Week of January 18-20

Hello 3rd Grade Families!

It felt great to be back in the classroom with the students this week.  It didn't take long for us to get back into the groove of learning.  Here is a recap of our 3 days back in school.

LITERACY

This week we read Night Letters, by Palmyra LaMonaco.  

This was a very cute story about a girl named Lily who liked to investigate the nature in her very own backyard.  She explores her backyard much like a detective would explore a mystery. 

The story is told through a series of letters that Lily writes in her notebook.  The letters are written from the perspective of various animals and objects in nature.  We hear a rock relay it’s day to her.  We see her understand the message from the blinking fireflies.  We hear the Sycamore tree tell her that it wants her to come back tomorrow and climb on it’s branches.  All of these wonderful details help us understand how much she enjoys and understands nature. Through her own observations of her backyard she has gained insight into the simple experiences of nature. 

The students did a great job on our Literacy task which accompanied this story.  The task entailed writing a character analysis of Lily.  They were given a graphic organizer which prompted them to identify three different character traits that describe Lily, and evidence from the story to support each trait.  Once they finished this pre-writing stage they were then ready to compose a well-organized paragraph with a clear topic sentence and conclusion statement.  

            

This task is much like a reading task they will be expected to complete on the state test.  The students are doing a fantastic job writing in the context of reading.

INAUGURATION DAY

On Friday, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. and President Barack Obama in acknowledgement of both MLK Day and Inauguration Day.

We began with a close reading of short articles on each leader.  

The students practiced their close reading skills, which encourage thoughtful interaction with the text while reading.  Using post-it notes they stopped to record connections, reactions, and questions.  

When we were finished, we took time to share out some of our responses to the text.

Next, we took time to compare and contrast Martin Luther King and President Obama.  The students participated in a thoughtful and meaningful discussion.

Finally, in the spirit of Inauguration Day, I took a moment to show a video clip from President Obama's Inauguration Ceremony in 2009, as well as his second Inauguration Ceremony in 2013.  We then watched a clip of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and discussed the similarities, differences, and significance of these historical events in American History.  

WRITING

  This week we spent time brainstorming topics for our informational article #2.

Each student wrote down 3 topics they would be interested in researching and writing about.

Then, they chose their favorite topic to share with the class.

The next day, we talked about choosing appropriate and meaningful main ideas to help us organize our research and writing.

           

            

Finally, we had two sessions on the computers to begin exploring our topics on the internet.  

Our first session was led by Ms. Robertson, Llewellyn's new media specialist.  She introduced the students to some basic knowledge when it comes to researching information on the internet.

            --What is a URL?

            --How to find reliable sources 

                              .edu

                              .gov

                              .org

            --How to look for the author

            --How to copy and paste a URL into a google document 

This week students will get their next writing planner and begin diving deeper into their internet research.

MATH

This week we began an exploration of area by contrasting it with perimeter.

Next, the students explored this concept by completing an activity aimed at helping them visualize the square units used to describe the area of shapes.  

The next day, we built on this new concept of square units, as I asked students the following question.

In order to make these concepts less abstract for students, this question led them to the creation of a square inch, a square foot, and a square yard.  

Each student was able to successfully create their own square inch and square foot, 

but when it came time to build a square yard, they had to work in groups.

This week we will use the concept of calculating area of a rectangle to transition to our study of multiplication (Unit 4).

                   

                          

                                 AREA = 5 x 8

Parent Led Art

On Friday afternoon we had our monthly Parent Led Art session. Thank you Allison Eshel for leading this week's art lesson.  

We revisited our artist focus for the year, as we listened to a story written by Faith Ringgold about Martin Luther King.

 

The art lesson this time involved glazing our Faith Ringgold inspired clay weavings from our previous session.

Thank you Allison Eshel for leading this art project, and Liz Whitehouse, Kelli Keegan, Caitlin Stauffer, and Aimee Guarriello for helping make it so successful.