Third grade is a wonderful year of growth as readers and writers and mathematical thinkers. Our classroom is a safe environment where we can all take risks, ask questions,  explore new ideas and master old skills. We are a classroom community of ready learners where respect, responsibiltiy and safety are of high importance. Each and every day we will learn, laugh, and grow together to become the best that each of us can be.

First Trimester Book Logs- Due 12-3-12

 

Special Subject Schedule

Monday:Library- return books in order to check out new ones

Wednesday: Art

Thursday: music-recorders and music folder as the year progresses

Friday: gym- sneakers and movement enabling attire

 

 

Class List 2011-2012

Ben Almagno

Derick Brien

Jarrod Bucacci

Corinne Bucklin

Logan Case

Dominic Cirelli

Hannah DeAngelis

Matteo Failoa Jasmine Ferguson

Taryn Gauvin

Ariana Granda

Vincent Healey

Haley Hug

Ramsie Jewett

Ryan Kichefski

Josue Manrique

Coral Moore

Devon Perrille

Savanna Pimentel

Isabella Scolavino

Steven Siconio Jared Vadeboncoeur

Jacob Ward

Skyla Waters

Takoda Rugerri-Hay

Our lessons with school psychologist Dr. Lou have begun. These lessons focus on our ability to focus in class so we can learn. Each week Dr. Lou comes in and teaches us a strategy to try. Class Dojo is used to create awareness of our efforts in using his strategies in order to be better students.

Week One- Dr. Lou taught us about his Expectations which include:

1. Don't Step on his words- or each others

2. Whole body listening: mind, ears, eyes and body connection for our learning

As Dr. Lou says, "Put your brain in a position to work."

Did You Know? 2 fists = the size of your brain?

Be Aware of what you  are doing to learn

Be Aware of what you are doing to keep you from learning

Joke of the Day: What do you call a ship shaking at the bottom of the sea? 

answer: a nervous wreck 

Bonus Joke: what is a shark's favorite candy?

answer: a jawbreaker

 

Week two-

Awareness: knowing, being informed

Be Aware: use your eyes and ears to KNOW

all of this is controlled by YOUR BRAIN

3 parts of the brain need to work together in balance for PEAK PERFORMANCE

Prefrontal Cortex: PFC: helps us to be aware of what is happening around us

Amygdala- controls our emotions

Hippocampus- memories are stored here so we can remember what we learn

Joke of the Day: What is Santa's favorite part of football? 

answer: "blitzen"

Nightly reading homework for fluency practice and comprehension growth with tie in to cross curricula in science and social students. Due on Fridays or the last day of the school week.

Students should also be reading books of their choice each night. Record sheets are returned each trimester. Eight books per trimester should be read. Books should be at the student's "Just Right" reading level.  Book logs are due at the trimester mark. Book log sheets are available on this sight. A variety of genre should be evident each trimester including: 1 fairy tale, 2 non-fiction, 2 fiction, 1 realistic fiction, 1 myth, 1 biography or autobiography. Trimester Book Log Due Dates: Trimester One 11/30; Trimester Two 3/11; Trimester Three 6/14.

Nightly word work/spelling homework using their list of words for the week. Done on spellingcity.com or with paper and pencil alternative task. Due on Fridays or the last day of the school week.

Both homework jobs have parent signature logs. Credit is given for being responsible and returning homework as assigned. Bee Bucks are given weekly to this end.

 

Copies of the homework sheets are available on this site.

Exciting News- This year our class will use a new series called Go Math. It is part of the district pilot for a new math series addressing Common Core State Standards. Read on for a bit of information about this series.

 

GO Math! is a new comprehensive Kindergarten—Grade 6 mathematics program developed to support the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. The program emphasizes the Critical Areas and depth of understanding through interactive lessons, research based instructional approaches, best practices from around the world, and differentiated instructional resources to ensure success for all students.

The unique GO Math! Write-In Student Edition helps students interact with lessons in new ways. Students record their strategies, explanations, solutions, practice and test prep right in their books—and at every grade level. These interactive lessons keep students totally engaged and maximize learning during math time.

Our current target map is the understanding and use of multiplication and division in problem solving and fact mastery begins with a target date of June for mastery of all facts with automaticity for multiplication. Strategies are being taught in class to assist students including Touch Math.

Reading in grade 3 follows the Balanced Literacy Approach

A balanced approach to literacy instruction combines language and literature-rich activities associated with holistic reading instruction with the explicit teaching of skills as needed to develop the fluency and comprehension that proficient readers possess. Such instruction stresses the love of language, gaining meaning from print, and instruction of phonics in context. The Balanced Literacy approach to reading instruction incorporates many reading strategies in order to meet the varying needs of all students. Some of the components of the approach include phonemic awareness and phonics instruction, reading aloud to children, independent reading, guided reading, shared reading and literacy centers for independent practice.

Grade 3 Comprehension Focus Strategies: locating and recalling details, sequencing, making connections, cause and effect, compare and contrast, summarizing, problem and solution, multiple perspectives/point of view, inferring, synthesizing, visualizing,character trait analysis, determining important events and information and asking questions.  

 Why Read TO and WITH your third grader? Why talk about the reading?


The Importance Of Critical Reading And The Elementary Child Critical reading is the ability to draw useful information from a book. For the most part, kindergarten through second grade focuses more on learning to read and reading for enjoyment. By third grade, however, the importance of critical reading becomes critical. The importance of critical reading becomes more apparent by third grade because this is when kids generally start reading to learn. Chapters are read in science, social studies, and health books. By third grade, your child is expected to read these books and learn new information. This can often be frustrating for children, particularly those who struggle with reading. Therefore, helping your child become a strong critical reader is very important. Emphasizing the Importance of Critical Reading at Home The good news is that you can begin stressing the importance of critical reading with your child. To emphasize the importance of critical reading at home, you should first be a good role model for your child. If she sees you using your reading skills to learn new things or to find information, she is more likely to gain an appreciation for reading and its usefulness. Using think aloud strategies will also help your child realize the importance of critical reading. For example, if you are remodeling your house and you aren't sure how to install new windows, think aloud how you plan to find this information. Tell your child, I need to learn how to put these new windows in. Luckily, I have this book that tells me all about home improvement. I'm going to look for the word windows in the index to find what page I should look on. Then, let your child watch you as you go through this process. After turning to the page, tell your child, See? These pages give me the steps I need for putting in new windows. I'm going to read each step so I can learn how to do this myself. Again, allow your child to watch you engage in this process. There is no better way to demonstrate the importance of critical reading skills than to let your child see you putting those skills to work. Helping Your Child See the Importance of Critical Reading Skills for Himself You can also stress the importance of critical reading skills to your child on a more personal level, too. For example, when your child receives a new toy, don't put it together for him ahead of time. Instead, encourage him to read the directions for its assembly and see if he can put it together himself. Just be sure the directions are clear enough for him to understand. As a parent myself, I know firsthand how difficult some toy assembly directions can be to follow! The importance of critical reading skills can be emphasized to your child in other ways, as well. For example, if your child wants to have a pet of his own, lead him through the process of learning how to take care of the pet. Check books out from the library and find information on the Internet together. In this way, your child is learning the importance of critical reading in a meaningful way that provides him with a reward  a new pet! The importance of critical reading may not become obvious until your child reaches third grade since they may have been focusing so intently on reading the words. Reading to your child and following the think aloud strategy along with the strategies on this message board will go a long way in helping your child read for meaning.

Homework: Students use spellingcity.com or complete paper and pencil tasks of choice off choice board. Signature log is returned each Friday.

 

Words Their Way, it is a developmental spelling program which has students work with level-appropriate word sorts in order to improve their understanding of the written language.  Word sorts are simply a set of words which fall into certain spelling, sound, or semantic categories. 

Weekly Activities

Regular Sort - This is the student’s opportunity to begin exploring and categorizing the words in their sort by creating columns or groups of words.  When the students receive new words, this sort is mandatory.  This is also the type of sort I use when doing a mini-lesson with my students about their words.

Blind Sort - Here students work with a partner who has the same words.  They take turns reading 10-12 words to another student who then tries to write and categorize the words. 

Speed Sort - A speed sort is a favorite of my students.  Using a stopwatch, students see how fast they can correctly sort their words. 

Word Hunt - In this sort, students select a magazine or book from the classroom library and search for words that fit into their sort.  This is another popular activity. 

Type on the Computer 

our nightly home component option on www.spellingcity.com

 

The Writing Workshop, similar to the Reading Workshop, is a method of teaching writing using a workshop method.  Students are given opportunities to write in a variety of genres and helps foster a love of writing.  The Writing Workshop allows teachers to meet the needs of their students by differentiating their instruction and gearing instruction based on information gathered throughout the workshop.

When teachers use Writing Workshop, they teach using genre studies.  Examples arepersonal narratives, information writing, procedural writing (how-to), and so forth. 

If students are expected to produce writing in these genres, then they need to be immersed with books based on those genres.  These texts are known as touchstone texts or mentor texts.

Read alouds are a way to use authors as mentors for writing styles and genres.

Students can see how writers use different styles and literary elements to create pieces of writing.

The mini-lessons for Writing Workshop teach concepts, strategies, and techniques for writing while encouraging students to write in different genres or styles.  

Writing strategy mini-lessons follows the 6-trait model. Our first traits of focus will be ideas and organization. Ideas make up the content of the piece of writing- the heart of the message. Organization is the structure of the piece, the logical flow of ideas. Both of these traits are where we take the idea and move it along until it is fully developed and unmistakably clear. As we grow as writers we will work on Elaboration with details, Voice, Sentence Structure and Word Choice. Our techniques are zooming in, zooming out, flashback, advancing time, figurative language, slowing down a moment, balancing DAD, creating suspense, magic of three for idea development and detail enhancement, as well as other individualized student -centered techniques delivered via student conferencing.

We have written:

poetry for Fall

informational paragraphs for Wampanoag and English Colonists

descriptive essay of Our Special Place

current work: a fractured tale of The Gingerbread Man- this work will be drafted in December, improved upon with revision and editing lessons targeting figurative language, repitition and rhyme, Balancing DAD (description, action, dialogue or internal thinking), idiomatic expressions, slow down and strentch time, as well as work on conventions involving punctuating dialogue in January, and prepared for sending off to the book publisher in February by typing and illustrating.

Homework Component of this workshop: writing the rhyme for repitition moment of dialogue

Blackrock Elementary
Diana Lachance