Our next couple weeks are going to be action-packed in Melissa's third grade. Here is a couple of important highlights:
Class Picture Day: We will be taking our class picture on Wednesday April 2nd at 9:00. If you would like to purchase a class picture, the cost is $10. Please send cash or a check made payable to Lifetouch. I will fill out a form for you if you have misplaced the one that come home last week.
Also on Wednesday is the Talent Show registration. This short meeting is mandatory and will take place at 3:45 in room D 204.
Biographies and Realistic Fiction Celebration: Due to the overwhelming enthusiasm of this amazing group of kids, we will be presenting our biography study and our realistic fiction stories on Friday April 4th at 2:45. Students are permitted (but not required) to dress up as the famous person that they studied for this presentation. Each student will have a chance to share a bit about their biography and then you can check out their incredible posters! Then students will be able to share their realistic fiction pieces with you. I understand that we have been asking you to come into school a lot lately, so if you can't make it, it's no biggie. If you can, we'd love to have ya!
Next week: We are going on an Ag-venture! The Gunnsion Valley Cattlewomen has prepared a six station educational experience for us down in Gunni! The stations will include art, music, poetry, farrier and welding demonstrations and leather crafting all to celebrate the theme of "Telling the Story of Agriculture." We will be taking the bus down to Gunnison on Wednesday April 9th at 8:50 and will be heading back to CB around 12:30. Students will need to bring a sack lunch. A permission slip will be coming home at the end of this week.
We are going to continue our learning outside the classroom with a trip to the CB Heritage Museum on Friday April 11th. We will be walking over to the museum at 1:00 to meet up with Glo and learn all about the history of our sweet little town with a focus on the jobs of the past! Amazing to think about how there used to be a dairy farm right here in town huh?
That's all for now. Thank you for reading!
Monday, March 31, 2014
Monday, March 24, 2014
March Madness in Third Grade!
As you know, Parent-Teacher Conferences are here and so are two half days for students. Of course, this has caused a shift in our schedule. But we are masters at making it work here in third grade!
The use of the rubric not only helps the student know what to look for in others, but it helps them realize what they need to be bringing to the group as well. We started this today and it was fantastic! Although they are on their own, I am always eavesdropping! I was very impressed to see them step up to the challenge and really take this responsibility seriously!
Writing Workshop-Biography Combo:
With are alternative schedule this week, our Writing Workshop has been converted to our Biography poster finish up, which includes a paragraph writing component. Students have really learned so much through this study! I would like to have a presentation where students dress up as the person they studied and share their findings. Maybe next week? Our next writing focus will be Poetry and our next theme will be Geology. Both will be introduced at the end of this week.
Here's the rundown of what's going on this week:
Reading Workshop:
Our Book Clubs are going along just great! In third grade, we talk about how we can't just rest on our greatness. We should always try and take it up a notch! Our Book Clubs are no exception to this rule. Students have been guided to lead Book Club meetings on their own. This responsibility has two essential components.
The first is freedom to choose what to discuss about the text. Since we have spent a considerable amount of time practicing our reading response jobs (Discussion Director, Word Wizard, Connector, and Literary Luminary), students are ready to chose what parts of the book they want to discuss with the group without the restrictions of the "job". For example, when students come to an unknown word or a part of the book that they have a strong connection with, they no longer have to set it aside because they are not the Word Wizard or the Connector. They are free to flag what interests them with a sticky and bring it to their next meeting. This allows for an authentic responses to reading.
The second part is leading the book club discussions without me. I started doing this last year, and I found that students really enjoyed the freedom and responsibility and the really rose to the challenge. Students will discuss their findings, decide what the next reading assignment and meeting date will be, and grade themselves and each other on their contribution to the discussion. Here is the form and rubric that I created for them:
Book Club Meeting Agenda:
1.
Meeting will begin with deciding who the
Discussion Director will be and then with a group summary of the reading
assignment.
2.
Next, we will go through and discuss each
person’s findings as a group. This
should take a considerable amount of time as it is a discussion, not just a
share time.
3.
The group will then decide the next reading
assignment and meeting date.
4.
Each member of the group will grade each
other and themselves using the Book Club Meeting Rubric.
Names
|
Participation
|
Knowledge
of Book
|
Group
Respect
|
Preparedness
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
Participation
|
Student
didn’t or rarely participated.
|
Participates
some of the time during the book discussions and seems to have little grasp of
content of the book (characters, events, behaviors...).
|
Student
participated several times throughout the discussion and seems to have a firm
grasp of the content of the book (characters, events, behaviors…).
|
Student
was a leader in the discussion by questioning others and encouraging them to
share more. Student had a firm grasp
of the content of the book (characters, events, behaviors…).
|
Knowledge
of Book
|
Student
showed little or no knowledge of the book.
Student didn’t contribute any thoughts about the book.
|
Student
showed some knowledge of the book and contributed some thoughts about the book.
|
Student
showed appropriate knowledge of the book and contributed many thoughts about
the book and events.
|
Student
showed a deep knowledge of the book and provided meaningful and thorough
explanations of the events.
|
Group
Respect
|
Student
was off task, and didn’t show respect to other members of the group.
|
Student
had difficulty staying on task and being respectful.
|
Student
was on task the majority of the time and was respectful.
|
Student
was on task at all times and was respectful.
|
Preparedness
|
Student
showed no opinion of the book. Sticky
notes didn’t really add much to the discussion.
|
Student
discussed little or vague opinions about the book. Sticky notes added some to the discussion
|
Student
discussed some detailed opinions about the book and their sticky notes were
thoughtful and meaningful to the discussion
|
Student
discussed several opinions from the book and used evidence from the story to
back up opinions.
|
Math:
We will be finishing our unit on Geometry this week and moving on to Multiplication and Division. Even though we are already multiplication masters in our class, this upcoming unit will expand on our already amazing skills!
Thank you for reading. We'll be chatting soon!
Lastly, our Stephan Gammell inspired portraits were MIND BLOWING! You'll see them in the hall above our cubbies, but here is a little taste: If you're reading via email. you'll have to go to the blog to see the pictures!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)