September Newsletter Happy September! We’re off to a great start in Room 114! Our focus for August was routines, organization, and attitude. Please take a peek at some of what we’ve accomplished in August! Growth Mindset Students were introduced to the book Ish by Peter Reynolds. In the book, the main character likes to draw but when he is told that his drawings don’t look like his intended objects, he crumples up his work after each try and throws his works of art into a trashcan. Later, his sister comes to talk to him about why he’s not drawing anymore. When he confesses that his work is not any good, she takes him to her bedroom where he discovers that she has decorated her walls with his crumpled up “mistakes.” His sister leads him to understand that his works of art are like an “ish.” His painting of a vase looks “vase-ish.” This term is how we are referring to our first attempts at mastering new objectives or creating what we see in our mind’s eye. Our attempts might not be perfect at first, but with practice and effort, we will improve and reach our goal. To support all the budding artists and writers in our room, each student was given an “ish” journal where they can create and record their personal thoughts. These “ish” journals are very popular with the class. During our chapter book read aloud or before school, students are invited to draw their mind movies. Students are eager to visualize, create, and annotate their thoughts. Research shows that our cognition and ability to learn is linked to what we believe about our ability--students have to believe in themselves to unlock their full potential. My goal this year is be an encourager and a promoter providing many diverse opportunities for personal and academic growth. I want all my students to achieve their goals and more importantly, leave third grade feeling confident with a positive self-worth. Last week we read two books about kindness to get us thinking about including others. The books, Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson and The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig reminded us to be aware of others around us and accept those who are different. Friendship is a gift to give. To go along with accepting others, our read aloud focus moved on to the theme “Teamwork.” Everyone on a team has something to contribute. Sometimes a task just requires one dedicated individual while other times it takes a partner or group to achieve success. Pop’s Bridge by Eve Bunting helped us realize that though everyone has a different role in a project, all roles are equally important to the group’s success. This week we will continue our discussion on teamwork with Frederick and Swimmy by Leo Lionni, and The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens. Later this month, we are moving on to the theme, “Believe in Yourself.” Read aloud books will focus on celebrating our uniqueness. Organization We have many of our notebooks/folders in order for organizing our learning this year. We’ve learned how to use each component and we’ve learned the reasoning behind each piece. We are slowly adding our reading and writing journals. Right now our ELA Reading Life binder is being used for our school reading log and our first reading progression grid. The reading progression helps us with goal setting showing us where we want to go in our reading. There are components that make a good reader with examples of what good readers look like and sound like charted. We’ve looked at the first component—fluency--already. We’ve also started our writing process folder which we call our “pencil folder” because there is a big yellow pencil on a bright rainbow four-pocket folder where students move their written pieces from prewriting-draft-revise-edit to final copy. Students have published two short personal narratives which we call “trouble stories.” The trouble starts, trouble gets worse, and trouble gets resolved. These stories are structured with a beginning, middle, and end. Students were introduced to revising for elaboration—adding more details and adding on with “twin sentences.” Students worked on the quality of their writing with an introduction to adding dialogue. Students moved from writing true trouble stories to writing realistic fiction pieces. Students developed a fictitious character with observable character traits and allowed him/her to experience a problem or challenge. The character shared feelings, thoughts, and dialogue in the story. We will continue to work on wrapping up a story with a powerful ending. We will be adding a “ketchup” folder for work in progress and continue with the daily take-home folder—our beloved Hippo--for assignments that need to be completed at home. Whew! Who says third grade isn’t busy! Books We’ve Shared Our class is keeping a record of the books that we share on the carpet. We read content related books throughout the day as a way to build schema, initiate meaningful conversation, and imitate author’s craft. We use mentor texts for reading comprehension strategies, grammar, writing modes/author’s craft, social studies, and math. Reading builds our episodic memory, increases our vocabulary, stirs our imagination, and helps us articulate our thoughts with partners and in small group situations. I can’t begin to tell you the benefits of taking time to read orally. Last year my class read 154 books together not counting the books that were read in partnerships/book clubs or independently. So many rich conversations! It is a joy for me to search for new books that build character, provoke thought, and add to our schema. Besides using these mentor texts across subject areas, we will always be reading a chapter book. Currently, we are reading an oldie but goodie--Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary. Even though Henry is a boy from Washington state in the 1950’s, his desire to seek adventure, get along with his neighbors and classmates, and avoid embarrassing moments are much like any kid no matter the era. Sometimes it seems that trouble comes looking for Henry, but in the end, his problems get solved in a positive way that brings him an unexpected boon. Progress Reports Progress Reports will be coming home on Friday. The progress report will give you an update on the instruction taking place in all subject areas. The progress report will also inform you of your child’s reading behaviors in the ELA classroom. Please read, sign, cut off the bottom, and return to school so I know that you’ve seen the report. Please remember that we use Standards Based Grading so there will be no letter grades on the report. At conferences, teachers will show student work and progress towards the standards. At the bottom of this email I have pasted the 1st Quarter I Can Statements so you can look them over before then. These are the ELA standards that we are working on each day with our ELA curriculum from TCRWP—Teacher’s College Reading Writing Project--Units of Study (otherwise referred to as Lucy Calkins who is the original author). Beginning of the Year Reading Assessments This week students will take a Diagnostic Reading Assessment one-on-one with me at the kidney table. This assessment has students read a leveled text and orally answer comprehension questions. A timer is used to gage independent reading fluency. This assessment is relaxed with students reading text that is comfortable for them with the teacher. Students usually enjoy this time with the teacher talking about a fiction passage. This assessment is another piece that helps me understand your child as a reader. I have already listened to each student read orally making anecdotal records of basic reading skills. With all three pieces of information—the iReady reading assessment on the chromebooks, the DRA progress monitoring piece, and the anecdotal records—I am able to help students choose books “within reach,” set reading goals, and work towards improving specific areas of their reading. Students are now ready to form book partnerships where they read the same book as a “book buddy” and discuss key elements. Later we will form “book clubs” where four students will share their reading and work on set standards. We are settling in to our reading routine in reader’s workshop! Grandparent’s Day Grandparent’s Day is coming up on Tuesday, September 10 at 9:00 am. (Flier from office to come this week.) All grandparents need to bring a photo ID. Grandparents will meet in the lobby before being escorted down to our room. We will visit with grandparents in the classroom for thirty minutes before adjourning to the cafeteria for cookies and punch. The entire event lasts about an hour. If your child’s grandparents are unable to attend, you may invite a family friend or neighbor to be an honored guest. We understand that some grandparents live out of state or aren’t physically able to attend. Students who do not have a special visitor will be paired up with another grandparent and classmate so he/she may receive that special attention. PBS Rewards We have completed seven lessons on positive behavior in various settings around the school and bus. Students learned how to be respectful, responsible and safe in the classroom, hallways, restroom, cafeteria, playground, bus, and all settings. Together we created charts of what positive behavior would look like and sound like in those places. We also discussed earning DOJO points to save for personal rewards and earning class letters from other teachers to spell “BIS Liberators!” so the class can choose a group reward. Our class has earned their first PBS reward to be chosen on Tuesday. The Explorers are doing a wonderful job following school-wide expectations! Congrats! Scholastic Book Order A Scholastic Book Club flier will be coming home on Tuesday. You may order online or use the form on the back of the flier. Please make checks payable to Scholastic News. Let’s try to have our orders turned in by Wednesday, September 11, if possible. If you order online our class code is L7BC2. Thank you! Class Blog I’ve uploaded pictures from August to our class blog at www.endresgrade3.weebly.com. THANK YOU, Parents! Thank you for providing support for students to complete their nightly reading homework. The Pizza Hut Book It program will officially begin October 1. I will attach a free personal pan pizza coupon to completed September reading logs. Until then, I’ve conferenced with students over August reading logs and they were allowed to choose a “Scooby snack” or DOJO points. Explorers are off to a great start! We are getting to know one another and learning how to work together in our classroom community. We’ve learned several procedures and organizational habits to help our day run smoothly. This is a wonderful group of kind, respectful, intelligent, energetic students who come each day ready to learn. Thank you for sharing your children with me. Hope you have a wonderful September! I’ll stay in touch…please feel free to do the same. Blessings, Mrs. Endres Important Dates: September 3-6: DRA Progress Monitoring September 4: Class STUCO elections in our room September 10: Grandparent’s Day for 3rd Grade 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. September 17: Picture Day for Blue Team (That’s us!) September 20: BIS Health Fair September 23: Happy Birthday to Drayven! September 23: Mile Run in P.E. for Endres’ Explorers September 26: Career Day 8:10-11:00 p.m. Reading: 1st Quarter: Inferring about Characters and Other Story Elements: Character Traits: When a character makes a decision and does something, I can usually figure out why, based on what I know of the character and what happened earlier. Envisioning/Predicting: I can predict what the main character will do, say, and think (and how the character will react to things) based on earlier parts of the text. I can explain the reasons for my predictions. Retelling/Summary/Synthesis: When I finish a book, I can briefly summarize it in a way that shows what I know about the story and its story elements. Analyzing Author’s Craft: I notice when the author has done something that stands out—elaborated on a part, used an image or line repeatedly, used figurative language, begun or ended a text in an unusual way. My answer shows that I think about how the author’s choice supports something important to the story. Writing: 1st Quarter: Overall Narrative: I told the story bit by bit. Narrative Lead: I wrote a beginning in which I helped readers know who the characters were and what the setting was in my story. Narrative Transitions: I told my story in order by using phrases such as a little later and after that. Narrative Ending: I chose the action, talk, or feeling that would make a good ending and worked to write it well. Narrative Organization: I used paragraphs and skipped lines to separate what happened first from what happened later (and finally in my story). Narrative Elaboration: I worked to show what happened to (and in) my characters. Narrative Craft: I not only told my story, but also wrote it in ways that got readers to picture what was happening and that brought my story to life. Punctuation: I punctuated dialogue correctly with commas and quotation marks. While writing, I used punctuation at the end of every sentence. I wrote in ways that helped readers read with expression, reading some parts quickly, some slowly, some parts in one sort of voice and others in another.
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AuthorHello! My name is Heidi…I love my family, the Lord, and chai tea lattes! I’m a wife to an amazing husband, mama to four wonderful kids, new Grammy to a cute baby boy, and a chubby 3rd grade teacher. (I've eaten too many birthday cupcakes!) I love people, learning, and creating. Thanks for stopping by! May you be blessed today as you bless others. Archives
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