Happy Monday!
Here is an update to let you know about all the cool learning going on in third grade!
Events:
**Mavash Harvey, Parisa's mom, will be here teaching us about the Persian New Year this Wednesday!
**Parent Education Night: Thursday 7-8:30
Topic: "Becoming Culturally Competent in the 21st Century"
See the link below to Mr. Elliott's blog:
http://principal.queenanneelementary.com/1/post/2013/03/parent-education-night.html
1. Reading- We just reached the halfway point in our whole-class book study of Poppy. We are totally sucked in to the story and practicing many reading strategies along the way! Our notebooks are filling up and after each quarter mark of the book we have a reflective writing assignment. The ¼ assignment was to use the “important events” list we co-created to write a five paragraph retell paper. We filled in rubrics, scoring ourselves and providing specific evidence for our scores. These papers and their rubrics will be posted to each student’s e-Folio shortly! I will alert you and ask you to comment, as usual, on your student’s work as well as the work of two others.
2. Poetry- We have jumped in to a reading and writing focused poetry unit! We began with a survey asking questions like: Do you know any famous poets? What is poetry? What different types of poems are there? We compiled our knowledge on to anchor charts which are now posted and being added to daily. We have spent time reading poetry compilations written by last year’s third graders and will be exploring many poetry books from our library. We even read Robert Frost today and used discussion and images to try and figure out just exactly what the poem “The Road Not Taken.” We will be creating our own poetry compilations and posting our work to e-Folios along the way!
Support us at home by:
1. Ask your child to stretch themselves and explain what “The Road Not Taken” means !
2. Read poetry at home together!
3. All students have posted their first poem “Biopoem” to their e-Folios. They also wrote a short blurb about what it was like writing this poem. Please read your child’s as well as two other students from our classroom. Leave a positive comment or ask a question to let them know they have an interested audience!
3. Math- We have been busy studying measurement. So far, we have covered time (including elapsed time word problems—challenging!), perimeter, and area. Differentiating between perimeter and area is very challenging in the beginning. We have been working hard! Our next units will cover capacity, and graphing/interpreting data. We will also be reviewing year-long content and making sure to cover all necessary topics before we take the MSP test in May.
Support us at home by:
1. Discussing perimeter and area in real-life contexts as reinforcement.
2. Continuing to incorporate Dreambox or Khan Academy as part of your child’s homework routine.
3. Tomorrow: I will send home the assessment packet students completed last Thursday which covered four Common Core standards (topics of time, perimeter, and area). Today, I met with each student and we went over their work, correcting errors and discussing strategy for assessment. Please look over the assessment again with your child. Sign the front page when completed, and return by the end of the week to be stored in portfolios!
4. PBL- Toy Exhibition Unit
There is great excitement for this unit! We had a fabulous time at our Costco Headquarters kick-off event and are off to work. We began by brainstorming popular toys (old and new !) and thinking about why they have become so popular. We noticed trends and used these ideas to start thinking as toy inventors. Students spent all last week thinking about a toy invention they would like to work on that would be popular, high demand, marketable, etc. We figured out that taking an existing toy, and either tweaking it slightly or extending it would be the best option as we don’ t have a real factory manufacturing for us! Students were allowed to work with a partner or independently, but had to join a company to work with. The attached document outlines our four companies, members, and their toy prototype idea.
As a reminder, we are just in the dreaming phase! Students can draw sketches, write about ideas, do research and talk about their ideas to their heart’s desires! But-NO construction-yet! We have a lot of work to do before our toys become reality-just like a real toy inventor would experience.
Students will be developing a company, individual plan, packaging for their product, and finally a prototype-IN THAT ORDER! Some students may only have time to create a drawing of their prototype, others may actually create a three dimensional prototype. When we get closer to that stage, we will likely ask for your support from home.
Today, students chose a meeting place to gather each session with their company, and began work brainstorming “Norms” they will abide to as they work. We spent time talking about the importance of establishing Norms and looked at what other groups have established for ideas.
This week they will work on a company name and slogan. They will be learning about honoring each member’s ideas, how to run effective meetings, and how to ultimately come to a decision.
Our new music teacher (taking over for Ms. Meg while she welcomes her new baby!) will be helping us to create jingles that we will include in commercials that Mr. Jeffery will help us to film! Our goal is to have a commercial playing on an iPad during the toy exhibition.
This will be one cool learning experience. Executive functioning is vitally important to success in both personal and business life and students will be practicing many of these skills throughout this unit. Here are our standards and goals:
Driving Question: “What does it take to create a successful toy product?
PBL Standards:
1. Making a Presentation: Speaking clearly and audibly, give an oral report to the class, explaining a concept using visual aids.
2. Working in a Group: In a small group, work quietly, confer and come to agreement, and take on roles.
CCSS:
1. Social Studies EALR 5.4: (Skills) Creates a product that uses social studies content to support a thesis and presents the product in an appropriate manner to a meaningful audience.
End Product: Exhibition, Model/Prototype/Consumer Product, Oral Report, Proposal
**You will be invited to our exhibition (end of May or early June).
How you can support us at home:
1. Look at the attached document to see what company your child is apart of and what product they are planning on inventing. Start brainstorming how you can eventually create a prototype. (Last year’s kids had a variety of prototypes including : detailed visual drawing/representation, an old toy they modified, modeled clay prototype, etc.)
Here is an update to let you know about all the cool learning going on in third grade!
Events:
**Mavash Harvey, Parisa's mom, will be here teaching us about the Persian New Year this Wednesday!
**Parent Education Night: Thursday 7-8:30
Topic: "Becoming Culturally Competent in the 21st Century"
See the link below to Mr. Elliott's blog:
http://principal.queenanneelementary.com/1/post/2013/03/parent-education-night.html
1. Reading- We just reached the halfway point in our whole-class book study of Poppy. We are totally sucked in to the story and practicing many reading strategies along the way! Our notebooks are filling up and after each quarter mark of the book we have a reflective writing assignment. The ¼ assignment was to use the “important events” list we co-created to write a five paragraph retell paper. We filled in rubrics, scoring ourselves and providing specific evidence for our scores. These papers and their rubrics will be posted to each student’s e-Folio shortly! I will alert you and ask you to comment, as usual, on your student’s work as well as the work of two others.
2. Poetry- We have jumped in to a reading and writing focused poetry unit! We began with a survey asking questions like: Do you know any famous poets? What is poetry? What different types of poems are there? We compiled our knowledge on to anchor charts which are now posted and being added to daily. We have spent time reading poetry compilations written by last year’s third graders and will be exploring many poetry books from our library. We even read Robert Frost today and used discussion and images to try and figure out just exactly what the poem “The Road Not Taken.” We will be creating our own poetry compilations and posting our work to e-Folios along the way!
Support us at home by:
1. Ask your child to stretch themselves and explain what “The Road Not Taken” means !
2. Read poetry at home together!
3. All students have posted their first poem “Biopoem” to their e-Folios. They also wrote a short blurb about what it was like writing this poem. Please read your child’s as well as two other students from our classroom. Leave a positive comment or ask a question to let them know they have an interested audience!
3. Math- We have been busy studying measurement. So far, we have covered time (including elapsed time word problems—challenging!), perimeter, and area. Differentiating between perimeter and area is very challenging in the beginning. We have been working hard! Our next units will cover capacity, and graphing/interpreting data. We will also be reviewing year-long content and making sure to cover all necessary topics before we take the MSP test in May.
Support us at home by:
1. Discussing perimeter and area in real-life contexts as reinforcement.
2. Continuing to incorporate Dreambox or Khan Academy as part of your child’s homework routine.
3. Tomorrow: I will send home the assessment packet students completed last Thursday which covered four Common Core standards (topics of time, perimeter, and area). Today, I met with each student and we went over their work, correcting errors and discussing strategy for assessment. Please look over the assessment again with your child. Sign the front page when completed, and return by the end of the week to be stored in portfolios!
4. PBL- Toy Exhibition Unit
There is great excitement for this unit! We had a fabulous time at our Costco Headquarters kick-off event and are off to work. We began by brainstorming popular toys (old and new !) and thinking about why they have become so popular. We noticed trends and used these ideas to start thinking as toy inventors. Students spent all last week thinking about a toy invention they would like to work on that would be popular, high demand, marketable, etc. We figured out that taking an existing toy, and either tweaking it slightly or extending it would be the best option as we don’ t have a real factory manufacturing for us! Students were allowed to work with a partner or independently, but had to join a company to work with. The attached document outlines our four companies, members, and their toy prototype idea.
As a reminder, we are just in the dreaming phase! Students can draw sketches, write about ideas, do research and talk about their ideas to their heart’s desires! But-NO construction-yet! We have a lot of work to do before our toys become reality-just like a real toy inventor would experience.
Students will be developing a company, individual plan, packaging for their product, and finally a prototype-IN THAT ORDER! Some students may only have time to create a drawing of their prototype, others may actually create a three dimensional prototype. When we get closer to that stage, we will likely ask for your support from home.
Today, students chose a meeting place to gather each session with their company, and began work brainstorming “Norms” they will abide to as they work. We spent time talking about the importance of establishing Norms and looked at what other groups have established for ideas.
This week they will work on a company name and slogan. They will be learning about honoring each member’s ideas, how to run effective meetings, and how to ultimately come to a decision.
Our new music teacher (taking over for Ms. Meg while she welcomes her new baby!) will be helping us to create jingles that we will include in commercials that Mr. Jeffery will help us to film! Our goal is to have a commercial playing on an iPad during the toy exhibition.
This will be one cool learning experience. Executive functioning is vitally important to success in both personal and business life and students will be practicing many of these skills throughout this unit. Here are our standards and goals:
Driving Question: “What does it take to create a successful toy product?
PBL Standards:
1. Making a Presentation: Speaking clearly and audibly, give an oral report to the class, explaining a concept using visual aids.
2. Working in a Group: In a small group, work quietly, confer and come to agreement, and take on roles.
CCSS:
1. Social Studies EALR 5.4: (Skills) Creates a product that uses social studies content to support a thesis and presents the product in an appropriate manner to a meaningful audience.
End Product: Exhibition, Model/Prototype/Consumer Product, Oral Report, Proposal
**You will be invited to our exhibition (end of May or early June).
How you can support us at home:
1. Look at the attached document to see what company your child is apart of and what product they are planning on inventing. Start brainstorming how you can eventually create a prototype. (Last year’s kids had a variety of prototypes including : detailed visual drawing/representation, an old toy they modified, modeled clay prototype, etc.)
company_outlines.xlsx |