LITERACY: We began the process of writing an opinion piece in response to a passage using text evidence to support our claim. First, we carefully analyzed the prompt. Then we read the passage three times highlighting only that information that responded directly to the prompt. We included notes in the margin to explain why we thought the highlighted information was important. Finally, we familiarized ourselves with a grading checklist. We applied the checklist to a student sample as practice to help us better assess our own writing before turning it in.
Cursive: n, m, and y
grammar: homophones, using quotation marks in dialogue, using capitals and punctuation in quotations, verb tenses
How you can help at home: When watching television shows or movies, ask your child's opinion on a character or event. "Do you think the character made a good choice?" "Do you like this character?" Follow up with the question, "What happened in the movie to make you think that?"
MATH: Unit four shifts away from multiplication, division, and measurement and returns to multi-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping. At first glance, this might seem like a regression in skills. However, the addition and subtraction unit is foundational in building a strong number sense. Students are introduced to a variety of strategies that develop their understanding of place value as they begin to manipulate numbers. They will investigate a variety of strategies to regroup numbers before being introduced to the standard algorithms we all learned as children. This is important because the standard algorithm can prove somewhat abstract for third graders. They can be taught to follow the steps and to do so accurately, but don't always understand why the algorithm works. By first practicing different strategies, they are better able to understand what is happening numerically when using the standard algorithm for regrouping. The first step in this process is the reintroduction of place value drawings. Most students encountered these in second grade. Click below for a homework helper tutorial on place value drawings.
How you can help at home: Encourage your child to practice the strategies introduced in class when completing homework. These strategies are critical to building the necessary number sense so students can apply the standard algorithm with understanding when it is finally introduced.
SCIENCE: We investigated magnetism as a force that attracts steel and iron. We attempted a number of different challenges with the magnets to help us see how opposite poles attract and same poles repel. We made a paperclip float by balancing the force of a doughnut magnet with that of gravity.
 |
| Floating Paperclips
|
How you can help at home: Ask your child to describe the science investigations to you. Encourage the use science vocabulary in the retelling i.e. attract, repel, forces, gravity, and magnetism. If you have access to magnets at home, have your child model the floating paperclip for you as (s)he describes the forces at play i.e. gravity, magnetism, and the force of the string.
MISC: In preparation for our upcoming Social Studies unit, we watched a Living Voices performance that focused on a Russian girl and her family as they immigrated to the United States in 1907 during the Great Wave of Immigration. We examined various reasons immigrants came to the U. S. We learned about the perils of travel during that time. We watched as the actress entered Ellis Island with her family. We cheered as the main character was finally able to realize her dream of going to school and learning to read.
No comments:
Post a Comment