We had a terrific week in 3Y this week! Here are some highlights:
The last two weeks we were getting used to having guided reading groups. During
this time we read and discussed Johnny Appleseed, we also used Ready Freddy Apple Orchard Race. These were books and activities that everyone participated in. It was a fun way to set up expectations in and out of group. The students enjoyed various apple
activities one of which was homemade applesauce. Here is the recipe in
case it did not make it home. Think apple pie without the crust! :)
CROCK
POT APPLESAUCE
10 lg. cooking apples,
peeled, cored & sliced or cut in chunks
1/2 c. water
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 to 1 c. sugar- (we used 1/2 cup)
Put all ingredients into Crockpot.
Should be about 3/4 full. Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours (high 3 to 4
hours).
The applesauce blended in nicely to tie a lot of 3rd grade curriculum and team work together. We discussed the life cycle of an apple tree (to go with our plant unit in science) and how an apple really starts out as a flower. We cooperatively measured the ingredients. Breaking our fractions apart. "If I need 1/2 a cup of sugar and I want 2 people to do this job, how much would each person add?" While eating the applesauce we read the book How to make an Apple Pie and See the World. We looked at a map describing where a lot of our ingredients come from. An additional plus- it made for a yummy afternoon treat!
Text Talk- This week we read The Rough-Faced Girl. This is a Native American rendition of Cinderella. The youngest of three sisters is left to tend to the family fire, which leads to her face and body getting scared as well as her hair getting burnt. All three sisters want to marry the invisible being. The two older sisters take the nice buckskins, mocosins, and beads their father has, which leaves nothing for the youngest sister. However, when going to the wigwam, the oldest two sisters can not answer questions about seeing the invisible being and were sent home. The youngest sister explains how she can see his face everywhere. The invisible being and his sister instantly see how beautiful the youngest sister is because of her kind and loving heart. They are married and never parted. Words we studied were: charred (turned black from fire), awesome (amazing), haughtily (to think your better than others), suitable (just right), feverishly (in a hurry), and prevail (to do it before others).
Reading- This week we did not have a story. We reviewed the stories we had read so far and took a unit test. We used the time to cover the comprehension strategy of fact and opinion, discussing how a fact is something we can prove and an opinion is someone's belief or thought.
*Since we are through the unit test and it is almost half way through the first trimester (that is so hard to believe!), I will be sending home a grade sheet where your child is currently at in reading. I will write a little letter to go with it also, about grading expectations and just a few general notes. Also coming home will be two bookmarks. I have them pictured below. These are basically just to use while you are reading with your child. They will help "coach" how to help if your child gets stuck on a word, or ask them some basic comprehension questions. The blue bookmarks have some more in-depth comprehension strategies, (these are the strategies we use for reciprocal teaching) which we will cover through out the year. Some of these strategies are better with certain text. Please take a look at them and let me know if you have any questions.
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| Reading strategies to help your child decode words (not sure why it turned out green) |
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| Some basic comprehension questions to get your child thinking about what they are reading. |
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| More in depth comprehension skills |
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| Continues strategies on back |
Math- This week we continued to worked on rounding to the nearest ten and hundred. We also added two and three digit numbers, as well as practiced column addition problems (3 or 4 -2 digit or 3 digit numbers stacked up to add!). We continued to practice as some children were still not completely sure about place value and regrouping. Next week we will move on to subtraction.
Science- Our flower pedals have fallen and we now have a TON of seed pods. This week learned about pollination. On Monday I placed paper bags with a flower on the outside and Cheetos on the inside. Students had to travel from flower to flower collecting Cheetos and could not lick their hands. Once we traveled back to our own flowers at our desk, we dropped the pollen (cheese from Cheetos) onto our flower. This gave the kids a great idea of what our bees would be doing. Then we pollinated our plants with bees.
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Collecting Cheetos
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Bee sticks (dried Honeybees glued onto a toothpick)
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Writing-This week in writing we began writing paragraphs with a topic sentence, three big ideas with basic transition words, and a conclusion sentence. We started with paragraphs that were started and ended for us, and gradually became more writing for the students. We will continue paragraph writing next week and pull further and further away from having a form to fill in to the student creating and doing the work. I may or may not continue to give them topics or prompts for their writing depending on their need.
*Just a reminder to have your child wear their red FMI shirt every Wednesday! We had a fabulous turn out this week!
Have a great weekend and enjoy the weather! :)
Mrs. Jodie Yuska
