Another busy week, and important information!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION! In your student's Friday folder this week are two very important pieces of information. One is a placement form fir next year...this form has information about who the fourth grade teachers will be, and what things will look like next year. Also there is a form from Arlyn about summer book bags, if you would like to participate in this program, please fill out the form and return as soon as possible.

Throughout the week we have worked on lots of things. We have self-assessed our writing, worked on creating non-fiction books, practiced multiplication facts, created Benham's disks and so much more.

We have been working on many pieces of writing this year, and we have also been working on self-assessing this writing. The skills of self-assessment are so important as students can identify areas they are successful in, as well as see areas they can grow in. The skill of self-assessment also helps students reflect about their work and time in school.

For these self-assessments we are using checklists to compare our writing with current common core standards.

We are also working on creating non-fiction books. The topic of these books is the Human Body. Ask your student which system they find the most interesting! The following photos are if students at work creating these books.

Students are working on the tricky skill of highlighting important information and creating sentences from this information.

Another fabulous week has gone by and it is getting warmer. Please remind your student to grab a water bottle to bring to school, as it does get quite warm, and water is so important fir learning. Have a great weekend!

 

Tech night, authors tea...

Last week was a busy one in third grade. We had tech. night on Thursday, and the author's tea on Friday. At this time of the year students have produced so much work, it is always enjoyable to share some of it with all of you. We had fantastic attendance for technology night, and at the author's tea, as well.

The shots above are from technology night, and the ones following are from the author's tea!

In the coming week, we will be working on our nonfiction books, mastering some multiplication in math, performing experiments our eyes, and collaboratively writing stories. We also have a fine arts celebration night on Thursday which starts at 6, there will be a third grade recorder performance during this program.

 

Biology field trip, Lego stories, and book clubs.

Just as the title suggests this post will have three foci, they will be the items listed above, and I will address them in the same order.

Last Thursday we went to U-32 to see some presentations by students in a biology class there. These presentations are interactive, and informative. We use this trip as a kick off to our unit on human body systems. In the coming weeks we will be learning about different systems in our bodies, and will be working on creating some nonfiction books to show our knowledge.

Lego stories is an extension of the story mountain work we have been doing. We will be working with Arlyn to create stories, match them with still photographs, and publish them as ebooks! This work will happen over the next few weeks. In our photographs we will be using Lego people as our characters. These shots show two of our groups and the Lego characters they are using.

Book clubs are cruising along, we are working with some of the fascinating facts we have found in our books. We have been sequencing them based on their appearance in the books, and will be finding the correlation between the table of contents, and the appearance of facts in books!

Finally, as I am sure you heard, we had a surprise guest speaker last week. We were lucky to be visited by Olympian skier Liz Stephen. She was inspirational to all the students and teachers alike.

 

So much has happened, and it's only Tuesday.

Man, what a start to the week. We have already been on a trip to Barre, chosen new nonfiction book-club books, written story mountains....and it is only Tuesday.

On Monday we went to the Barre Opera House to see Charlotte's Web. What a fantastic opportunity. We had read the book as a class, and really enjoyed seeing the actor's interpretations of the characters. We have also parlayed thus experience into another opportunity to do some opinion writing. We are writing about which we preferred, the play or the book. It is amazing to see the transformation in the writing of so many students.

The scene at the opera house.

Working on opinion writing.

Ivy making it happen.

Billy hard at work.

Jackson, organizing his ideas.

Today we also chose new book-club books. We are working ob some new nonfiction books, and students were very excited to make their choices. The topics range from honey bees, to maple syrup, and from comic books the The Plastiki. Below are some photos from the scene while students were previewing books to make their choices.

Last for this post are the story mountains. We have been learning to use a writing organizational technique called story mountains. This technique has student create the major event in a story at the beginning, and place it at the top of the mountain. They then create events leading up to it that form the beginning, and events leading down from it that form the end.

In this glared photo Elizabeth is showing her mountain on the right.

Mia is showing her mountain on the left, and story on the right.

I hope all is well for all of you!

 

Upcoming events and weekly wrap up

Next week sees a lot of activity. We have two field trips, begin two new units, finish two that we are working on, and start new book groups! First off there are two field trips next week. One on Monday to the Barre opera house to see Charlotte's Web, and another on Thursday to U-32 to see some presentations by students about the human body. Everyone has submitted permission forms, and both trips will have us back in time for lunch!

The trip on Thursday will serve to kick off our unit on the Human body. We will be investigating the different systems in our body and creating a non-fiction book to show our understanding. These books will showcase the new learning that takes place, but also the different features found in nonfiction text that we have been studying this year.

Speaking of showcasing our work, put May 24 on your calendars. On that day we will have an author's tea, where we will show off all the writing we have done throughout the year. This event is always enjoyable and we look forward to seeing you there.

Next week will also see the launch of a narrative writing unit we will work on with Arlyn. This unit will allow students to create "story mountains" on which they will base their text, and we will illustrate the text with still photographs and Lego dudes! This unit will certainly see some serious collaboration, elaboration, and imagination!

We will also probably finish up our fractions unit next week, this is one that is always challenging for students, but always rewarding for them to conquer. This culmination will pave the way for us to work and master, large number addition and subtraction. This upcoming unit is a favorite of students as it works toward mastery of the above skills.

Finally, today was green up day. We were lucky enough to work on the stretch of road that connects our school to the four corners school. We really enjoyed being in the sun, tidying up our town, seeing the trillium and trout lilies, and the celebrity appearance if Elyse! These photos give a sense of what it was like:

I hope you all have a restful and fun weekend, and I will see you next week!

 

Calvin and Hobbes mini plays

We have been doing mini-plays of Calvin and Hobbes to practice fluency and accuracy. There were only a few words that students were hung up on! These words were; maligned, repartee, and tapioca. These plays are so fun and useful, look for little Calvins and Hobbes' coming home.