October 10 - 14th

We had an extremely busy week in 3A!

Reading Workshop

 One of the stories I read this week during reading workshop was called the Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Elizabeth Bennett. This is a story about a determined boy who attempts to grow the biggest pumpkin the world has ever seen! I used this book as a mentor text to focus on Accuracy Strategies. When helping children to improve their reading, it's important to focus on decoding words efficiently and accurately. This allows students to direct their attention on understanding what they are reading. One way to help students with their accuracy is to watch for familiar patterns called chunks. When reading with your child at home, have your child look for well-know letter chunks in the words they are reading. For example, your child may look for the chunk end in the word send or air  in chair. When chunking a word, have your child first read each chunk separately. Then have your child put the chunks together to make the word. Encourage your child to use his/her fingers to frame the chunks found in words, decode those chunks first, and then move on to read the whole word.

The students also completed their second star reading assessment. This assessment provides a tool to easily screen my students and monitor the progress of those who need reading invention.

Writing Workshop

During writer's workshop the students continued to work on personal narratives. Many students chose to write about their Thanksgiving Weekends. I thoroughly enjoy reading their journals every week.

On Friday the students wrote their spelling dictation sentences. I didn't get a chance to mark them before the students went home for the weekend., They will be sent home on Monday to be initialed and returned on Tuesday.

|Congratulations to the students who flew to India this week!

Math

This week in Math we focused on T-Tables. The following curricular outcomes were covered:

- Students will learn to use and create T-tables for number patterns made by adding or subtracting.
- Students will identify the rules of simple number patterns using T-tables and extend these number patterns using T-tables.
- Students will use T-tables to solve problems.

The students were given an "informal" assessment to wrap up our patterning unit. Next week we will begin working on place value.

Science

This week in science the students created their "Rocks and Minerals" duotang title page. They also worked collaboratively to develop a KWL chart about Rocks and Minerals.  This chart helps to determine the range of the students' background knowledge and areas of students interest. 

The students also started putting together their Rocks and Minerals Lapbook. A lapbook is simply a file folder that contains a variety of  mini-books, foldables, and other material that cover detailed information about the lapbook's topic.  It's a fun and engaging way display and interact with information, rather than using the traditional "worksheet."

Pet Rocks!

The students were so excited to paint and decorate their pet rocks this week. Next week they will write descriptive paragraphs about their rocks.

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PE

In Phys Ed, the students were put into groups to work through various stations focusing on motor skills. 

Congratulations to our Student of the Week. Way to go!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!