HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

A huge thank-you to everyone for the generous and kind notes, cards, and gifts.  I can't express my gratitude enough to you all.  Thank you so much, it is very much appreciated! :)

I hope you all have wonderful holiday breaks and enjoy time with family and friends!

Social Studies Quiz & Alphabet Book

There will be a social studies quiz this Friday.  Students will be allowed to use their text to complete this assessment.  Today, a study guide went home to help students additionally review if they choose to.  Notecards and answers to the study guide do not have to be turned in!

Also, by this Friday, if students do not have 15 alphabet book pages completed, they will need to work on them over break so that 15 are finished when they return.  Alphabet book pages, an example page, and the project rubric can be found on the Unit 2: How Chicago Came to Be page!  

Quarter 2, Part 3 Project

For Part 3 of this project, students will be choosing an endangered species to research more about.  By Thursday, students will need a list of their top 5 endangered animal choices to research.  Because there can be no "repeat animals" in the class, students will make their final selection on Thursday.

On Thursday, students will also be bringing home the colored paper/construction paper they will need to create the pyramid (this is what they'll glue the pyramid piece to!).  They do not have to use this paper, however.  If your child wants to use a different type of paper, the dimensions of each square should be 12" by 12".  

A great list of endangered species can be found on this website - Endangered Species List.  

Also, additional research links can be found on the Helpful Links page of the third grade website which students can use to research more about their animal.  (There are vocabulary resources on this page as well which will help your child with their vocabulary packets!)

A Sneak Peek At Our Week ...

Reading:  This week is our final week with the James and the Giant Peach character study.  Students will complete their final reading response log, vocabulary packet, and comprehension/vocabulary quiz this Friday.  We will also be watching the movie version of this story on Friday as well.  Lessons this week will focus on theme.  This is a very challenging, and very important, concept for students to learn!  Lessons focused on theme will continually be instructed throughout the year.  

Writing:  Students will continue to practice writing reading responses this week.  Students will focus on revising their work, making sure they explain their text evidence thoroughly.  Examples of responses, including an example one, can be found on the Third Grade Website.  (The third component - voice - will not be instructed until we return from break!)

Math:  We will be starting Unit 5 after winter break.  Our focus this week will be on creating extended math responses.  However, your child can continue to review and practice IXL skills at home!

Social Studies:  This will be our final week of Unit 2: How Chicago Came to Be in social studies, and will be starting science when we return from break.  Students will continue to be working on their Chicago ABC books in class this week (the rubric for this project can be found online!).  By the end of this week, students should have about 15 pages of their books completed.    There will be an open-book quiz over material in this unit on Friday.  

Important Dates:

• This week is Spirit Week!  Please read the previous post about the different themes and focuses each day!
• If you have not signed and turned in your child's progress report (only the bottom portion), please do so as soon as possible!
• Quarter Project 2, Part 3 was sent home today!  The due date for this final portion is Friday, January 10th.  

James and the Giant Peach Character Study

This is a picture of a student reading James and the Giant Peach.  We are reading this to find character changes in James.  In the first couple chapters he has changed from depressed to brave. An example is when he went in the tunnel in the peach.  We will finish the book next week and watch the movie.

Written By: Blake C.

Math Homework - Extended Response

Because students will not have math study links for Wednesday and Thursday night, they will be completing a math extended response instead.  A document containing information about steps of a response are posted on the Third Grade website.  An example copy of a response will be posted soon!

Progress Reports

Tonight your child will be bringing home his/her progress report.  Please go over it with them and sign and have the bottom portion signed and returned by this Friday!

Progress Reports - Social Studies & Science

Although social studies is the primary focus of this first part of the quarter, lessons and concepts from the first "Living Things" unit (primarily related to the food chain) did trickle over into Quarter 2.  So, grades for the food chain will appear on this progress report, and updated/additional social studies grades will show up after the progress report is printed as well!  Please let me know if you have any questions!

Spirit Week

The week of December 16th will be SPIRIT WEEK at Skinner North!  The schedule of Spirit Week is listed below:

• Monday, 12/16: Pajama Day
• Tuesday, 12/17: Wacky Hair Day
• Wednesday, 12/18: Decade Day
• Thursday, 12/19: Country Western Day
• Friday, 12/20: Skinner Spirit Day

Tweetheart of the Week

Blake is our classroom's Tweetheart this week!

Quarter 2, Part 2 Project

Students' PowerPoints for their Quarter Projects will be due this Friday.  We will begin presentations on Friday, and will continue them throughout the next week.  ***For Friday, students must also bring in a printed copy of the PowerPoint slides.  

The slides do not need to be printed in color and do not need to be printed on separate pages.  All 6 slides can be printed on 1 page.  When printing, follow the instructions listed below if you would like to do so:

• After clicking print, find the "print what" drop down section
• Click "handouts"
• Then, under "color/grayscale" click "grayscale"
• Next, under the "handouts" section set it to 6 slides per page

A Sneak Peek At Our Week ...

Reading:  This week for James and the Giant Peach, lessons will focus on how the setting affects characters in a text, and also how and why characters change throughout a novel.  Students received 7 new vocabulary words today and will be completing the vocabulary map for homework (due Friday).  Students will also be completing reading responses that reflect different topics instructed this week and last.  On Friday students will take a comprehension and vocabulary quiz over chapters 16-27.

Writing:  This week students will be introduced to the final component of extended responses - voice.  Information about reading extended responses can be found on the ISAT page of the Third Grade Website.  You can also find a "sentence starter" document that will help your child compose this type of writing, along with an example response that includes each of the instructed components.  

Math:  Today students corrected their Unit 4 study guide, and tomorrow will be taking the Unit 4 test.  Afterwards, they will take the Unit 5 pre-test, and will focus on constructing math extended responses for the remainder of the week.  Students have learned how to restate the question, search and find important information, show their work in an organized way, write the steps they took to solve the problem and will now be learning how to explain why they took each step.  Unit 5 lessons will start next week!

Social Studies:  After learning about what caused the Chicago Fire last week, students will focus on the effects of the fire this week.  Students will also use classroom time to continue working on their "Chicago History Alphabet books." The Alphabet Book rubric can be found on the Third Grade Website, along with Alphabet Book pages if your child wants to work on some at home! - Unit 2: How Chicago Came to Be

Important Information:

• Tuesday, Dec. 10th, Progress Reports passed out
• Friday, Dec. 12th, Quarter 2, Part 2 Projects Due!
• Dec. 16-20: Spirit Week

Class Morning Meeting Activity

This is the class playing Silent Ball.  To playSilent Ball, you have to be silent the whole time.  If you talk, the game starts over.  The goal of Silent Ball is to pass the ball around the whole circle without anyone talking.  The class plays Silent Ball because they do an activity everyday.  The whole class is Invovled with this and likes to play this game very much. So far our class record is 24(What we really want for our class record is 31). 

Written By: Isaiah B.

 

Math Test

There will be a Unit 4 Math Test next Tuesday!  Study guides went home today and will be due on Monday.  Students had time to begin working on the study guides in class.  

Mrs. Laverty's Presentation

A Sneak Peek At Our Week ...

Reading:  For the next 3 weeks students will be completing a Character Study using the shared text James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.  Information about the unit can be found on the Third Grade Website - Character Study.  Lessons this week will focus on how we learn about characters, noticing how characters change, and understanding character motivation.  There will be a vocabulary and comprehension quiz on Friday.

Writing:  Students will be using a new graphic organizer this week to complete their reading responses.  Responses will continue to be focused on using text evidence to support a claim, and explaining the evidence.  

Math:  Lessons 4.7-4.9 will be instructed this week, and we will take one day to practice writing math extended responses.  The Unit 4 test will be next week!

Social Studies:  Students are continuing to learn about different people and events that helped make Chicago the city it is today!  Friday will be a work day for students, giving them time to make their "Chicago Alphabet Books."

Important Information

• Friday, 12/6: Picture re-take day
• *** Please see post below about homework this week!

Pictures from the Field Trip

Check out some of the pictures from the class field trip to the Mitchell Museum of American Indian from October!

This picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Homework

1.  Reading Response Logs:  Today students started a Character Study, using the shared text James and the Giant Peach.  For the next three weeks, students will be writing reading responses from their at-home independent reading books which will reflect learning goals of the unit.  They correlate with the different mini-lessons that will be taught during the week.  Your child was provided with a list of different response questions/prompts.  Students are asked to choose one different response to complete each night.  They can choose whichever prompt they like, and are not required to go in a particular order. 

2.  Vocabulary:  On Monday of each week, students will be introduced to 7 higher-level vocabulary terms that will be found in the text during the week.  They each were given a vocabulary "word map" packet to gain a deeper understanding of the terms.  These packets will be due on Friday.  Each Friday, students will be assessed on the terms.  Here is a "suggested" schedule for your child to complete for the words each night:

• Monday: Box 4 (Synonyms) & Box 5 (Antonyms)
• Tuesday: Box 8 (My Very Own Sentence)
• Wednesday: Box 7 (My Association, Example, or Sketch)
• Thursday: Box 6 (Other Forms of Word) & Study for Vocabulary Quiz (Fri.)
• *** Box #2 will be completed in class during reading workshop!

Happy Holidays!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday break, and enjoy time with friends and family!!!

Thank You!!!

A big THANK YOU to the Im Family who donated 12 decks of playing cards and 100 dice to the classroom - thanks!!!

Friday Folders

Friday Folders were not sent home today!  We pushed social studies to the last minute and then completed an end of the day closing activity with our "Tweetheart of the Week" - Eva.  Corrected work, papers, and handouts will be passed back on Tuesday.  All assignments that were being passed back are entered on Gradebook.  

Math Challenge

Students in Ms.Magina class are doing some math challenge packets.  They are doing this because some students don't know what to do when they are done with their math,so Ms. Magina came up with the idea of making 20 folders full of challenging questions.  Students were very challenged!

Written By: Eva

Dice & Playing Cards

To make make the different math games complete in the classroom, Room 210 could use more decks of playing cards (can be purchased at the dollar store) and dice!  We would appreciate any item donated - thank you!

Eva is Tweetheart of the Week

  

 

 

On Mondays students will write "tweets" about the Tweetheart of the week which are posted on a classroom bulletin board.  Students will "tweet" about why the Tweetheart is a special and person and why they are important in our classroom.  Student will even include "hashtags" in their tweets (examples include #nice, #caring, #goodfriend).  

IXL Shout-Outs!

A shout-out goes to Blake, Daniel, Kevin, Zuri, Rohan & Knowledge for their IXL practice last week!  Keep up the extra practice!

A Sneak Peek At Our Week ...

Writing:  Students will continue to practice writing reading extended responses this week.  In the classroom we are focusing on choosing strong textual evidence to support a claim/prompt, and then explaining how and why the evidence supports.  

Students will be bringing home a story and response graphic organizer to complete for homework this week as well.  They will have a list of sentence starters to help them with these responses.  The starters can also be found on the Third Grade website - Text Evidence, Explanation, Voice Starters.  

Reading:  We will be wrapping up the "key word strategy" for summarizing nonfiction text this week, and shift out focus to summarizing fictional texts.  Students will be learning about the "plot mountain strategy" and the "somebody-wanted-but-so-then" strategy.  We will be using Cynthia Rylant's Every Living Thing for students to independently practice the summarizing strategy. 

Math:  This week we will focus on lessons 4.3-4.6 in math.  Students will take a day to practice math extended responses as well.  The Unit 4 IXL checklist and games can be found on the Unit 4 page of the Third Grade website!

Social Studies:  On Tuesday, students will begin Unit 2 in Social Studies: How Chicago Came to  Be.  For the culminating project of this unit, students will be making a "Chicago ABC book", highlighting a multitude of significant people, events, and places, that contributed to Chicago becoming the city it is today!  This is a project students will work on throughout the unit.  

Important News & Events:

• Mon. 11/18 - Harvest Fest from 4:30-6:30  
• Mon. 11/18 - Ireland's mom will be coming into the classroom teaching the students about presentation skills!
• We will be starting "Tweetheart of the Week" this week!
• Mon. 11/25 - Quarter 2, Part 1 Project Due!  

Food Drive

SN Harvest Fest 2013

The Skinner North 2013 

Harvest Fest

Celebration of Cultures

Monday, November 18th

4:30-6:30

• Families are encouraged to bring a dish and recipes to share that represent their heritage
• To help plan for this event please RSVP by November 12th to Paula Cuadros at p_cuadros@yahoo.com OR tear off the form passed out to your child and return to the office
• Disposable plates and utensils will be provided, but families are welcome to help make the Harvest Fest more earth-friendly by bringing their own reusable plates and utensils

*** If you want to get involved, sign up to volunteer by clicking this link - Harvest Fest Volunteering

Congratulations Stefan!

Congratulations go to Stefan who recently participated in the "Susan Polgar World Open for Boys and Girls" international chess tournament as a representative of the Skinner North Chess Team.  Stefan competed in the high school section and received 5th place overall!  Stefan is the 34th rated 8 year old in the country according to the United States Chess Federation Guidelines, and is expected to be moving up!  A big CONGRATS go to Stefan; Room 210 is very proud of you!

Happy Birthday Kevin!

A big Happy Birthday to Kevin!!  Room 210 hopes you have a great day! :)

Picture Day Retakes - RESCHEDULED

Picture day retakes are rescheduled for Friday, December 6th.  There are additional order forms available in the office!

Thank You!

A big THANK YOU to the Deth family for donating another Jenga to the classroom!  Students will use this set to play "Division Jenga!"  Thank you!!

A Sneak Peek At Our Week ...

Writing:  We are continuing our "Reading Response" unit this week and students will focus on choosing strong, supportive text evidence to support their thinking.  They will also practice explaining how their evidence supports a prompt. 

Reading: Our classroom will be finishing our Main Idea & Details unit this week, and will take an end of the unit assessment on Wednesday.  Following this unit, we will be starting a Summarizing unit.  Lessons will start Thursday this week!

Math:  This week students will take the Unit 4 pre-test, complete lesson 3.11, participate in a Review Game Thursday, and take the Unit 3 test on Friday.

Science:  On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, students will begin completing a "Fact Finder" sheet, researching information about a biome they are interested in.  (This will help them for the Quarter 2 Project!)  Towards the end of the week, lessons and activities will focus on food chains.  

Important Information:

• Picture retake day is tomorrow!
• Parent/Teacher Conference sign-up forms went out today.  Please return these by Thursday.  Parent/Teacher Conferences are on Tuesday, November 12th. 
• NO SCHOOL on Monday, November 11th for Veteran's Day!
• Skinner North is participating in a Food Drive; please have your child bring in any goods they can to donate!
• The 3rd grade Quarter 2 Project description was passed out today.  Students were given an explanation of Part 1 of the project, as well as an overview of the rubric.  Please view the Third Grade website for resources, descriptions, and rubrics! - Quarter 2 Project

Student Blogs - Ranger Rick Posts

Students were given the following science assignment to complete:

Students found pictures and created captions for each picture, highlighting important information about each of the characteristics.  Be sure to read their work on their  STUDENT BLOG.  They would love for you to comment on their writing!

A Sneak Peek At Our Week

Writing:  Students finished their final journal for an assessment last week, so we are beginning a new unit on crafting Reading Responses & Literary Essays.  Students will focus this week on restating the question and finding textual evidence to support their claims/conclusions about a text. 

Reading:  Using different levels of text, today students finished finding the main idea of passages containing multiple paragraphs and text features.  Students will continue to practice this reading strategy tomorrow and Wednesday as well. 

Math:  Last Friday students learned the fourth step of writing math extended responses which is writing the steps you took when solving a problem.  During whole group and small group instruction, this skill will continue to be practiced this week.  Lessons 3.9 will be completed Tuesday and 3.10 will be completed Wednesday.   The Unit 3 math test will be sometime next week!

Science:  Students will finish up their "Ranger Rick photograph captions" tomorrow and take an open-notebook assessment over animal classification, physical characteristics, and behavioral characteristics.  Then, the instruction will focus on habitats for the remainder of the week!

Important Information: 

• Thur., 10/31 - Skinner North Walk-A-Thon
• Thur., 10/31 - Field Trip (11:00-3:00)
• Friday, 11/1 - NO SCHOOL

Walk-A-Thon Schedule

Here is a school-wide schedule for Walk-A-Thon Thursday: 

Kindergarten 12:50-1:10

1st grade  1:15-1:45            

2nd Grade 9:35 -10:05          

3rd Grade 10:10 -10:40     

4th Grade 1:50 -2:20pm

5 & 6 Grade   2:25-2:55

Field Trip Thursday!

The third grade classes just got approved for a field trip this Thursday, October 31st to the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian (click on the link for more information!).  Students will be eating lunch before they leave school, and will be leaving for the field trip at 11:00 and returning back to Skinner North by 3:00.  The field trip fee is $10.00.  Permission forms and fees are due this Wednesday!  

If you are interested in volunteering to chaperone, please e-mail me!  

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Julia who celebrated her birthday yesterday, and Rohan who celebrated his birthday today!

A BIG THANKS!

A BIG THANKS to the Pfetcher and Lardin families!  Both families donated a Jenga game to the classroom, which has transformed into "Multiplication Jenga."  A multiplication fact is written on each Jenga piece for students to review and practice during independent free choice time.  

Also, a BIG THANKS to the Dobrow family who donated 6 staplers to the classroom.  This will be really helpful to the organization of student work, as each group will now have a stapler at their table.  

Homework with the Guest Teacher

Yesterday I was out of the classroom as I was attending a Literacy Professional Development seminar.  

As students came into the classroom this morning, some shared with me that not all students were able to copy down the assigned homework in time yesterday because the guest teacher had put it up later than normal.  In this situation, and in any similar circumstances, your child will not be marked down for incomplete/unfinished homework!  

Today we'll make sure to "tie up loose ends" in the classroom so that necessary homework is completed.  Thanks for your understanding and please let me know if you have any questions!

Skinner-North-a-Palooza

Skinner North's 2^nd annual music night is quickly approaching.  The event will take place on October 24^th, 2013 from 3:45-5:45.  On that night, classrooms will be transformed into stages where members of our school community will share their musical talent with other students and parents.   Hope to see you there!

KIDS Identification Event

This event is Thursday during the school day.  If you handed in a consent form for your child, a staff member from the City Clerk’s Office will take a quick digital photograph and finger print of your child.  They will print out the ID cards immediately and give them back to the teacher to be distributed to you. If you have not completed the consent form and would like your child to participate, an electronic copy was e-mailed to you!

Room 210 Wish List

I'm going to include a "Room 210" Wish List on the blog for any items I'm noticing our classroom could use.  Here is a list of items that would be helpful to have in our room:

• 6 staplers (I place a stapler in each table's supply bin, however they were dollar store staplers, and therefore dollar store quality :) - none work!)
• Jenga - multiplication facts will be written on the Jenga for an engaging way to practice multiplication facts
• Dice - a material to go along with different math games in the classroom

A Sneak Peek At Our Week ...

Writing:  Students will complete their final journal/paragraph construction entry this week and then choose their favorite entry to post on their blog.  This week they will also read and comment on each others' blogs entries.  On Friday students will create a final journal entry which will serve as a final assessment for this unit.  

Reading:  Students will continue to practice inferring the main idea of a paragraph when it is implicitly stated.  Starting this week students will be reading a text with multiple paragraphs and learn how to determine the main idea of each paragraph, as well as the whole text, using different text features.  Students will be using different levels of text to make sure instruction/practice is at their appropriate level.    

Inferring the main idea is a more challenging reading skill for students to acquire.  Additional games/practice can be found on the Main Idea & Summarizing page of the Third Grade website!

Math:  Lessons 3.4-3.8 will be instructed this week.  Along with multiplication and division practice, students have begun to learn how to construct a math extended response.  Instruction will continue to focus on constructing math extended responses this week using questions/word problems related to concepts found in Unit 3. 

Science:  Early this week, students will create a blog post that reflects their knowledge of different types of behavioral characteristics.  They will also begin to learn about the different biomes and habitats of animals, concluding how animals' physical and behavioral characteristics/adaptations allow them to survive in their environments.  

Important Dates Ahead

Here are some important upcoming dates:

• 10/21, 5:00-6:30 - FOSN Meeting
• 10/24, 3:45-6:00 - Skinner-North-a-Palooza
• 10/31 - Walk-a-Thon
• 11/18, 4:30-6:30 - Harvest Festival

A Sneak Peek At Our Week ...

Writing:  This will be the final week of journal/paragraph construction.  Based on student need, mini-lessons this week will be centered around using transition words, creating interesting topic/closing sentences, and choosing details to include details that strongly support the topic.   

Reading:  After learning how to find the main idea when it is explicitly stated in the text, students will learn how to find the main idea when it is implicitly stated this week.  Through whole group instruction, small group work, and individual conferences, students will practice inferring the main idea for the remainder of the week.  

Math:  Today students began Unit 3 in Everyday Math.  Unit 3 focuses on multiplication and division.  Additional resources such as the Family Letter, vocabulary, games, and the IXL checklist can be found on the Third Grade Website - Unit 3 Math.  

Science:  After learning how and why animals are classified, students will continue to learn about and explore animals' physical and behavioral characteristics and conclude how they help an animal survive.  There are great interactive science games found on the third grade website that your child can use to practice their skills!  Living Things Unit - Science Games

Homework:

• Students are bringing the Unit 3 Study Links packet home today; please make sure this stays in your child's homework folder
• For reading this week, students will complete a main idea packet which will be due Friday; your child can complete it at his/her own pace
• A separate journal packet will not go home with your child this week for writing; if your child does not finish their journal writing in the classroom they will need to complete it for homework instead (due the next day)

Important Reminders:

• Parent/Teacher Coffee is 10/16 starting at 8:30 and lasting up until 9:15
• Please have your child turn in the Walk-a-Thon permission form if they have not done so yet

Parent Coffee

Just a reminder that the Third Grade Parent Coffee is tomorrow starting at 8:30 and ending around 9:15.  Come in to enjoy coffee, snacks, and conversation!

Happy Birthday Ireland!

Ireland was Room 210's birthday girl today!  We all hope a special birthday is had for a special girl - Happy Birthday Ireland!

Happy Belated Birthday!

Both Isabel and Knowledge celebrated birthdays last week ... Happy Belated Birthdays to these two awesome students! :)

A Sneak Peek At THIS Week ...

So sorry that this was not posted earlier!  I was out of town both Friday and Monday and wrote this up Thursday night before leaving ... I accidentally saved it as a draft, instead of posting it, my apologies!

Interactive Read-Aloud:  As a class we will begin reading Holes by Louis Sachar next week. I used this novel with my third graders last year - it lends itself well to conversations about character development, conflict, irony, and symbolism!  Students will be able to make strong text-to-text connections to Holes and their summer reading book by Sachar There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom.  

Writing:  Students will revise and edit a partner's journal next week and will publish their favorite journal entry on their blog.  A focus for revision will be making sure students used a variety of sentence structures - simple, compound, and complex.  Students will also be practicing their commenting skills and comment on a classmate's post.  

Reading:  This week was our final week of our Self-Monitoring unit.  This past week students learned how to determine and differentiate between different types of context clues, helping them infer the meaning of unknown words.  Next week we will start a new reading unit focused on Main Idea & Summarizing.  

Math:  Next week students will complete the final Unit 2 lesson, lesson 2.8, take the Unit 3 pre-test, and collaborate together in a group problem-solving activity.  On Thursday we will play an in-class review game and on Friday students will take the Unit 2 test.  Please remember, IXL is a great way for your child to continue practicing their math skills!

Science:  We will be starting up science towards the end of this week!  This first unit focuses on living things.  During the first week students will learn about how animals are classified based on their physical characteristics.  

Addition & Subtraction Algorithms

You can use the following website as a resource if your son/daughter needs assistance with Study Links 2.9 tonight:

https://www.everydaymathonline.com/free_resources_main.html?frnologin=1#

Then click on: 
- Algorithms in Everyday Mathematics
- Grade 4
- Subtraction

The two algorithms that we are focusing on are:
1.  Trade-First Subtraction Method
2.  Partial Differences Subtraction Method

I will post this helpful Family Resource site on the Third Grade website, under the math tab! 

Geometry in Art Correction

It turns out that there is a mistake on the Geometry in Art project description - the description said there should be 1 set of parallel lines and 1 set of intersecting lines, but on the rubric it says there should be 2 sets of each.  If your son/daughter includes only 1 set that is fine!  (If points were taken off, please let me know and I will award the points back).  Sorry for the confusion, please let me know if you have any questions!

Unit 2 IXL

A Unit 2 checklist for IXL has been posted to the third grade website!  This is a great way for your child to practice and reinforce different mathematical skills and concepts that are being instructed in the classroom.  

All-Stars After-School Clubs Starting!

Today students brought home student registration forms for After-School All-Stars clubs which will be starting on Tuesday, October 15th 2013.  

If you are interested in having your child participate in any of these programs please turn in the form ASAP! 

Skinner North Walk-a-Thon 2013

On Friday, students will be bringing home packets that contain information about the Skinner North Walk-a-Thon which will be held on October 31st.  Third grade will be walking from 10:10-10:40.  Here is a list of important due dates:

• Student Consent form (needed to be able to participate!) - Due: Mon. 10/7
• Sponsorship form - Due: Mon. 10/7
• Volunteer form - Due: Mon. 10/7
• Pledge Sheet - Due: Mon. 11/11

Collaborative Groups - Social Studies

Today students worked in collaborative groups, creating a concept web about the four focus Native American groups - the Cheyenne, Iroquois, Pueblos, and Nez Perce.  Each group's poster included information and facts focused on the following three key concepts:

• 1.  The homelands of native people have influenced their food, clothing, and shelter.
• 2.  The stories and arts of native people were an expression of culture and a way of passing on values. 
• 3.  Early trade was a way of exchanging both goods and ideas. 

Be sure to ask your child how these key concepts apply to the Native American tribe they are studying in the classroom!

Parent Check - Homework Folders

CPS photo release forms were sent home today with your child. Please return this form as soon as possible!  This is a form that needs to be signed and returned each year. 

Also, progress reports are being sent home today.  Please make sure to review the progress report with your child and cut off the signed, bottom portion to be returned back to school by Friday.  Now that I have "Friday Folders" officially rolling, students will be brining home corrected assignments and class work this Friday!  Feel free to e-mail me with any questions.  Thanks!

Author Visit tomorrow!

To prepare for Steve Cotler's visit tomorrow, your child can explore the Cheesie Mack website! - http://cheesiemack.com/

A Sneak Peek at Our Week ...

Literacy Stations:  Beginning Wednesday this week, we will begin literacy stations during a 15 minute section of our mornings.  Usually, students will participate in one station each day.  Students will rotate between the following stations this week:

• Work with Teacher: Each day I will work with a different group of 6, providing guided/strategic small-group reading lessons 
• Independent Work: Students will continue work from the "work with teacher" station
• Book Shopping & Independent Reading: Students will have the opportunity to "book shop" in our classroom library and begin reading their selected texts
• Vocabulary: Students will work on vocabulary maps for content specific S.S. words
• Book Talks:  At this station, students will independently practice writing 1-minute book talks - they will begin sharing these "book-talks" during morning meetings

Writing:  Students will post their second blog comment this week to one of their peer's "My Buddy and Me" posts.  For their second comment, students focused more on elaborating their thinking, and will reflect on how this improved their writing.  Afterwards, students will continue creating journal entries focused on a topic.  Lessons will focus on organization of paragraphs, elaboration of ideas, and using varied sentence structures.  Be sure to check out and comment on your child's blog if you have not done so yet! - Room 210 Students Blogs 

Reading:  We will be continuing with our Self-Monitoring unit.  This week students will  practice monitoring their comprehension noticing when they have "clicks" and "clunks."  They will learn to recognize when and why their comprehension breaks down, and learn different "fix-up" strategies to use to improve comprehension.  

Math:  Unit 1 of Everyday Math was a review unit for students.  One of our main focuses during this unit was having students understand and practice math workshop routines and procedures.  We focused largely on the routines and procedures of math stations, so students understood expectations and could have the most productive math learning experiences possible.  

Now that we will be beginning Unit 2, we will be full-fledged into our differentiated math workshop.  Students will take a pre-assessment Monday and lessons 2.2-2.5 will be instructed this week.  Based on NWEA data, and the Unit 2 pre-assessment, students will be placed in flexible groups to best support their learning needs.  Be sure to check out Unit 2 on the Third Grade website for resources and parent information!

Social Studies:  Students will continue reading about different Native American groups.  This unit has been a great and very effective way to integrate literacy related skills in the content areas!  The four different sets of Native American texts that students are reading vary in reading complexity.  Therefore, students' reading skills are being strengthened because they are each reading texts that are "on their level."  Towards the middle of this week, students will work in collaborative groups composed of students reading about each of the four different tribes.  Students will have the opportunity to draw connections amongst the different Native American groups, more deeply understanding key concepts of the unit.  

Important News & Information

• Please turn in your child's photo-release form as soon as possible!
• Author Steve Cotler will be visiting Skinner North on Tuesday.  Third graders will view a presentation by Cotler in the morning!

Happy Birthday!

Biplop celebrated a birthday this week - Happy Birthday Biplop!!!

Math Reminder

Just a friendly reminder that the Unit 1 Math Test is due tomorrow, and one mini-project for the series of Quarter 1 Projects is due as well! 

Unit 1 Math Study Guides

Study guides were not passed out today - we will be completing them in the classroom on Thursday instead! 

Weekly Reading Homework

Each week, students will be sent home with a text to do a "close" reading on.  They will have a specific assignment to complete with the reading each night.  Here is an overview of the homework assigned for Monday and Tuesday:

• Monday - Preview: Use text features to preview the text.  Students need to make at least 4 previewing "tracks of thinking" in the boxes.  They can make predictions, ask questions, or activate background/prior knowledge (4 total, not 4 of each).
• Tuesday - Annotate: Using the text codes listed below, students need to annotate the text writing directly on the article.  

A Sneak Peek at Our Week ...

Writing:  This week we will be focusing on paragraph construction.  Students will construct a paragraph each day focused on a specific topic.  Lessons and instruction will focus on brainstorming, explaining/elaborating details, and including topic and closing sentences.  

Reading:  We will continue our self-monitoring reading unit.  Last week, students learned how to use double-sided journal entries when reading.  The purpose of double-sided reading journals is for students to base their thinking with evidence from the text.  Students will continue using double sided journals this week, and then use their journals to have text-based conversations with their peers.  Students will end the week by learning to use different fix-up strategies when their reading or comprehension breaks down.  

Math: Students will explore lessons 1.5-1.7 this week.  Lesson 1.5 focuses on exploring properties of polygons, during lesson 1.6 students will practice using a compass, and finally, lesson 1.7 will guide students in defining circles and provide opportunities for them to design circles.  On Tuesday, the Unit 1 study guide will be passed out (it will also be posted on the third grade website!).  This study guide will be due Thursday.  The Unit 1 math test will be Friday.  Please make sure your child is continuing to use the IXL checklist for extra practice and reinforcement of learning goals!

Social Studies:  This week students will begin completing an informational text study that focuses on taking a historical look at different Native American groups in the U.S.  The class will be divided into groups, each group will be learning about about the history of different Native people - the Nez Perce, Pueblos, Iroquois, and Cheyenne.  Check out the Third Grade website for more information on this unit! - Unit 1: Before Chicago

Important Reminders:

• The first mini-project of students' Quarter 1 projects is due this Friday, September 20th.  Please be sure to check the Third Grade website for project descriptions, rubrics, and resources! - Quarter Project Information
• Be sure to help support your child by making sure their green homework folder, planner, and daily homework assignments are returned to school each day.  
• The third grade open house is Wednesday, September 18th from 4:00-5:00.
• The Skinner North Scholastic Book Fair begins this week!

A few things ...

• Parent information night for both third grade classrooms will be on Wednesday, September 18th from 4:00-5:00.  An informational presentation will be presented that provides an overview of the year ahead.  There will also be time for parent questions!

• Now that I have a few grades for each of the different subjects area, Gradebook will be updated next week.  Be sure to check your child's progress on Parent Portal!

• In regards to social studies/science instruction - social studies is instructed the first 1/2 of the quarter, and science is instructed the second 1/2.  Therefore, there will be no science grades on students' first progress report because it reflects the first half of the quarter.  Literacy skills and strategies are integrated in both content areas!

• The Scholastic Book Fair is this week!  If your child is interested in purchasing books they will have different opportunities during the week to do so.  

We're up ... and BLOGGING!

After spending time interviewing a peer in the classroom, students then began writing "Buddy & Me" papers.  First, they wrote information about themselves, then described their buddys' interests, and finally, highlighted similarities between the two.  

Students posted their writing on the Room 210 Student Blogs.  Afterwards, we spent time discussing what "thoughtful" comments looked like, and students commented on each others' blogs sharing connections they had. 

Be sure to check them out!  *You can also comment on your child's blog too, which I know they would absolutely love!  (After you comment, I receive an e-mail that alerts me about the comment.  I need to approve each one, so if you don't see it show up right away, that is why!)