Mental Images

Third graders are busy drawing and talking about their mental images when they are reading. During our interactive read aloud time, children are identifying descriptive words and sentences that help create mental images for them. They read their own "just right" books and draw images and record the sentences that help them have the image.

Archaeologists at Work

Last week, third graders acted as archaeologists. After a lesson about archaeology and a discussion about Miwok artifacts, they searched in middens for hidden artifacts. Each child rotated having three jobs: excavator, museum curator and map maker. After using tools to uncover and clean their discoveries, they identified them and drew a sketch of their location in the midden. They created a "museum" of artifacts.  We met as a group and discussed the possible ways the Miwoks may have used these artifacts.

Free Choice Time

Room 25 students enjoy free choice time on Fridays.  We have a variety of games that reinforce curriculum.  This time also provides an opportunity for the teacher to work with small groups to complete unfinished homework or class work.

Big Bucks

Please take a look at the graded work your child will be bringing home almost every other week on Fridays. Attached to the work is a ledger where each child has added up their "Big Bucks". For most school work, students earn bucks based on their grades. A check plus= $20, check=$15 and a check minus= they owe us $20. For work that we do not correct together, students have an opportunity to correct check minuses and change the grade. They also earn money for completing homework for the week, staying on a green light and top table points. If they do not complete all their homework or end up on a red light for poor choices, they owe us big bucks. Each week, students add up their work (some of it is in their journals so you will not actually see it) and go to the banker to get their money. At the end of each Big Bucks period (about every 6 weeks), the top two earners get to choose a book from Amazon. If the entire class earns enough Big Bucks, we will have a party and the class will vote on a theme for it.

I messages

Recently, we reviewed a very important skill that we all need to remember. Student volunteers modeled a conflict with accusations and put-downs and the children were quite skilled at recognizing how ineffective this approach was for understanding each other and building trust. We then modeled the same conflict using "I messages" and the children wrote their own "I messages" for typical situations they may encounter in their own interactions.  Additionally,  they will be given sample scenarios from actual third grade conflicts and practice using "I messages" to resolve these situations. We will continue to review this important skill throughout the year. Please reinforce this skill outside the classroom and encourage your children to use "I messages" with you and their peers. I can certainly use a reminder myself from time to time. :)

Everyday Math

Third Grade mathematicians will be learning math using a problem-solving approach based on everyday situations.  By connecting their own knowledge to their experiences both in school and outside of school, children learn basic math skills in meaningful contexts so the mathematics becomes “real.”

They will engage in:

• frequent practice of basic skills
• instead of practice presented as tedious drills, children practice basic skills in a variety of ways 
• daily review exercises covering a variety of topics, find patterns on the number grid and the multiplication and division facts table, work with multiplication and division fact families in different formats, analyze visual number images, and play games that are specifically designed to develop basic skills.
• an instructional approach that revisits concepts regularly
• a curriculum that explores mathematical content and practices

To improve the development of basic skills and concepts, children regularly revisit previously learned content and repeatedly practice skills encountered earlier. The lessons are designed to build on concepts and skills throughout the year instead of treating them as isolated bits of knowledge. Research shows repeated exposure to these concepts and skills over time develops children’s abilities to recall knowledge from long-term memory. Everyday Mathematics provides a rich problem-solving environment, which helps children develop critical thinking skills. Children solve different kinds of problems, explore multiple solution strategies, explain their thinking to others, and make sense of other children’s thinking. 

Following the recommendations of the national mathematics standards, Third Grade Everyday Mathematics emphasizes the following content:

Numbers and Operations in BaseTen: Using place value understanding to add and subtract multi digit whole numbers, and multiply one-digit numbers by multiples of 10; rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100
Number and Operations—Fractions: Understanding fractions as numbers;representing fractions on a number line; recognizing equivalent fractions and comparing fractions
Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Developing fluency with multiplication and division facts;exploring properties of operations and the relationship between multiplication and division; solving problems involving more than one operation; using estimation to check the reasonableness of answers

Measurement and Data: Solving problems involving time, liquid volume, and mass; telling time to the nearest minute and calculating elapsed time; measuring and estimating mass in grams and kilograms and volume in liters; organizing and representing data with bar and picture graphs; measuring to the nearest inch and organizing measurement data on line plots

Geometric Measurement: Measuring areas of rectangles by tiling with square units; finding area measures by counting square units and multiplying side lengths; solving problems involving areas and perimeters of rectangles

Geometry: Recognizing categories of shapes with shared attributes, such as quadrilaterals; dividing shapes into equal parts and naming parts with a fraction
Everyday Mathematics provides you with many opportunities to monitor your child’s progress and to participate in your child’s mathematics experiences. 

Choosing a "just right" book and being a "good" reader.

This week, we discussed the difference between easy, just right and challenging books. We are working with children individually to make sure they are choosing books that are just right for them. A just right book is one that they can read fluently with very few errors (less than 3 on a page). A just right book is one that they don't want to put down because they are enjoying it so much. Please help your child choose a just right book to read at home next week. The five finger rule will be included in the homework folder on Monday.  Remind your child to use this when choosing books.    If you need help finding books, please let us know!  We also talked about how everyone's brain is busy working on a different part of reading at a different time.  Some readers can read long words, but may be working on creating pictures of what they are reading.  Others are skilled at understanding characters really deeply, but they may only be reading shorter words right now.  It's all okay and everyone's brain will be busy working on a different part of reading at different times this year.  It doesn't mean any one reader is better than another, they are only focused on a different aspect of reading.  We talked about the classroom community always being a safe place for all learning and risk taking in all subject areas.

Visualizing a Safe Place

The class enjoyed Kofi and His Magic by Maya Angelou this week. In this book, Kofi is a boy who lives in Africa who uses his mind to visualize traveling to other places.  This story was used as an introduction to meditation and visualization.  We discussed what our bodies feel like when we feel anxious, scared or angry.   The class then practiced relaxed breathing and visualizing a safe place.  I walked them through what this place feels like so that they could imagine being there.  I talked to them about using this practice to help them whenever they feel anxious, scared or angry outside or inside of school.  We will practice this regularly as part of our Community Circle.