Hayden Hero Herald
September, 2015
Welcome!
Dear 3 Hayden Families,
Welcome to third grade! I will communicate classroom happenings and curriculum highlights through newsletters. We had a super start to the school year. Thanks so much for helping your child to be successful this year.
The First Day of Third Grade
Reading
We enjoyed sharing powerful pictures books about learning, listening, respect, and friendship as a class. Each story teaches an important lesson and connects our class as a community of readers.
In addition, I'm striving to teach the children about Metacognition, thinking about your thinking. We made a "Reading Salad" as we read Thank You, Mr. Falker. Just like a tossed salad is a colorful mixture of lettuce and tomatoes, a reading salad is a colorful mixture of text + thinking. I'm inviting my readers to share what they are thinking.
The children also learned the expectations for developing their independent reading habits. We read our poem of the week, The Reader's Oath, reviewed the "Rules for Reading Right", and learned how to record our reading each night in their homework records.
Classroom Library: Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and Exploring the Library
Math Unit 1
Math Power:
We are building our math power. We started off with a review of important math concepts like determining the missing numbers in a sequence, exploring patterns on a 100 grid, and going on a number hunt. We also played Musical Name Collection Boxes.
Math Tools:
We explored our Student Reference Books (SRBs) and other math tools such as calculators, clocks, rulers, and templates.
Math Stations:
We began our rotations through Math Stations: Teacher Time, Brain Booster, and Partner Power. We are building our knowledge of facts through games such as Beat the Calculator, Coin Top-It, and Name That Number. We are developing expectations for being Marvelous Math Partners.
Writing
Writer's Notebooks
We learned that our Writer’s Notebooks are very special notebooks which will help us to “Live our Lives Like Writers” this year.
Our first entry in our notebooks is a list of phrases to describe our unique selves. Each child designed and published a Rainbow poem with the six phrases. Most importantly, we learned how to “publish with pride” and how good it feels to produce our very best work.
We are writing sophisticated sentences, using details to s-t-r-e-t-c-h our thinking. We are striving to remember to use capitals and periods.
We are in the midst of our first spelling list, short vowel sounds.
Heart Maps
The children have been introduced to good writing habits as we build our classroom writing community. Through one of my favorite read alouds for teaching writing, The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli, the children learned that the best stories come from the heart, hence the heart maps! Thank you for helping the students brainstorm the best stories for their heart maps. We are taking those topics, creating heart maps, and planting them in our writer’s notebooks. Throughout the year, some of these topics will be published into “the best stories”.
Setting Goals: The Success Standards and Growth Mindset
We devoted time to discussing and celebrating the SUCCESS STANDARDS: complex thinker, collaborative worker, responsible citizen, effective communicator, self-directed learner, and quality producer.
We read story excerpts from The 7 Habits of Happy Kids to help us created lists of concrete ways we can use the success standards in our classroom.
We are now creating our Goals Journal, a place to help us grow socially and academically, to set goals, and to celebrate our hard work. We discussed having a Growth Mindset (taking risks, accepting challenges, doing our personal best, practicing) versus having a Fixed Mindset. We are reading many wonderful mentor texts, such as Leo the Lightning Bug, to help us to further foster our Growth Mindset.
Building Classroom Community: Sharing Bag-Its
What a wonderful way for us to get to know each other well! The children were so attentive as they shared their bag-its with the class. We created a Bag-It Museum and had a lovely Gallery Walk.
First Grade Buddies
Quiz Me Questions
1. What is your favorite Back to School Book (Recess Queen, Officer Buckle, First Day Jitters)?
2. Explain the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset.
3. How can you be a Real Reader? How do you pick a just right book?
4. Tell me 5 names for the number 36.
Reminders
*Tuesday, October 6: School Picture Day
*Friday, October 9: Pumpkin Patch Trip
*October 15: Third Grade Dental Forms due
*Friday, October 30: Halloween Parade in a.m. & Class Party in p.m.
*Fall Fest Raffle Basket Donations are being accepted for a Family Game Night Theme
*Kids Stuff Coupon Book Fundraiser