Miss Grill's 3rd Grade News
September 25, 2015
Welcome Back to Our Class Site!
Thank you for your continued support! It is amazing how we are already going into our 6th week of school! Time is flying!
ELA Skills of the Week
1. Text Features
2. Main Idea and Details
2. Main Idea and Details
- Text Features: What are text features? How do they help us understand what we are reading?
Text Features
Text Features Activity
- Small groups of students were assigned one Text Feature to locate in a variety of Time for Kids Magazines.
- They worked together to cut out examples of these Text Features and create a collage to share with the class.
- After creating their posters, they took a 'Gallery Walk' to look at all of the other text feature collages that they worked so hard on!
- They then discussed how each Text Feature helps the reader better understand what they are reading.
- The students energy was high and I had excited learners in my class!
- See a few creations below!
Main Idea and Details
- Main Idea: What is the text mostly about? How could we tell others about what we just read in one sentence? What idea covers every key detail?
- Details: What details tell us more information and support this main idea? What are the most important details to include?
Main Idea Activity
- To get the students excited about Main Idea, I started out with a Main 'Bag.'
- I carefully showed them pictures of different clues, and they had to figure out what 'Big Idea' all of the clues lead to. They had to be detectives, which they loved.
- Funny moment: I told them to put on their detective faces, and they all pursed their lips and squinted their eyes! I guess they needed their microscopes!
- Clues: Measuring cups, measuring spoons, flour, butter, cinnamon, pie crust... and finally.. Apples! If you guessed, Apple Pie, you are correct!
- The students were eager and excited to figure it out as the more clues they received, the more clear the Main Idea became in their minds.
- With the help of this fun activity, we always talk about reading the ENTIRE passage/paragraph to find out every clue before we just assume we know the Main Idea!
- It only takes me saying the words, 'Apple Pie' when we are searching for the Main Idea when reading. They know that they better not guess or assume what the Main Idea is too soon..we need every last clue!
Main Idea Table
We also view Main Idea as the Table. The details are the legs to support the table. Just like a table with wobbly or broken legs, the Main Idea will fall down without details to help support it!
A Look Ahead to This Week
- We will be taking the skill of identifying the Main Idea and Details and applying it to writing our own paragraphs using our graphic organizers.
- A lot of time will be spent with practicing how to craft effective topic sentences, details that support the Main Idea, and closing sentences to finish strong!
*NEW* Reading Homework
- Your child will be having consistent Reading Homework now.
- It will be due every Friday, just like Word Study Homework.
- They will complete this in a Composition Notebook that has already been labeled, 'Reading Homework Journal.'
- Students will have to read for a total of 30 minutes each week.
- They can continue reading the same book each week until they have finished the book.
- Similar to Spelling, it does not matter which nights they get it done, as long as they have read for 30 minutes by Friday.
- They will write the amount of time they read for each night and you will initial next to it.
- Example:
- Monday: 0
- Tuesday: 15 minutes
- Wednesday: 0
- Thursday: 15 minutes
- TOTAL: 30 minutes
- A Choice Board of Questions to answer will be glued into their composition books. This is shown below. There are 15 questions, so it will take 15 weeks to finish one Choice Board.
- These questions will last until late January!
- They will choose one question to answer each week in their journal, on the same page as their logged minutes.
- They will color in the question on their board.
- They will answer a different question each week, based on their preference.
- On Fridays, we will begin our Reading class by having 'book talks.'
- Each child will briefly talk about the book they are reading to their group members to intrigue them to read their book!
- The students will have a Chart for the Books that they have read to keep it on record, as well as a 'Book Wish List.'
- On this 'Book Wish List,' students will write down any books that sound appealing to them, and next time they go to our school or neighborhood library, they can pick it up!
Questions Choice Board
Word Study Grades
- Mrs. Brown and I will not be posting every Spelling Homework and Test grade on Engrade (BCPS One).
- Instead, we will take the average of their Homework grades and an average of their Test grades and put it on Engrade at the end of each Quarter.
- There is always a Grammar Assessment after we teach and practice each skill.
- We will be taking their average from each Grammar assessment and putting it on Engrade at the end of each Quarter, as well.
- So that means that every student will have 3 averages posted at the end of each quarter:
- Spelling Test Grades
- Spelling Homework Grades
- Grammar Assessment Grades
Event Information
Class Picture Day
When?
Wednesday, Oct 7, 2015, 10:45 AM
Where?