What Are Your Big Rocks?

Habit 3-Put First Things First

After reading the January Habit 3 story, Put First Things First, I decided we should spend a bit more time identifying what the important things are in each of our lives?

On Friday, we began by watching a very cool video that made the abstract idea of time management very visual and real for the third grade students. Please take the time to check it out by clicking on The Jar of Life link below. 

The Jar of Life

Once we discussed the significance of the video we charted somethings that are sand, pebbles and rocks in our own lives. Then each student had time to think about the big rocks in his/her life. We wrote significant words on the big rocks and glue those to our jars first, leaving some space for the pebbles and sand.

Ask your child, "What Are Your Big Rocks?

The students really seemed to understand the idea of working before playing in order to get the most important people and things taken care of before all of the time in a day is used up. Now practice makes perfect, so I'll continue to remind students to put first things first at school, and you can feel free to remind your child of this very important habit at home as well!

We Are Investigating the Mystery Genre!

We are almost done reading the whole class read aloud mystery, Lucky Lottery by Ron Roy. The students are loving the book and we are having MANY opportunities for shared thinking and discussion about features of the mystery genre.

Students have just begun reading in a just right reading group. This will allow them to more closely read and discuss a mystery with the support of other classmates. We will work in these groups for about a week and then each student will take on his/her own mystery book to apply all that has been learned and practiced in whole group and small group reading. These are the five book that we are sharing in 6 groups.

I have copied 2 anchor charts. These serve as the basis for our discussion in whole class and small group.  These questions can help you "speak the same language" when you and your child are discussing any mystery! Happy Sleuthing!

One last reminder: We are working on vocabulary for the mystery unit. Students have received the first set of flash cards to be used as nightly practice. Another set will be given on Tuesday. During the unit students are working to use the new vocabulary in whole class and small group discussions. Please help your child practice the vocabulary by way of a memory style game or simply flashcard practice each night. At the end of the unit there will be quiz as part of the final assessment.

Happy 2016 to All!

Happy New Year to all of my students and their families! May 2016 bring you peace and happiness in all that you do!

Our classroom will be incredibly busy this week as student show all that we've learned about nonfiction reading by independently reading a nonfiction text of his or her choice and completing the end of unit project. Additionally we will wrap up our habitat web research project and begin our habitat essay and mini presentation board. All while we will continue on with our word study program, math unit on division, and finish the week having our Antarctica/Penguin vocabulary quiz. Nothing like hitting the ground running!
       

       

This week I will begin our mystery read aloud, modeling the appropriate thinking and think notes for the genre. I like to use, Lucky Lottery an A to Z Mystery by Ron Roy. It is a just right model for many of the mystery characteristics students will be expected to recognize in their future group and independent reading. Some of the genre characteristics that we will experience together are cliff hangers, red herrings, and an integral setting. Ron Roy is a very descriptive author using many similes and idioms that we discuss as a class. We will also visit Ron Roy's website. Stay tuned for future blogs with pictures of our in class anchor charts. If you are interested in talking to your child about the genre study or asking questions as they are reading, you will both be able to speak the same language.

     During our mystery study we will also listen/watch some mystery books being read to us on Tumble books to gain experience with note taking while watching and listening, not just as part of an independent reading activity. This is really a very specific skill set that will be needed when students take the Smarter Balanced Assessments later this year! Practice in this area is beneficial!