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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