What a week we've had here in third grade! In addition to completing their academic work, students participated in Read4Fund$ activities throughout the week. In math this week, students continued practicing telling time on an analog clock. We took things a step further by solving elapsed time word problems. One of our whole-group tasks was to solve a problem called "All Aboard" from Graham Fletcher's 3-Act Tasks. The problem asks students to determine how long it will take a train to pass based on a few pieces of evidence. Everyone did a great job collaborating and working to complete the task together. Feel free to click below and try to solve it yourself! In reader’s workshop, our focus has been on developing deeper theories about characters based on the patterns we perceive. As a class, we discussed how theories are often like icebergs; it’s easy to see the top 10% but we need to look deeper to see the remaining 90%. Often, readers develop what we refer to as ‘surface level’ theories based on simple observations. To successfully dive deeper, readers must track patterns and truly know a character’s personality traits. Expert readers move beyond asking ‘what’ and transition into the ‘why’. This is very much a complex way of thinking, and we will keep practicing in the weeks to come. This week, we also learned about the Australian bushfires that took place last year. Third graders researched what bushfires are, how they impact the environment, and what has happened to Australia’s wildlife because of them. Sadly, over a billion animals likely perished due to the fires. Thankfully, wildlife conservation groups and are helping to save what's left of Australia’s iconic animals. Next week, we’ll expand our learning to that of animal endangerment itself. Each third grader will then choose an animal to study as part of an endangered animal research project. Cottonwood's Read4Fund$ fundraiser was a huge success this week! Students were eager to get in some extra reading minutes and loved tracking their progress. Reminder that donations/pledges are due back 2/5 and prize day will be celebrated 2/17. Thanks so much for your support and generosity. Below are some pictures of 3rd graders earning those reading minutes! Comments are closed.
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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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