Hi, everyone! Hope you all are ready for week 5 of remote learning. The kitties at my house are SO excited for springtime weather. They've been watching the bunnies in our yard every morning. Please look over your assignment list carefully and email/Zoom me if you have any questions! Remember: The easiest way to access assignments on Google Classroom is to click the "classwork" tab at the top of the page
The easiest way to access the assignments on Google Classroom is to click the "classwork" tab toward the top of the page once you've logged in.
Hello, Third Graders! I hope you all enjoyed your Spring Break. I know many of you had to change your plans last minute. Even though you may not have ended up doing what you planned, I hope you still managed to have some fun and relax with your families. I miss all of you SO much! There is no place I’d rather be than back in our classroom with all of you. Right now, we might not be able to see each other every day like we usually do, but our class will continue learning and growing together! Even though we are not at school, I trust that you will continue to be the hard-working students I’ve come to know. I encourage you to take this time away from school to explore some new books, hobbies, or crafts. Remember, not all learning has to take place in the classroom. You can learn new things by helping your mom or dad cook dinner, watching an informational show on Netflix, building something, playing outside, or finding a new hobby. Each week, I will be creating new assignments for you to complete. Your to-do lists will be posted right here on Minatta Classroom (our class website) every Monday morning, and assignments can be accessed through Google Classroom. All work will be due the Monday after it is assigned by 1:00pm. To start things off, I (and your fellow classmates) would love to hear about the new things you are learning, what you’re currently reading, or what you’ve been doing during our time away from school. As your first assignment, head to Google Classroom and answer the posted question: What have you been up to over spring break? Please answer the question in at least 3 sentences. Remember, take this time away from school as an opportunity to learn new things outside of our classroom! Below, I've included a short video to show you all where and who I'll be working with while we aren't at school. Enjoy! We are all in this together, and I am always here to support you! Please let me know if you need anything. Love, Mrs. Minatta We’ve had another productive week in third grade, with students working hard to wrap up old projects and begin studying new material! In writer’s workshop, third graders wrapped up their endangered animal reports this week. To conclude the project, students created webpages to showcase their research and written work. See below for some examples and look forward to a more in-depth look at student webpages during conference week! During reader’s workshop this week, students began new book clubs. The theme this time around is “series”, with every club reading a book that is a part of a series. The hope is that third graders will get hooked and continue reading a specific author’s works. In both reader’s and writer’s workshops, third graders also practiced written responses to reading. They’re starting to really get the hang of it and will soon transition over to the computer to type out their responses! In math, third graders concluded their study of Unit 5: Multiplication, Division and Area and have transitioned into Unit 6: Geometry. We started things off with practice in finding both the perimeter and area of irregular shapes. Next week, we’ll dive into geometric vocabulary and shape identification. It’s been a fun-filled couple of weeks in third grade! Students celebrated Valentine’s Day, participated in a SEM program, and continued working hard! In math this week, third graders worked at breaking down multi-step division problems and solving them using a variety of strategies. Students also took a short checkpoint that centered on multiplication and division facts. Quick note that third graders should be practicing their multiplication facts at home. I highly encourage students to memorize their multiplication facts (0-12), as getting a handle on them now will be immensely helpful in the future! Third graders can practice their facts via our class blog, with websites accessible through the ‘Student Resources’ tab. Old fashioned flashcards work great as well! Science this week was all about weathering, both the physical and chemical kind. Third graders had the opportunity to simulate different types of weathering through experiments in class. To learn more about chemical weathering, third graders used vinegar to imitate acid rain. Our focus was on how acid rain can alter rock formations. Students made initial observations of 4 different types of rock: basalt, marble, limestone and sandstone. We then left the rocks in vinegar overnight and some interesting chemical reactions transpired! Last week, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science came to Cottonwood. Third graders had a chance to participate in the "Mission to Mars" challenge. It was a great way to practice collaboration and problem solving strategies! In writer’s workshop, third graders continue to work on crafting their endangered animal reports. Many students have completed their rough drafts and have transitioned to typing up their paragraphs on the computer. Things are moving quick, next week students will start creating webpages about their animals!
Of course, we also had an awesome Valentine’s Day celebration in class. Check out the pictures below to see some of the fun! During math this week, third graders were focused on fact families, specifically how they are interconnected. We talked about how we can use fact families to help solve both division and multiplication problems. Third graders then transitioned to studying the language of multiplication and division word problems. We worked to determine key words that help the problem solver determine what the question is asking. Students then had the chance to create and solve word problems of their own! This proved to be a great system of practice and helped solidify how to break down complex word problems. In writer’s workshop, students have been busy researching endangered animals with a focus on how these creatures survive, why they’re endangered, and how people can help save them. Third graders all chose their own animals, learned the animals’ endangered classifications, and have been using online resources to learn all they can. Now that students have thoroughly researched, we will begin crafting reports on each animal. Eventually third graders will create web pages to educate others on conservation efforts! In reader’s workshop, our focus has been on developing deeper theories about characters based on the patterns we perceive. As a class, we discussed how theories are often like icebergs; it’s easy to see the top 10% but we need to look deeper to see the remaining 90%. Often, readers develop what we refer to as ‘surface level’ theories based on simple observations. To successfully dive deeper, readers must track patterns and truly know a character’s personality traits. Expert readers move beyond asking ‘what’ and transition into the ‘why’. This is very much a complex way of thinking, and we will keep practicing in the weeks to come. Finally, we began our Rocks & Mineral science unit! Third graders started things off by observing 4 different soil samples from different regions of the United States. Based on their observations of pebbles, gravel, sand, silt and humus, students worked in small groups to determine what region the soils matched with. In the weeks to come, we’ll be learning more about rock formation, erosion and deposition. Part of our focus this week has been on the Australian bushfires currently taking place. Third graders researched what bushfires are, how they impact the environment, and what has happened to Australia’s wildlife because of them. At the end of the week, third graders learned that over a billion animals have likely perished due to the fires. Students also learned about the effort wildlife conservation groups and everyday people are putting into saving Australia’s iconic animals. Next week, we’ll expand our learning to that of animal endangerment itself. Each third grader will then choose an animal to study as part of a research project. In reader’s workshop this week, we began our unit on character studies. Our mentor text, Winn Dixie, will serve as our guide to recognizing character traits and how fictional characters can change over time. So far, students are doing a great job noticing and reflecting on the character traits of Opal (Winn Dixie’s main character). We will continue working on this next week!
This week in math, our focus was on reviewing unit fractions, with an emphasis on vocabulary terms like: Numerator, denominator, equivalent, whole, and part. Next week, we will target fraction relationships with a focus on equivalency. Third graders worked with pattern blocks to solve equivalency puzzles, plotted fractions on a number line, and solved a few abstract problems. See one of our more challenging ones below. Question: How many little Post-Its will fit on the big Post-It pad? |
Author
Mrs. Minatta is a third grade teacher at Cottonwood Creek Elementary. See and read all about what third graders are up to throughout the school year! Archives
March 2021
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