Welcome back from vacation!

The class will begin new units in Language Arts, Math, and Social Studies.

Language Arts

Students will begin a study of nonfiction reading. In this unit students will determine the main idea of a text as well as recount key details.  Then students will explain how the details support the main idea. Students will read about explorers and connect their learning of explorers in social studies to their knowledge of reading nonfiction materials.

                              

                                       


Social Studies
Students will identify the reasons why people explore and what qualities are needed to be an explorer. Students will determine how exploration helped the development of the Americas. The Vikings will be the first group of explorers which students will learn about.

                                     


             

Math

Students will begin their study of multiplication by learning multiples of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10. Students will transfer their knowledge of skip counting and doubling to multiplication. After this students will delve into word problems with multiplication.

                                      

The first week of February 2014

"Away in a meadow all covered with snow
The little old groundhog looks for his shadow
The clouds in the sky determine our fate
If winter will leave us all early or late."
-  Don Halley

Language Arts

                                          

After reading the following two folktales, The Seven Chinese Brothers and Anansi The Spider, the students used a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the two stories.  Then students wrote a paragraph comparing the author's message along with examples of how the two stories were alike and different.  This week students will read, Anansi Does The Impossible, and then watch the movie, "How Anansi Obtained the Sky God's Stories." Students will discuss the similarities and differences between these two types of media. Then students will determine which they liked better. 

                                          

                                      

Following this, students will read, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears and determine what caused this to happen.

 

                                   
                                          
                                  


Here is a You Tube video explaining the story:

Mathematics

 
Students are learning about the attributes of triangles and quadrilaterals in math.  



Students created triangles with straws and discussed all triangles have three sides, three vertices and three angles. Students learned the term "vertex." Then they discovered the area inside the triangle where two sides meet is called an angle.  Students made triangles of different lengths and learned that one type of triangle is called a right triangle. Then students discussed the attributes of polygons in order to determine the difference between shapes that are and are not triangles.

Students are learning the properties of quadrilaterals and the difference between squares,  and rectangles. They first will create these shapes with straws. Then students will discuss the attributes of a quadrilateral, which means the shape has four sides, four angles, and four vertices. The students will notice that squares and rectangles have right angles. Students will compare and contrast the difference in these two shapes.




                                          


                                                  
                                                  

                                      
    




The great minds of the students in this class are working hard to learn concepts and are delving deep into concepts being presented in class.




                                    

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.

                           December News

                  
             

 Language Arts

 
The third graders are continuing the nonfiction unit by learning how key details support the main idea.  Students will also practice summarizing a nonfiction text by using the main idea and supporting details. Then students will use this knowledge to write a nonfiction piece. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                         
                                 

Math

Students are using measuring strips to see the pattern in numbers.  Students will use connecting cubes and make strips with markings for up to ten groups of five, ten, three, six, and nine. After skip counting is recorded on the strip to determine the multiples of these various numbers, students will be encouraged to see the relationship in the numbers.  These measuring strips will help students figure out multiplication problems.

Social Studies

The class is studying the Plains Native Americans. They will learn about their way of living, food, homes and animals.  Then they will compare and contrast the Plains Native Americans and the Wampanoag. 

                                     
 




           

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Language Arts

Students are learning to identify main idea and supporting details in a paragraph.  First the class focused on finding the main idea in a set of pictures. Then they learned that the main idea may be in the beginning or end of a paragraph. The next step is to transfer this learning to finding the main idea in an article.

Students published their personal narratives and are displayed outside the classroom.  Below are examples of the hard work students put forth to write and illustrate their stories.

Since this story is not readable from the photograph. Here is the story the student wrote describing her personal narrative.

Have you ever been scared to do something? I know I have! My first time skiing was really scary. I was so nervous! What if I fall or mess up? I knew I couldn’t do it! I wanted to go home. I wanted to leave Mt. Southington, CT. My mom got my skiing gear, but I didn’t put it on. I was worried. I was getting even more scared every second I was there. My mom got my skiing shoes and my helmet. I wanted to ski, but I could get hurt! My mom encouraged me. I still didn’t want to risk skiing down that steep hill. I didn’t know what to do! I finally tired of standing around and being afraid. I would ski down that hill, and nobody could stop me! I was going to get over my fear and stop worrying! I could to do it! But should I? Time was running out! Mount Southington was going to close soon, and I couldn’t make up my mind! I had to decide! Should I risk skiing and get over my fear, or should I give up and regret it my whole life? I didn’t want to get hurt, but I felt like I should do it! I thought and thought. Finally, I made my decision. I was going to do it. I got on my skiing gear and my skiing shoes, and I went up the ski lift. I got to the top of the snowy hill and I froze. The mountain was so high! It was at least 20 feet off of the ground! I couldn’t do it! It was too late to turn back though! So I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I felt a cool breeze on my face and I opened my eyes. I pushed my cold feet, and the next thing I knew, I was skiing! I felt so excited that I got over my fear! I got to the bottom of the mountain and I slowed down. Then I went to see my mom. We took all of my gear off and my mom gave me a big hug. I could tell she was proud of me. I was elated that I asked my mom for ice cream in the lunch room at Mount Southington. I was proud and happy. I never forgot the day I skied down a hill at Mount Southington. 

Social Studies/Writing

Students used their knowledge of the Wampanoag Native Americans in social studies to write from the perspective of a member of the tribe. Here are samples of the student work related to this endeavor.

Math

In math students are undertaking the concept of multiplication through the process of looking at groups of objects and expressing their thinking as repeated addition, skip counting, groups of 2, 4, 5, etc., doubling, and or multiplication. Students started this unit by taking a trip to the grocery store and viewing items such as a bag of apples, or groups of oranges, bottled water and representing this in mathematical terms. This week students will view groups of stamps and assign a value for the stamps.  Then students will figure out the total value of the stamps by the aforementioned methods. This is a hands-on unit where student thinking is emphasized and working with partners is critical to learning the concept of multiplication.

              
   

 

                    
Here is an interesting video about context for learning.