What We Learned This Week
Word Study: Next week's spelling patterns are the long a vowel sound, e.g., cage, (made when a word ends in silent e) and the short a vowel sound, e.g. drag, (made when the word ends in a consonant). Many third graders do not yet know what vowels and consonants are.
- Assessment words: drag, cage, snap, place, rack, wax, stab, brake, mask, space, save, change:
- Challenge words (You can supplement your student's list with these more challenging words or create your own list): accident, absence, bathroom, attract, decade, behave, amaze, bracelet, backpack, bandage, whale, flake, flame, create, glance, after.
Your student should "See it, Say it and Spell it" nightly at least three times for each word. They should then choose another strategy from the list below to support their generalization of patterns.
- Word sort by patterns
- Write more words you can think of with the same pattern
- Rewrite words in alphabetical order
- Word ladders (start with a spelling word and change it to a new word by adding, deleting letters, e.g. take one letter away from drag to make a synonym for old cloth "rag"). Continue up the ladder.
- Use words in sentences.
- Identify word as a noun, verb or adjective.
- Practice words you have missed on earlier tests.
- Practice common lists (e.g., days of the week, months, states, holidays, etc.).
- Practice common homonyms (e.g., there, their, they're; it's, its; hour, our, are; etc.)
It is far better to practice for a few minutes each night (5 to 10 minutes) rather than cramming on a Thursday night. Cramming will often result in passing all 12 assessment words, but it will not support learning pattern generalizations. I will also assess for grammar and convention (indented paragraphs, capitalized sentence beginnings and proper nouns, and ending punctuation).Reading: We began to look at single paragraphs (also referred to as passage or selection as standardized assessments use this language) as a single idea that is introduced by a single topic sentence and is supported with multiple supporting details. We will introduce conclusions later. By identifying topic sentences in short passages, we can support our writing of single paragraphs as well. We also talked about sustained reading strategies and differentiated this skill from "fake reading" by making a list of strategies that are fake reading (e.g., going to the restroom, getting a lot of drinks, looking for a book for more than 5 minutes, etc.). We continued with our read aloud, The Secret of Zoom, which left off with a literal cliff hanger as our heroine, Christina, slipped on the roof of her mansion. We briefly discussed how cliff hangers hook the reader into wanting to read more.
Writing: I introduced a kinesthetic model of the writing process: planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Please see if your student can demonstrate this for you and explain what happens at each stage. It will take some time before this is mastered, but I've found it a good way to introduce the vocabulary involved in the writing process. We wrote a plan on comfort items, pets or places and began a single paragraph draft, emphasizing topic sentences. This is a good example of how we can support reading with writing and writing with reading.
Geography: We looked at the Great Lakes, discussed their importance for transportation during the early days of our country and we studied Ohio's adjacent states.
Math: We studied place and value as separate, but related, concepts. We also began reading "big" numbers, up to the one-hundred-thousands place. We understand that the pattern of one, tens, hundreds repeats and that when looking at a big number we can isolate the largest numbers between commas and begin reading just those numbers and adding a "last name," (e.g., millions, thousands, etc.). Ask your student to demonstrate this new skill to see if they have retained this strategy. I will revisit and build on all math skills until we reach mastery. This can take some time. To support this we play Biggest Number/Smallest number by drawing places up to the one-hundred-thousands place (see photo below). We roll a ten sided die, taking turns with a partner, and record the value in any of the blank spaces. We then read our numbers when we've filled all of the places. This also supports student understanding of number and is a game most enjoy. We spent two days introducing telling time on analog clocks. We differentiated between the hour hand and minute hand. My strategy is to show them that the short hand is the hour hand and that the word hour is shorter than the word minute. I isolated the hour hand (I've removed the minute hand from a larger "teacher" or Judy clock). This helps students to see that when telling time to the hour, the hour hand is on the hour and when telling time to the half-hour (or half-past) the hour hand is exactly in the middle of two hours. We also discussed that when telling time, we always defer to the smaller or earlier hour. I have had students sort themselves after I hand out a money card to everyone. Without talking, they quickly sort themselves from smallest amount to largest amount around the room.
Science: I gave student teams the collaborative challenge of using Keva planks to construct a structure (or series of structures) that met the following criteria:
- Have to move the ball with a Keva plank (not with our hands).
- The ball has to travel down.
- The ball has to travel up.
- The ball must stop on its own in a box structure.
Below is a nearly successful example. This is a seemingly easy challenge, but with freedom to collaborate, it can become very complex. It also supports an attention to direction. For example, this team still needs to determine a way to start the ball moving using Keva planks.
Important Dates and Reminders
September 5th: No School, Labor Day
September 7th: School Pictures (information went home this week)
September 14th: Early Dismissal, students depart at 1:15
October 3rd - 7th: Box top collection
October 4th: Ohio Reading Achievement Assessment (Please do not schedule any appointments for this date)
October 5th: Walk to School Day
October 7th: Fall Family Night 6:00-8:00pm
October 20th: School Picture Retakes
October 26th: Field Trip to Highbanks Metropark
October 28th: End of first grading period
October 28th: Halloween Party (Long lunch, 11:05 - 1:30, most students go home and change into costumes)
October 31st: No School for Students (Teacher Grading Day)
