Mrs. Cranley's 3rd Grade : Week of October 17-21

Greetings Families!

This week was the week of "firsts"! We had a successful first field trip, participated in our first parent led art session, and finished our first novel study of the year. Read on for more details and loads of pictures!

LITERACY

Image result for penguin chick by betty tatham

This week we read Penguin Chick by Betty Tatham. It is an expository nonfiction text describing the challenges the Emperor Penguin faces in Antarctica, as it tries to raise a baby penguin. We learned that the father penguin, who has more body fat, stays with the egg while the mother leaves the rookery and embarks on a long trek to the sea in search of food. Days later, his trumpet call guides her back with a belly full of food. Then, they switch places as the father begins his long journey towards the sea for more food.

Reader's Workshop

On Thursday everyone finished up the Chapter 7 focus question for Class Clown.

On Friday, after reading the final chapter of the book...

we began our first book project of the year -

creating a story mountain.

At the conclusion of a novel, I will be expecting students to complete some type of book project that helps them communicate their understanding of the book.

Today, we began a story mountain of Class Clown, which combines the plot and story elements of the book with art.

Students were placed in their reading groups, and asked to discuss the above plot and story elements needed for their story mountain.

Each student was given a "planning" sheet to record the information.

Once their descriptions were complete, they could begin drawing their story mountain.

In addition to the written story element descriptions, they are expected to illustrate the main character and setting in the mountain. The final step will be to cut out and glue on their descriptions.

We will continue working on these Wednesday.

Next Thursday students will begin reading their second novel of the year in their reading groups.

Please visit our Reader's Workshop Volunteer Sign-up page below, if you are interested in coming into the classroom to read with students.

CLASSROOM VOLUNTEER SIGN-UPS

http://www.signupgenius.com/index.cfm?go=s.signup&urlid=30e0d4faaa72ea5f94-classroom&view=standard

WRITING

In writing, we are getting close to finishing up our descriptive paragraphs about a favorite summer moment.

Some students also had a chance to do a little writing inspired by our day out hiking in the forest.

I offered students the opportunity to write a narrative story involving the forest. Their story could be fiction or non-fiction. It could be told from their own perspective, or from that of an animal or tree from the forest. It could likely include some of the facts and information they learned from our field trip to the Hoyt Arboretum, but it could also relate to what they are learning about the Amazon Rainforest.

This week I will continue my one-on-one writing conferences with students, while others work on forest narratives or a special spooky story in the spirit of Halloween.

MATH

On Monday students completed an activitiy called Undercover, which exercised their mental math abilities relating to double-digit computation.

After representing a large target number with mats, strips, and units, half of the collection would be covered up.

They would then expose part of the collection to a partner, who was asked to use notation to record the first part of the collection on their record sheet, and then try to figure out the value of the hidden part of the collection.

On Thursday students were given addition practice with number lines, as they represented various word problems on a line, and then translated their movements on the line to an equation.

They translated 8 words problems to number lines and equations.

The ultimate goal is for students to begin making connections between mathematical situations, number lines, and equations.

We also had a chance to chart some of the information from our October Calendar.

This week students will continue some of this charting on their own.

Also, ethis week we will be reviewing our unit 2 concepts before completing our Unit 2 Assessment on Thursday or Friday.

AMAZON RAINFOREST SIMULATION

This week the students spent time preparing their spokesperson for the the upcoming Rainforest Council Meeting.

Amazon Rainforest Council Meeting

Spokesperson Preparation

1. Why is your group important to South America?

2. How is deforestation affecting your people?

3. What do you think is a good solution to this problem?

4. Which groups of people do you think might be able to work

together? Why?

5. Which groups do you think will need to come to an agreement

or compromise? Why?

They worked in their groups to answer these questions and prepare for the upcoming discussions.

FIELD TRIP to HOYT ARBORETUM

Our first field trip of the year was a success! We had fun learning about many native Oregon trees, as well as some special non-native trees. We lucked out with a dry day and beautiful fall color on the trees.

Thank you so much Liz S., Teresa, Brandon, Kelli, and Liz W. for chaperoning our field trip to the Hoyt Arboretum! Check out the pics of our field trip!