Fiction, Fragments, the Five Finger Test, and Finishing the Week with Buddy Readers.

Last week we continued to launch Reader's Workshop building our reading stamina and exploring fictional texts--both realistic and fantasy. Together, we began the historical fiction story Boom Town about a young girl faced with boredom after her family moves to California during the Gold Rush.

We also composed the first entry in our Reader Response Journals (RRJ) about Boom Town and predictions we have about how the story may end.

Our Grammar focus has been on identifying fragments and sentences. Sentences are complete thoughts that begin with capitalization and end with an appropriate end mark.

Friday marked our first visit to the school library. The Five Finger Test helped us select "just right" books.

 

Our Reading Record and Genre Reading Wheel will help us track the books we have read and ensure that we are balancing our reading diet to become healthy readers.

We concluded our week with sunshine and shade in the Outdoor Classroom with our first grade Buddy Readers. First graders read their Poetry journals, while we shared our "Wel "gum" to Third Grade" autobiographies.

A Balloon Countdown, Fraction Friends, MCAS, Leprechaun Trouble, Flipping" for Geometry, and a Passion for Poetry

March came and went, and we sure were busy! So busy that it left little time to blog!

Our previous reading unit was Test Prep. We worked a great deal on perfecting test prep strategies such as previewing a passage by reading the introductory blurb and previewing the questions in an effort to set a purpose for our reading and isolate keywords that we will focus our attention on as we read the passage.

We displayed an umbrella and shovel in class to remind us to find the big idea (or umbrella topic) and dig for specific text evidence in the passage.

We also got valuable practice writing detailed open-responses using the acronymn ANSWER. We start by Analyzing the question for keywords and Note planning how we will organize our thinking. Next, we Skim and scan the text for specific details and evidence. Then, we Write our response with detailed sentences and text evidence. We End by Reviewing our work through editing and revision. We analyzed open responses from third graders several years ago. Our goal is to "score 4" with rich evidence.

For more test prep practice, please visit McGraw Hill website for activities geared towards third grade Common Core standards here. This link to Help Teaching offers a great deal of practice using reading strategies ranging from cause and effect to point of view. Interactive Skill Builders for ELA standards are available here.

We enjoyed a few classroom activities and events as part of our MCAS Balloon Countdown. Take a peek below at some of the fun-filled events:

It was great to see those "smarties" hard at work on testing days!

Topic 10 delved deeper into fractions. In addition to comparing fractions with like and unlike denominators, we also identified fractions closer to 0 or 1. Fraction strips and drawn representations of fractions such as 2/6 and 6/8 helped us find equivalent fractions. We demonstrated what we knew as we created Fraction Friends--an activity inspired by the talented Mrs. Lemons at Step into Second Grade with Amy Lemons. 

Mischief was made in Room 16 on March 17 when Lola the Leprechaun snuck in to our classroom and left a green mess! We composed three paragraph expository pieces detailing the materials and steps necessary to create an effective leprechaun trap. We were even lucky enough to share our published pieces with our first grade Buddy Readers in Miss O'Day's class!

Today we concluded Topic 11 on Geometry. This unit introduced students to more than a few new vocabulary terms including line, line segment, ray, parallel, perpendicular, acute, right, obtuse, scalene, rhombus, and decagon! In an effort to categorize these terms and provide visual examples, we created posters and flipbooks. One morning, we used the app Screen Chomp to demonstrate the difference between lines and line segments as well as parallel versus perpendicular lines.

Our current Literacy unit has us diving into poetry. As we read and analyze poetry, we search for familiar elements of poetry such as alliteration, hyperbole, similes, and metaphors. Students have begun composing a variety of poems ranging from I Am poems, dead word poems, book spine poems, color poems, Pairs poems, and most recently--concrete poems. 

Mike W. and Shane work on publishing their "I Am" poems after 

teacher conferences.

 

 

Charlie works on her "Last Night I Dreamed of..." poem.

Dead word poems offer vivid, more alive words for boring, overused words.

Book Spine poems are created compiling and arranging four of our favorite classroom titles.

 

We read Mary O'Neill's Hailstones and Halibut Bones as our read aloud inspiration for our sensory color poems.

 

 Lilly adds to our brainstormed list of things that are green. 

 

Tomorrow students will share a few of their published poems with their Buddy Readers!

Wax Museum, Math Patterns, an Author Visit and the Share Chair

We stepped back in time in November and welcomed many famous Massachusetts figures to Room 16.

Paul Revere, Abigail Adams, Robert Goddard and Benjamin Franklin shared with us a few of their famous accomplishments. 

 

 

In Social Studies, students read about the daily life of a Pilgrim boy named Samuel Eaton. A busy day spent fetchinig water, collecting firewood, helping with the meals, and joining his father in the rye harvest left little time for play!

Below, Billy and Isabella, Derek and Ryan C. partner read Samuel Eaton's Day.  

 

As we learn our 2s, 5s, 9s, and 10s multiplication facts, we used a hundreds chart to notice patterns. All multiples of 2 are even and have a 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 in the ones place. Multiples of 5 have a 0 or a 5 in the ones place and we noticed the tens digit increases while the ones digit decreases in multiples of 9. Be sure to study multiplication facts each night! :)

 

Two weeks ago, author and illustrator Kate Sullivan visited Memorial Park and read her fictional story On Linden Square. She talked to us about the importance of characters in stories and suggested ways to describe them that would engage and interest the reader. She inspired us to draw and write character descriptions about people in our neighborhood using physical traits as well as observations we have made about them. What a treat it was to have her read our writing!

In Writer's Workshop, students wrote persuasive pieces from the point of view of alliterative turkeys. Writers had to convince readers to NOT cook them on Thanksgiving. In addition to giving three reasons why they should not be eaten, writers added supporting details and an alternative solution.

Rosie shares her persuasive piece with a few of Miss O'Day's buddy readers. 

With personal narratives edited and revised, writers celebrated their accomplishments in the Share Chair. We offered compliments, questions, and suggestions to these budding writers.

Next week, we dig deeper to find the main idea of stories and passages and begin a unit on informational texts. Topic 6 in math introduces us to the 3, 4, and 6 multiplication tables!