LITERACY
We are well into our read aloud book Elephant Secret and the kids are LOVING IT!!! They are really working hard on so many comprehension strategies during our read aloud time and I am very impressed with their growth in this area. They really are maturing as readers!
Our writing time has been focusing on two things lately:
- turning titles into topic sentences
- developing our own personal graphic organizer in preparation for a free paragraph writing assignment
Several students are struggling with writing topic sentences and often generate titles instead. For example:
- Awesome Polar Bears
We have been working on changing these titles into complete topic sentences.
- Polar Bears are awesome!
The students are starting to catch on to this skill with targeted practice and I will be watching for this to transfer into their assignment and journal writing.
NUMERACY
With attendance being sporadic over the past few weeks, we held off jumping into our multiplication and division unit and spent a lot of time focusing on problem solving. We practiced reading word problems as a class, looking for the important information. Once we identified what was important in the word problem, we looked for key words to determine whether or not we had to add or subtract.
Key words:
- ADD - altogether, in all, sum, in total
- SUBTRACT - how many more, difference, how much _____
There is a fantastic website that has so many word problems to go through! Math Playground Word Problem Practice We used this site to practice solving problems and would read through the word problems together and each solve the question on our little whiteboards! It was fun and such great practice! Students soon moved on to two step problems and problems with extra information stuck in to trick us! They did a fantastic job with this mini unit!
SCIENCE
We are well into our Survivor Science unit focusing on Building with A Variety of Materials and Testing Materials and Designs. Students have been broken into tribes to carry out a variety of experiments to test the strength of different materials and designs. Our five tribes are:
The Red Devils
The Blue Raptor HamStars
The Ender Titans
The No Names
The Black Wolves
This unit is a great way to explore the scientific method and learn how to work as part of a team!
The students are focusing on ensuring that they are conducting a FAIR TEST when carrying out their experiments. They need to make sure that they are keeping EVERYTHING the same EXCEPT FOR ONE VARIABLE.
To see the tribes in action, click on the link underneath this photo:
VALENTINE'S DAY
We had a great afternoon celebrating Valentine's Day! Click on this link to see photos from our party!
HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT IT'S BEEN A BIT CHILLY LATELY?!?!
That cold snap hit 3C hard! For a few days there, we had half of our students missing! Plans went out the window because we can't cover important curriculum without half of our students. We worked hard in the mornings...reading, writing in journals, working with words, problem solving, extra read alouds...and we had fun/relaxed in the afternoon with art and movie time! We dove into Black History month, which was nice! The students enjoyed two read alouds about the Underground Railroad. We also learned about Alma Woodsey Thomas, a famous African American artist.
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
- Oil Kings game is on Friday. Please complete the permission slip, pay for bus fare and any extra tickets that you ordered asap.
- The Spell-A-Thon is in full swing! The pledge forms are officially due tomorrow (although, I will accept them up until Thursday if you need more time). The test is on Thursday. I don't want students getting super stressed about this spelling test. For some students it can be very overwhelming. In 3C, students can use their portable word walls during the test if they want. They need to be able to find the word and copy it down correctly. The main goal is spelling the words correctly and if they need that support to be successful, I have absolutely no problem with it.
- We have a Wellness Day on Friday afternoon.
- Elder Florence is with us during the assembly on Friday morning.
I think that is all for now!
Have a great week and enjoy the warmer temperatures!
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