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3rd Grade ISSUE 2 2013 · NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
Days
K
Issue 2 2013 · November Editor
Laura Ferguson
Contributors Amanda Johnson
Any Stamper Sally Baker Jessie Barry Allison Davis Kelly Mitchell
Blog:
http://kidblog.org/MissFergusonsClass2013-201
4/ Class Website:
http://www.mtnbrook.k12.al.us/ces/
Miss+Laura+Ferguson/15697.html
Electronic Mail: fergusonl@mtnbrook.k12.al.u
s
Picasa Class Album: https://plus.google.com/
photos/104872095580105708174/
albums/5644158172785016433?
banner=pwa&authkey=CNWsrL-tiMmrMQ
All artwork is used under the Fair Use Act and is given
credit when due
3rd Grade Days 2
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3rd Grade Days 3
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Featured : Technology In The Classroom............7-8 Boosterthon...........9-10 Why 3rd Grade is so Important......11 2nd Nine Weeks Standards…..17-19 Favorites A Note From Our Reading Coach…5 App-tastic....... 14 Calendars November............15 December.............16
Teac
her’s L
ette
r Issue 2 2013 · November
Editor Welcome back! The feedback on the first issue has been warmly received. It was thrilling to accomplish so much with one publication. I appreciate the compliments and suggestions. This month I have asked Sandy Ritchey, our new reading coach, to be a featured contributor. She highlights the importance of lap reading at home. We are off to a fantastic 2nd nine weeks of 3rd grade! Holiday celebrations are right around the corner, and I am sure we won’t slow down until winter break. I would like to wish your family a safe, fun and memorable holiday season!
Sincerely, Laura Ferguson
Love
TH
IS
3rd Grade Days 4
Add a little festivity to y o u r t a b l e t h i s Thanksgiving by making thankful turkeys out of pinecones. See the ins t ruc t ions here a t The Domestic Darlin.
“CHILDREN ARE MADE READERS ON THE LAPS OF THEIR PARENTS.”
-‐EMILIE BUCHWALD
Sandy Ritchey is the reading coach at Crestline Elementary. She works with teachers to support their classroom instruc:on. She has been in educa:on for 12 years.
By Sandy Ritchey 3rd Grade Days 5
Reading aloud should be fun and interacIve. Ask your child quesIons during the book, like “what do you think will happen next” and make personal connecIons, “remember when,” that create a context for reading. This sets your child up for success—even adults need to understand the context of reading materials in magazines and newspaper arIcles. Laying groundwork for future independent reading is done when you first read aloud to your children: pause to confirm and revise predicIons, ask quesIons and make connecIons. This teaches your child that understanding text is a process that occurs before, during and aVer reading. Before Reading Choose books you or your child can get excited about reading. There are so many books out there, don’t spend Ime reading ones you won’t enjoy! If you haven’t read the book already, scan it to get a sense of it before you start reading aloud. Plan an introducIon—find links to personal experiences. Introduce the Itle, author, and illustrator. During Reading Read with fluency and expression. Children need to hear changes in your voice to indicate when you are reading dialogue. Vary your pace, too. Slow down to build up suspense and speed up during exciIng scenes. Hold the books so your child can see the illustraIons. Try to establish frequent eye contact with your child. Invite your child to quesIon and comment but keep it focused on the story. Explain words and ideas you think your child might not understand. A0er Reading SomeImes a book will pique curiosity and lead to quesIons and conversaIon aVerwards, someImes not. It’s ok either way! Allow Ime for discussion. Encourage various levels of response with quesIons. Retell the story or reread it to enhance comprehension. Reading aloud is a great Ime to enjoy books together. The increased vocabulary, correct grammar and comprehension will come naturally. Soon enough, it will be your child’s turn to say “all by myself” and read these books to you. Then, it will be the chapter books and “just one more chapter before I go to bed, please?” Way to go mom and dad, you’re building a strong foundaIon of readers who WANT to read when YOU read aloud today. Jamison Rog, Lori (2002). Early Literacy InstrucIon in Kindergarten. InteracIve Storybook Reading: Making the Classroom Read-‐Aloud Program a Meaningful Experience, 6, 49-‐55 Trelease, Jim. The Read Aloud Handbook. New York: Penguin, 2006.
3rd Grade Days 6
The integraIon of technology in educaIon is no longer a "new" idea. Technology has become such an integral part of society, it is necessary to integrate its use in educaIon in a variety of ways. The use of computer technology has moved beyond computer assisted instrucIon in the form of tutorials or drill and pracIce. Today's technology can provide teachers and students with opportuniIes for teaching and learning that were impossible in the past. Computers can be used as devices for communicaIng with people literally a world apart. They can also be used as tools to create instrucIonal materials or as presentaIon devices to provide informaIon in ways never before possible. The simple fact that students exposed to technology will be more comfortable with it later in life is only one of the many reasons to use it in hopes of preparing the for the future. The Aspen InsItute of CommunicaIon and Society also believes that students learn to control their own behavior when they carry out instrucIon, make decisions, solve problems, think criIcally, set goals, work towards goals, and then assess their programs when they have completed the goal-‐ all skills needed later in life. Computers in the classroom develop important skills. In business, the ubiquity of
computers makes understanding how to use them essenIal; thus, the use of computers can help enhance informaIon processing skills. The ability to locate informaIon, disInguish the important from the unimportant, think criIcally, work effecIvely in groups, and present informaIon in many types of media are all aided by the use of technology in the classroom. It is important to me that my students don’t simply learn how to use these technology tools for the sake of knowing them, but are able to consistently apply their technology skills to all instrucIonal materials. It is only then that technology tools become interacIve resources and learning aids that enable the students to demonstrate their knowledge and comprehension outside of our classroom.
Technology in The Classroom
3rd Grade Days 7
Prezi is a presentaIon tool that helps transform lack-‐luster, staIc presentaIons into engaging presentaIons that tell a story. Instead of moving slide to slide, like a PowerPoint or Keynote presentaIon, Prezi presentaIons capture content in a spaIal context. Because of this, your audience may be more engaged with your presentaIon. If you’ve been using PowerPoint, you can import an exisIng PowerPoint presentaIon and transform it into a Prezi. Let’s take a look at some example presentaIons using Prezi that demonstrate how this tool can be used to take your presentaIons to the next level.
To learn more about Prezi click HERE.
Here is an example of how a student in our class applied classroom content to a technology tool. Through this Prezi, the student applied her knowledge of our classroom vocabulary words for the week, while at the same Ime creaIng a study aid for the rest of the class to benefit from that week. By sharing it on the classroom blog, students are able to see that their work holds value as they share it with their classroom peers.
3rd Grade Days 8
A Letter From Our Principal…
3rd Grade Days 9
Every year I enjoy the Boosterthon Fun Run. I always look forward to winning prizes and earning money for our school. This year it seemed like the Boosterthon crew was only here for a day. That’s how much fun we were having! Before I knew it was the day of the Fun Run. I was very franIc and nervous. All of these thoughts were running through my head like, “Will I finish on Ime, Will I get sick, and will I run all the laps?” When our class ran out, I didn`t feel nervous. I actually felt exited! When I started I was having an enjoyable Ime and I was joyful too. I realized the only thing that mamered was that I was having a good Ime! When it was over I had ran all the laps and was saIsfied. I think this year was the best Fun Run I`ve had. It turned out to be a premy great day. I can`t wait for next year`s!!!!!!
10-‐11-‐13 Boosterthon Fun Run
By: Anne McKinley Walker
In each issue of the magazine, I would like to feature arIcles wrimen by the students. If there is ever something exciIng going on in your life at home or something educaIonal your child would like to share with the class, please encourage them to write an arIcle for our classroom magazine.
3rd Grade Days 10
Children who have made the leap to fluent reading will learn exponen:ally, while those who haven't will slump By: Annie Murphy Paul Take a guess: What is the single most important year of an individual’s academic career? The answer isn’t junior year of high school, or senior year of college. It’s third grade. What makes success in third grade so significant? It’s the year that students move from learning to read — decoding words using their knowledge of the alphabet — to reading to learn. The books children are expected to master are no longer simple primers but fact-‐filled texts on the solar system, NaIve Americans, the Civil War. Children who haven’t made the leap to fast, fluent reading begin at this moment to fall behind, and for most of them the gap will conInue to grow. So third grade consItutes a criIcal transiIon — a “pivot point,” in the words of Donald J. Hernandez, a professor of sociology at CUNY–Hunter College. A study Hernandez conducted, released last year by Annie E. Casey FoundaIon, found that third graders who lack proficiency in reading are four Imes more likely to become high school dropouts. Too oVen the story unfolds this way: struggles in third grade lead to the “fourth-‐grade slump,” as the reading-‐to-‐learn model comes to dominate instrucIon. While their more skilled classmates are amassing knowledge and learning new words from context, poor readers may begin to avoid reading out of frustraIon. A vicious cycle sets in: school assignments increasingly require background knowledge and familiarity with “book words” (literary, abstract and technical terms)— competencies that are themselves acquired through reading.
Meanwhile, classes in science, social studies, history and even math come to rely more and more on textual analysis, so that struggling readers begin to fall behind in these subjects as well. In operaIon here is what researchers call the “Mamhew effect,” aVer the Bile verse found in the Gospel of Mamhew: “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” In other words, the academically rich get richer and the poor get poorer, as small differences in learn ability grow into large ones. But the Mamhew effect has an important upside: well-‐Imed intervenIons can reverse its direcIon, turning a vicious cycle into a virtuous one. Recognizing the importance of this juncture, some states have been taking a hard line: third-‐graders who aren’t reading at grade level don’t get promoted to fourth grade. “Mandatory retenIon” bills have already passed in Arizona, Florida, Indiana and Oklahoma, and are being considered in Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico and Tennessee. But many educaIon researchers say holding kids back isn’t the answer. The ideal alternaIve: teachers and parents would collaborate on the creaIon of an individualized learning plan for each third-‐grader who needs help with reading — a plan that might involve specialized instrucIon, tutoring or summer school. Most important is
taking acIon, researchers say, and not assuming that reading problems will work themselves out. It might seem scary that a single school year can foretell so much of a student’s future. But maybe we should feel grateful instead — that research has given us a golden opportunity to both build on what has already been accomplished or turn kids’ academic lives around.
3rd Grade Days 11
3rd Grade Days 12
Insight Wanted Want to share your opinion or ask a ques:on? You may be
featured in one of our publica:ons!
Contributors
Sally Baker 3rd Grade Teacher
Jessie Barry 3rd Grade Teacher
Allison Davis 3rd Grade Teacher
Laura Ferguson 3rd Grade Teacher
Kelly Mitchell 3rd Grade Teacher
Amanda Johnson 3rd Grade Teacher
Amy Stamper 3rd Grade Teacher
Sandy Ritchey Reading Coach
3rd Grade Days 13
App-‐tasIc Our Picks
AppTA
STIC
Third Grade Skills- Math $1.99 This app inc ludes 120 math problems. This is a wonderful resource for learning 3rd grade math. A 2 time award winning 3rd grade teacher designed this app. All seven concepts in this app are taught into 3rd grade. It covers place value, rounding, patterns, money, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Third Grade Skills- Language Arts $1.99 There are over 150 questions on this app. This app is designed to help third grade students master language arts. This app includes graphics for each section, which will help all visual learners. Sections this app includes are: types of sentences, capitalization, punctuation, subject and predicate, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, a n t o n y m s , s y n o n y m s , a n d homonyms.
Prezi Free Create and present beautiful presentations with Prezi for iPad. Get started by choosing one of their stunning templates then add your text and images!
Math Word Problems- Grade 3 $2.99 Practice grade specific math skills with “manipulative” that can be used as visual clues to solve problems. Select from multiple operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, probability, logic, and more.
3rd Grade Days 14
S M T W TH F S 1 2
Makeup Picture
Day
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Veterans
Day Program
8:30
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Veterans Day No
School
Scholastic Orders
Due (use code
GMWH4 for online
ordering)
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Interim Reports
Go Home
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Wear your
favorite team
colors!
November
3rd Grade Days 15
·············Thanksgiving Holidays············
S M T W TH F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Holiday
Program at 8:30
(K parents) send
change of clothes
each day
Holiday Program at
8:30 (Grade 1 parents)
Holiday Program at 8:30 and
9:45 (Grade 2
and 3 parents)
Holiday Party
End of Second
Nine Weeks
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31 1 2 3 4
Students Return
to School
December
·····················································Winter Holidays·····················································
3rd Grade Days 16
································Winter Holidays································
Use addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division
to solve word
problems
Use mental math to
decide if the answers are reasonable
Tell and write time to the
nearest minute
Understand that the area of plane shapes
can be measured in square units
Measures areas by
counting unit squares
Round numbers to the nearest 10 or 100
Find and explain
patterns in addition and multiplication
tables
Measure area by using what I know
about multiplication and addition
Add and subtract
numbers within 1000
Solve real world math problems
using what I know about perimeter of
shapes
Place shapes into
categories depending upon their attributes
Write to inform and
explain ideas
Stay focused and
organized in my writing
Plan, edit and revise my writing with the help of
peers and adults
Use technology to create pieces of writing and to interact and
share ideas with others
Organize short research projects
Kindergarten Days 18
Watercolor Dots by PaperSource.com
Objectives A sampling of the many skills and behaviors
Use apostrophes appropriately
to show possession
Effectively participate in discussions
Come to discussions prepared to share my
ideas
Follow appropriate
rules for discussions,
such as taking my
turn
Say and write simple,
compound and complex sentences
Write on a regular basis with stamina for different
tasks, purposes,
and audiences
Explain how the author
uses illustrations to help the
meaning in a story
Read and understand words with common
prefixes and suffixes
Research and use what I have
experienced to gather information
Read fluently, accurately and
with expression
Read words with more than one syllable
Explain how nouns,
pronouns, verbs,
adjectives and adverbs work in
different sentences
Read third grade words that are not spelled in a regular way
Correctly say, write and use
all types of plurals nouns
Use conjunctions in the correct
way in my speech and
writing
Make sure that all of my
subjects, verbs and
pronouns are in agreement
in the sentences I
say and write
Kindergarten Days 19
Third grade children are practicing for mastery this nine weeks of school.
Ask questions to
help me understand discussions and stay on
topic
Explain my own thinking
and ideas after
discussion
Speak clearly and at a good
pace
Speak in complete
sentences to make what I am sharing
more clear to others
Ask and answer
questions about
information I hear from another speaker
Figure out the main idea and
details of what I see and hear
Report on a topic or tell a
story with correct and appropriate
facts
Kindergarten Days 18
Watercolor Dots by PaperSource.com
Objectives Continued…
Questions, comments, and ideas for the next issue are always welcome!
Recommended