Here's a quick run down of how things work in 3C!
Literacy is a passion of mine and I dedicate a lot of our school day to it. We start every morning with a read aloud at the carpet. At this time, I share some of my favourite books with the students and we discuss a variety of strategies that good readers use. We focus on comprehension, accuracy, fluency and expanding vocabulary strategies. So much learning happens during this time every day and my enthusiasm for books tends to be contagious! After our read aloud, students have 30 minutes to read independently. They choose their books on Mondays and we work together to ensure that they are picking "good fit books". It's important to read books at their own level to encourage the most growth possible with their reading skills. While students are reading silently, I pull three students or three small groups of students to conference with. At this time, I work on personal reading strategies with students. Students who need the most support will have more frequent conferences with me each week. Students who are at or above reading level expectations will receive the bulk of their reading instruction during the read aloud time each day. I also have quick little book talks with these students to ensure that they are challenging themselves and exploring new selections.
We also dedicate quite a bit of time to writing in 3C. Each week for the first part of the year, we complete a theme of lessons focusing on important traits of writing: ideas, organization, word choice, in addition to reminding students of proper conventions in writing. These lessons have proven to be quite effective and I see the learning transfer into other areas of writing throughout the year. We also spend quite a bit of time working on journal writing. This activity allows students the opportunity to write about their interests and push themselves to their maximum potential. Students love sharing their journal writing with their classmates! In addition to these two activities, we will be completing a variety of writing projects that often involve Social Studies and Science topics. We will also be completing some poetry writing and a unit of story writing using JoAnne Moore resources.
The final aspect of literacy that we focus on each week is working with words. Most weeks, on Monday, students are given five word wall words that they will write in their agendas. These words are commonly misspelled words. The first priority is that students can read these words. If your child cannot read the words, please practice reading them for the rest of the week. This way, your child can find the word on the word wall to ensure proper spelling. If your child can read the word, check to see if they can spell it. If they can, great! If they can't, work on it throughout the week. On Friday, students will be given a dictation test. I will dictate five sentences to them. Their job is to write the sentence down properly, with proper spelling of the word wall words and with proper conventions (capitalization and spelling). The purpose of this activity is not only to reinforce proper spelling and conventions but also to improve students' working memories. Your working memory is your ability to hold onto something in your mind while working on something else. At home your child uses their working memory when you give them a list of things to do. They need to keep the list in their heads, while completing the tasks on the list. They need to keep coming back to that list so that they can go on to the next task. In school we rely on the working memory in many situations. For example, when adding multi-digit numbers you need to keep the numbers in your head as you go on to the next step of the calculation. Working on this important executive functioning skill is a benefit to all students. In addition to word wall words, we will be completing several activities each week focusing on specific spelling patterns. We will look at, discuss and practice using many spelling patterns throughout the year using hands on activities like Making Words, Using Words You Know and What Looks Right.
HANDWRITING
Grade three students are always excited to learn how to handwrite! We will start learning our letters in handwriting on the second day! We learn the letters in families. As we complete a family of letters, a parent sheet will come home to show you what your child has learned. We will progress through the lowercase letters first. Once we have completed all of the letters, we will start writing in our agendas in handwriting. I ask you to be patient with your child as they master this new skill.
NUMERACY
We use the JumpMath program in our class. What I love about the program is how it breaks complex tasks down into manageable steps to ensure that all students are ready and confident to take on more challenging concepts. Units are broken down into small lessons. Check ins are completed after a few lessons to ensure that everyone has grasped the new concepts taught. These check ins are sent home after they are marked and entered into PowerSchool. Unit tests are given at the end of each unit.
Here's a short video on JumpMath if you are interested: https://youtu.be/p9zfCkZ8aRE
In addition to JumpMath, we will be working on mastery of our basic facts using a variety of strategies, problem solving and building a strong number sense through of a variety of other numeracy activities.
SOCIAL STUDIES AND SCIENCE
In Grade Three we focus on one unit of Social Studies or Science each month instead of doing both subjects at the same time. This allows us the time to really focus on one unit at a time and keeps the students engaged.
Our schedule for this year is:
September - Science (Rocks and Minerals)
October - Social Studies (Mapping and Global Awareness)
November - Social Studies (India)
December - Science (Hearing and Sound)
January - Social Studies (Tunisia)
February & March - Science (Building with a Variety of Materials & Testing Materials and Designs)
April - Social Studies (Peru)
May - Science (Life Cycles)
June - Social Studies (Ukraine)
There are several times throughout the year that we will be asking for parent volunteers.
The following list is an approximate guideline for volunteer opportunities:
Week of September 16th - Rock Walk
End of November - India Day *
End of January - Tunisia Day *
End of March - Bridge Building Workshop in school (multiple volunteers needed)
End of April - Peru Day *
May - U of A Gardens full day field trip
June 19th or 22nd - Ukrainian Village full day field trip
June - Ukrainian Lunch *
This list will be updated when we have confirmed these special events.
* These are our Culture Days. Parents are needed to help us prepare food and activities to celebrate these amazing cultures.
SNACK
Students will have approximately 10 minutes for snack either before or after recess depending on our schedule.
LIBRARY
We will have library once a week. Our new librarian's name is Ms. Sacuta. We will be able to take out two books every week as long as we bring our books back. I will let you know what day of the week we have library when I get our timetable.
Home reading is very important to ensure progress with literacy skills. We will be tracking our minutes read at home with our Read for Beads program. More information will be coming home soon!
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