Best Week Yet!

We had a really great week in room 10.  The students have really come together as a class, and we have finally hit our stride.  Our behavior was at its all time best this week, and this allowed us to accomplish even more academically.  I am so proud of the class for the progress I have seen recently, and this makes me very excited for the rest of the year.

Discussing our biographies

This week we worked on biographies in reading.  Every group read about a different person, but all of the books could be tied to our big question in Unit 1: How do people help others?  After reading the biographies, the groups met to discuss how their person helped others.  Some of the groups even led the discussions themselves!  During our shared reading time we discussed point of view, examining different texts and determining if they were written in first person or third person point of view.  The students were able to apply this to their biography as they discussed the difference between biographies and autobiographies.  

If you want to spur a discussion with your child about their work in reading, try some of the following questions:

• Who did you read about this week?
• What did you learn about him?
• How did he help others?
• What questions did you (or do you) have about him?
• Was the book a biography or an autobiography?  How do you know?

Looking for minerals in rocks

Our geologists have continued their great work in our rocks and minerals unit.  This week we learned that rocks can be sorted by how they were formed.  We also learned the characteristics of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. 

We started our work on minerals and learned that minerals can be found in rocks.  We then examined our rocks for evidence of minerals.  We also set up our mineral field guide and will now start some field tests in order to describe and identify our minerals.  

Take a moment to visit the "Pictures" tab on our class blog to see our geologists hard at work in science.  You can also see pictures of the students with their favorite rocks. :)  

Our Favorite Rocks: See "Pictures" tab to see all students

 

Testing Update: 

The students did a nice job when they took the practice test for the MAP assessment last Monday.  We will take the actual MAP tests on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday of this week.  Please make sure that your child gets a full night's sleep and has a good breakfast on those days.  If you have not had a chance to read my blog post from last week on the MAP assessment, please take a moment to do so.

   

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

Carmel Clay Schools is participating in a new assessment system through NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association: www.nwea.org).

In 3rd grade we will take an assessment called MAP, and it will cover reading, language usage, and math.  These tests are taken on the computer, and they are adaptive which means they will be individualized for each student.  The data we gain from these assessments will ensure that we not only know your child's strengths and weaknesses in these different areas, but that we also know what they are best prepared to learn next.

To learn more, follow this link to take you to a “Parent Toolkit” on the NWEA website.  The toolkit is a PDF file with information and FAQs. 

There is also a widget on your parent myCCS page.  It is in the upper left hand corner and provides links to practice tests that parents and kids can take.  Students will take a practice test in the computer lab so that they are comfortable with the format of the test.

Look for this widget on your myCCS page . . .

I am excited to have this new assessment tool available so that we can make sure that every child is getting what they need to grow into the best students they can be.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  

We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do! We've Got Spirit, How 'Bout You?

Crazy Sock Day

Country Day

It was a fun spirit-filled week here at Carmel Elementary.  We enjoyed dressing up to show our support for CHS Homecoming.  Pictures of our class from these spirit days can be found on the "Pictures" tab on our class blog.

Homecoming Parade

Working hard at acing our first math test

This week wasn't just fun spirit days, we also fit in a lot of great learning.  My math class did such an  impressive job on our first test of the year.  We will now move on to Unit 2.  Unit 2’s emphasis is on addition and subtraction.  There are four main areas of focus:

• To review fact families and number families
• To solve “What’s my Rule?” problems
• To use diagrams to help solve number stories
• To review algorithms for addition and subtraction

Narrowing our topics to a 'seed story'

We worked on narrowing our topic in writing.  Ask your child if they can explain to you what a 'seed story' is and why we want to write seed stories.  In addition to this, we worked on how to plan our seed story with a beginning, middle, and end.  Now that our planners are complete, we will start writing our stories next week.  

In reading we have continued to read stories centered around our Unit 1 Big Question: 'How do people help each other?'  See if your child can retell the story they read with their small group.  They will be retelling it to classmates that read different stories, and they will discuss how each of these books relates to the Big Question.  

We wrapped up our geography unit in social studies this week.  We also started our science unit on rocks and minerals.  My little geologists have been very enthusiastically examining 12 different  kinds of rocks this week.  We have recorded our observations, and we sorted the rocks by different properties.  Next week we will learn how we can classify rocks by how they were formed, and we will also start our work on minerals. 

Making observations on rocks in science

Subjects and Predicates Song

We have been studying subjects and predicates in class.  In the process, we came across this fun song on YouTube about subjects and predicates (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbhLKwZz5Ls).  The students have enjoyed this song so much, they beg to listen to it.  I thought you might want to see them singing it--check out the video below!




Test your children on their knowledge of subjects and predicates.  Given a simple sentence (The wonderful class sings a song), they should be able to tell you the subject and the predicate.

You could also give them a subject or predicate (The happy baby or jumped up and down).  They should be able to tell you if it is a subject or a predicate and then add what it needs to be a complete sentence.  Next week we will work on simple subjects and predicates and dependent clauses--pretty impressive stuff for 3rd graders! :)