Antarctica!

This week we start a very exciting nonfiction reading study of Antarctica. We will focus on four texts about Antarctica to discover what the authors are teaching us as well as the way that they have chosen to share their message. We will notice the author's structure and the text features of the informational books we read, as well as the literary devices used in the literary nonfiction books we read. When we are done with reading and thinking with support of the class, we will move into reading with a partner to learn about penguins! This time the student partnerships will be responsible for doing the same type of noticing and recording of their thinking. State tuned for our thinking to be revealed in photos!
In math, we have begun the first of many multiplication units. This is what every third grader waits for! We are having fun so far with figuring out how repeated addition and multiplication are the same, but we quickly realized how much more efficient multiplication is! We've also realized that students already know many multiplication facts because they have been counting by 1,2,5,10s since kindergarten. We discussed the zero's family and recognize why those are easy as well. So when it comes time for your child to start the multiplication facts on Xtramath it should go quickly. I will include a link to Mr. R's World of  Math and Science for multiplication songs and poems to help students remember the facts. It's cute! Another resource with lots of math games for third graders is  ABCya.com
As you enjoy the week, don't forget to ask your child what he/she is learning about Antarctica!

Exciting Times in Room 24!

     We are entering a very busy time in the classroom! We finished last week with an outstanding turnout of pumpkin characters! Each student worked hard to create a cool character from a book that he or she had read. In class, each student wrote about the character traits of his pumpkin character as they were revealed in the book. Finally, I took a picture of the student, the book and the beloved pumpkin and attached it to the writing.  What an awesome display we had in the hallway! I hope you were able to come to Spirt Night and see the whole school adorned with hand crafted character pumpkins. At the end of the year, we create a 3rd grade scrapbook that features our 'project work' for the year. I will hold the pumpkin character writing and photo page for the scrapbook.
     I started by saying what a busy time it is in the classroom. It is hard to believe we are entering our third unit in reading and writing. From now through the winter holiday break, we will be reading and writing nonfiction. In class we will learn to identify text structure. This week we will begin with an introduction to nonfiction: what is the purpose of nonfiction text, the types of nonfiction, and how the reader must sit up and read with a pencil in hand which greatly differs from reading fiction text. We will then learn to read and analyze the text structure, starting with a focus on the most common text structure: main idea and detail. We will also investigate compare and contrast structure and read literary or narrative nonfiction.
      Since we are moving into nonfiction text reading and writing and students will be gaining skills in this area, I'd like to take the time to mention two fantastic website for the whole family. The activities on these websites would support the learning  that we are doing in class. Don't worry too much about reading levels just 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.
Keep these ideas in mind as the colder months approach and there is more indoor time to be spent together.