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

Homecoming Parade

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.

Workout Wednesday

College Go! Day

This week wasn't just fun spirit days, we also fit in a lot of great learning.  This week we focused on Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. We practiced being good listeners and trying to see things from others' points of view. 

We were excited to start our Mineral Field Guides in science.  After observing our minerals, we described their appearance, feel, and smell.  We will continue our work in our field guides this next week.

It was a great week in math as we continued our unit on computation.  We learned two different algorithms for addition this week, and we will learn two different algorithms for subtraction during this coming week.  Our test will be the following week, and students will get to choose their preferred methods of adding and subtracting on the test. 

Modeling Partial Sums Algorithm

We also had a very successful problem solving day in math.  We continue to work on the process of solving tricky multi-step problems, and we are focusing on learning some of the different strategies that we can use to help us solve problems.  This week we practiced the strategy of drawing a picture, and we learned how drawing a picture in math is different than drawing a picture in art.  As one bright mathematician summarized, "When you draw a picture in art, you are trying to make a masterpiece.  When you draw a picture in math, you are trying to make sense of the problem."  How perfect an explanation is that?!

Drawing in Math

I have been especially happy with our work in writing lately.  We have been working on having strong leads that hook our readers.  See if your child can share with you some of the different types of strong beginnings we learned.  We have also practiced giving and getting descriptive feedback.  We then use the descriptive feedback to set goals for our writing.  Ask your child to tell you about the descriptive feedback he has received and what he is trying to do in his writing.

Writing Partners Giving Descriptive Feedback

Overall, it was another fantastic week in 3rd grade--I can't wait for the next one! 

Recess Fun!

Are You in the Loop?

Do you have an e-mail address?  Can you spare 3 minutes?  That is all you need to set up a Twitter account and follow our class--this will keep you in the loop for all the great stuff going on in 3rd grade.  I post most school days--this year I have tweeted (or retweeted) over 50 times. These tweets will not only give you a peek inside our day, they will also help you get past the "Nothing" response when you ask your child what we did in school that day.  We are always doing something--I promise--encourage your child to talk about it.  Talking about what we are doing and learning in class is an imperative step in helping students make sense of their learning.  If you haven't been following our class, here are some of the tweets you've missed.

+40 more....Don't miss any more tweets--follow us today.  

Hopefully you are convinced that you want to see our tweets.  If you have a Twitter account, follow us @Grade3atCE.  If you don't have an account, all you need is an e-mail and 3 minutes.  

There is a way to get our class tweets sent to you by text message.  If you text follow Grade3atCE to 40404, you will get a text each time I tweet.  This is a good option if you have an unlimited texting plan and really don't want to get a Twitter account.  However, I have found the best option would be to sign up for a Twitter account and follow our class. First, I tweet a lot (over 50 times already during the first month of school) and you may not want that many text messages.  Secondly--and most importantly--if you sign up for a Twitter account, then you can also follow others to keep you up-to-date with all the happenings at and around Carmel Elementary.  Once you get your account and start following us, consider also following the following:

Carmel Clay Schools @myCCS
Carmel Elementary  @CE_Tigers
Carmel Elementary PTO  @CarmelElemPTO
Mrs. Rodriguez, art teacher @CEArtTeacher
Mr. Murphey, PE teacher  @CE_wellness
Mrs. Williams, media center teacher  @CarmelElemMedia
Nurse Diane  @DianeBraun1
Carmel Elementary Student Council @CE_StuCo
Carmel Clay Public Library @CarmelLib

It's going to be a great year--join us for the ride!