We made it, Parents! First quarter is in the books and we are scampering along through this beautiful fall season of second quarter. Second quarter is a treat with a fun-spirited, spooktacular candy holiday and a special family holiday of thanks tucked into some busy academic work weeks. I am so thankful for the seasons we have in Missouri and the seasons we have in life. Change is good. This quarter’s units are perfect for this time of year and I embrace them all with a cup of chai tea by my side. Here’s what we have to look forward to:
Reading: We are in our last week of narrative elements. We’ve talked about characters (including external and internal character traits) and setting (How does the setting affect the character?). We know that every story has a plot—all the events—and can be retold using the beginning-middle-end to sequence events. This last week we will focus on problem and solution with students looking at how they would have chosen to solve the problem if in the main character’s shoes. We will conclude with theme—what is the author’s underlying message? Is there something to learn from this story? We build our schema everyday as we share a read aloud to match our focus while on the carpet. Our class has shared 56 books so far this year! You should see your child’s face when I say, “Please come quietly to the carpet.” The energy level is palpable. They love to share their thinking and their background knowledge. It’s meaningful and purposeful. It also draws us close as a community. (Did I mention how much I love your children?) In guided reading our chapter books are supporting our mini-lesson focus. I’ve also included vocabulary work and comprehension questions to help readers not be just “word callers” but read to understand the text. I confessed to the class that when I was their age, I could read any book in front of me, but I never let the teacher know that I didn’t understand the challenging text she gave me. I’ve told them that it doesn’t matter how fast we read, how large the words, how small the print on the page, reading is thinking. We read to understand. It comes together faster for some people but everyone grows at their own rate. That’s why we are different physical sizes, too. Understanding will come with practice and perseverance. With Health Fair and no school this Friday (not to mention my absence last week with a stomach virus), we need a few more days to finish our books. The good news: the class is enjoying their chapter books! For some of our class, these are the first they’ve read. For others, they needed a reminder that a diet of picture books is unhealthy for a growing reader. I’m requiring everyone to pick at least one chapter book each week when we go to the library. I’ve met with each of your students and set new goals and new ZPD Lexile bands to choose from. These numbers are posted in the back of the student planner and in student Reading Counts logs here at school. I’ve already shared with you previously my view on reading within the assigned Lexile bands. Desire is the greatest motivation. If your child wants to attempt a challenging book outside their reading range, let them. The ZPD range is a suggestion on easy, just right, and challenging books for them to choose from. What’s next in reading: We will focus on sequencing text beginning next week. I will also throw in some holiday-like nonfiction reading/writing to celebrate fall. We will look at some Close reading passages where students will annotate text. They are learning how to make reader’s marks to help them understand nonfiction text. We’ve used color coding for some science texts this past month and we will try again to use the actual marks. I’ve also printed off some fluency practices for partners to time each other as they do first, second, and third readings using some social studies texts to support our government unit. We have some new digital stopwatches with our math materials that will serve perfectly in reading. I am excited for this practice! Several students in our room need practice with reading longer phrases instead of short choppy ones. They need practice with sight words. These should be practiced until automaticity if they didn’t master these in the primary building. If you want to support sight word mastery or check to see how well your student knows common sight words, you can google Dolch sight words or Missouri Basic Sight Word lists. As you can see, we are busy beavers in third grade! The clock becomes my adversary so often, but our class is quite efficient at procedures so minimal time is wasted. Spelling: We will continue with pattern work. We worked on vowel diagraphs (-ea, -ee) for a few weeks, moved to endings (-ies, -ied), and will return to vowel digraph (-oa), unusual spellings of /j/ and /s/, r-controlled (oh, that bossy “r”) vowels, and contractions. Students are required to write spelling sentences each week to practice sentence structure, usage and mechanics. Writing: Your children are fabulous writers! We wrote two descriptive paragraphs along with the rest of our neighbors this quarter. Our class also read nonfiction text to support our science unit. Students researched about the earth, moon, or sun, gathered facts, and then wrote an expository paragraph. I can’t wait for you to read these paragraphs at conferences! They are amazing! If we would have had more time, we would have made an illustration to go with them, but we could not squeeze that in. We did create a diagram of Earth’s seasons which came out looking fantastic. You will see these at conferences as well. Poetry is where we will be parked for the next few weeks and then we will move on to personal narratives. We will also squeeze in holiday writing and writing about our reading whenever we get the opportunity. Grammar: We are piloting the use of mentor sentences to teach grammar. I’ve mentioned this to you before. It is going very well. We take a sentence from a book that was shared previously in reader’s workshop and paste it into our writing journals. We color code the parts of speech. On another day, students are invited to revise the sentence. They can’t change the meaning but make word choice changes. We share these orally. The next day, students are invited to imitate. They create their own sentence about their own topic but use the format of the mentor sentence. If the mentor sentence was a compound sentence using the conjunction “and” then students write a compound sentence. If the sentence had an article-adjective-noun-verb phrase-conjunction-verb phrase, then students follow that pattern. It is helping students in their writing to write more than simple sentences. We also have to address particular writing needs with skill sheets such as the sheet about possessive nouns. We sometimes need direct instruction on a particular part of speech and then specific practice. This will continue all year. Next up, additional focus on adjectives and then verbs. Math: We are nearing the end of Module 2: Place Value and Problem Solving with Measurement. I’ve taken several pictures of students measuring using digital scales and working with partners on the Smartboard or with their personal whiteboards. Check out our class photos for October. Our next end-of-module assessment will be this Thursday, October 27. Next, we will be moving to Module 3: Multiplication and Division with Units 0, 1, 6-9, and Multiples of 10. This is the perfect time to step-up your multiplication practice at home to support our unit at school. Fourth grade teachers tell us every year that one of the greatest gifts we can give them is to send students to fourth grade who have mastered the multiplication facts 0-10. Besides having your child write out the facts and using flashcards to practice, there are several fun multiplication game sites on the computer. Have your child practice multiplication facts nightly as part of their nightly homework routine. Practice in the car. Practice as a family after dinner. Play games such as multiplication war with playing cards. Flip two over and the first one to find the product correctly takes the two cards. You can use dominoes in the same way. Go to www.multiplicaton.com for some fun games. Your child can also go to www.mobymax.com or www.sumdog.com to play math games. Your child knows his/her password and how to log on for both of these websites. I am so pleased with our new math program. I’ve seen math reasoning being used by third graders at a deeper level than ever before. I have no complaints about this program but see only benefits for students. Thank you for the confidence and support you have shown as parents as we’ve chartered new territories in math. Our class as a whole has been extremely successful with Eureka math. Now it is time to put forth extra effort and memorize the multiplication facts as that will be our focus for the next several weeks. Memorizing facts is something that every child can do with support. Social Studies: We are immersed in our government unit at the moment. It coincides perfectly with what is happening in the news. Our class created picture book candidates (posters) and will vote tomorrow on our candidate for the primary election which will be held on October 31. From there, the top two candidates for third grade will be on display until our national election on November 7. There will be voting booths set-up on that day for students to imitate the right and responsibility of all U.S. citizens to vote. Students will mark their ballots and cast their votes into the ballot box. It is going to be a fun culmination to our government unit. Science: After our government unit, we are heading to Matter. Students will enjoy learning about the different states of matter and how they change. Liberator Time: We completed our state brochures which we will share with you at conferences. Students enjoyed their state fact research. We also wrote letters to national parks across the country in hopes of receiving free materials. When these materials arrive, we will create posters of these national parks to share with our buddy class in a gallery walk presentation. I’m hoping that the contact persons of these national parks come through with brochures, maps, and free materials for our students. In the meantime as we wait, students will begin researching about a favorite author and then create a scrapbook of that author’s life and their famous books. During Liberator Time, students also enjoy language and vocabulary practice on the chromebooks by visiting Moby Max. Students also practice basic math facts by “flying their bug” which means taking a turn drilling facts at www.xtramath.com. CONGRATULATIONS TO MICAH THOMAS, for being our first student to master basic addition facts in under three seconds on xtramath.com. Micah was awarded a certificate this past week! Three snaps for Micah! Snap, snap, snap! You can see Micah’s picture with his certificate on the photo page. CONGRATULATIONS to the following students for making their Reading Counts first quarter goals: Anakin, Andrew, Luke, Madison, Micah, and Miles. These students will be recognized in class with a surprise from Mrs. Endres. Way to go, Explorers! Final thoughts from Mrs. Endres: As we get ready to meet for conferences tomorrow, a lot of thoughts are running through my head. Things I want to share about your student’s progress—both “stars” and “wishes.” The need to communicate with you how wonderful your child is because this year’s class is extremely special. My wish to invite you to partner at home in giving your child that extra academic boost that will ensure success not just in third grade but as a lifelong learner. And lastly, my desire as a parent to remind you to cherish every single moment—easy and challenging. Parents, that relationship you have with your child gets even sweeter as the years go by. Thank you for sharing your children with me! See you soon! Mrs. Endres
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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
March 2020
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