday February 28 – Field Trip to Beacon Rock (click here to sign up for chaperoning)

Homework Journal Assignment Due Tuesday Jan.28

Click here for a downloadable pdf of this week's homework journal assignment.

Rock Cycle Demo Videos!

Rock Cycle Link + Homework Journal Assignment Due Tuesday January 21

Here is the link to the Rock Cycle Animation students will need to explore for their homework this week:

http://www.phschool.com/atschool/phsciexp/active_art/rock_cycle/index.html

Click here for a downloadable pdf of this week's Homework Journal Assignment.

Classroom News - Week of Jan. 6-10

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful winter break and enjoyed some good, relaxing times with your families and friends.  I would like to extend a big THANK YOU for all the lovely holiday cards and gifts from you and your kids – so kind and generous! The new year has exciting things in store for your children - including multiplication, expository writing and poetry, a fantastic unit on rocks, minerals, and NW geology, and so much more...

After a break, it’s always good to do some classroom community building activities, and revisit our third grade routines, procedures, and expectations through discussion and practice.  In addition to getting back into the swing of school, here’s what we’ve been delving into this week:

Math

We’re spending just a few more sessions on geometry – reviewing some of the key concepts and vocabulary we learned before break, as well as practicing measuring and calculating perimeter and area.  Then we’ll be wrapping this unit up and on moving on to… …MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION! 

Reading

This week we began a new read-aloud from the biography genre, I Have a Dream: The Story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.   Told in a strong narrative style, the book recounts Martin's life starting at age six, when he was told he could not play with a white friend. This biography then outlines the seeds of Martin's dreams, how his dream of equality for all developed, how he fought for it, and eventually - gave his life for it.  I hope to get some conversations started with the kids about prejudice, racism, and the importance of working together for social justice.  What we can learn from Martin’s life, and learn about serving others?  See previous blog post below to check out our class iPad discussion wall!

The kids are also getting back into the routine of read-to-self, and writing entries in their reader’s notebooks.  We will also be practicing our fluency through partner readings, and showing our nonfiction comprehension through reading articles and responding to specific questions in an online format.

Writing

This week we kicked off a 3-4 week unit on writing informational articles.  The students are picking an “expert topic” of their choice and writing an informational article – taking it through the whole writing process of graphic organizing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.

Social Studies

During Social Studies we’ve focused on our own community right here in the classroom – revisiting our democratic classroom agreement, the routines and procedures that make our community function well, and the kinds of postive language we can use in our community that makes it feel like a safe, fun place where everyone is included.

Rocks, Minerals, and NW Geology

We started the unit this week by simply observing three mystery rocks while beginning the language of scientific inquiry. Students will explore the differences and similarities between rocks and minerals by investigating samples of these Earth materials and by performing a series of mineral tests similar to geologist’s field tests.

Over the course of this unit, the kids will: · Maintain a science notebook of investigations • Learn about the different types of rock - igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic · Illustrate and explain the rock cycle, and be able to summarize how the three different types of rocks are formed. · Draw some conclusions and defend the best uses for some rock properties. • As a performance task, your child will become a geologist who has been given 3 mystery minerals. They will be asked to identify them, and some of their uses in everyday materials  • Learn about local geologic features, and the earth forces that helped form them.

Wapato Field Study / Salmon Release

Next week, we have our Wapato Field Study – where we will finally be releasing our salmon fry from the docks and shoreline at Hadley’s Landing at Wapato Park.  Kids will need to be dressed for the cold, wet weather.  It can be especially chilly down by the water.  We will back at SIA for lunch just like our other Wapato Field Study days.   If anyone out there has child-sized PFDs (life-jackets) we could borrow, then we can accommodate a few more kids releasing fish from the dock.

Questions to ask your third-grader:

What is perimeter, and how to you calculate it?  When might someone need to find the perimeter of something?

What is area?  When might someone need to find the area of something? How do you calculate it?  If you don’t have a ton of square tiles to lay out and count, is there a more efficient way to calculate it?

What is expository writing? 

What are you planning on writing your article about?

What is happening right now in the biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?

What is prejudice?  What is segregation?  What is civil disobedience?

What do you wonder about rocks and minerals?

When we’re talking about rocks and minerals – what is a “property”?

Upcoming dates, volunteer opportunities, needs, etc etc:

• Child-size PFDs for salmon release

• Soon I will be starting up an after-school Math Club on Wednesdays from 3:10-4:10 for those young mathematicians who need a little extra support and learning-time; first session will be Wednesday Jan. 22^th.  Love math and want to be an adult helper with Math Club?  Get in touch!

• Next Thursday night (Jan. 16) is the SIA Winter Music Concert at the Scappoose Auditorium - don't miss it!

• Wednesday, Jan. 22nd (6pm) at SIA there will be a parent/staff/community information night about School Safety in the Event of an Active Shooter.  Not a cheery topic, but important to attend; current events and law enforcement research are prompting many schools to revise their strategies, including here at SIA.  Multnomah County Deputy Joe Graziano will be presenting.

That's all the news for now!  Have a great weekend!

~ Mr. Asa

Check out our current read-aloud discussion wall!

Click the image to visit the discussion wall.

Homework Journal Assignment Due Monday Jan. 13

Click here for a downloadable pdf of this week's homework journal assignment.