Language
Arts
Math
Science
Social Studies
We have been using the Four Blocks of Guided Reading, Self-Selected Reading, Working with Words, and Writing this year. In Guided Reading, we use our reading anthology and other trade books. The first theme in our reading anthology was fractured fairytales and the students have performed two fractured fairytale plays. We have read lots of fractured fairytales and have written our own fractured fairytales in our writing block. In our writing block, we do Writer's Workshop. The students write stories of their own choice and also assigned writing projects. In Writer's Workshop, we edit in pairs and we use Alphasmarts and computers to publish our stories. We also use our new computer lab and prewrite or plan our stories with the visual learning program, Kidspiration. We web out our writing ideas, and then we write our stories on the new eMacs. The students have 30 minutes everyday of Self-Selected Reading time. Many have been reading an assortment of fractured fairytales during this reading time. The students enjoy their time to read aloud to me during Self-Selected Reading. I listen to every child read aloud to me at least once a week for 15 minutes. This individual reading time helps me assess vocabulary,decoding, and reading comprehension strategies. In the Working with Words block, we focus on Word Wall words. We also strengthen our decoding and context clue skills with Making Words and Guess the Covered Word.
We have reviewed addition and subtraction strategies. Our favorite way to work on addition and subtraction is to play Quizmo! We are getting faster in our addition and subtraction facts with time tests! We enjoy working on problem solving with the computer software program, Fizz and Martina's Math Adventures. We learn how to work as a team when we problem solve. We have worked on place value, time, and money. We have estimated when we round to the nearest ten and to the nearest hundred. We have compared numbers and have used <,>, and = symbols in number sentences. Our class also created our own line, picto, bar, and circle graphs with the software program, The Graph Club. We enjoyed surveying our classmates as we constructed our graphs.Our class also explored fractions. Finally we achieved a major milestone of third grade by learning our multiplication facts!
At the start of the year, we learned about plants and animals. We investigated animal classifications and different ecosystems. We have been studying about simple machines. We explored levers, inclined planes, wheels and axles, and pulleys. Student teams created their own compound machines. They named their machines, identified the simple machines in their compound machines, and decided on a function for their machine. The teams shared their machines in class. Our class also studied friction,flight, rockets, and pendulums in the computer software program, Science Court Explorations. The students enjoyed working in cooperative groups as they made a hypothesis and tested that hypothesis in an experiment. We learned about volcanoes and the three different rock groups. It was alot of fun creating erupting volcano models! We explored the planets in our solar system as we studied space. We have been learning about our bodies with the second graders. We made models of our bodies and studied the different organs. Our student pairs made multimedia slideshows about taking care of our bodies. We teamed with the fifth graders in a weather webquest and created web pages on weather topics. We concluded the year with another webquest on the Amazon Rainforest. Student pairs researched and created an iMovie about their rainforest animals.
Our class has been exploring maps, globes, and atlases as we study geography. We learned the seven continents and four oceans. We've also used those same geography tools as we discuss the events happening in our world. We learned technology skills as we searched on the Internet about places in the world and topics that interested us. We searched with search engines and indexes like Kids Click! and Yahooligans. We are studying different communities and comparing and contrasting them. We have also been discussing natural resources in various places in our world.