We only have two days of school this week, but they will be packed with learning!
Reader's Workshop
We have just begun a new unit in reading. We will be working on a nonfiction unit. Our focus will be on grasping the main ideas of a text, and using text structures to help us read to learn. The students are off to a very strong start with this work. Last week we worked on "revving" up our minds to prepare to read a nonfiction article. We looked at the text features to help us create an idea of what we might learn while reading.
Writer's Workshop
We will begin a nonfiction unit in writing this week as well. We will be writing informational texts on a topic the students are experts on. We will work on organizing our work, and learning how to use nonfiction text features to help make our work interesting.
Math
Multiplication!!! We learned about the concepts behind multiplication. The students took a test last week on this first unit, and their scores were outstanding! We worked on relating repeated addition to multiplication, and we used arrays to help us solve problems. This last Friday we began learning some facts. We will being by learning the facts that can be solved with patterns the students are very familiar with. This week we will work on multiplying by 2, 5, 9, 0, and 1.
After we have learned strategies for solving all of the facts 0-10 I will send home a sheet that shows how each set of facts was taught (to help you study at home). We will also begin multiplication timed tests after all of the facts have been introduced, and the students have had some time to learn, practice, and memorize facts. Flash cards make a great holiday gift :)
Social Studies
We have spent the last few weeks learning about the Ancient Egyptian culture and people. We have read a nonfiction chapter book about Ancient Egypt, and we have had fun making some crafts to go along with our learning. We will complete this unit this week!
Science
I am so excited to begin a brand new science unit to third grade, and Elsmere. We will begin a unit on packaging engineering. During this unit the students will work in small groups to design and build a package to meet a certain set of requirements. I had the pleasure of attending a training on this unit through The Museum of Science in Boston. Please look for a letter coming home tomorrow explaining more about our learning, and a request for some materials.
Spelling
We will not have a spelling list this week, but we will resume spelling Monday after Thanksgiving break.
The students working on figurative language posters...
Thank you to our mystery reader, Mrs. Perrotto!
The students learning how to code...
Anton read us one of his favorite books.
Thank you to our mystery reader, Mrs. Donohue!
