Today we began our first conceptual unit: Building a Community. The idea behind teaching conceptually is that the teacher chooses a theme, decides on the most relevant concepts within the theme, and teaches those concepts through various literacy and social studies activities. For this unit, Building a Community is our theme. Our concepts are rights, laws, cooperation, government, and citizens. We will be doing reading (fiction and non-fiction) and writing around these topics, as well as using what we learn to create our own set of classroom rules and jobs.
Our main focus for today was "rights." This is one of those words that we all know what it means, but can have a hard time putting into words. By reading I Have the Right to be a Child, and working in small groups to talk about what a right isn't, what a right looks like, what a right reminds us of, and what a right is kind of like, we were able to come up with some statements about what a right is.
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We are finishing up another exciting week in 3rd grade. The students are knee-deep in 3-digit number concepts like rounding , addition, and decomposition; and today they took their first spelling test! Beginning today, be sure to check your child's yellow Friday Folder for all graded and returned work. If the homework has a check mark, full credit was given. If the check mark is circled, half-credit was given for late submission. Each Friday the folder should be checked and emptied. Beginning next week, any student who turns all homework assignments in on time will have their name put in a drawing for a chance to win a free-homework pass for the following week! I want to share some photos of the students working hard on a rounding and estimating competition. This was a great way to practice rounding repetitively without it feeling like work. I also want to share some examples of exemplary spelling homework. Some students chose the more creative options on the spelling menu, such as making a comic using their words, or writing a story using their words. I love seeing what they come up with! Next week we will begin our first Social Studies unit: Building a Community.
Have a great weekend! Shabbat Shalom! It's that time of year again! The holidays are quickly approaching. What better way to to celebrate than a visit from a ram? Today we got to meet Pop, the 5 month old cutie from Little Eagle Creek Valley Farm. The students got to hear about how rams grow and change, and ask any questions they had. They even got to pet the ram and feel its split hooves -- a characteristic of kosher animals. Let's hope they don't get any class pet ideas! Our focus in math this week has been representing numbers in multiple ways. In order to understand why it is ok to borrow when subtracting or carry the one when adding, students must grasp that there are many ways to make the same number. For example, 43 can be shown as 4 tens and 3 ones, or 3 tens and 13 ones. Today, we played "War" using cards that described a number using tens and ones. With all that concentrating, the students were especially glad when it was time for recess. |
3rd GradeLittle people, big minds. Archives
May 2019
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