Camp Packard: 3rd Grade News
In efforts to Connect Parents and Guardians to our Classroom
10 Days of Giving!
Thank you families for all your donations! We are all very grateful! :)
Character Building
Boyscouts earn badges, athletes earn medals, but in our classroom we earn stripes. Painted stripes that is, on our sticks! We have read, discussed and learned about what it means to have good character. We have studied everyday heroes and their great character. We have designated Respect, Responsible, Caring, Trustworthy, Fairness, and Citizenship and being the pillars of good character among our classmates. We will have the opportunity of earning our stripes on our sticks when we have been nominated by teachers and fellow classmates when we demonstrate these character traits to our peers.
Math in the classroom...
Students are working on Topics 5 this month... Understanding Multiplication!! Multiplication understandings and facts can be difficult but may come easier when learned in conjunction with Division facts. For instance, first understanding the 4x5 means and then learning 4x5=20 as well as 20/5=4 together. These are Fact Families, and basic facts can be practiced in this format to help with memorization. Students should be continuing to work on their xtramath.org progress at school and at home. Once your child has mastered multiplication facts, he/she will instantly begin to work on division facts. You may also see your child's math notebook come home from time to time with vocabulary notes in it. Students are asked to review those notes by adding to them, possibly another example, highlighting the key words in the notes, etc. Using their notes and reviewing them is good practice to help them down the road.
Reading in the classroom...
Students should be reading and enjoying a book they have found and jotting down strategies they may be working on within each chapter of their books. These books should get them thinking... so as they do start to think, you may see them record a new word they learned, jot a note down, a thought, a question, or even a prediction on a post-it note. That is a great sign that they are thinking about what they are reading. This "thinking" is going to help them remember the story and build on their comprehension as they read along further. I tend to call these notes "tracks". Like an animal leaves tracks in the snow so we know where they have been, we leave tracks of our thinking so we can remember where we have been as readers.
We are practicing these "tracks" in our classroom with the Book A Day Challenge we have for the month of December. Students are asked to read a picture book a day and jot a thought they have on the book once done with it. You will see their progress come through on Seesaw. :)
Stop and Jots
Here is an example of a prediction a student made. A "stop & jot" could be as simple as a question mark symbol or as lengthy as a statement/question your child writes out. It depends on the child and how they want to record their thinking. Many students are working on writing the summary of each chapter when finishing each one. We call it recording the "who? and what?"...meaning who was it about? and what happened?
Plants... have you seen our Tower Gardens here at school yet?
Plants is our next area of study in Science. We have been having a blast creating many functional structures in our Creation Station (or Maker Space area) that utilizes the curricular areas under STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). So the students next challenge while we are studying plants, including its parts and functions, what they need to survive, how seeds travel, and its life cycle, will be to create a functioning/working greenhouse. They already have some great plans started. I can not wait to see what they create. They may be asking you for some supplies they can up-cycle from home in order to build what they are thinking in their minds... there are a lot of very innovative ideas being tossed around here. I overheard two students walking out to recess yesterday discussing their plans. It warmed my heart to hear them having a conversation about what we are doing in class and how excited they were to get started! <3
Pay it forward...
This year for the Holiday Season, I would like for the students to "pay it forward" rather than spend money on any gifts they want to give their teacher. I would rather have the kids do something for some one else in their family or in someone else's and then come back and share with the class how they helped another person in their life. That in itself, would warm my heart for the holidays. Happy Holidays to all of you and your families!
Mystery Skype
Here is a picture of Ms. Newhouse who was our first practice Mystery Skype helper. We have been practicing our Geography skills in class in order to get us ready to play Mystery Skype with other classrooms across the country. The game works like 20 Questions, where each team asks Yes/No questions until we figure out their geographical location together. It is loads of fun and a great way for kids to learn and master their map skills. :)
Creation Station Donations!!!
Thank you to all the families who have been so generous in donating to our Creation Station! Here the students were asked to recall the most memorable scene upon completing The BFG, and create it using material we had donated to our station. They had a blast! Then we put the "sculptures" in order in the sequence of events that occurred in the book. They are on display now in the Media Center. :)
Camp Packard
class blog: meeganpackard.com
Email: mpackard@sowashco.org
Website: www.sowashco.org/pe
Location: 3rd Grade Pullman Elementary
Phone: 651-425-3639
Twitter: @Packard3rdGrade