This Week In 3 rd Grade

1. This Week In 3rd Grade October 21-25, 2013

2. Specials This Week • Monday – PE • Tuesday – Art • Wednesday – Computer Lab • Thursday – Music • Friday - PE

3. Math • My Math group is working on structuring numbers and we are sharing strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems. • Math at Home: Give your child a 2-digit + 2-digit addition problem (24 + 19, for example), and instead of just asking them to solve it, ask them what they’re thinking as they figure it out. We want them focusing on their strategies. For most students, we’re not asking them to line up the numbers and add with the ones first then the tens and so on, instead we’re fostering their comfort with mental math and strategies so they better understand how the numbers work together versus just memorizing a procedure or set of steps. • The other math groups are in Unit 3 of Everyday Math and they’re working on measurement. • Math at Home: Any kinds of measuring activities – in the garage, in the kitchen, looking at labels. Put a variety of objects on a bathroom scale to compare their weights.

4. Reading • Our main text for whole group this week is Home-Grown Butterflies. • While reading this non-fiction text, we’ll be asking ourselves why it’s important for communities to support local businesses. • In this article, we’ll read about school children in Costa Rica who are raising butterflies to earn money for their school. They are teaching the adults in their community how they can make money and still protect the rainforest around them. • Along with looking at the organization of the article, we will use Home-Grown Butterflies to practice drawing conclusions while we read. • Drawing conclusions is important because it requires you to put clues together as you read to make decisions about people, places, or events in the text. Drawing conclusions is similar to inferencing in that you take your own prior knowledge and things you know about and combine that with clues from the text. • Learning Targets: I can draw conclusions while reading by referring to the text to find clues. • Success Criteria: Students will know they have hit the targets when they can use clues in the text plus what knowledge they already have to answer questions about people, places, and events in non-fiction text. They will be able to refer explicitly to text clues when answering questions.

5. Vocabulary • Here are some words found in Home-Grown Butterflies that we will focus on this week, as they may be new to many students: • Disappear • Protect • Harming • Supply • Capture • Enclosure Of course, we’ll monitor our comprehension as we read and discuss any other new words we find! 

6. Phonics/Spelling • THIS WEEK’S SKILL: Words with a variety of silent letters (knife, write, etc…) • LISTS for each group on the next slide  • NEXT week’s list is at the end of the PPT as well.

7. Group 1 Group 2 Group 3

8. Ideas for Practicing Spelling Words • Speed Spell – Set a timer and see how many words you can spell either orally or in writing in 2 minutes. • Rainbow Words – Write your words using a different color for each letter. • Vibrant Vowels – Write your spelling words, using a colored pen, marker, crayon, or colored pencil to write the vowels only in a bright color. • 3 Times Each – Write your words 3 times each. You choose – pen, pencil, different colors. I would suggest checking your work against your list or have a grown-up check it after the first word so you don’t practice it wrong 3 times in a row! • Spelling Bee – Have a grown-up or a friend say each word, then you spell them out loud. • A Spelling Story – Write a story and make sure you use each word at least once in your story. Highlight or underline your spelling words so you can check to be sure you spelled them correctly. • Funny Fonts – Type your spelling words a few times each. Use funny fonts and different colors. Just be sure to double check your work!

9. Standards Connection: Science 3.1.a, b, c Science • We are working on a science unit about Earth Materials. • Some of the questions we will explore are… • What are the 3 types of rocks? • How are rocks formed? How do they change? • What happens in the rock cycle? • Why would we need to know about the characteristics of the 3 types of rocks?

10. Standards Connection: Reading, Writing, Communicating 3.1.b.i, ii, iii, iv Writing • Narrative Writing – writing about a real or imagined event by including specific, descriptive details and a meaningful sequence of events • This week, we’re conferencing, revising, editing, and publishing our personal narratives. • We would love to share these with you Friday afternoon at 2:30.

11. NEXT Week’s Spelling