Hello there! Here is the
skinny on our latest third grade learning… (I apologize for the delay in update; I used my regular
Sunday writing time to draft a statement encouraging the Scappoose School
Board to fund our students at the full 100% ADMW in the new charter contract!
Hopefully they will see the light!)
Students conducting nature observations and comparing Wapato Park with their imagined classroom model "Oakwood Park".
Math
This week, students took
the post-assessment for our unit on fractions. Over the past several weeks, we have been learning about and
working with fractions across a variety of models and contexts. Kids have a
good grasp on the classic “pie” and “brownies” models, strong understanding of
the part-to-whole relationship, and can point out equivalent fractions. Most
recently we’ve been tackling more challenging problems that deal with fractions
on a number line, and calculating fractions from a number of given objects
(e.g. ¼ of 24). These models
haven’t come easy to most kids, so I encourage you to get keep up those
fraction conversations at home, or have them play these games:
Here is a GREAT website
from the BBC for some review as well.
Watch the video and look at the interactives with your child:
Our next unit is on
Place Value & Computation with Larger Numbers, including some work with
money and probability.
In
this next unit your child will:
•
read, write, and compare whole numbers to 10,000
•
recognize and create models (e.g., pictures) for whole numbers to 10,000
•
add and subtract 3- and 4- digit numbers using traditional algorithms
(alongside models that reinforce those algorithms)
•
estimate sums (addition) and differences (subtraction) of 3- and 4- digit
numbers
•
solve story problems involving adding and subtracting 3- and 4- digit numbers
Writing
We finished publishing
our Poetry Anthologies, and they look beautiful! The kids worked hard last week to read through their
Writer’s Notebooks and curate the poems they thought would best make an
anthology representing them as a poet.
We also went into the forest to read poems written by the 1st
graders, and gathered sticks and twigs to use for our poetry book binding.
Currently, we are working
on a short research article about an animal that lives in our park “Oakwood
Park” (see below for more about Oakwood Park). The kids have been using graphic organizers to record the
facts they find about habitat, diet, physical characteristics and behavior. This week we will start developing a
rough draft from our notes. Big
goals for this writing assignment are: gathering information from at least 2 sources
(e.g. field guide, books, internet articles) and putting it into one’s own
words, and crafting an introduction, body, and concluding sentence/ending.
In addition to this,
we’ve also been writing on our blogs, and responding to another round of
pen-pal letters.
Reading
We’ve been doing a good
deal of reading for information this week, as students read from field guides,
internet sites, and library books to learn about their animal. With a specific research goal in mind
(e.g. “I need to find out about this frog’s habitat”) this has been great
practice using nonfiction text features like the table of contents, index, bold
print headings, etc. to find certain information.
We also continue our
daily core practice of silently reading to self from “just-right” texts, and
occasionally responding to our readings by writing thoughts, questions, scene
sketches, etc. in our Reader’s Notebooks. The Scholastic Book Fair put many shiny, exciting new
books into kids’ hands, and a big THANK YOU to parents who bought new books for
our classroom library as well – some great new titles are gracing our shelves!!
Our current read-aloud, The
One and Only Ivan, has turned out to be the PERFECT book to show kids what inference is! Because the whole book is told from the perspective of a
gorilla, he will describe something that he doesn’t necessarily have the
vocabulary for. In one example, he observes humans “foraging about, filling
bags with things, and exchanging little old green pieces of paper” – for which
the kids immediately infer: Oh! He’s describing people going shopping! In addition to learning about point-of-view
and inference, this text has also brought up some spirited discussions and
debates about the ethical treatment of animals.
Storyline (Social Studies, Science)
After returning from
Spring Break, the students received a letter from a land management agency
tasking them with turning a parcel of land into a state wildlife park.
Some of the questions
addressed by this unit include:
Why do we have wildlife parks?
What does a wildlife park need?
What animals and plants might you find in various
habitats in a NW state park?
What causes animals and plants to move?
Who works at a park?
Who uses a park?
How are people and living things affected by an
event, problem, or issue at a state park?
How are these issues mitigated?
What do people need to know about a park, and how
do they acquire that information?
We started off with
brainstorming sessions. What is a
wildlife park, exactly? What would
it need to have? What animals might
we find there? So far, the
students have come up with some great ideas - all very much informed by the
background knowledge and environmental ethic they’ve been developing over at
Wapato since October. This past
week, students created a name, entrance, signage, and map to the park. We compared our emerging designs with Wapato on our field study last week. Now students are creating and researching
the animal species found in their "Oakwood Park".
We also had another
special guest lesson from the awesome nature and science educators at Lower
Columbia River Estuary Partnership.
James and Andy visited our classroom last week to teach us more about
different types of NW habitats, and model them using a stream table. Next week, we will go canoeing
with them out on Scappoose Bay!
That’s the news for
now!
Fondly,
Asa
Important Upcoming Dates,
Field Trips, etc.:
Thursday April 24 – Field Trip Canoeing Scappoose
Bay with LCREP (*pack a lunch)
Thursday May 1 – Morning Field Study at Wapato
Park
Thursday/Friday May 8 and 9 - OAKS Reading Round I
Tues/Wed May 13 and 14 - OAKS Math Round II
Thusday June 5 - Last Trip to Wapato - all day (with pen-pals!)
Friday June 6 - Portland Bridge Tour
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