Reach for the Stars!
Noteworthy News for the Week of 1/6/20
Happy New Year!
District 112 Education Foundation iRead!
Since the Sherwood School school wide expectation is for all students to be reading for enjoyment at least 20 minutes a night (weeknights) we will ask that all students record their reading on their iRead logs. Our goal is to again bring home the iRead trophy to Sherwood School! iRead logs will be distributed at the end of the week! Additional iRead information will also be included in Mrs. Filippi's Panda Prints & next week's class newsletter! Thank you all for your support!
ELA
We are truly inspired by our mentor texts, City Homes and Deep Down and Other Extreme Places to Live, in addition to reading the short story, The Song of Sky and Sand. and clearly see that reading can take us places all around the world! This week we’ll continue to focus on how key details can help us determine the central message, use a variety of text features to help ask and answer questions and consider points of view across these nonfiction and fiction texts. The students will continue to utilize their analytical thinking skills to make connections and compare and contrast information as a reader. This goes hand in hand to the explanatory compare and contrast writing that they are taking part in during our writing lessons. Next week students will then be asked to write their own compare and contrast essay using our mentor text. Clearly, our authors are hard at work! We are so proud of the way the students navigate between the role of a reader and author!
Grammar
Figurative Language!
This week we’ll also be exploring many types of figurative language! We’re on a roll and sure feel like we’re on top of the world when fun idioms, alliteration, hyperboles, similes and metaphors roll off our tongues! Life’s a bowl of cherries in 3K! ;)
Math
This will be quite a busy week in math! After reviewing the difference between mass and weight, students estimate the mass of different items and then use a pan balance scale, metric weights, gram cubes, and other objects to find the actual mass. Our next session will focus on measuring liquid volume by using containers of different capacities to estimate, measure, and solve problems about liquid volume and capacity. We will also look at measurement in the form of fractions and begin a multi-session investigation of fractions. This week they will share imaginary cookies with varying numbers of people by folding paper rectangles to create and label halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and eighths. As a class, we will compare the different unit fractions, noting that fractions do not have to be congruent to be equivalent. We will explore a rectangle that is divided into four unequal parts and determine whether each part can be called a fourth. Students will also compare and order unit fractions from greatest to least, first using the paper rectangles they folded and labeled. Students will uncover that the larger the number of people sharing something, the smaller each share.
Our Place in the World (Social Studies)
Water & Climate (Science)
This week, the meteorologists are excited to kick off our unit on Water and Climate.
This week we will conduct investigations to observe the properties of water, Earth’s most precious resource! They’ll compare how water drops interact with four materials: paper towel, waxed paper, aluminum foil, and writing paper to observe how water absorbency. Later in the week the students will engage in a challenge to measure how much water a dry sponge can soak up. They’ll determine this by measuring mass, volume, or perhaps even both. Integrating what they’ve learned in our math sessions will add for opportunities to explore real world experiences!
Panda Jar Celebration!
The Stars of 3K have set their next goal.....A Writer's Circle Sharing Session! What a unique and inspirational idea! The Kilen Kudos have selected this as their next Panda Jar Celebration! Based on their incredible ability to work together collaboratively and follow our Class Contract, we've been rapidly earning the pandas and filling our jar! Authors, feel free to start spinning your stories...we're more than halfway there!
Save the Date for the Sherwood Carnival!
Opportunity Knocks
Thank You!
The Stars of 3K!
Email: vlariviere@nssd112.org
Website: https://sites.google.com/nssd112.org/sherwood-3rd-grade-2020/home
Location: Sherwood Elementary School, Stratford Road, Highland Park, IL, USA
Phone: (224) 765-3822
Twitter: @3KPandaPride