Work packets should be finished tomorrow

I have been doing training, meeting, and grading all day! If your child hasn't done his or her Seesaw lessons, he or she needs to.

I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow.  So far, I only have a headache from the second vaccination.

If your child has a packet of work, he or she needs to bring it finished tomorrow.

Playground issues give rise to learning opportunity

We had a wonderful Wednesday morning.  We have added doing Xtramath into our daily morning activities.  It takes very little time, and is good practice.

We added some math vocabulary to our math notebooks.  We also played "I Have, Who Has?" using our multiplication fact cards.  We are trying to get under one minute from start to finish. Our best time today was 2 minutes and 13 seconds.  We will practice more.  Again, it is another game that is great practice and takes very little time.

The afternoon was a little rough.  There were several issues during recess, apparently.  Because when they came in there was a lot of tattling going on.  Since I wasn't on duty, I couldn't do anything but talk to students.  We did discuss that from now on they need to take it to the teacher on duty.  If it isn't important enough to be told during recess, then it must not be worth tattling about.  

So what I had planned wasn't going to work.  So we took this opportunity to talk about feelings/emotions, and then write about them.  We made a list of things that made us mad, and a list of things that made us happy.  

There will be assignments on Seesaw for tomorrow.  There will be three assignments.  Your child may also get on spellingtraining.com.

Third graders engage in lots of different types of learning

We had a terrific Tuesday! We started by finishing our penguin project.

I introduced a new class game that is used for addition and subtraction practice. There are 10 rounds.  I will use the data I got from today's game to make the next set of groups. They didn't realize how much they were learning during the game! We also did a few problems for independent practice. They finished pretty quickly.  I haven't got to grade it yet, so I will see.

We started our Poetry Ringo project.  It is due Wednesday, April 7. We did several together, and then they were given time to work on it alone.

We tried out the new spelling site, spellingtraining.com, today.  They typed in their lists on their devices.  I think they were glad to be on it.  I observed a few of the games as they were playing them.  I think this will be very helpful. Typing in their lists was a good skill also.

We spent a little time on Istation Reading, as well.

Students begin Poetry Ringo project

We had a great first day back to school! Many were relieved, as some had shown concerned about having to go to fourth after spring break.  I assured them they would still be in third grade.  I realized that they left for spring break last year and didn't return until August.  

We started by making a penguin mobile.  We had studied a bit about penguins before the break.  They love penguins!  

We read poetry today.  We will start our Poetry Ringo project tomorrow.  They have to read a certain number of poems by specific poets.  It will be an ongoing project.  They will have at least 2 weeks to complete this.  I have every poet represented in my poetry section in my room, so there shouldn't be a problem.  If it gets close to the due date, I may have some bring it home to work on.  You can find the poets online.  But I suggest you look up the poems, as some of the poets write for adults, as well as children, and can be inappropriate for our kiddos.

We practiced addition and subtraction (with regrouping and across the zero). 

We also wrote a super sentence that told us the who, how, when, and where. 

I sent home the spelling lists today.  As always, they got 2 so that they could have one for home and here.  If you try spellingtraining.com, please let me know. Unlike the last spelling site, it won't let me put in the lists.  You can put them in each week, and your child can play a variety of games to practice his or her spelling words.

We also made a penguin book about the different penguin parts and their purposes.

Book orders were sent home, as well.  They are due Wednesday, March 31.

This Thursday will be a virtual day, as we have to get our second vaccine.  I am hoping I am not as sick as I was after the first one.

 

Students learn about area and perimeter in a very energetic Friday

We had a very energetic Friday before spring break!

We started by skip-counting to make a picture.  

We also worked with area and perimeter.  We sang our song and revisited what we had added to our math notebook.  We built things using centimeter cubes.  We also discussed how area is squared, but perimeter isn't. We did some practice shapes and they had to bring me their paper every time they finished one, so that I could check it.  That way I was able to see if they were having any trouble.

We also worked with author's purpose.  We work on this all year but not as a specific lesson.  We discuss why an author wrote a book or passage.  We discussed the three reasons why a piece is written.  Authors write to persuade, inform, or entertain.

We took our spelling tests today. 

We read nonfiction passages about P.T. Barnum and NASA.  Both were very interesting.  

I gave them another book, Interrupting Chicken.  That one is theirs to keep.  Some borrowed Mr. Popper's Penguins to read over spring break.

Behavior notes came home. I suggested they show them to you and immediately put them back into their backpacks so they didn't lose them!

Have a great spring break!

Students work on fractions, unfamiliar words

We had a great day today!  It is always nice when everyone is here!

We started with another following directions page.  Some had to redo theirs, as they didn't follow all of the directions.  This is so important.  As they get older, and take tests, they will need to be able to read directions on their own, and follow them.

We made several fractions today with our fraction bars.  We discussed, again, how the size of fractions decrease as the denominators increase. After some practice of comparing fractions, we made another observation.  We discovered that if the denominator is the same, you only have to look at the numerator to see if a fraction is the largest one. 

We also worked with a few unfamiliar words.  They were words that the Irish use.  We used our dictionaries and deductive reasoning skills to match definitions to words. 

We played "You Can Be in My Club." This shows how people with something in common are in the "Club." For example, I chose everyone wearing a lanyard, as I was wearing mine.  Then the children have to guess what it is we have in common.  After that we had headings on shamrocks.  They were one word headings.  They then chose the other 2 words from the word bank that belonged with the word already written.

We worked with our spelling words today.  Our test is tomorrow. 

I reminded them they may get on Xtramath and Prodigy at home.  It is not MANDATORY, though. 

I did encourage them to write about their spring break.  They could just write a little each day about what they did, or what they didn't do.  Again, this is not mandatory.