Mrs. Flick's Facts
October 6, 2017
Important Dates
October
9- No School- Teacher In-Service
12- Fire Prevention Day
13- PTO Family Movie Night @ 6 PM (Admission: 10 box tops or $1)
17- PTO meeting @ 7 PM
20- Wear Blue or Teal for Tourette Syndrome Awareness
23- 31- Red Ribbon Week (watch for info about the theme for each day)
24- Warwick Fun Run
26- REA Safe Trick or Treat
31- Halloween Parade at 1:30 PM
November
11- PTO Craft Show and Gift Fair 9am-3pm
13-17- Scholastic Book Fair (In School)
20-21- Scholastic Book Fair (Open to Parents)
Upcoming Specials
Monday: No School
Tuesday: Day 4 Art
Wednesday: Day 5 Library
Thursday: Day 1 Music
Friday: Day 2 Gym
Reminders!
Record that Reading!
EACH night the students should be recording their reading time on the September calendar page in their agendas. They know where this page is and should be able to record it themselves. An adult just needs to initial it each night :).
- Please send a snack with your child each day. Please do not send any drinks other than water- juices are sticky when they spill! Thank you! (remember that we are peanut and treenut free)
- Please check and sign your child's planner every night.
Math Updates
Early on in math this week, we did some hard work with multistep number stories! Students worked on making sense of multistep stories by drawing pictures and then went a step further to identify number models that would represent their thinking. This is certainly a challenging concept that we will revisit on our upcoming flex days.
In the middle of the week, we switched gears by circling back to focusing on making sense of multiplication. Both lessons involving multiplication had students think about it in terms of "equal groups." ( 2 x 3 is can be thought of as 2 groups of 3 or 2 rows of 3). By solidifying this type of understanding of multiplication, students were able to make sense of the reason 1 times any number is always that number (1 x 4 can be thought of as 1 group of 4) and the reason 0 times any number is always 0 (0 x 4 can be thought of as 0 groups of 4). On Thursday, students continued to work with multiplication with a focus on array-style problems.
On Friday, students had the chance to explore arrays, multiplication, place value, and multi-step word problems.
Building a READING LIFE
This week in reading, we reflected on the importance of having grit as a reader- of not giving up when we face challenges in reading. Students learned what it looked like to have grit, evaluated their own grit, and set goals for themselves to continue to grow as readers.
Later in the week, we discussed that having grit means we use a repertoire of strategies to figure out words that are difficult to decode, such as chunking the word, thinking about what is going on in the story, and thinking about other words that look the same or sound the same. We also reminded ourselves that sometimes we may need to try alternative sounds when we are solving challenging words. On Thursday, we discussed that readers with grit not only stop to figure out words that are difficult to decode but they also stop to use textual clues to figure out the definition of hard words that may or may not be challenging to decode.
By stopping to decode and understand challenging words, students are able to better hold on to what is occurring in the story.
Word Study
Word Study next week will be a bit different.
Unless your child is on a two-week sort (only blue is), they will be receiving a high-frequency sight word list. We will create sentences using them together in class, then for homework (due Thursday) they will need to use each word appropriately in a sentence and underline the word.
For regular weeks, the schedule below is still correct. :)
This is the schedule:
Monday nights- Students are to sort their words and record them in their notebooks. They are to also record their discovery or rule for the week.
Tuesday and Wednesday nights- Students should sort their words and read them as they sort. They can practice writing them on paper, whiteboards, or typing them. NO WRITTEN homework is required on these nights.
Thursday nights- Students are to ask an adult to quiz them on their words. They write the headers and then record the words as they are called out. The adult should use the notebook to correct the sort and ask the student to practice any words that were spelled incorrectly. This should be completed in the word study notebook in their binder.
The notebook will then be returned to school Friday morning and handed in to me :).
Friday- there will be a test given
This means that before the notebooks are handed in on Fridays there will be...
1. an answer key made of the sort and discovery in class during sort introductions
2. Monday night homework practiced/written sort and discovery.
3. a blind sort and written discovery on Thursday night.
Writing Long & Strong
We've continued to work on various revision strategies for our writing this week. We specifically focused on revising to bring out the internal story (including details about how we were feeling or what we were thinking) and revising by adding in paragraphs. We reflected on the fact that paragraphs are another way for us to ensure that our readers really slow down and take in our story and learned that often writers create new paragraphs when a new person is speaking, when time moves forward, and when a new subtopic is introduced. Paragraphs can be pretty challenging for students to use effectively in their narrative writing and so it's something we'll continue to work on and develop.
In the middle of the week, students took some time to step back and look at their writing as a whole with all the revisions in place so that they could move forward with more focus regarding what their next steps should be. Though there is another week of revision ahead of us, it won't be long before students begin to publish and so students are working diligently on making their writing the best it can be.
Special Areas
Gym:Students began their physical fitness testing this week.
Music: Third grade students are continuing to practice quarter note, paired eighth note and quarter rest rhythms.
Library:Students are learning about the Dewey decimal system by working on research and creating a report about a chosen set of shelves in the library.
Art:Students are studying the American Artist Elizabeth Murray and working on creating a collage painting based on the her work.
Scholastic Book Orders
If you are interested in placing book orders throughout the year from Scholastic, please go to www.club.scholastic.com
and use our class code: LDBK3
Giant Bonus Cards
Giant Bonus Cards are our BIGGEST fundraising source. The link to register Bonus Cards is: http://giantfoodstores.com/aplus/register-card/?_requestid=1157213
Cursive
This week students worked with letters t, and w
Technology
This week we posted our word study sorts to SEESAW again!
We have all been using CONNECTED math games to practice facts that they can also access from home.
The students also have been airdropping me math problems to check and then using them to pull small re-teaching groups or review whole class.
Students use Xtra math for fact practice daily and the Rocket Math app to show fact mastery. We have also logged onto the EDM site to play math games during one of the rotations in our math class.
We utilize GoNoodle.com for brain breaks to get us through our long afternoons.
Simple Machines
This week in science, we began our Simple Machines Unit by learning about force, work, and levers. Students enjoyed getting to do the hands-on activities through which we explored these concepts. We learned that force is a push or pull and that it is required to move an object. We also learned how to use a push/pull meter to measure the amount of force exerted.
Later in the week, we learned that the scientific definition of work is different than how we typically talk and think about it. For work to occur, students learned that force must be applied so that an object moves over some distance. The amount of work required depends on the amount of force required to move the object and the distance that the object is moved.
Finally, we learned about our first simple machine, the lever. We learned that, like all simple machines, a lever only has one moving part and reduces the amount of force needed to accomplish a task- in the lever's case, lifting a load. We also learned about the parts/terms associated with a lever (arm, fulcrum, load, and effort) and began to explore the impact the moving the fulcrum had on how much force was needed to lift the load. The closer the fulcrum was to the load, the less force was needed BUT there was a tradeoff (as there is with all simple machines), we had to move our hand over a greater distance.