In reading and writing workshops this week, third graders engaged in a study on natural disasters. Students read an article focused on one Northern California town’s recent experience with the Camp Fire. It detailed the harrowing stories of residents in Paradise, California and explained the cause and effect of the wildfire on townspeople. Students were riveted by the story! They then began researching other natural disasters such as earthquakes, avalanches, tornadoes, etc. Third graders were tasked with thinking and talking about their learning with one another. Eventually, students created infographics detailing how to survive a specific natural disaster. Check out the examples below! This week, students completed their Multiplication & Division unit in math and their scored assessments were sent home. Now, third graders are continuing practice with multiplication and division concepts, with an added focus on multi-step word problems. Our new unit of study also centers on measurement concepts such as: elapsed time, mass, length, volume, and unit fractions. It’s a multi-faceted unit of study with increased rigor, and third graders are jumping right in! Outside of our academic work, responsibility was a major focus of ours this week. Specifically, third graders participated in discussions and activities centered on recognizing their responsibilities both at school and home. Students acknowledged that to be deemed responsible, one must act with integrity and self-discipline. You may have seen your student’s “responsibility ladder” come home this week. Feel free to talk with them about it! Our math block this week was dedicated to creating and analyzing various types of graphs. To begin, third graders were tasked with gathering data regarding students’ favorite book genres and representing it graphically. In making their representations, students had to determine how to best scale their results. This proved a bit tricky, as not all answers had common multiples. After creating graphs, third graders began evaluating various line plots, bar, and picture graphs. Working with graphs was a good exercise in analyzing data… Something students will continue doing throughout the school year (and beyond). In writing, students continued on the RACE response train. This week, third graders worked in partnerships to write a response together. They then assessed themselves using our RACE response rubric. It was impressive to witness the self-awareness many students displayed when grading themselves. The activity turned out to be a successful exercise in self-reflection! As a way to wrap up our science unit on Matter & Energy, Rich Martinez (an actual EPA scientist!) came in for a “Science Matters” presentation. Students learned more about solids, liquids and gases and how they can be transformed. Third graders had a ton of fun witnessing and participating in wacky demonstrations!
Of course, our 3rd grade performance was also this week. Students did an amazing job with their rendition of Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain! So proud of all their hard work and efforts! This week in reader’s workshop, our focus was on synthesizing the main idea from two texts, “The Magical World of Isaac” and “A Very Special Olympics.” Both texts highlight the need for inclusion. One details the uniqueness of a boy named Isaac and the other explains the origin of the Special Olympics. Third graders excelled at answering questions about the text, and many had creative perspectives to offer during group discussions. Our math block this week was dedicated to analyzing number relationships through multiplication. Third graders first practiced this with ratio tables, eventually moving to a whole-class challenge problem. Third graders were tasked with breaking down the constraints of the problem below and used what they know about multiplication to solve. It was a tough challenge, but 3rd graders did a great job of collaborating and communicating with one another! In writing, this week marked the start of a new written response strategy, RACE responses. In short, a RACE response is typically a paragraph in length and is a strategy implemented when a question asks for "evidence from the text." RACE responses are used in the upper grades, as well as on standardized tests. Students will continue practicing these responses in the classroom for the next couple of weeks, and eventually be assigned responses for homework through the remainder of the school year. Business:
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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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