Update for 11/16-11/20

Language Arts

Reading- In Reading we are still working in the genre of Realistic Fiction working with narrative stories.  This week, students will work to reproduce stories given the events of the story using their knowledge of narrative superstructure.  

As we continue to consume and work in this genre, we are noticing craft elements.  This week we will begin to learn about and watch for backstory.  Backstory allows the reader to know a piece of the characters past that may help us understand the characters feelings, actions and motivations.  Super heroes have RICH backstory.  We will look into a few of our favorite super heroes pasts to help us understand this craft element.

Writing- We are spiraling back to review and practice conversations.  You can help us at home!  We are trying to talk without raising our hands about what happened in the story this week.  We read The Old Woman Who Named Things last week and will work in that book this week to understand the plot and theme of the book.  

 Word Work-Thank you for talking about how words work at home!  We will have our spelling test on Tuesday, November 17.  

Remember, that we work each day in class and November 18-November 24 I will be looking for students to apply their spelling words correctly in their reading and writing.

Social Studies- We will have our landforms and geography quiz on Friday.  A review sheet went home on Friday, 11/13.  Please use the discussion questions, notes from our social studies journal, graded papers and our online resource www.studiesweekly.com to help your child review what we have learned in class.  

We are moving onto maps and globes! What if you were lost at sea with no technology?!  We will learn the important impact of these tools on helping us navigate our  way home.

Here is some academic language that you can discuss and study at home to support your learner through this unit: grid, map, globe, longitude, latitude, compass rose, cardinal directions, hemisphere, Columbus, key, symbols, legend, equator, city, continents, states, oceans, and geographer.

Week of 10/26-10/30

Week of October 26 - October 30

RED RIBBON WEEK THIS WEEK.  We will participate in theme days and school wide discussion on the importance of making healthy choices.
Monday- Wear red.  We are "RED"y to lead a healthy life.
Tuesday- Wear pink. "New Friends are all around you."
Wednesday- Wear a college shirt. "My future is bright."
Thursday- Wear a crazy hair style. "Wild about being healthy."Friday- Wear a HCE shirt.  We will give each child a mustache.  I "mustache" you not to bully or do drugs.

READING-We will continue our genre study of realistic fiction.  As we read this week we will learn the difference between a first person and third person narrative.
WRITING-We will continue to map narrative stories.  This week we will look into the author's craft of dialogue.  We will learn to identify dialogue in a story and then begin to critique how and why an author uses dialogue to move the story.
WORD WORK-Students received new words last Tuesday.  On October, 27th we will take an assessment on these words and then work over the next week to  accurately apply these new words to our writing.
SOCIAL STUDIES-Our unit of study, geography, continues.  This week we will work to learn about the four regions of Texas and what landforms can be found in each region of the state.  On Wednesday, we will be shaping our own landforms and noting the differences and similarities between the various shapes in the land.  

MATH- This week during our math time, we will continue learning about subtraction. Last week we subtracted numbers with regrouping in the ones, tens, and hundreds. This week, we will be subtracting across zeros. Later in the week, we will be using our subtraction strategies in word problems. We will decode word problems and decide if we will be "taking away," "comparing," or find the "missing part." I was SO impressed by the math facts quiz last Friday. Keep up the GREAT work and study every night for 5 to 10 minutes. This week, we will have another addition and subtraction quiz. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night your child will bring home a subtraction worksheet. The problem of the week will be due on Friday. 

SCIENCE-During science this week, we will complete our discussion on Mixtures. Later in the week we will begin our unit on Energy. Energy is the ability to move and do work. We will review four forms of energy: sound, light, heat, and mechanical. We will begin with Mechanical Energy and discover that there are two types of Mechanical Energy: Potential and Kinetic. 

We have enjoyed conferencing with some parents on Thursday and Friday and we look forward to meeting with more of you this week!

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   

Language Arts and Social Studies

LANGUAGE ARTS

READING

In Reading over the next few weeks we will be synthesizing our reading.   
My concrete example for synthesizing is this...
Think about when you make pasta.  You have to boil the water, add the dry noodles and then cook them, but that's not the way we eat our pasta.  We have to strain the noodles to get rid of the water but keep the REALLY  good pasta.  It's the same when we synthesize our reading.  We have to read the whole book, and even let it boil for a while, but synthesizing happens when we strain the information and we are left with the REALLY good stuff. 
This week we are working with non-fiction.  Your children are reading texts and trying to distinguish the FACTS (to record in their notes) from their THINKING (connections, thoughts, ideas, questions).

WRITING
This week in Writing we are working on how-to essays.  We have reviewed the features of this text.  Over the next few days, we will consume some good examples and create a class essay.  Then, students will work to create a how-to essay to teach us how to play his or her favorite game.

SPELLING
Spelling continues to be more of the same.  Students should bring home new spelling words on Mondays.  Homework is due on Thursdays.  We will take our test on Friday.

SOCIAL STUDIES

GEOGRAPHY

Students will have a geography quiz on Friday.  It will cover the first half of our unit of study.  Please make sure to look over the review sheet sent home last Friday.  Students have also been encouraged to take their Social Studies Journals home each night to aide in preparing for the quiz.  

Mrs. Ford is BACK!

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to school, and back to third grade with Mrs. Ford!
I missed all of you while I was gone.
Here's a little look at who I was spending my break with...

Language Arts

Reading- We will spend the rest of this week and next week reviewing inferences and beginning to analyze questions using QAR (Question Answer Relationship).  QAR is useful as a tool for conceptualizing and developing comprehension questions. "QAR creates a way of thinking about the types of questions that are most appropriate for different points in guiding students through a text. Questions asked before reading are usually On My Own QARs. They are designed to access relevant prior knowledge. In creating questions asked during reading it is important to balance text based and inference questions. Search and Locate QARs should dominate and should build to the Author and Me QARs. Finally, after reading questions are primarily Author and Me and On My Own QARs. Please remember that too many Right There QARs may indicate and overemphasis on literal, detail questions. QAR is useful as a student tool in providing a basis for three comprehension strategies: locating information, determining text structures and how they convey information, and determining when an inference would be required. It initially helps children understand that information from both texts and their knowledge base and experiences are important to consider when answering questions. It helps students search for key words and phrases to locate the appropriate information for answering questions. Finally, QARs help students recognize whether or not information is present in the text and, if not, that it is necessary to read “between or beyond the lines” to answer the question." (the reading lady)
Reading homework is back on track.  Please have students check the reading blog to record homework.

Writing- Students have finished writing a personal narrative.  We will be working the next two weeks on letter writing.  Students will receive a third grade pen pal.  We will learn how to correctly format and write a friendly letter to that person.  Then, after each child receives a letter, we will learn how to write a thank you letter in return.  We are hoping that this real world application will inspire a new generation of letter writing! :)

Spelling- Students will once again bring home spelling words on Mondays.  They will work to complete 8 points off the spelling menu by Thursday and we will test on Fridays.

Social Studies

Geography We will start our unit on land forms   In third grade we work to learn land form vocabulary.  Then, we will find when on our EARTH different land forms or bodies of water may be found.  Finally, we want students to think about how life might be based on what type of land form or body of water we live near.  

Language Arts and Social Studies Update

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed your break as much as I did. Yesterday we took some time to catch up and share about our holiday break. From the third grader's perspective, it sounds like you all had a fun and safe time together. We will work the week and next on the following LA/SS topics. LANGUAGE ARTS READING We will begin earning a new way to think about questions we encounter during and after reading. This way of thinking or strategy is known as QAR (Question/Answer Relationship). QAR is useful as a tool for conceptualizing and developing comprehension questions. "QAR creates a way of thinking about the types of questions that are most appropriate for different points in guiding students through a text. Questions asked before reading are usually On My Own QARs. They are designed to access relevant prior knowledge. In creating questions asked during reading it is important to balance text based and inference questions. Search and Locate QARs should dominate and should build to the Author and Me QARs. Finally, after reading questions are primarily Author and Me and On My Own QARs. Please remember that too many Right There QARs may indicate and overemphasis on literal, detail questions. QAR is useful as a student tool in providing a basis for three comprehension strategies: locating information, determining text structures and how they convey information, and determining when an inference would be required. It initially helps children understand that information from both texts and their knowledge base and experiences are important to consider when answering questions. It helps students search for key words and phrases to locate the appropriate information for answering questions. Finally, QARs help students recognize whether or not information is present in the text and, if not, that it is necessary to read “between or beyond the lines” to answer the question." (the reading lady) WRITING We have finished our personal narratives and will begin to consume various types of book reviews. If you are an amazon shopper, you might read book reviews often. We will discuss what types of information help make a review helpful to those who read them. Please share with your child you ideas and options about the books you are reading. Let them know WHY you choose to read that book. Did a friend recommend the book? Is is on the top 10 best sellers list? Did you read a review in a magazine or newspaper that sparked your interest in the book? SPELLING There will not be spelling the week of January 2. Spelling lists will begin again next week, 1/9-1/13. Please remember that the 10 points of spelling homework are due on Thursday each week and tests are administered on Fridays. THANKS for your help with WORD WORK at home. SOCIAL STUDIES We have put economics to rest and are moving on to a new topic for this nine weeks. Social Studies and Science will compliment eachother over the next few weeks as we learn about various landforms and bodies of water. Here are our new vocabulary words for this study… Canyon, Peak, Channel, Peninsula, Coast, Plain, Coastal Plain, Plateau, Desert, River, Gulf, Riverbank, Hill, Valley, Island, Ocean, and Mountain. Understanding these concepts will help us later this 9 weeks as we talk about different types of maps and regions across America where these land forms can be found.