Happy Friday!  Next week we will be starting our second unit in reading.  We will be learning about non-fiction texts.  We will practice identifying and using text features of non-fiction texts as well as adjusting our reading rate in order to understand non-fiction texts.  It would be wonderful if you practiced non-fiction at home.  We will be talking about functional documents as well as books, so sharing with brochures that come from school, or the lunch menu are great ways to practice real world skills for our non-fiction unit.  We will be talking about text boxes, pictures, captions, glossaries, and subtitles.
    In science we will start running tests on the minerals that we have in our kit.  I know that a few of you got to check out the game we play on brainpop.com to enhance our understanding of the properties that minerals have and how we can test minerals to identify them.
    Next week we plan to wrap up our chapter on mental math and estimation.  Our next chapter is on additions with regrouping (that is the same process that used to be called barrow and carry when we learned math).  If you came to our math night last month and received your free base ten blocks, those blocks will come in especially handy as you practice addition with regrouping at home.

    It was so nice to see everyone at the open house last night.  Today we practiced writing topic summary sentences and began our work on the body of the summary.  We also learned to write cursive letter c.  We did some freewriting today as well.  Freewriting is important this year because we have to do a lot of writing during the day for math, reading, and science.  Getting a chance to write whatever we choose is important to our ability to sustain a love of writing.    
    I am personally thrilled with all of the amazing new books we have in our book library.  There are so many skilled readers in this class and I am glad that the advanced end of my book library is growing with high vocabulary books that are appropriate for our third graders. Thank you Ryan Family, Odiorne Family, and thank you again Allen Family!
   

    Open House is tonight, so I hope to see you soon.  Today we logged on to our online math program called ST Math.  Everyone was really excited to get the laptops out and get into the program.  I was impressed with how calm and respectful everyone was during our first experience with computers out together. 
    We also played a game for Science today.  In the game we went into a couple of different mines, excavated minerals, brought the minerals to our laboratory, and ran tests on the minerals in order to identify them based on their properties.  In the coming weeks we will be using what we learned from this game while we run tests on our own minerals in classroom. 
    Thank you for the amazing donations to our book library Allen Family and Ruby!  New books are always inspiring to young readers.

   Today we learned the difference between rocks and minerals.  We also learned how to round numbers to the nearest 10 and 100.  I hope that I will see most of to tomorrow at Open House tomorrow!

    Today we worked on using dictionaries, and we practiced more mental math strategies.  We also continued our work on classifying rocks based on their properties.  I have noticed a big improvement in our mental math strategy building.  I understand that the concepts we are using are not the same ones that us adults learned to use, but using the strategy we teach students now helps them to math quickly and accurately.  Practice is a big part of building this strategy, so don't be concerned if it is still a struggle.
    The Book Fair is on now, and our library day is tomorrow so we will have a chance to be looking at all the amazing things for sale in the library.  Thank you so much Setter Family for the new book for our book library!  I also want to thank our volunteers.  It is because of your help that our classroom library is now online.  This week I will be teaching students how to use the library online to check out books on their own. 

    Another wonderful day in third grade.  Today we worked on some mental math strategies.  One valueable method that we are practicing is taking a number and bringing it to the nearest ten in order to make the number easier to work with.  For example: 

63-48

is easiest to do in your head if you add 2 to 48 and make it 50.

63-50 is equal to 13.

The toughest part for our third graders is remembering to add the two extra that you took away back on.

13+2 is equal to 15.

You might notice that this strategy is a struggle for them if you practice it at home.  The end result is efficient mental math, but it takes some practice to get there.  The best way to quickly support your student at home (without frustration) is by asking them to find the nearest 10 to any two or three digit number.  Mental math is a challenge for kids this age, but it truly is a real world skill! 

    We read our article today on the two candidates chosen to run for President.  The article mentioned that there are three political debates coming up, but most of us weren't sure what a debate really is, so we had one.  We broke up into groups based on what we think is most important in life (I asked them to choose between clean water and food, education, or a family and a home.)  Each group chose a representative.  Once we had our representatives chosen each group discussed how best to argue their decision on what is most important in life.  We heard one another's arguments, and then made counter arguments.  I was incredibly impressed with some of the thoughtful and interesting arguments that were made today in class.  I am so excited to have such a bunch of intelligent, thoughtful, passionate students who can appreciate and respect one each other's opinions.  Having debates is one of my favorite learning activities in social studies, and I am glad to know that this class can gracefully handle listening to and disagreeing with one another in appropriate ways.  I was especially impressed with our well spoken, cleverly chosen representatives.
    In math we are working really hard on our mental math strategies.  We are mentally adding two digit numbers at this point.  If you have free time in the car or while you are cooking or eating, it would be excellent practice to ask them to add two digit numbers in their head.  Asking your child what steps they took in their mind is great too because it forces them to think about their own thinking (metacognition), and the ability to explain your thinking is important to your ability to retain information and in this case do math efficiently in your head. 

    We did not get to our talk about the election today.  By the end of the day the class was feeling frisky and having a very hard time staying focused, so it didn't make much sense to have them sit and read.  Instead we played charades with some of our vocabulary words and then made chalk number bonds outside.  Both of those activities were key to what we are learning right now, and they got us up and moving. 
    We will save the Time For Kids article on the election for tomorrow morning. 

    I was so proud of these 3rd graders today.  We spent a long time sitting on the carpet this morning talking about how to do turn and talks, practicing how to use academic language, and being active listeners.  We were on the carpet for an hour of reading, 30 minutes of social skills lessons, and 15 minutes of calendar work all in a row.  That is a long time for third graders to stay focused on the carpet!
    We learned about the rock cycle today, and used that information as well as our own observations to categorize rocks by their properties. 
    Tomorrow we will be learning a bit more about our upcoming election.  I know that the Presidential Race is important and can be controversial.  Please feel free to come to me with any questions or comments that you have on what we are learning in class.  I always appreciate your help and feedback, and I love to see and hear from families.
   

    We learned a little bit about this election process this Friday.  We talked about what slogans, rallies, and constituents are, and well as what electoral votes are.  We also took our test on place value today. 
    I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

    I did find an article for us to read about asteroids and comets.  I always love it when I can connect what we are learning in class to what kids are actually curious about.  Today we read an article from Time for Kids about Jupiter's gravitational pull, and how it protects our planet from asteroids.  You can access this article at www.timeforkids.com.  It is their featured article this week.  We used the article to practice our vocabulary building skills, and using academic language when we talk to one another.
    Homework is due tomorrow!  I always tell students that it is their responsibility to get their homework finished and to me by Friday.  That being said, I would love it if you would help them to remember that their reading log needs to be signed, and they need to bring their homework back in that beautiful Shorewood Seagulls Tuesday Folder.
    Don't forget our math family night next Wednesday!  I hope to see you there.

    Today we started SCIENCE! We came up with a lot of things that we already know about rocks and minerals, but we were also able to come up with a lot of interesting questions.  Most of the students in class are especially interested in learning about rocks from outer space.  There was a question about asteroids hitting Earth and ending the world which I don't believe I will get around to covering :), but I will look for some articles on rocks and minerals in space. One of the things that students already know about rocks and minerals is that sand can be made into glass, and that glass can be blown to make interesting shapes.  We looked up Seattle glass artist Dale Chihuly and saw pictures of some of his art to end our science lesson for today.

    Another wonderful day in the third grade.  We decorated our writing journals today to reflect our personalities.  This will help us to take ownership of our own writing. 
    I was very proud of everyone today during reading.  We practiced our skills at giving text evidence to support what we know, and predictions that we make in reading.  If you are reading with your child at home it is great practice for them if you ask them to tell you what happened in the story to support any inferences or predictions that they make.  For example, today we read a book called Louise the Big Cheese. I asked the class if Louise was excited about her new teacher, and everyone agreed that Louise was not excited.  The text evidence we used to support our answer was that Louise's goal for the new school year was to get straight As, but she heard that her new teacher never gives As.  Using text evidence is an important skill, but also difficult for kids this age. 
   Special thanks to the parents who have stopped in to volunteer!  I can't even tell you how nice it is to see your faces here at school supporting our learning. 

    Happy Friday!  Let's hope that the weather holds out for our weekend.  Today we learned a bit about how our brains work.  We learned about which sections of our brains are working when we read, and we learned about the different parts of our brains, and what they do.
    I apologize for the paperwork that has been coming home on random days.  Today there is a letter from Principal Ryan, and a message about Skate Night because those things needed to get out a.s.a.p.  I will do my best to make sure that paperwork comes home on Tuesdays in the Tuesday folder. 
    Next week we will be starting our science unit, Rocks and Minerals!

I have a big job to do in the classroom and I would love some help!  There is a way for me to put my classroom library online so that students can check out books on their own on the computer.  They will also be able to search for books by their reading levels.  They will be able to write reviews for one another to read, and to rate books on a five start rating system.  In order to get them started I have to type and/or scan the ISBNs from all of my books.  If there is someone who wouldn't mind coming in some afternoon soon to help I would truly appreciate it, and the kids would be happy to get the extra practice on their computer skills.

    Today we learned a bit about our current President, and what the President's job entails.  We wrote paragraphs about him to practice our paragraph structure.
    We also talked a lot about how to choose a Just Right Book.  We decided that in order for a book to be a good choice during school it should have around two to four words per page that are new to the reader and be interesting to the reader. 
    In math we are working on reading, writing, and counting numbers to 10,000.  Over the next week we will be learning how to write numbers in standard, word, and expanded forms.  We will be looking for patterns in skip counting (which can be more complicated than you might guess for example if the pattern is:
 6,029     6,019      6,009      _______    _______ 
it is complicated because you have to understand place value and know that you are not just going to change the digit in the ten's place, but you will also have to change the digits in the thousand's and hundred's places in order to follow the pattern).  In addition, we are working on thinking flexibly about numbers.  For example we might say that 4,500 has no tens or we might see 4,500 as having 450 tens.  I make the distinction by saying that 4,500 has a zero for the digit in the tens place, but there are 450 tens in the number.  This helps them to see the differences in the meanings of their vocabulary words digit, number, and value. 
   Thanks for your support, and I hope you are getting a chance to enjoy the sun while we still have it.

    We had a very interesting discussion today around an article that we read in Time For Kids magazine.  We read an article called "Rain Forest for Sale" and discussed the importance of rain forests as well as the needs of the people who live in Ecuador.  We came up with ideas for how to problem solve so that we can keep the rain forests safe as well as take care of the people who live near them.  The magazine that I sent home today is actually from last year's subscription.  Our new subscription should start up shortly.  Thank you for getting your $6.00 to the office so we can continue having these interesting discussions.