What's Ahead This Week?

       One of the big projects for this week will be completing our non-fiction books that we've been working on in Writer's Workshop. We began weeks ago deciding on a topic that each student felt they were an expert on. This was not research and writing, but a topic that each student felt he/she already knew a good bit about. Then we "wrote long" to get out all of the ideas he/she thought should be included in the book. Next, it was time to understand how real non-fiction authors take their ideas to a final form. We began by learning about the most commonly used text structures in non-fiction writing. Each student used three non-fiction text structures: descriptive, sequential, and compare and contrast. One structure was used for each one of our three body paragraphs in the book. Students have worked hard to truly revise their rough drafts to include the language of each text structure.
        During revision lessons, we learn that authors add some sentences, delete some sentences and keep only some sentences from their rough draft. This is a big challenge for third grade writers because it is hard to recognize where your own writing could be better.
       We have now rewritten to the point of final draft and the fun part of adding artwork and other text features like diagrams and text boxes with additional related information. If you are wondering how you can help this week....... help your child to look for some pictures to include in his/her book online. I can print B&W pictures if you email me images that the two of you have found. If your child would like color images, those will have to be printed at home and sent in to be added to the book.
      It will be exciting to see these books come to completion. The students have worked hard and are very proud of their work.

We Start Our Day.....

I hope you'll enjoy these insights into the way in which your child starts his/her day.

ac·knowl·edg·ment

 noun

 noun: acknowledgement

1. 1.

   acceptance of the truth 
2. 2.

   the action of expressing or displaying gratitude or appreciation 

   
   

We call this our Power Start Up:

Each morning we start our day with a this acknowledgment. This idea came from a show brought to West Hill School several years ago by the Town of Rocky Hill. The show's message was that each and everyone of us, by appreciating who we are, can reach our potential and be a positive influence in the world around us. The presenter discussed the power that each one of us has in relationship to bullying. If the acknowledgment we recite together is believed by each student, then bullying will never be an option. I realized this was a message worth remembering each day for myself and my students and I have started my class' day with this appreciation ever since. I hope you will agree that this message, acknowledging the "Power of One" cannot be realized too early or too often.

This year in the effort to align my teaching with the requirements of the Common Core Standards, I matched a song, What I am, by Will. i. am,  with a poem, By Myself, by Eloise Greenfield. My question to the students was what beliefs do the author's agree upon? We read and discussed the poem then listened to this version of Will. i. am singing on Sesame Street. The song was so well received by the students that we now sing it each morning. You should see the students singing and doing the hand motions along with Will and the Muppets. Another acknowledgment that cannot be realized to early or too often. I have included the link so you can enjoy the presentation also....You're never too old to enjoy the Muppets!!

Will. i. am Sings "What I Am"

Science: This week we will begin our science study of five different habitats around our world. They are the Desert, the Coral Reef, the Polar Regions, the Savannah, the Rain Forest. Each student will work in a group to read, take notes, design a poster with a paragraph and present information about the habitat. Students will refer to a rubric in order to include all required information. Each student will present information about a plant or animal and its adaptations to live in the environment, or the climate and location of the habitat they have become an expert on. Students usually enjoy this project and the opportunity to speak to their classmates about a topic that they have come to know well. Watch for some photos of the posters and paragraph writing in future blog entries.
Here are some excellent videos about habitats to watch and discuss with your child if you have the chance. It is so important to promote a curiosity in your child about the world around us. The possibility to grow your child's vocabulary, to develop background knowledge for future reading, to create an understanding of the world's needs vs an individuals needs cannot be underestimate when sharing this type of information with your child.

The Amazon Rain Forest Watch how plants and birds such as the hummingbird work together to survive in the jungle while bears have to be skilled climbers to find their food.

The Great Barrier Reef  Found off the coast of Australia. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth. It is home to billions of small organisms known as coral polyps as well as thousands of different species of marine life.

Just to keep the learning outside the classroom about FUN a few games for your child that will enhance the learning we are doing in our classroom:

Food Chain: Learn about various living things such as animals and plants, sort them into different categories and discover where they fit into the food chain with this fun science activity for kids.

Plants and Animals: Different animals tend to live in different habitats that suit their characteristics, this is the same with plants, which thrive in an environment that suits them. 

Welcome!

December 2013

     Welcome to our classroom blog page. In the effort to increase lines of communication between parents of students in my classroom and myself, I have started a classroom blog! I will be using this blog to post information about:

• some topics we are studying in the classroom
• news from our classroom and school 
• ideas for activities for you and your children to support our in-classroom learning

To begin, I have an entry for each category!

      In class, we have been working hard to closely read poetry. We start each morning with a poem. We work to notice the structure of the poem, talk about the author's craft and really get at the meaning of the author's words. As the Common Core Standards require, we discuss author's choices and writing style, and the reasons the author made the the decisions he/she made. Finally, we decide if the choices the author made were effective in conveying the message. This is a lot for young, third grade students to think about, but the students in Room 21 have made great progress in their ability to tackle some of these questions. We have fun reading poetry like we are detectives and always have great thoughts and ideas to share.

      News from our classroom includes everyone's friend and classmate, Alison, moved to Massachusetts in October. We sent her off with a beautiful handmade card with a message from each classmate, some books, and a stack of notecards so she can keep in touch. She has written to us a few times.
      In her last letter she asked if each of her former classmates would take part in her new classroom's project.  Flat Stanley is a book character who gets squished under a bulletin board and becomes flat. Because he is so flat he is able to do many things a real boy cannot do. He travels in an envelope in one book. Many classroom's take part in creating a Flat Stanley character out of paper and mailing it to friends in different parts of the world. Alison's class is taking part in this program. I copied her Flat Stanley and gave one to each of the student's in Room 21. She has asked that we take a picture of Stanley doing something. It can be something simple around the house or a trip to someplace special. After the picture has been taken and brought to school, I will give your child time to write to Ali and explain his/her Stanley event. We will then write an envelope and mail the picture and letter to Ali.
 
  There are many activities that would support the learning  that we are doing in class as right now we are reading and writing in the non-fiction genre! Students are reading many books that are narrative non-fiction and informational non-fiction. In writing, students are penning their very own non-fiction book on a topic that they feel they are an expert on. I have included two websites here that will give you some ideas of how families can get involved in non-fiction reading together. Choose a topic of interest to all of you and Enjoy!
Non-fiction reading that Kids Love: The following article discusses areas of the newspaper that are appropriate and enjoyable for kids to read. The article is written by Scholastic especially for parents.
Reading Adventure Packs for Families: Reading rockets is a website for teachers, students and parents. It has lots of information about many different aspects in reading. I will link you to this site again and again in the future. It is an awesome resource that I use in class as well. This link will take you to a page that has Adventure packs of books specifically designs for parent and children to investigate together. The creators have paired excellent fiction stories with logical nonfiction topics. For example, the outstanding author, Patricia Polocco has a book called, The Bee Tree which has a theme of maintaining stamina to learn to do something worthwhile and then enjoying the rewards. This has been paired with a nonfiction book, The Life and Times of the Honeybee by Charles Micucci. There is a free PDF that can be downloaded which provides questions and activities for you and your children to further explore the topics. Either book on its own would have great value, together they will create a wonderful learning experience for you and your child that will be treasured.