Reading Update: Notes from Room 224
See what's going on in Third Grade!
Look what we've been up to..
We have spent the last few weeks finishing up our unit, "A Delicate Balance: Humans and Nature". Students explored mostly non-fiction texts and learned about positive and negative interactions betweens humans and nature. This spilled over nicely to our Science Unit, "Saving the Chesapeake Bake"! As a final project, the children completed an endangered animal research report. They sharpened their research skills and by using a variety of graphic organizers, they were able to gather important information which they used to write a short report. They also worked on a visual to accompany this report. They will present their project next week during American Education Week. Hopefully you can join us. You will not be disappointed! Next week, we will be moving on to Unit 2, which will be "Stories that Teach". This unit will focus on fables, folktales and myths.
Reading/Language Arts Online Resources
Reading Websites
- www.wonderopolis.com - This is a great website that presents a student generated question every day. Each question's answer includes and article, video and pictures explaining the response. It's a great, educational resource.
- www.eduplace.com/tales.com - This is a great for practicing parts of speech. Have fun creating your own crazy tale in this Mad Libs online game.
- www.abcteach.com - This website offers practice with comprehension. Students can select passages and are given the opportunity to respond to open ended questions.
- www.storylineonline.net - This is a wonderful website where students can select a book and listen to a story teller read it as they follow along.
- www.biblionasium.com - Biblionasium is a way for students to track the books they've read online, as well as view books their classmates have read. They can also review and rate books once they add them to their digital bookshelf.
Writing Websites
- www.journalbuddies.com
- www.canteach.ca/elementary/prompts.com- Both of these websites have a TON of writing prompts and journal topics for those who just can get enough writing in school. They make good discussion topics as well!
Some on my favorite Apps
- Story Wheel - In this app, story elements are chosen to record an original story.
- Word Wit - This is an app to practice vocabulary. It includes description, word origins and quotes from literature.
- Spelling City - This app offers reinforcement of spelling words.
- Word Bingo - This fun app teaches kids sight words while they play a game they love!
- BOB Books - Reading Magic - This app offers interactive and decodable books identical to the print series and reinforces reading fluency.
- Kids Writing Pad - This app offers a basic large writing pad for practice with handwriting and written expression.