Monday, October 28, 2013

10/28-11/1 Language Arts and Social Studies

LANGUAGE ARTS
Reading
We are still reading non-fiction.  This week we will focus on the facts located in non-fiction texts.  Students will learn to distinguish fact from opinion.  They will also work this week to determine if facts read are important or interesting.  This is a hard concept for third graders.  When most third graders read a fact, if they are interested in the topic, they judge the fact to be important.
Please remember that your child should read nightly for 20 minutes.  They are required to record the title and genre in their third grade planner.
Writing
We will create a narrative criteria chart this week as we start to dissect narratives to find out what makes a narrative interesting and good.  Students will also work with a partner to reproduce a narrative.  Reproduction is like putting puzzle pieces together without looking at the picture.  You have to pay attention to what you know about structure and patterns to make the puzzle (story) make sense. 
Spelling
We had last week OFF from spelling.  This week, your third grader should bring home NEW words on Monday.  8 points for the spelling menu is due on Thursday.  We will test on Friday.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Landforms
We are starting a new unit in Social Studies, Geography.  Our geography unit is made up of two parts, landforms and map skills. We will start the unit with a look at landforms.  This week we will review many landforms that are, hopefully, familiar to our students.  Our BIG idea in social studies is that our daily life is affected by the land surrounding us.  When we plan vacations, what we pack, what we do, and our travel are all determined by the land and water features surrounding our destination.  
Some of our upcoming vocabulary will be:
Geography-the study of Earth’s features
Landform- natural features, or shapes, of the land including mountains, valleys, plains, plateaus, etc.
Climate- the kind of weather a place has over a long period of time
Human Feature- something that people add to the landscape, such as a building
     Adapt- change to fit the environment   

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