Camp Packard: 3rd Grade News
In efforts to Connect Parents and Guardians to our Classroom
April Dates to Remember... including Dress-up Days!
- April 17th- Track Star Day honoring Mr. Cronin as he leaves to run the BOSTON MARATHON!!!
- Math MCAs April 21-23rd
- April 24th- Class Color Day! (TBD)
May
- May 1st- School Lunch Superhero Day!
- May 8th- Hippie Day!
- May 15th- Tie Dye Day!
- May 21st- Global Arts Festival
- May 29th- Field Day/Hat Day
Send me your Pictures and Videos!
Math in the classroom...Geometry, Time, Measurement and more...
Reading in the classroom... helping your child make inferences.
We are working on making students tune into the inferences we make as readers and the clues that are helping us make those connections as we read. Here is a list I found that can help with making inferences at home. I hope you find them interesting and useful :)
Things Parents Can Do:
- In a non-judgmental way regularly ask the child what they think about things and what reasoning did they use to come to that conclusion.
- Explain that we make inferences all day long, not just when were reading. Encourage a conversation about this. For instance, what does he learn from a person‟s facial expression? How does he know that?
- Make your own thinking processes more apparent to the child. (Teachers call this a think- aloud). For example, you notice that the sky is turning dark, explain to the child that this means that it is probably going to rain.
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Play guessing games like “Twenty Questions.”
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Ask the child higher order thinking questions like “Where are do birds go when it rains?” “What would have happened if the South had won the Civil War?” Ask the child to explain his reasoning. Ask follow up questions to model how thinking evolves over time.
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Ask the child to figure out unknown words using context clues and ask her to explain how she figured out what the word meant.
- Let your child express his own conclusions and have him describe his thinking. Let him decide whether he has come to the best conclusion or not.
- Have the child make predictions at places in the book that are the “cause” of an effect. Again, have the child describe her thinking.
- Help the child think about the bigger picture by discussing the title or significant events in a story. Guide the child to realize that thinking changes over time as more is learned.
Resource copied from http://www.dayofreading.org/DOR09HO/TeachingInference.pdf
Writing and Research in the classroom...
We have also been Skyping with others around the country and have some future dates set up to play Mystery Skype. Have your child explain how we "play" Mystery Skype. We also took a virtual field trip to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West via Skype. It was so cool having these museum staff show us numerous artifacts the Plains Indians used to live and survive. Ask your child what they used as a "water bottle". :)
Students are also continuing to do their own individual Genius Hour research on wonder questions they want to find the answers to that keep swirling around in their minds... once they find the answers to their question, they can put together a presentation to show to their classmates what they have discovered.
Camp Packard
Email: mpackard@sowashco.k12.mn.us
Website: www.sowashco.k12.mn.us/pe
Location: 3rd Grade Pullman Elementary
Phone: 651-768-3639
Twitter: @Packard3rdGrade