With the first month behind us, we are turning the corner towards conferences already! The students I am sure have shared about how we get to use Chromebooks now. They have been treating them very responsibly and really looking to make sure they follow rules. I have currently only introduced them during math time. Beaverton School District adopted a new program called Dreambox. It is one way we will be monitoring math progress in the district. Dreambox adjusts to the students' needs as they answer questions so that each student is working directly at his or her level.
Math: We worked really hard this week on solving story problems involving multiplication and division. We underline the important information in the story problem and then decided whether it was more appropriate to solve using multiplication or division. They were doing a great job and were active participants all week! Something important to note: You will see a piece of paper come home regularly that says "Pre-Assessment" at the top. After every few math lessons, I assess the students to see how they are doing and if I need to reteach or revisit a specific concept. To keep grading student friendly I grade the assessments with a check plus, check, or check minus. A check plus means they got everything correct, a check is they are on the right track but made a mistake or two, a check minus means they are struggling with the concept(s). For students who get a check or check minus, I have them correct their work with me or a parent volunteer. You'll see their corrections in markers. Literacy: This week we continued learning about how we can be the best readers. One of the lessons students learned is what to do if their mind keeps wandering from the book. We talked about how if it happens, we should always back up and reread or determine if the book we are reading is not a good fit or if the place we are sitting is not a good fit. Each Friday we also dig into Scholastic News to practice reading non-fiction texts. Non-fiction tends to be harder for students to understand. We learned how authors leave clues to help us better understand the article by using a Words To Know box. The Words To Know box defines words in the article that the author may think the readers do not understand. Along with reading the article, the students also take a quiz. This is one way we measure their understanding of non-fiction texts. Students who score and 7 or less, will be asked to go back and fix their answers. We are working hard to find the answer back in the story rather than just guessing. Third graders will need to be provide evidence to their answers by the end of the year so this is a way to start preparing them. :) Please keep your eyes out for their Scholastic Quizzes that go home, so you can also see how they are doing. Writing: We started our narrative writing unit this week by brainstorming true small moment stories. Students brainstormed important people and places and small moments associated with them. We read a book called Roller Coaster where the author told a small moment story of riding a roller coaster. We discussed how a small moment is something that is no more than a few hours long and definitely does not start in the morning and end at night like students are used to writing. Ask your child: What small moment story have to started writing or plan on writing? You can also help them brainstorm some small moment stories whether it was a moment of happiness, excitement, difficulty, sadness, etc. Science: We started learning about heredity for our PYP Unit: Who We Are by learning about acquired and inherited traits. Acquired traits are ones that we learn or get throughout our life and inherited traits are what we are born with. Students brainstormed acquired and inherited traits. Ask your child: What is an example of an acquired trait and what is an example of an inherited trait. A few things to note: 1. Please make sure your child is recording their at home reading on their reading log and is doing so accurately and honestly. :) I would really like to see them reading 30 minutes or more a night..yes weekends are important, too. There are many studies you can read online about third grade reading achievement and high school graduation rates. I won't go into detail but bottom line is students need to be reading, reading, reading. 2. Many students are trying to read books that are too hard for them right now. If your child sounds choppy, most likely the book is too hard for them. Please be aware of that at home! I am working with students at school to choose just right books. Having them read books that are too hard for them lead to their eyes wandering, their comprehension lower, and do not help them become better readers. If they are dying to read a book above their reading level, spend time reading it with them! 3. You will see green laminated bookmarks start to float home. On the green bookmark is your child's reading goal and five words they should be practicing. It also shares their reading level: 1B, 2B are first grade reading levels, 1R and 2R are second grade reading levels, and White is third grade. This can count towards their nightly reading. I have not finished every student's bookmark but I am hoping to soon. I do want them to have it at school each day, which is why it is a very large bookmark. Happy Weekend!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Sept. 14th- First Day of Online Learning
|