I hope everyone had a delightful weekend.  Today we talked about using non-fiction texts to answer questions.  Today's discussion was specifically about choosing a title that you believe is likely to have the information that you need.  Over the next couple of days we will be using a table of contents and an index to do the same thing. 

The book fair is underway! 

Picture day is tomorrow!

Open House is tomorrow as well, so I will see you all at 6:30. 

We had a 1/2 day guest teacher today because I was pulled for professional development.  I hear that the class was delightful, but talkative. 

I am very happy with this class.  We are getting to know each other, and we are getting excited for science!  We are going to work hard to do our own science experiments this year.  I plan to invite families to come in and see our hard work sometime in November.

We started working on rounding numbers today in math. 

In reading we are working on summarizing.  This week I will start sending home homework journals.  These are due on different days for different kids.  The day of the week written on the front of the journal is the day that it is due back to me in class.  The will be due starting next week.
Each week your student will be expected to write about what they are reading at home.  I will be writing back each week with questions designed specifically to extend your child's thinking to the next step.  This is an important part of the homework as it is similar to having one on one tutoring with me.  Please make sure that the journal is turned in on the proper day as it becomes difficult for me to offer instruction taylored to your students needs if everyone turns them in on the same day.  :)

Thanks everyone. 

Today was a very relaxed day.  I've noticed that there are some great mathematicians in this class!  One of the things that they are doing that is extremely important is that they are waiting and thinking before they jump to an answer.  A lot of questions in math (and in life) are more difficult than they look at first.  Stopping to think is a very important skill, and we will continue to encourage and practice it in third grade. 

Hello Families,

In math we are working on mental math strategies.  I tried to explain to the kids that this chapter is all about doing math in your head, and that what we are working on right now is a strategy that may or may not work well for them right now (since everyone is different).  While these are only strategies, they are good strategies, and it is important to expose the kids to the process of doing math efficiently in their heads.  If your child comes home worried because they don't understand the math chapter that we are working on right now.  Please help me to keep them relaxed about it. 

PTA is looking for help with popcorn!  If you have some free day time hours, popcorn day is a great way to get to know other parents.  Please contact me if you would like to hear more about that.

We took our first math test today, and the class did an excellent job staying voice level zero and doing their own work.  We had choice time for people who turned in their homework.  In our class, choice time needs to be something directly related to what we are learning in third grade right now, and they need to be able to justify for me that what they are doing is academically relevant. 
We ended the day today by talking about how we find main events in a story.  It was a wonderful Friday.

I am so happy to have the students that I have this year.  These guys are a wonderful bunch.  They are quirky and talkative and they really think outside of the box.  Thank you for sharing them with me!

Today we read a story called Enemy Pie  by Derek Munson.  We used this story to practice the skills I blogged about yesterday, but we also used this book as well as The Raft to discuss one way to find the main idea of a story.  Your child should now be able to identify the main idea of some stories by identifying a lesson that the main character learns.  This is a slight extension from what they learned yesterday because they are now able to identify this lesson not only as something the character learns, but something that the author is trying to teach us as well. 

In math we worked on applying the math skills we've gained to solve more difficult problems.  Problem solving is an area of mathematics that we have been working hard to teach.  Our first problem solving step, which we focused on today, is to make sense of the problem we are looking at.  We are making sense of problems right now by finding good places to start, identifying points that we get stuck on, and trying multiple ways to look at a problem.  We will extend on these strategies for making sense of a problem throughout the year. 

Today we read one of my all time favorite books, The Raft by Jim LaMarche.  We are using this book to practice using text evidence (observations), and making inferences about characters.  An example of this from a student in class is: "I infer that his grandma already knew about the raft because it says that she wasn't surprised to see it and because she brought down a life jacket, which is my observation."  We are also using this story to talk about how characters grow and change over the course of a story.  Knowing how characters grow and change in our stories helps us to find the theme, or main idea of a story. 

These are excellent skills for your child to be practicing at home when they talk to you about the books they are reading.  Making inferences about characters seems to come naturally to most kids this age, but it can be fun and challenging when you ask them 'what happened, or what did the author say to make you think that?'. 

Homework is coming home for the first time today.  The homework will be due on Friday. 

Tomorrow in math we will be comparing and ordering numbers based on their value. 

In reading we will finish finding just right books, and start taking about how to keep track of our reading in our reading journals. 

We have been talking a lot about observations and inferences.  These are two words that we are going to be using a lot in science as well as in reading.  We are also learning about the scientific method, and how to make a hypothesis. 

Important words for kids to be using this week are:
Observation
Inference
Justify
Apply
Comprehend

These are all words that we will use a lot in third grade, so this week we are working on truly understanding their meaning.

We had a wonderful first week of school.  We are just starting to get to know each other, but I can tell already that this is going to be a fun year.  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.  Email will be the most reliable for me, but I will always return phone calls a.s.a.p. 

In math we are reviewing place-value.  One important concept in our chapter on place-value is understanding the difference between a digit and a value.  We will continue to work on this next week.  We will also be comparing and ordering numbers next week (least to greatest or greatest to least).   The way that we teach math these days is very different from the way most of us learned it, so if you ever have questions about what I am teaching or why, please ask!  On September 18th I will be at the parent math night at 6:00.  I hope to see you all there.

In reading we are working on finding Just Right Books, and using text evidence.  We have been reading the book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.  Text evidence is very important in third grade.  It is no longer enough to say "I think Peter is polite".  We are now looking for students to say "I think Peter is polite BECAUSE he said that he liked his gift so that he wouldn't hurt Mrs. Yarby's feelings."

Next week in reading, we are going to start talking about non-fiction texts.  It is important for kids to read and understand non-fiction.  We will be working on vocabulary strategies, finding the main idea, and navigating text features to answer questions (probably through the end of September).