Cardboard Challenge

 We had a wonderful time drafting, developing and creating our cardboard challenge projects.  We learned how to work together to build and problem solve.

Personal Narrative Writing

The class is working on their final writing piece as a part of our narrative writing unit.  Students participated in various mini lessons this week that focused on building a strong lead, the importance of word choice, including sensory detail, and incorporating interesting dialogue. We will be working on our final draft next week.

Extreme Weather Research

Students began their extreme weather research in the LMC! They are working in small groups to learn more about hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, and floods. This week, we focused on using note taking strategies to document our learning.

Reading this Week

This week, we spent time reviewing the various nonfiction text structures!  We read a biography about John F. Kennedy and created a timeline that showed chronological text structure. Students looked for key words to compare and contrast an article about chimpanzees and humans. 

Chapter 7 Videos

As we continue learning more in our math unit, I thought that it may be helpful to have a few videos as resources.  You can have your child watch these at home if they need further support with their homework or you can have them complete the problems and then see if they got the answers correct.  I listed the topics above to help you identify how they can help your child with homework.

Review of Basic Multiplication

Multiplication Without Regrouping

Multiplication with Regrouping

Other Helpful Videos- More Multiplication Practice

Long Multiplication with Regrouping

SEL

We had a wonderful week! During SEL, we revisited the Meta Moment strategies and had a community circle where we shared what we were thankful for in our lives. 

Getting Ready for Halloween

 Our Halloween parade and party will take place Monday afternoon. Students who are staying at school for lunch should bring their costume to school. They will have a chance to change into it during the lunch/recess hour. Please review Mrs. Sessler’s SPLASH newsletter for more details. Thank you to the parent volunteers who have helped make our classroom party possible- we are so excited!

Weather Unit

We were so excited to dive into our first science unit these past couple of weeks! We learned that weather is how the sky looks and how the air feels. We also learned that weather occurs in the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere that is closest to earth.  Students also learned how meteorologists collect important weather data for forecasts. We focused on learning the tools that gather key weather information. Some of these tools included barometers, anemometers, thermometers, rain gauges, and wind vanes.

Math this Week

We focused on multi-step number stories this week! We discussed what to do when we approach a word problem and created an anchor chart to help us! We wrapped up our unit on addition/subtraction bar modeling with a short quick check. We will revisit bar modeling throughout the year. Next week, we will begin chapter 6!

Descriptive Writing

 In writing, we read the book I Need My Monster. Students then created their own monster drawings! Next, students focused on writing sensory details to describe their creations. Students used a web to organize their thinking. Finally, students wrote a rough draft with details about how their monster look, felt, smelled, and sounded. In grammar, students differentiated between common and proper nouns.

Nonfiction Unit

We were very excited to start our nonfiction unit! Students analyzed the three types of nonfiction: literary nonfiction, biography, and reference nonfiction. We also reviewed the purpose of nonfiction text features with a book about chimpanzees.  Students went on a scavenger hunt and found text features in nonfiction books. We discussed how helpful text features are in helping the reader understand the text.

Reading this Week

Students reviewed key ideas from our launch unit! They practiced making meaningful connections, asking questions, and creating visualizations. We also examined nonfiction text features this week using a variety of books.  Reading poetry and figuring out the big idea was another area of focus. At the end of the week, students took their launch quiz. Next week, we will begin our nonfiction reading unit!

Fall is Here!

 I absolutely love fall!  The leaves start to change!  With fall, we can also expect the temperature to drop.  Please me sure that your child is prepared for the cooler weather outside at recess.

Writing

In writing, students enjoyed reading various nonfiction books about oceans!  We studied the author’s style and used that to jumpstart our own ideas for nonfiction pieces. Oceans and Seas followed a traditional nonfiction format with many facts.  Atlantic wrote about the Atlantic Ocean from its perspective. We also read I Wonder Why the Sea is Salty?  Students discovered that the author used questions for each chapter.  We also wrote poetry this week.

Discussing with Others What we are Reading

This week during Reader's Workshop, we learned strategies to help us when we become distracted while reading.  Some of these strategies included rereading, pointing to the text, and summarizing each section as we read. Students also made connections to a poem entitled “Great Travels”.

We also shared what we are reading independently with others.  We discussed what we are reading in partners and shared interesting facts that we learned as we were reading a nonfiction book this week.

Landforms

We continued our study of landforms! Students used resources from National Geographic to analyze how different landforms look around the globe. We discussed many similarities and differences. We also learned what landforms we can find near Arlington Heights and in Illinois. At the end of the week, students began researching information about their favorite landforms! 

Writing

This week we learned more about Eloise Greenfield by reading a biographical account of her life. Students also participated in their first “quick write”, where they spent five minutes writing down their ideas about a certain topic. We also read the book Silver Seeds, that included acrostic poems about nature. Students loved writing their own acrostic poems about a variety of topics. In grammar, students learned about simple and compound sentences. 

Landforms

Landforms and bodies of water were our areas of focus this week in Social Studies!  We read a nonfiction book that compared various places on Earth. Students did an. excellent job sketch noting the key ideas with pictures and words. We also welcomed Mrs. Goldstein into our room to teach us a geography lesson using google slides!  We will continue to explore landforms over the next couple of weeks.

Chapter 2 Update

We dove right into chapter 2! Students learned two mental math strategies for addition: “add the tens, then add the ones” and “add the tens, then subtract the extra ones”. They utilized number bonds to help them with these strategies. They also learned other mental math strategies for subtraction and addition problems with large numbers. At the end of the week, we worked on rounding!

Since this unit includes concepts that we will continue to learn and practice throughout the year, we will not assess this unit at this time.  

Chapter 2 Math

During Chapter 2, students will have the opportunity to learn about rounding and estimation.  They will also practice adding larger numbers in their heads using various mental strategies.  Here are some helpful videos:

Welcome Miss Feldkamp!

We are so excited to welcome Olivia Feldkamp to 3-4!  She is a practicum student at Elmhurst University.  She will be spending time in our classroom once a week her first semester this year.  She will be learning all about third grade and will be working with the class.  We are so excited to have her joining us!

Social Emotional Learning

During SEL, we began crating our classroom charter! We read

the book Each Kindness, which helped us think about the type of classroom community

we want to have. Students brainstormed words to describe how they would like to feel

while they are in our class.  We will finish our class charter next week.

Reading

We had the opportunity to read the book Swirl by Swirl by Joyce Sidman.

We discussed how poetry is beautiful but can sometimes contain challenging

vocabulary. We focused on strategies that good readers use when they approach

difficult words. 

Geography Unit

We continued our study of geography. Students brainstormed key geographical terms in groups and then we created a class web of important concepts.  We also explored various maps and globes. They worked together to compare and contrast their features.

Chapter 1 Math

This week, we continued working on place value and number patterns.  Students also learned a new game during fact fluency time that incorporated multiplication 10s facts. Next week, we will be reviewing key concepts from unit 1. Students will take their unit 1 test on Friday, September 9th.  A review guide will be going home prior to the test.  This review does not include every question included on the test.

Curriculum Night

 It was so wonderful meeting all of you that could attend Curriculum Night!  For those of you who were not able to attend, I sent home a folder with all the information shared.

Social Studies- Geograhy

Students were excited to start our geography unit! We learned that geography is the study of Earth and its land. We discovered how the equator and prime meridian divide our planet into 4 hemispheres. Students also learned a song to remember the 7 continents.

Reading

We were so excited to start Reading Workshop in our classroom this week!  We discussed everyone’s roles and responsibilities as a reader. Students also got into the routine of selecting their own books during independent reading time. We reflected on our lives as readers and completed reading surveys about our literary interests.  Students also enjoyed listening to Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies and The Plot Chickens. As we read these books, we talked about the importance of making text-to-self connections.

Chapter 1 Math

We started Chapter 1 this week.  In this unit your child will be learning about place value, the value of certain digits and numbers.  They will also review greater than and less than.  Here are some videos to help your child as they are practicing these skills at home.

Base 10

Place Value

Expanded Form

Comparing Numbers

Chapter 1 Home link Letter

 We have begun Chapter 1 in our math program.  Videos are linked on my blog to help your child with the concepts covered during this unit.  Here is the Chapter 1 Home link letter with more information about this chapter.

Chapter 1 Letter

Building Fact Fluency

 In math, we are going to be participating in activities to help us build our math fact fluency.  We had a wonderful time playing a double game to help us practice our facts.

Welcome back, Dolphins!

 We had a great first day meeting and getting to know one another.  It is going to be a great year!