Hello students and families!
We had a great week in Room 31! Here is a look at some of our learning this week.
Writing: We continued working on our Informational writing pieces. Students taught their expert subject to their table groups using a 5-finger organizer. They thought of 5 details to teach, wrote them down, and then did an oral presentation of their knowledge. This helped students make an outline of their Subject, along with Headings and general details they plan to include. Next week, we will organize our writing into Boxes and Bullets (graphic organizers) and continue to "write long" about our interesting subjects!
Reading: We continue reading about the Wampanoag tribe in small groups. Students are doing a great job of backing up their ideas with EVIDENCE from the text. They are also going above & beyond with the C-E-R essay approach. Many groups enjoy using highlighters to color code their claim, evidence, and reasons, in order to check over their work and ensure they have a strong answer.
Special Presentation: We were fortunate to have a third grade parent (Mo from Ms. Merrell's class) bring in some artifacts from her workplace, the Concord Museum. We became historians and thought about how each artifact could have helped the Wampanoags survive. We grouped the tools into food, shelter, and transportation. Students enjoyed the presentation, and loved interacting with materials from long ago!
Math: We worked more on finding the difference and subtraction strategies this week. We practiced more comparison problems, and discussed why either subtraction or addition can be used to solve them. We also learned about related problems, where one of the numbers increases or decreases and the mathematician must consider how that affects the solution. Last, we looked at Subtraction Story Problems, and learned strategies used by our classmates to solve them. Some strategies that seem to be a good fit are:
Word Work: We had a second week of investigating contractions. Students did well on an assessment where they had to separate the two words combined into the contraction, and list the letter(s) replaced by the apostrophe. We also learned how to spell some of the more difficult contractions, or exceptions to the general rules (won't).
C.A.R.E.S: Our core value we are focusing on is RESPONSIBILITY, and community supplies are a great way to learn about taking care of yourself and others. Next week, we will work on taking care of pencils and other materials in our classroom. We have a system of community supplies (https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/community-supplies/) so please do not send in special pencils or erasers. (However, if you'd like to donate to the class, feel free! We have currently have exactly 22 pencils with erasers.)
We also reviewed our Morning and Afternoon routine to help start and end our day on a positive note. We are hoping for 100% homework completion next week! Please check your child's Take Home folder nightly to help clear out corrected work, notices, and assist with making a homework plan.
We had a great week in Room 31! Here is a look at some of our learning this week.
Writing: We continued working on our Informational writing pieces. Students taught their expert subject to their table groups using a 5-finger organizer. They thought of 5 details to teach, wrote them down, and then did an oral presentation of their knowledge. This helped students make an outline of their Subject, along with Headings and general details they plan to include. Next week, we will organize our writing into Boxes and Bullets (graphic organizers) and continue to "write long" about our interesting subjects!
Reading: We continue reading about the Wampanoag tribe in small groups. Students are doing a great job of backing up their ideas with EVIDENCE from the text. They are also going above & beyond with the C-E-R essay approach. Many groups enjoy using highlighters to color code their claim, evidence, and reasons, in order to check over their work and ensure they have a strong answer.
Special Presentation: We were fortunate to have a third grade parent (Mo from Ms. Merrell's class) bring in some artifacts from her workplace, the Concord Museum. We became historians and thought about how each artifact could have helped the Wampanoags survive. We grouped the tools into food, shelter, and transportation. Students enjoyed the presentation, and loved interacting with materials from long ago!
Math: We worked more on finding the difference and subtraction strategies this week. We practiced more comparison problems, and discussed why either subtraction or addition can be used to solve them. We also learned about related problems, where one of the numbers increases or decreases and the mathematician must consider how that affects the solution. Last, we looked at Subtraction Story Problems, and learned strategies used by our classmates to solve them. Some strategies that seem to be a good fit are:
- Add up from the smaller number to the larger number
- Subtract back from the larger number to the smaller number
- Subtracting one number in parts
Word Work: We had a second week of investigating contractions. Students did well on an assessment where they had to separate the two words combined into the contraction, and list the letter(s) replaced by the apostrophe. We also learned how to spell some of the more difficult contractions, or exceptions to the general rules (won't).
C.A.R.E.S: Our core value we are focusing on is RESPONSIBILITY, and community supplies are a great way to learn about taking care of yourself and others. Next week, we will work on taking care of pencils and other materials in our classroom. We have a system of community supplies (https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/community-supplies/) so please do not send in special pencils or erasers. (However, if you'd like to donate to the class, feel free! We have currently have exactly 22 pencils with erasers.)
We also reviewed our Morning and Afternoon routine to help start and end our day on a positive note. We are hoping for 100% homework completion next week! Please check your child's Take Home folder nightly to help clear out corrected work, notices, and assist with making a homework plan.