Literacy
With the Spell-a-Thon in the works right now, we have decided to take a break from WTW and WWW so that students have a chance to practice their Spell-a-Thon lists (which are typical WWW). The students did a practice test this week to help them identify the words that they need to focus on. They should have brought home a second list that has some words highlighted. The highlighted words are the ones that they got wrong on the pretest.
The students have also completed a WTW assessment to see how their spelling skills are progressing. Most students have made significant gains! When I was marking the tests, I was looking for common issues in specific spelling rules. I identified a few areas that were troubling the majority of the students: adding ing and ed to verbs and writing plural nouns. Over the past two weeks we have really focused on these spelling rules. The students and I have discussed the rules and practiced using them.
During our writing time, we have finished up our animal paragraphs and started planning our first stuck story plan. I think the students are a little amazed by the amount of time we are spending planning a story! We have been studying other stories with the Stuck Story format, so the students are familiar with the story parts:
- setting
- characters
- motive (what the character wants/doesn't want)
- stuck
- first attempt to get unstuck
- second attempt to get unstuck
- success
- motive carried out (character gets what they wanted)
The students and I have also talked about what level of story we should be aiming to write. Students often feel like they should be able to write a story at a similar level to the books that they read. Nothing could be further from the truth! In grade three, we should be aiming to write a story suitable for a grade one student to read. This goal hopefully takes the pressure off of the students in what they are expecting of themselves.
Since the beginning of the year, I have been focusing our read alouds around teaching the students simple comprehension, accuracy, fluency and expanding vocabulary strategies. We have also used our read alouds to examine and explore different genres of books, comparing nonfiction to fiction texts and studying authors word choice. As we approach the final four months of grade three, I am excited to share a different reading experience with them. We have started to read the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio.
Wonder is a pretty serious read and it brings up THE BEST conversations! I love sharing this book with my students because it truly opens their eyes to the power of a book...how it can change the way you think, how it can make you question your beliefs, your actions and your character and how it can make you care deeply for a character that you've never met! Reading this book with the students enables them to use all of the comprehension strategies we have been working on and demands them to think a little deeper. Each year, I watch students transform as readers as they loose themselves in this story. I'm sure many of you have already heard about the main character August and the journey that he his embarking on. I encourage you to check in with your child each day and ask them what is happening in the book! They will love to share the story with you!
Numeracy
We have wrapped up our focus on multiplication for now and have moved on to the final topic in our Number Sense section, working with different denominations of coins. The students have been handling switching from counting by 25s, 10s, 5s, and 1s. We have a few more activities to do in this area and then we will be moving on to our study of measurement.
Science
The students thoroughly enjoyed our science unit on Hearing and Sound! Finishing up the unit with their musical instruments was truly a highlight! All of the students did very well on their projects and enjoyed demonstrating their creations for the class!
As a grand finale, students got into groups of four to make a rock band! They had five minutes to practice a simple song and then it was SHOW TIME! They had a blast!
SOCIAL
We have started our study of Tunisia in preparation for Tunisia Day on Friday. If any parents would like to volunteer for the afternoon, please let me know asap. Stay tuned for more information about Tunisia!
This week's highlights:
- Gourmet Chocolate Pretzel sale this week! Bring in your $2 before Friday! Pretzels will be delivered on Friday!
- Student Led Conferences are on Wednesday from 4:00 to 7:00. Drop in at a time that works for you! Plan on staying for approximately 30 minutes.
- Book Fair in the Library from Monday to Wednesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment