Raised to the Rafters!

We had an exciting ceremony in Room 221 yesterday morning. We tried to make it similar to when a Bruins players gets his number retired. Two FCAs (focus correction areas) were officially "retired". That means that they are now posted high upon the wall under Have-Tos. These are FCAs that will no longer be posted on our papers, but will always be expected of the children. They should be automatic by this point of third grade. The "retired" FCAs now include:

*Words posted on a chart, on the wall, on the paper, or in a (relevant) book should be spelled correctly
*Neatness and Presentation
*Capitals and Punctuation (The kids have a special symbol for this. I can't figure out how to post it, but the kids can show you.)


P.S. Special thanks to Mr. Claus for figuring out how to pull the sentence strips all the way up the wall. I made a big deal to the kids about how we were going to do this, without really figuring out how I would make it work. Mr. Claus saved the day!

Collecting New Seed Ideas

Many children have completed their first "official" drafts of personal narrative writing. Yesterday, I taught children a new strategy for generating ideas for writing. When writers think of turning points in their lives, they often create very powerful stories. So I encouraged children to think of the firsts and lasts in their lives and list them in the back of their notebook. Then they can always refer to that list when they are thinking of something to write about.

Talk to your child about their firsts and lasts. Encourage them to write any new ideas in their writing notebook. Here's a list to get you started:

*The first time you did something that was hard for you (like riding a bike without training wheels).
*The first time you did something really important to you (like losing a tooth).
*The first time you did something you now do every day (like going to school or seeing your baby brother).
*The last time you did something important to you (like walking with your parent to school - instead of by yourself).
*The last time you saw someone important to you (like a friend who moved, or a loved one who passed).

Halloween Party

Thanks so much to Kathy Lesanto and Misti Perkins, our room parents, and all the parent volunteers for organizing such an incredible Halloween celebration for the kids! There was pumpkin decorating, caramel apples, Halloween Bingo, Pin the Leg on the Spider, and a search through "rat guts" for prizes. There was even trick or treating! Happy Halloween! :o)

Stereotypes

This morning third graders were given a true/false quiz. They were asked to answer the following:

Mechanics are boys.
Nurses are girls
Doctors are boys.
Football players are boys.
Ballet dancers are girls.

Their responses were fantastic! I asked them to complete the "quiz" the best they could and be sure to raise their questions and concerns during our discussion.

The discussion was quite animated. Many children had very strong feelings about the statements made. The most challenging to get over were - Nurses are girls and doctors are boys. Football players are boys was also particularly challenging. Some children had difficulty being convinced otherwise. It is hard for children to understand that something can be true if it's something they have not seen or experienced themselves.

The point of this experience of course was to introduce the children to the concept of stereotypes. A stereotype is when we make an assumption about a person based on the group they belong to - in this case 'boys' or 'girls.' We will have more conversations about stereotypes. You can have some interesting conversations about this with your child at home. :o)

Halloween

As you have probably heard from our wonderful room parents, this Halloween we will have a party but will not wear costumes to school. Instead it will be silly hat day. Your children may wear their silliest hats (I'll even allow wigs) but no other costume items. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!

Happy Halloween!

Characters

How well do you know the characters that you read about? Third graders are learning that readers think about the characters in their stories. Authors reveal information about characters through what the characters say or do. We have been challenging third graders to identify these characteristics as they read. We expect third graders to provide evidence from the text to support their thinking. For example, we have read "Babushka's Doll" by, Patricia Polacco. Room 221 readers have noticed that the main character, Natasha, is very selfish. We asked them what happened in the text that makes them think that? The children were able to identify events in the text that showed Natasha being selfish.

This afternoon we continued our conversation about characters. Third grade readers learned that characters can change in a story. A character may be different at the end of the story than they were at the beginning. We can use Natasha from "Babushka's Doll" as an example again. Although Natasha was very selfish at the beginning, by the end she became kinder and more patient. (Again the children can support this with evidence from the text - things the character says or does in the story.) The children were also able to identify the cause of the change. In this case, the cause of the change was the grandmother's doll that came to life and acted even worse than Natasha. Natasha got a taste of her own medicine and therefore began to change.

Talk about the characters in the books your read with your third grader. Identify the characteristics and show the evidence you used to figure it out. Ask your third grade reader to describe another character. Together discuss how the characters have changed through the story. Happy reading!

Math Review

We are in a round of math review preparing for our first benchmark assessment. The major skills to be assessed are:

place value
comparing numbers
ordering numbers
rounding to the nearest 10
rounding to the nearest 100
estimating sums
estimating differences
addition with 2 digit numbers
addition with 3 digit numbers
subtraction with 2 digit numbers
subtraction with 3 digit numbers

These skills will continue to be practiced throughout the year. We will continue to meet individually and in small groups with any child that needs support. Ask your third grader to show you what they can do! They are mathematicians!

Dinosaur Time Line

This afternoon we got to enjoy the beautiful afternoon with some time on the playground. We all lined up on the edge of the basketball court. We wanted to better understand how long dinosaurs roamed the Earth. We imagined we were standing 250 millions years ago at the beginning of the Triassic Period. The children took one step for every million years to get to 208 million years ago walking toward the baseball diamond. This is when the Triassic Period ends (after 42 million years) and the Jurassic Period begins. The children took one step for every million years to get to 144 million years ago. This was when the Jurassic Period ends (after 64 million years) and the Cretaceous Period begins. Finally, they took one step for every million years to get to 65 million years ago. This is when the dinosaurs became extinct, therefore the Cretaceous Period ends (after 79 million years).

The children were blown away thinking about how long dinosaurs really existed. They were especially amazed by the fact that humans have only been on earth for about 10,000 years. It became even clearer to them when Steven said, "Hey, if one step equals 1 million years, then humans are only a little tiny part of that step!" I couldn't have said it better myself.

Bike Rodeo

I forgot to remind your students this afternoon that the Bike Rodeo is tomorrow! Please be sure your child brings his/her bike and helmet to the gymnasium. They can be dropped off this afternoon or tomorrow morning. This is an exciting third grade milestone.

Science Center Visit

Mrs. Katz from the Science Center came to Room 221 with some extra special guests this morning. She brought a gecko, a bearded dragon and two doves. The children enthusiastically did scientific observations of one or two of the animals. The children shared what they noticed and Mrs. Katz charted the information on a table. We will use the table to compare characteristics of reptiles, birds and finally dinosaurs to see why scientists think they are linked through evolution. It will lead to many interesting discoveries I'm sure!

Sorry it has been so long...

If your child hasn't let you know, today was my first day back. I was in bed for 5 days with a virus that kept me down. I was very happy to be back working with your hard working students today. Thanks for sharing them! :o)Melanie

Writing About Math

It's important that children are able to explain their thinking through writing. This has been particularly difficult for most children, especially in math. Yesterday, we had a practice session. I showed them a terrific answer. Then I modeled how I would write a terrific answer. Next, we wrote a terrific answer together. Finally, the children worked individually to write a terrific answer.

At the conclusion of the lesson, the children were asked to share the strategies that worked for them as they explained their thinking. I will post the following list in the classroom for them to use as a reference:

*Solve the problem (before you explain it)

*Write as you solve (do a step, write about it, do a step, write about it...)

*Use the math vocabulary (math word wall will help)

*Use examples

You may want to hold onto these strategies. The children may find them helpful as they are doing their math homework.

Fundations - Unit 1

Our spelling program follows the phonics concepts and skills taught in the Fundations program. Your children have been working with Fundations since kindergarten. We began Unit 1 this week.

The review concepts for the first unit are:
• closed syllable
This syllable has only one vowel and that vowel is followed by one or more consonants. (ex. at, itch, scram) The vowel sound is always short.
• spelling of the /k/ sound
Rule: At the end of one syllable words, ck is used immediately after short vowels
(sick). If there is another consonant after the short vowel, you only use the k (milk). The letter c is most often used at the beginning of the word and the letter k is most often used at the end of the word.
•glued sounds (am, an, ang, ing, ong, ung, ank, ink, onk, unk)
•exceptions to the closed syllable (The vowel in these syllables has a long sound.) ild,ind, old, olt, ost.

The new concepts for the first unit are:
• tch sounds like /ch/ and is used in spelling after a short vowel (catch)
• homophones:
week 1: know, no
week 2: which, witch

We are started week 1 Tuesday. Your child's spelling words reflect the new concept of -tch and the review concept of /k/. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.

Columbus Day - a little late...

Most of you are probably aware of the year 1492. The year Columbus sailed the ocean blue on the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. The voyage when Columbus "discovered" America.

You may not have heard the story from the Native American point of view. Ms. Winters and I read "Encounter" by, Jane Yolen to the class - a piece of historical fiction that tells the Columbus story from the voice of a young Taino (Native American) boy. From that point of view, Columbus came to the America's and "discovered" a land that had been inhabited for thousands of years. He claimed that inhabited land for Spain.

Ms. Winters and I did a role play Tuesday morning. She was sitting beside the group searching through MY pocketbook. The conversation went something like this:

Mrs. S: What are you doing with my pocketbook?
Ms. W: This isn't your pocketbook. I discovered it just a little while ago.
Mrs. S: Discovered it? You couldn't discover that! It belonged to me. I had it first.
Ms. W: But I found it and I want to keep it...

Apparently Ms. Winters and I are talented actresses, because many of the children thought the conversation was for real. I wish you could have seen the looks on their faces as we argued back and forth.

The kids got it though. They said, "You can't discover something that already belonged to someone else!" This in fact is true. Columbus did not truly "discover" America. From another point of view however, Columbus did introduce the New World to Europeans. Certainly a kind of discovery.

Talk to your child about Columbus. Talk about the story that you learned originally and how your thoughts have changed. Talk about how stories change depending upon the point of view.

Happy Talking!

Fossils

Have you ever imagined yourself as a paleontologist? Digging up dinosaurs bones from deep beneath the ground? Most of your children have. They are very excited as we begin our dinosaur unit. Yesterday many fossils (and replicas) were spread throughout the room. The children acted as true scientists as they drew observational sketches and took notes about what they drew. At the end of the session, we held a scientific meeting. The scientists shared their findings and made theories about what they noticed.

Today, we learned that a fossil is the "preserved remains of plant or animal life." Miss Winters read part of Aliki's book, "Fossils Tell of Long Ago." Finally the children created their own "amber fossils." We went outside to find artifacts. We mixed gelatin with warm water and placed the artifact inside. The "fossils" will harden over the weekend and the children will be excited to show you Tuesday.

P.S. The children know that it takes much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much longer for a real fossil to be formed. :o)

Electric Pencil Sharpener

We are in desparate need of a new one! Perhaps you have an extra at home you are willing to donate? Perhaps you are heading to Staples and you would like to chip in with another family to buy us a new one? Our hands are getting tired! Thanks for considering.:o)

Media

Due to many Monday holidays this year, Mrs. Mullin has kindly invited us to the library this Friday afternoon to trade books. Please remind your third grader to bring in their books if they would like to get new ones.

As a reminder...

I thought people might be interested in reading (or rereading) how our poems and self portraits came to me. Here are the previous blog entries:

I am From... poems

Self portraits

I am From...

The self portraits and the poems have finally come together! Thank you to Mrs. Martell for recording the children's voices and putting poem, portrait and voice together on this website for you to enjoy!

I am From...

Spelling Program

Our spelling program has officially begun. Today children brought home a list of words. This week, the words came from three places. Five of the words are words they chose from a list we provided. They are all words that follow the spelling rule we are teaching this week. The other five words come from an individualized list. Every day for two weeks the children took a pre-assessment of "trick words". (Most words on the list do not follow phonetic patterns or rules.) The words they were not able to spell correctly were placed on a list called "Words to Learn".

Some children did very well on the pre-assessment and therefore had very few words on their "Words to Learn" sheet. They were provided with challenge words to choose from. Children will continue to be challenged as spellers at their level next week as we begin choosing 2 words from our writing. These will be words the children identify as being misspelled. They will find the correct spelling and focus on that spelling for the week.

As we've discussed before, all children have strengths and struggles. The children have individualized lists so they can choose words that are "just right" for them. The words should be ones they are close to knowing. (They can't spell them accurately, but their spellings are only off by a few letters.)

We teach children that we should spell correctly out of respect for their readers. "Dictionary" spelling is much easier to read than invented spelling. We want readers to easily read and understand what we're trying to say. Please be sure that your child studies 5-10 minutes each night to help them improve their spelling.

Rounding

This morning we began learning how to round numbers to the nearest ten. The children began to understand that sometimes you need to count with precise accuracy, but other times you can make an estimate. In situations that require only an estimate we round numbers. We looked at a number line so we could visibly see which multiples of 10 (the numbers you count when counting by 10) other numbers are closest too. I directly taught the children that numbers with 5 in the ones place always round up.

You can practice rounding to the nearest 10 at home! Ask your child to round 67 to the nearest 10. (67 rounds up to 70.) Or try 21. (21 rounds down to 20.)

We'll be rounding to the nearest 100 next week.

Reflection Notebook

Every Friday students will brainstorm a list of the activities and lessons we learned throughout the week. I will chart their ideas on a graphic organizer, which will be sent home with the journals on Friday. I encourage you to ask your child about what we have been learning in school to reinforce his or her understanding. Students will use these ideas to write a letter home each week about one or two of their favorite lessons. In third grade, this takes a LOT of practice! We work on our letter writing skills for the entire school year. Please read and respond to these letters if possible. Students look forward to hearing from you and it is a great way to model writing a friendly letter, which is a component of the 3rd grade curriculum. The journal also provides an opportunity for you to see your child’s writing progress throughout the year.

P.S. The reflection notebooks should have come home in your child's backpack this afternoon. You didn't receive the graphic organizer because we were having many technical difficulties at Eliot. We'll try again for that next week. :o)

New Dictionaries!

Thank you so much to the Needham Rotary Club and former Eliot principal Mrs. Miriam Kronish! This morning each student received his/her very own dictionary - inscribed with their name in calligraphy. The looks on the children's faces were priceless. Each child was truly excited and many kids chose to read them during Reading Workshop this afternoon. We love words! :o)