It’s been quite the week in third grade! This week, our focus has been on subtraction regrouping and finding patterns, reading comprehension checks, and writing well-organized paragraphs. This week in math, our focus was on tracking patterns, balancing equations, and solidifying subtraction regrouping strategies. One activity, School Fair Necklaces, challenged students to develop symmetrical patterns. The problem is below… can you find all the solutions?? In reader's workshop, we’ve been focused on comprehension checks and making predictions. While reading, third graders annotated their comprehension check-ins in their reader's notebooks. They were tasked with asking themselves the following 3 questions: Who is in this part? What just happened? Did something like this already happen, or is this new? The questions are meant to solidify understanding of characters and important events within a story. We also practiced all together with our current read aloud, Stone Fox. It’s a book with many cliffhangers… perfect for making predictions! During writer’s workshop, our focus continued to be on writing a well-organized paragraph. This week, third graders wrote a paragraph about their favorite special at school. Students learned how to incorporate a hook/bold beginning to start off their paragraphs. After all, we need to hook a reader’s attention! In social studies, third graders read about how Denver’s first settlers came to be. Students collaborated in small groups to create a visual representation of important historical events that led to the founding of Denver itself. Groups did a great job creating their representations and presenting them to the class! Next week, we will be working on multi-step word problems and equalities in math. Reader’s workshop will center on making predictions and inferring. In writing, we’ll continue work with stoplight paragraphs. Finally, Denver history will center on those that helped establish our great city! It’s been a busy week in third grade! This week, our focus has been on active listening and developing collaborative skills. Academically, students have been reviewing addition and subtraction strategies, determining how to select ‘just right’ books, and constructing stoplight paragraphs. To be successful in third grade (and life in general), we all must harness a set of collaborative skills. To become masters of collaboration, our class started things off with a discussion centered on teamwork as a life skill. In the classroom, we often work in groups and rely on one another. This requires a knowledge of how to work together and be a team player. Together, we created a rubric that we’ll refer to throughout the year, ranking collaborative efforts on a scale from 1 to 4 stars. To test their collaboration, third graders worked in small groups to stack cup towers. The goal was to not only stack a tower as tall as possible, but to maintain 3 or 4 star collaboration despite feelings of frustration and towers toppling over. The activity sparked some great conversations, and third graders are now well-versed on the importance of effective collaboration! We will keep practicing the important skill throughout the school year! Math this week was centered on reviewing addition and subtraction concepts. Students were tasked with analyzing key terms within word problems that signify what operation needs to be used. Some third graders even began doing this in multi-step, multi-operation word problems! Next week, we will be reviewing subtraction regrouping in 2 and 3 digit problems. In Reader’s Workshop, third graders have been working on selecting ‘just right’ books. Third graders decided that for a book to be considered a good fit it must be at the reader’s level, be interesting enough to hold focus, and the reader should comprehend the story/information. To round out the week, third graders analyzed their reading logs, looking for patterns in their reading and ultimately setting new goals for themselves. Next week, our focus will be on sharing our reading with a partner and comprehension checks. Writing centered on developing a well-organized paragraph according to the stoplight writing system. The system is a great tool to use when learning how to write in paragraph form but can admittedly feel tedious when first learning the process. As a whole group, we wrote a paragraph to answer the prompt pictured. Writing the paragraph together proved to be a great collaborative effort! We will continue practicing with the stoplight method next week, where third graders will write their own paragraphs on a topic of their choice. Business:
Our first week of school was a huge success! It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know each and every student… We have an amazing class! This week, third graders started establishing classroom routines, have been getting to know one another, and worked on forming our classroom community. Much of our week has centered on getting back in the swing of things. Third graders took a tour of the school and discussed ROAR behaviors in places like the cafeteria, hallway, classroom, and out on the playground. We also worked on solidifying routines like filling out planners, bringing red folders to and from home, and getting acquainted with the third grade daily schedule. Practice logging onto the computers and utilizing flexible seating was also a part of our week. Students are learning quickly and are taking their new responsibilities in stride! Of course, a large portion of our week was getting to know one another. For our classroom to be a supportive and kind environment, a large part of that means being comfortable and respectful toward each other. Third graders participated in a variety of team-building activities like a STEM paper chain challenge and created our classroom promise. We will continue establishing our classroom community in the weeks to come and are already doing a great job of encouraging and cheering on classmates! Next week, we'll be jumping into our third grade curriculum. Students will start their first math unit, begin studying Denver History, learn about stoplight paragraph writing, and participate in Reader's Workshop. Welcome back to school, third grade families! My name is Kelli Minatta, and I am eager to get this 2019-2020 school year started! This blog will serve as an information hub, a place where you can find all the latest and greatest third grade news. On it, students and parents can find important information on our curriculum, homework, upcoming projects, parent paperwork (permission slips, volunteering opportunities, etc.), and even a short bio about Mrs. Minatta. So take some time, explore the site, and get ready to have an awesome year!
Be seeing you :) -Mrs. Minatta |
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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