Week of January 27, 2014

                        



Language Arts

                                                    

In addition to reading folktales and identifying the message and lesson learned by the characters in the stories, the students will undertake a writing assignment.  Students will write a narrative story which conveys a message or a lesson learned. Students will establish a situation and organize their writing to develop a sequence of events that shows a character's response to a situation in which the character learns a lesson.  Students have read stories and will listen to stories which will be used as mentor texts. The following books are examples of mentor texts.


                                                   



                               



                                  

Mathematics

Now that students have learned about perimeter, students will explore the concept of area.  They will use tiles to find the area of different shapes of rectangles.  Then students will find both area and perimeter of shapes.  Students will also trace their foot and find the area and perimeter of this shape.

                       


                                               

This open-ended lesson will allow students to explore ways to measure their shoeprint after tracing it on paper. Ask your child what method they used to figure it out?  
                                   
Social Studies 

In social studies, students will undertake exploring the six themes of geography. Students will start by learning to read a map and identify the map features.  Students will use their prior knowledge of nonfiction text features taught in the nonfiction language arts unit and transfer that knowledge to reading maps.  Students will learn the importance of titles, legends, photographs, and graphs as they delve into the world of junior geographers.

                                                       

January 20, 2014

Language Arts

 
This week students will continue their study of folktales and move into reading folktales relating to other countries.
Students will read Chinese Folktales.  After the students identify the story elements, students will discuss the message of the story.

                   

This text follows seven look-alike brothers with unique

powers, ranging from astute hearing to superhuman strength,

as they fight the powerful emperor, who exploits the hard

work of the peasants at the Great Wall of China.  The

emperor tries to have the brothers killed, but the brothers'

powers overcome the powerful emperor. This folktale shows

how a family's talent and cooperation beat insurmountable

odds.
 

Below is the story created by students in a YouTube Video:

   

           

Students will also learn the six syllable types.

                 

Math This Week

Students will use four interlocking cubes to form five different shapes.  This will lead to understanding that area is measured in square units.  Students will learn when measuring area the space being measured must be covered with no gaps or overlaps. Finally, students will use squares and triangles to make shapes with an area of four square units.

                                             





                   

Science

Students should be recording their observations of the moon in their moon journals to reinforce learning of the phases of the moon. Students have learned that the moon revolves around the earth and the earth revolves and rotates around the sun.

Students should be reading nightly as well as practicing their basic math facts.

              
 

January News!

Third graders in Room 17 are beginning the year with new units in language arts, math, and science.

Language Arts

The class will review genre and the characteristics of different genres as they undertake the unit on Folktales, Fairy Tales, and Myths. Understanding the characteristics of genres enables students to comprehend the text better and anticipate the text structure of the story.

Students will start with American Folktales, like Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed. These books will be used as mentor texts to study of American folktales.
 
The American Folktale usually has a hero. The events in the story are grossly exaggerated. The characters exhibit courage, physical strength, cleverness, hardwork, or determination. 
 
                     
Paul Bunyan is about the life of an unusual lumberjack whose outrageous size and strength brought him many adventures which includes finding a blue ox named Babe and experiences with other lumberjacks in South Dakota and California.
 
 
                            
 
This book is about the life of John Chapman, who became known as Johnny Appleseed. This legendary man was famous for his distribution of apple seeds and the trees he planted as he explored the frontier. His main characteristics were his love of nature, kindness to animals and his physical endurance.
 
As students read these stories they will have opportunities to learn there are various versions of the same stories.

A folktale is a story orally handed down from one generation to another. Not only are people characters in some folktales, but animals are portrayed with human traits. Each story has a theme. Folktales differ from fairytales. Fairy tales have an element of magic and good triumphs over evil.

The following YouTube video displays examples of many different types of folktales, fairy tales, myths and legends that can be used with students of all ages.

After reading American folktales, students will read folktales from different countries.  Students will discuss the theme and author's message of the stories they read.  Students will have the opportunity to compare and contrast stories to discuss the similarities and differences in story elements and themes.
 
The following is a link to many different folktales. http://www.americanfolklore.net/sindex.html
 
As part of this unit students will be writing a narrative story about a personal experience in which they learned a lesson.

Mathematics
In math, students will be review the U.S. and metric units to measure length. Following this, the class will find the perimeter of various 2-dimensional shapes.




                     





                                          


Science
 
Third grade students will study and learn the names of the phases of the moon.

In order to relate their understanding of the phases of the moon, students will keep a moon journal for a month recording their observations as well as draw and write what they witness about the changes they noticed.