Poetry and Audioboom

Be sure to take a listen in to the dozens of poems students have recently published for their poetry anthologies. From haikus to never poems and color poems to concrete poems be ready to laugh and smile!

 

A special thank you is owed to Mrs. Ryan for her assistance in creating our class playlist of poetry on Audioboom. Click here to listen in.

Blizzard Blogging about Biomes, "Blowing" Through Multiplication, Braille, Text Structures, Expository Experts, and Halfway Day

It's hard to believe we've already been in school 3 weeks in 2015! We sure have been busy!

Several students who had eagerly participated in my Winter Break Reading Challenge enjoyed an after school hot cocoa party. Reading really is delicious!

Our current science unit focuses on the various biomes found around the world. Fittingly, we started with the tundra and learned about the climate, numerous animals who call the tundra home, and the low-lying cushion plants that can be found there. Next, we read about the rainforest, its four layers, and why it has been coined "Earth's largest pharmacy."

We would be remiss if we let January come and go without a study of a very influential man in America's history. Biographies, passages, paired texts, and timelines confirmed existing knowledge about Martin Luther King and the legacy of this famous civil rights leader. Students were captivated as they watched King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

We have been fortunate enough to bring to life multiplication flip books perfectly aligned with common core standards. These templates were created by a talented teacher and blogger Blair Turner. 

Topic 6 has concluded with problem solving using multiplication, arrays, skip counting, and even algebra. We used organized lists to solve for all possible combinations in real life situations.

We've been blowing through our multiplication timed quizzes. We earn bubble gum to enjoy during math for every timed quiz that earns a score of 90 or above. 

Topic 6 concluded with practice multiplying 3 factors, using multiplication to solve for combinations, and Our long term math project has been assigned and an informational letter with a rubric has been sent home. Students will demonstrate their understanding of fact families by representing a colorful and creative array using stickers, illustration, print-outs, shapes, or designs. A multiplication and division fact family should accompany the array. The second part of the project requires students to create a mathematical table representing the amount of food needed to serve breakfast to their families. Individual serving sizes are included on the project letter. Projects are due March 11.

In honor of January being National Braille Month, two new word work activities debuted this week-- Braille and American Sign Language. Students have been eager to practice spelling their words using these two alternate means of communication.

As we delve deeper into informational texts, we have studied the text structure of books and articles to help us better understand the author's purpose for writing. Often writers will present facts in one of these formats--descriptive compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem and solution, or sequential.

QR Critters offer students reader response questions to use during Reader's Workshop along with their independent reading book--fiction or informational. Students scan the QR codes to read the question. Students answer questions pertaining to characters, setting, plot, resolution, author's purpose, genre, predictions, and factual information--just to name a few.

In Writer's Workshop, students have begun brainstorming, drafting, and researching topics and main ideas for their first expository piece. Topics range from presidents to sharks, basketball to soccer, and France to fish. Writers will incorporate text features in to their published pieces.

Writers have also enjoyed writing narratives inspired by photographs found in calendars like the one seen below.

We have extended our study of nouns to include abstract nouns such as freedom, patience, and knowledge and concrete nouns such as flag, basket, and book.

On Halfway Day students brainstormed and composed half of a story-- setting the scene and introducing the character and story problem. A writing partner had to complete the story resolving the story's problem.

The 100th Day is gradually approaching...

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!