This week in third grade, students continued work on their Fidget Spinner opinion pieces. We used Google Docs to type up final drafts. In addition to typing practice, using Google Docs was a great way to learn some formatting skills like double spacing, putting a space after punctuation, and capitalizing titles. Third graders also learned how to share their pieces, add images, and make comments when making their final edits. It was quite the learning experience! Look for copies of their paragraphs coming home next week. In math, students jumped right in to multiplication! Unit 2 of Bridges in Mathematics challenges third graders to analyze their thinking and be creative with their problem solving strategies. Our classroom forums, where we discuss different strategies we can use to solve complex problems, have allowed third graders to share their thinking with the class. This opens new avenues for discussion and study, and encourages third graders to think about their problem solving in more ways than one! Reading this week was focused on story elements, specifically analyzing character changes and tracking plot development. As a class, we read a short story called, “Clean Start,” where a boy named Max creates a robot to do his chores, but eventually gives it away to someone that needs it more. As a class and in small groups, third graders discussed how Max changed over time and tracked his character change from selfish to considerate. We also learned about story plot, where we discussed terms like climax and rising/falling action. Next week, we will continue exploring story elements as well as work on our reading fluency. Thanks to generous donations from friends and family during Run 4 Funds, third graders were lucky enough to win and go on a limo cruise this week! Students had a great time dancing and listening to music while cruising around in their extravagant rides! Check out the pictures below to view the fun.
You may have heard your student talking about "Terrific Tickets" in our classroom. Terrific Tickets are small, colorful slips of paper given to students when Mrs. Minatta notices a student ROAR. Sometimes, the act is small, like walking with a purpose in the hallway. Most often, tickets are given to students that are helping others, demonstrating a growth mindset, or simply doing a great job! When given a ticket, third graders put their name on it and turn it into the ticket bin. Every Friday, six lucky winners are drawn from the bin and receive a small prize. Early on in the year, third graders figured out that the more tickets you have in the bin, the more likely you are to win... Such statisticians! So far, this positive reinforcement has been a great success. We will continue to use it throughout the school year. In writing this week, third graders began crafting opinion paragraphs focused on one guiding question: Should fidget spinners be banned from classrooms? As you can imagine, third graders had some very strong opinions and arguments on the topic! We began our discussion by talking about what opinions are and why they are important. We also worked to discern fact from opinion using everyday examples. We have started the drafting process of our paragraphs, and will continue with them next week. Also beginning next week, we will start our study on the regions of the United States. Students will practice their map skills and begin learning about the Northeastern region of the U.S. We will also jump into Unit 2 of Bridges: Introduction to Multiplication. Third graders have been so excited to start this! Throughout the unit, rather than focus on the rote memorization of multiplication facts, the goal is to provide students with strategies to help understand the properties of multiplication. By the end of the unit, third graders will be able to: Solve story problems involving multiplication, develop efficient strategies for multiplication facts up to 10 x 10, and represent problems using arrays, number lines, and ratio tables. Find more information below. Business:
It has been a great week in third grade! Students have been busy learning about important people in Denver’s history and finishing final drafts of stoplight paragraphs. Third graders also participated in their first Reader’s Workshop station rotations and learned about variables in mathematical story problems. Social Studies this week centered on historical figures of Denver. Third graders learned about William Jackson Palmer, Mary Elitch Long and Barney Ford. They also studied the lives of Molly Brown, Soapy Smith and Baby Doe Tabor. Some of the individuals we learned about were upstanding citizens, while others were con artists and socialites surrounded by scandal. Be sure to ask your third grader more about the people behind Denver’s beginnings. They have some strong opinions on each! This week in writing, third graders edited and revised their stoplight paragraphs. Often, it’s difficult to make revisions on a writing project... Especially as a third grader! As a class, we discussed authors like Dr. Seuss, J.K. Rowling, and Dav Pilkey. All of these writers go back and edit/revise their work over and over again until it meets their standards. This is what we need to do as writers! Third graders each received an editing and revising checklist that asked them to go back to their work and ensure it’s of the best quality possible. Third graders then wrote their final drafts and turned them in. Graded paragraphs will be going home next week, so you can see how hard your student has been working! Reader’s Workshop this week featured our first small group station rotations. Students read a true story about a passenger’s escape from the Titanic, answered critical thinking questions about their reading, worked on Wordly Wise vocabulary, read independently and responded to their reading. Whew! We will continue with stations next week, focusing on reading strategies and making inferences. In math, third graders were introduced to the term ‘variable’ and experimented with them in double digit addition and subtraction story problems. They were also challenged to solve the missing variable in equations. These operations required some complex problem solving, but third graders maintained a growth mindset! Next week, we will continue work with two-digit addition and subtraction story problems and take our Unit 1 assessment. Speaking of growth mindset… Third graders participated in a brief lesson where we watched the video below (Stuck on an Escalator) and discussed the language of a growth vs. fixed mindset. Third graders we given a list of common fixed mindset phrases and challenged to alter the language to fit a growth mindset. They did an awesome job! Moving forward, “Get off the escalator” will be a phrase we use to encourage independent problem solving! Business:
What a week in third grade! Not only did third graders continue working hard in all academic subjects, but they went on their first third grade field trip and participated in Run 4 Funds prize day.
In class this week, third grade students worked hard at crafting their own reading responses, writing stoplight paragraphs, and balancing complex addition and subtraction equations. We also went on a field trip… Which was a total success! Third graders had a chance to learn more about Denver’s historic buildings and landmarks while walking throughout the lower downtown area. We visited famous buildings like the D & F Tower and Union Station, walked through Larimer Square, and went inside the Colorado National Bank. View the gallery of pictures below to see what fun we had! Next week, we will focus on inferences vs. predictions (what the difference is), edit our paragraphs, begin talking about measurement and length, and study the famous citizens of Denver. It’s been a busy week in third grade, filled with all kinds of new learning! Our focus has been on addition and subtraction story problems, writing a well-organized paragraph, responding to our reading, and learning the importance of collaboration. Check out the class blog for more information. This week, third graders continued work with addition and subtraction story problems. Our focus was on including three things in every response: an equation, proof of thinking, and an answer. Third graders also had their first round of math stations, where they worked in small groups on short projects and played some quick math games. Students did a great job transitioning from station to station, and helped group-mates out when they needed assistance. We concluded the week with a quick math checkpoint to see where students are so far in the unit. We will go over that next week! 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. To keep third grade writers interested and engaged, we decided to write about something fun, gross and intriguing… Boogers! Although disgusting, the topic was amusing and kept all of us motivated to finish our paragraphs. We will continue practicing with the stoplight method next week, where readers will write their own paragraphs on a topic of their choice. Reader’s Workshop this week centered on responding to reading in our reader’s journals. To practice this, third graders read Ira Sleeps Over and wrote responses in the form of a letter to the book’s main character, Ira. After practicing all together, students wrote their own responses to their independent reading books. Some third graders made a story web, others responded in paragraph form, and some drew a comic strip of an important event from their book. We will continue with this work next week while focusing on reading strategies like making predictions and inferences. To round out the week, third graders had a great brainstorming session regarding the importance of collaboration in the classroom (and beyond). We talked about how being collaborative is a life skill; something you do for the all of your life. 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. Our class created a rubric that we’ll refer to throughout the year, ranking collaborative efforts on a scale from 1 to 4 stars. The activity sparked some great conversations, and third graders are now well-versed on the importance of effective collaboration! Business:
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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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