Curriculum Update October 29-November 2

I hope everyone had a wonderful and enjoyable weekend.
Some key highlights this week are:
-The Halloween party will be on Wednesday. The parade will begin at 2:45 pm. Please remember no makeup is allowed. If you are setting up for the party, the desired time is no earlier than 2:30 pm. Thanks!
-Prairie Ridge needs your support for the Clorox Power a Bright Future grant. We are trying to win $50,000 to improve our technology. We won't be able to do it without your support. Please look for more information about ways you can help. We will really need you and all of your friends to vote twice a day through texts and online. THANKS A LOT!!!

Reading

We will begin Theme 14, "Every Vote Counts" in Rigby this week. The comprehension strategy is creating images. The vocab words are encourage, protest, speech, civic and crowd. Our grammar focus will be on adverbs.

Spelling

The spelling lists for this week is a study of the suffix ly.

list 1: ahead, neatly, badly, outside, enough, soon, gladly, worse, nearby, quickly

list 2: often, tomorrow, hourly, exactly, easily, aloud, nowhere, patiently, sincerely, seldom

list 3: co, com (together, with) coexist, cohesive, coincidence, combine, commiserate, committee, communication, community, compare, compatible

Writing

We will continue to work on our descriptive writing this week. The students are working on writing from the point of view of one of the animals in the classroom. They have to be very descriptive about how they feel about being in a cage in the classroom.

The students will write to their Texas pen pals this week and write a persuasive letter to their favorite meteorologist. 

Math
We will take the Topic 12 test on Monday. We will begin multiplication on Tuesday. We will work on multiplication as repeated addition, arrays and multiplication, the commutative property, and writing multiplication stories.

SS
We will continue our unit on government. Last week, the students completed their government trees. This week, will be talking about elections and campaigns. We will have a class election on Wednesday from students nominated by their peers as role models in the classrooms. They other students will work on their campaign. On November 6, we will have our third grade class president election.

 

Here are photos of the students with their Three Branches of Government trees.

 

 

Science

We completed our stars constellation projects. We will now begin learning about different types of weather and studying weather patterns throughout the week.

 

Here are our star constellation projects. When the lights are off, they glow in the dark.

 

 

Have a fantastic week!

Hispanic Heritage Trading Card Project

We partnered with Mrs. Kremer's classroom to study different contributions Hispanics had made to society in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. The kids researched a different individual, inferred character traits, then went to bighugelabs.com to create their own trading card. The students then shared information about the individual they researched.

Postcard Exchange Project

Our postcard exchange is going strong. We sent out our first round of postcards on Thursday. The kids were pretty excited. So far, we have received 14 postcards from classrooms throughout the country. The kids are really learning a lot about the different geographic areas!

The class is posing with completed postcards from our classroom they are sending out to other classrooms throughout the country.

This is the bulletin board where we are keeping track of postcards received.

 

Curriculum Update October 22-26

I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend. Please remember the solar house project (house and write up) is due on Tuesday, October 23 when the students return back to school. Please make sure this stays a student project so they can apply what they learned throughout the solar energy unit.

The spelling test will be on Thursday this week because I will be presenting at math conference on Friday. I will send the new spelling list home on Thursday so they can have it over the weekend, along with their graded spelling test.

Reading

We will continue Theme 13, Week 2 in Rigby this week. We are still focusing on the government theme of, "We the People." The vocabulary for this week is justice, govern, candidate, politics and authority. We will continue to use the comprehension strategy, "Monitor Understanding." These are these the students do before, during, and after reading to help them better comprehend the text. (rereading, making connections, inferring, predicting, creating images, asking questions, synthesizing and summarizing.

Spelling

The spelling lists for this week is a study of pronouns.

list 1: himself, them, itself, she, our, yours, mine, they, their, anyone

list 2: anybody, whichever, whose, everyone, which, someone, several, either, yours, another

list 3: quad (four) quadrangle, quadrant, quadrennial, quadriceps, quadrilateral, quadrisect, quadruped, quadruple, quadruplet

Writing

We will continue to work on our descriptive writing this week. The students wrote picture poems and are turning them into word mosaics. They will begin adding more figurative language in their writing and using powerful verbs. 

The students have received letters from their pen pals in New Jersey & Texas. They will be writing them back this week. 

Math
We will continue our unit on time this week. We will be looking at units of time, elapsed time, and working backwards with problem solving to figure out a problem. The topic 12 test review will be on Friday with the test on Monday.

 

SS
We will continue our unit on government. The students have been learning about the different branches of government. The students will apply what they have learned by making government trees. We will be talking about elections and campaigns. Students will nominate students for a class election. These students will campaign and read their speeches on Monday, October 29. On November 6, we will have our third grade class president election.

 

Science

We will continue our study of stars by making constellation art projects. Then, we will begin a study on weather. We will be observing, describing, and recording daily seasonal weather changes and learning about different types of weather.

 

Have a fantastic week!

Kate, Team Leggett MVP

Kate is a really funny person. She always makes us laugh in class. She is helpful and always willing to be kind to anyone. Kate is generous and always smiling. She is also really athletic and loves soccer. Kate is just an awesome person!
By Team Leggett Publicists: Ben & Bridget

Curriculum Update October 15-19

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and was able to stay dry after Saturday's torrential rain.

Please look for information about Cool the Earth coming home in your child's Monday folder. The school goal is to complete at least 2,000 actions. 

Please remember there is no school on Friday and the following Monday (19th and 22nd). The solar house project is due Tuesday, October 23. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Reading

We will begin Theme 13, making laws in Rigby this week to go along with our government unit in SS and the upcoming election.  The comprehension skill will be monitor understanding.
The vocab words are debate, granting, officials, representation, legal.

Math
We have completed Topic 4 in enVision. We will review on Monday and have the test on Tuesday. Next, we will begin time. We will measure time to the half hour and quarter hour and time to the minute.

SS
We will begin a unit on government. Students will be learning about local and national officials. They will also learn about the roles of the different branches of government.

Science

We completed our solar energy unit. Thank you for sending in all the materials for the solar cookout. The baked apples were a big hit. The nachos needed some stronger solar energy to melt the cheese. This week, we are going to be learning about the moon and stars before we begin our weather unit.

Spelling

The spelling pattern this week is contractions.

List 1: I'll, it's, let's, she'll, here's, they're, they'll, wouldn't, won't, can't

List 2: doesn't, haven't, you'll, we're, you're, they've, shouldn't, wasn't, that'll, couldn't

List 3: tri (three) triangle, triathlon, triceratops, tricycle, trilateral, trilogy, trio, tripod, trisect, trilingual

Writing

We will continue to work on our descriptive writing. We will also begin our post card exchange where we will write information about Prairie Ridge and Kansas. We will send them out to classrooms in 50 different states. So far, we have received post cards from classrooms in Iowa, Indiana and Kentucky.

Have a fantastic week!

Leggettville Community

The students worked in collaborative groups to develop their own rural, suburban, and urban communities out of milk cartons. After creating their community, they had to write a paragraph describing its features.

Leggettville is a small, rural community. We have a big farm, lots of animals to look at, a fruit garden that asks for $1 per stand, and we have a small theater that sometimes has plays. We have a police station with three policeman. We have windmill to make energy for our power lines. Also, the kids have a lot of space to play. In the Fall, our farm is a haunted house.

Over time, Leggettville began to change. It had more color and more homes were built. Leggettville had a prairie pond installed and an airport was even built. There are only a few flights a day. There is a church, houses, and a lot of happy people. You can also go to the bookstore where they have Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. There is even a McDonald's and our movie theater now has 20 theaters. You should totally come to Leggettville!

Leggettville has now become a large city. It has everything you need. We have this dream hotel, twin towers, and a huge dump. There is a large swimming pool and hundreds of flights arrive and depart each day at our airport. There is a date night for moms and dads. Subways and buses are everywhere. You can hear a lot of horns honking as children go to get their free ice cream and cookies every Wednesday after school. Come to Leggettville!

Storybird Inferences

We have been working on inferring. The students used the ewb 2.0 program, Storybird to create create their own inference stories from illustrations they chose.  The students did a great job!

A Tigers Meal on Storybird The Fluffle Story!!! on Storybird A Pirate's Life on Storybird A Zombie Life on Storybird Bob the Glob(The thing to your right is not Bob.) on Storybird My Animal Story on Storybird The Funny Animal Farm. on Storybird Cheese. on Storybird Fluffy on Storybird The Cute Animals Inference Story on Storybird The Dragon on Storybird The Animal's Life on Storybird The Scares! on Storybird The Zoo....... on Storybird Friends and Bullying on Storybird Vacations on Storybird The Cheer in the Happy Air on Storybird THE ALIEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on Storybird Wink-a-Zink-Zink on Storybird The Animal PARTY on Storybird The Robbery on Storybird The animals who could infer anything. on Storybird

Thank You, Mr. Dedrickson!

Thank you very much to Mr. Dedrickson. He came in and talked to the kids abour solar energy. They learned about different solar panels, photovoltaic cells, different types of solar homes and cars. They also learned the goal for solar energy in the future. He took the time to answer all the students' questions in preparation for their solar house project. Thank you Mr. Dedrickson!

Aidan, Team Leggett MVP October 1-5

Aidan is an awesome person. He is a hard worker and is really good in baseball and football. He is just a great athlete. Aidan is also very kind and always nice to everyone. We love having Aidan in our class!
By Team Leggett Publicists: Ben & Bridget

Curriculum Update October 8-12

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. It is definitely beginning to feel like Fall outside.

Thank you to everyone that sent in items for our solar cookout. We will finally have our cookout on Monday. It will be a little chilly, but luckily sunshine is in the forecast.

In your child's Monday folder, information will be coming home about the solar house project. The house and the write up are due Tuesday, October 23, 2012. One important detail is that the house MUST be made using a shoe box. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Reading

We will continue Theme 2, Week 2 in Rigby focusing on the theme, "What is Light?" The comprehension strategy is still practicing inferring. When your child is reading, you can ask them to choose a part of the text they read and to explain what they think the author is implying.

The vocab words are lens, function, focus, demonstrate filament.

Math
In enVision last week, we focused on addition models. This week, we will focus on subtraction. We will be subtracting with an expanded algorithm, using models for subtracting 3-digit numbers, subtracting 3-digit numbers, subtracting across zeroes, and drawing a picture and writing a number sentence. 

 

In Cougar Math on Friday, we will continue to practice analyzing data to determine the mode, minimum, maximum, range, and median. 

SS
We will be finishing our rural, suburban, and urban communities this week. We will also finish our Cougar Nation group communities projects.

 

Science

We will complete our solar energy unit by learning about different solar cookers. The students built their solar cookers last Friday. We will have our solar cookout on Monday, making nachos and baked apples.

Last week, we did an experiment with different dye colors. The students worked on groups to determine which color would absorb the most solar energy.  Some groups had red, while others had blue. Everyone agreed green and yellow did not absorb the most solar energy.

Spelling
The Rigby spelling pattern focus this week is consonant digraphs.
List 1: branch, children, flesh, purchase, whisper, south, thaw, whistle, wharf, shine
List 2: sharp, foolish, whirl, whack, anywhere, reached, charcoal, establish, theater, smooth
Extension: bi (two) bicolor, bicuspid, bicycle, biennial, bifocals, bilingual, bimonthly, biped, biplane, biweekly

Writing
Last week, we received letters from our Pennsylvania pen pals. We wrote them back and wrote introductory letters to our Derrick Thomas Academy pen pals.

This week, we will be writing our South Carolina pen pals back and focusing on colorful words and bringing our writing to life with figurative language for our next narrative writing piece.  All of  the first narrative writing pieces have been posted on the blog. They are the Zooburst vacation stories. Please click on the top left corner to enlarge your child's writing.

Have a fantastic week!