Friday, August 31st

Happy Friday! We had a busy (and wet!) day today. During literacy, we did a word sort, trying to determine word patterns for the long-a sound. We also built more stamina in Read to Self and Read With Someone. After reading another chapter of Judy Moody, we worked on retelling, adding character traits into our retell.

Working on our retells.

In math, we discussed money. We reviewed US coins, their values, and how they are represented, as well as dollars and cents notation (using $__.____, instead of using cents signs). Ask your child if they can write an amount in that notation, and show you where the decimal point is! We also played "Name That Number" and some of us got to play it on the iPad! (If you have an iPad at home, Everyday Math apps are FREE right now! Check them out at the App store! : )

Playing "Name That Number"

We finished our day by working on our "Me Collages." Those were sent home. Please help your child work on that this weekend. They are due back no later than Wednesday, as we will be presenting them in class!

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, August 30

FYI - There will be an EAL Parent Night on Tuesday, September 4 from 6-7pm in the Gecko Theatre at the Parkside Campus.

Today we continued our stamina building for Daily 5. In word work we found long a words in our good fit books. We re-read yesterday's Judy Moody chapter so we could start focusing on character traits. We used evidence from the story to decide what character traits the story's characters posess.

In math, we used calculators to skip count and solve story problems. We also played a fun game of Beat the Calculator. Students realized it was much easier to answer math fact questions with their brain than with the calculator! There is math homework tonight.

We finished our day with Social Studies. We used a compass rose to answer questions about a world map.

Wednesday, August 29th

Today we added a new activity to our Daily 5 - Word Work. We are working on the long-a sound for word crafting this week, so students did a long-a word find during Word Work. We worked on building our Read to Self and Read With Someone stamina. Our CAFE reading strategy was about being a voracious reader. Ask your child if they can remember what that means! I've also been pulling students to read aloud to me, as well, so I can get a feel for what our reading strengths and goals will be for this year.

After we read a chapter of Judy Moody we started working on our "Me Collages." We'll continue to work on these tomorrow and Friday, so if you'd like to send in more pictures, etc. you are welcome to do so.

In math today we discussed differences and how to use our number grid to find the difference between two  numbers. There is a math Home Link due tomorrow. 

We finished our day with Social Studies. We created map quizzes based on the maps of our bedrooms. We traded quizzes with a partner to see if they could find different objects in our room using the map and compass rose. 

Monday, August 27

Today we built our stamina during Literacy, working on Read to Self and Read With Someone. We also learned a new strategy for comprehension called "Check For Understanding." Mrs. Ruthai read A Bad Case of the Stripes and modeled the strategy.

We read another chapter from Judy Moody and then worked in partnerships to retell. We are getting really good at focusing on the big ideas in our retells!

In math, we finished up Lesson 1.6, reviewing Name Collection Boxes, and talking about equivalents. We sorted dominoes into groups with equivalent sums. There is a math homework assignment due tomorrow.

Sorting dominoes into equivalent groups. 

We had our first library check-out today, so your child should have brought home some library books! They get to keep these for 2 weeks and can renew them 1 time.

In social studies, we discussed important parts of a map (title, compass rose, and map key). Then we read Me on a Map and students started making maps of their own rooms. They can finish these at home, and are supposed to ask for your help with the compass rose (help them find north and label the compass rose accordingly).

Tomorrow is Day 1 - P.E. ; NO Chinese

Thursday, August 23

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT ASA FORMS! The date is incorrect. The paper says that forms will be collected September 24th through September 27th. This should say August 24 - August 27. 

Today in literacy we built stamina in Read to Self and also introduced and practiced Read to Someone. Mr. Tuia came in and read with some students, as well.

After morning break, we read another chapter from Judy Moody and worked on retelling using a template: "someone, wanted, but, so, then." Students worked in small groups to complete these and did a very nice job!

In math, we talked about organizing data in tally charts and bar graphs. We compared the number of letters in students' first names. Tonight there is homework that asks students to organize data into a table. This is due tomorrow.

We launched our Social Studies unit "Home and Away" today with a fun around-the-world activity. Students visited different "continents" (teachers) and answered questions about that continent to earn stickers on their passports.

Notes went home today about swimming in PE and ASAs. Please look over those. ASA forms can be returned tomorrow or Monday.

Terrific Tuesday!

Today we built more reading stamina and practiced making good choices about where to sit for read to self. We also started making our Judy Moody t-shirts. These will stay at school until the end of the unit, and then we will all wear them.

We did a beginning of the year writing assessment today. Students wrote about the best day of their summer break. We will revisit these at the end of the year to make changes and see how their writing has grown.

In math, we played an addition game called "Less Than You!" We also reviewed some place value skills. Students will use those skills in their math homework (Home Link 1.3) that is due tomorrow.

We ended our day by reading chapter two of Judy Moody. Then we did a word activity. Students tried to make as many words as they could using only the letters in the phrase "Gino's Extra-Cheese Pizza" (just like Judy did in chapter 2).

Remember, Parent Night is this Wednesday, August 22nd from 5:00 - 6:00 pm on the 4th floor of Parkside. We hope to see you there! : ) 

Our "Moody" Class

Saturday was Derek's birthday! Happy birthday!!!

Today we launched our reading program. We'll be doing a combination of Reader's and Writer's Workshop with Daily 5 elements, meaning students will be independently engaged while I am meeting with small groups for direct instruction. We talked about why we read; choosing a good fit book; and then we practiced what it should look like, feel like, and sound like when we are being readers. We built our stamina today, too, by reading around the room for short periods of time.

We also started our first reading unit with Judy Moody. We'll be talking about character and retelling with this story. Each day I'll read aloud a chapter, then we'll discuss. Today we talked about moods. We brainstormed different moods, looked at pictures of kids and wrote what mood we think they were in, and then drew what puts us in mood. Some students did not finish their mood papers, so those will be homework due tomorrow. Also for homework, please talk with your child about what they did this summer. Part of the Judy Moody story is when Judy creates her own "back to school" t-shirt by drawing something exciting she did over the summer. We'll be doing that in class, but to help your child organize their thoughts, please create a design on paper tonight and send it home tomorrow.

In math, we explored our Student Resource Books, and also did a quick beginning of the year assessment, for me to get a feel for how well your child knows their facts and number sense.

We also wrote about our first day of third grade. These will be in the students' portfolios for conferences.

Please mark your calendars - PARENT NIGHT is THIS WEDNESDAY from 5:00 - 6:00 PM on the 4th floor of Parkside. Please come to learn more about your child's year in grade 3. See you then! : )