Weekly Curriculum Update

Here are some of the curricular highlights this week in 3R:

Writer's Workshop


This week our focus was on using Elaborative Detail in our writing.  First I read the story I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll to get us thinking about how to make our writing more interesting by including details.  While most of the great description of the monsters occurs through the pictures in this book, there are fabulous describing words and phrases woven throughout this story about imaginary monsters.  We discussed how vivid word choice and specific detail not only make for an interesting paragraph, but become powerful tools for building vocabulary.  The students then wrote an elaborative piece about their own imaginary monster.  They will be sharing their writing during parent teacher conferences.


Math

The mental math strategy that we focused on this week was Adding Doubles Plus 1 and Plus 2.  Here are a few of the students playing the game Be a Doubles Plus 1 Superkid.

During Math Workshop we continued with our Numbers to 1000 unit by modeling and exploring place value with 3-digit numbers and representing numbers in more than one way using base ten blocks.

Science

We are close to finishing up our Rocks and Minerals Unit.  This week our focus was recognizing and describing the various components within 5 different samples of soil: clay, sand, oil sand, garden soil and peat moss.  The students are learning that soil isn't just dirt.  It is a combination of fine rock particles and humus (decayed/rotted plant and animal matter).

Social Studies

In social studies, we are preparing for our trip to India.  The students had a great time filling in and coloring their Canadian passports.  Now we just have to discuss what to pack in our suitcases!