This week has been a fun Halloween week! The kids enjoyed dressing up in their costumes on Thursday and had a great time at the Halloween party and parade. Along with these festivities, we have been learning a lot in room 12.
Reading: We are half-way through reading Because of Winn Dixie. We are using this book to guide our discussions of the main character. We have noticed how characters change in story, discussed in detail character actions, and personality traits. The third graders are doing a great job thinking deeply about characters which is going to help us understand the books we read as well as remember them!
Writing: We have committed to a story idea for our second published personal narrative. The third graders have worked to zoom in on their topic. For example, instead of writing about a week long trip to Florida, they are only going to write about their thoughts, feelings, and experiences on the airplane ride. This helps them to add details and think about all their thoughts and feelings during a specific time rather than writing a little bit about a longer experience.
Math: We are still learning our 6, 7, 8 multiplication and division facts. We are really working on solving word problems accurately and finding key words to help us decide which operation to chose to solve a problem.
Social Studies: We have used our new understanding of our four social scientists as we tried to consider the pretend community issue, "A professional soccer team would like to come to Troy. The would like to build their stadium where the Troy Nature Center stands today." Students were asked to think like an economist and write one reason why and economist would think this would be a good decision for Troy. An example the kids thought of was, "This would give Troy more money because there would be a lot of jobs that people could have at the stadium!" Students were also asked to think of a reason why an economist might say this was a bad decision. An idea was "The Troy government would have to spend a lot of money building the stadium so maybe they wouldn't have as much money for other things in Troy." Finally students were asked to think of a question and economist might ask the decision makers. An example was "How much do you think the stadium will cost us?" The students repeated this process from a georgapher, historian, and political scientist's point of view. It was so neat to see what creative ideas they came up with and they worked so well with their teams!
Word Study: This week we learned about the r controlled vowels, specifically er and or words. We discussed how we can't always hear the difference between these sounds so it is important to try both options and see if one "looks right" as a strategy to determine the best spelling option. Next week we will be continuing with r controlled vowels but will focus on ir and ur words.
Reading: We are half-way through reading Because of Winn Dixie. We are using this book to guide our discussions of the main character. We have noticed how characters change in story, discussed in detail character actions, and personality traits. The third graders are doing a great job thinking deeply about characters which is going to help us understand the books we read as well as remember them!
Writing: We have committed to a story idea for our second published personal narrative. The third graders have worked to zoom in on their topic. For example, instead of writing about a week long trip to Florida, they are only going to write about their thoughts, feelings, and experiences on the airplane ride. This helps them to add details and think about all their thoughts and feelings during a specific time rather than writing a little bit about a longer experience.
Math: We are still learning our 6, 7, 8 multiplication and division facts. We are really working on solving word problems accurately and finding key words to help us decide which operation to chose to solve a problem.
Social Studies: We have used our new understanding of our four social scientists as we tried to consider the pretend community issue, "A professional soccer team would like to come to Troy. The would like to build their stadium where the Troy Nature Center stands today." Students were asked to think like an economist and write one reason why and economist would think this would be a good decision for Troy. An example the kids thought of was, "This would give Troy more money because there would be a lot of jobs that people could have at the stadium!" Students were also asked to think of a reason why an economist might say this was a bad decision. An idea was "The Troy government would have to spend a lot of money building the stadium so maybe they wouldn't have as much money for other things in Troy." Finally students were asked to think of a question and economist might ask the decision makers. An example was "How much do you think the stadium will cost us?" The students repeated this process from a georgapher, historian, and political scientist's point of view. It was so neat to see what creative ideas they came up with and they worked so well with their teams!
Word Study: This week we learned about the r controlled vowels, specifically er and or words. We discussed how we can't always hear the difference between these sounds so it is important to try both options and see if one "looks right" as a strategy to determine the best spelling option. Next week we will be continuing with r controlled vowels but will focus on ir and ur words.