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
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.
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