Our last week of school before winter break—How the time has flown! Even with the looming excitement of the upcoming holidays, third graders managed to stay focused on the task at hand…Learning! Math this week featured a fun snowman project that went home with students yesterday. Each third grader was given a budget of $20 to buy materials and snow to build their own snowman. The cost of materials varied, based on size and color. The challenge for third graders was spending as close to $20 without going over budget. This proved difficult for some, but many managed to land on $20 exactly! During social studies this week, we focused on major events throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Students learned what the terms ‘segregation’ and ‘integration’ mean in terms of The Movement, and reviewed their knowledge of key individuals like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. On Wednesday and Thursday, third graders were supplied with eleven important events spanning from 1865 to 1968. Students were tasked with putting the events in order, and reviewing what role each played in history. Third graders had conversations amongst themselves and as a class about what Civil Rights events surprised them the most, what they wish they could have done, and how they would explain the events to others. We will continue this learning when we return from winter break. Writing this week was technologically focused, as students finished typing their persuasive “What Pet Should We Get” essays on the computer. Today, students shared their essays with peers that had competing views on the matter. After attempting to persuade one another to change their choice (African dwarf frog or betta fish), we voted! Our class will officially have a froggy friend when we return from break!
Below you’ll find pictures from our classroom book exchange today. Thanks to everyone that made this half of the school year a success! Have a fantastic break… See you in January! What a frigid week we’ve had at Cottonwood! Thankfully, third graders warmed things up with a lot of hard work and brain power. Highlights from this week include: Wrapping up our third unit of Bridges in Mathematics, finishing our tour of the Southeast, beginning the typing portion of our persuasive writing, and reading about King Midas. Unit 3 of Bridges has officially come to a close! Many third graders are now experts on multi-digit addition and subtraction, specifically on determining which strategies (algorithm, number line, constant difference) work well for them in solving complex problems. We have had lots of practice with multi-step story problems in the past few days as well, which is an important skill to master in third grade and beyond. Next week, we will begin Unit 4: Measurement and Fractions. We will continue with the unit after winter break. Third graders concluded their tour of the Southeast with visits to Memphis, Tennessee and Montgomery, Alabama. Students shared what their favorite stop on the tour was and drew pictures of their favorite moments. We even listened to popular music from the region, tapping and dancing to the beat of the music. Next week, we will begin studying the Civil Rights Movement. We will focus on major events as well as key individuals like Ruby Bridges, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Jackie Robinson. In reader’s workshop this week, third graders travelled to the library with Mrs. Sianko to learn about “Unexplained Phenomena” like Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster. In class, students read short stories with their reading groups and delved into Greek Mythology while reading a short play centered on King Midas. Students did a great job answering questions about the text, specifically the central theme of the story and its moral. Third graders are hard at work typing their persuasive essays about the class pet we should get. They will continue the typing and editing process into next week, and share their essays to the class by Thursday. Today, we also learned the science behind snowflakes! We watched a short video about how they form, and read about the life of Wilson Bentley (the man responsible for discovering that no two snowflakes are alike). We then made our own snowflakes! We plan to decorate the classroom with them for the winter. Next week will be our last week of school before winter break. Be sure to click the links below to learn more about our winter celebrations!
Jumping back into academics was a bit tricky this week, but third graders powered through and maintained stamina! This week, our work centered on ACE reading responses, writing persuasive essays, adding and subtracting 3 to 4 digit numbers, and touring the Southeastern region of the United States. Wow! Third grade students will be completing ACE reading responses as part of their homework this week. It is a reading response technique used to help guide responses in an organized and complete manner. It also reinforces prior leaning about restating the question. The acronym stands for “Answer, Cite and Extend.” This week, we practiced the strategy with a shared reading about the escape of three prisoners from Alcatraz. Students used evidence from the text to explain their opinion on whether or not the prisoners’ escape was successful. It was an interesting read, to say the least! Writing this week was quite the adventure, as students tackled a tricky question: What pet should we get? Since the start of the school year, third graders have campaigned for the addition of an animal friend in our classroom. At last, they have succeeded! This week, third graders were presented with a choice between two animals: An African Dwarf frog, or a Betta fish. Third graders researched both animals, noting the unique qualities of each. Students were then tasked with developing a persuasive essay that states their opinion and provides details as to why their choice is the right one. Next week, we will continue the drafting process and type final copies. Exciting times are ahead! In math, we are finishing up our current unit of adding and subtracting three digit numbers. This week, third graders reviewed concepts like rounding/estimating, borrowing in subtraction, and completing equations. Next week, we will conclude with decoding the language of a word problem (What is it asking? What operations are necessary?), and then take our unit post assessment. We also started a new unit in social studies this week, exploring the Southeastern region of the U.S. Third graders took a virtual tour of sites like Cape Canaveral and Jamestown. They even checked out an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. We will continue our tour next week, and delve deeper into the history of the South. Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out the link below for more information on what’s going on at Cottonwood Creek! 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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