Weekly Wrap Up

Learning to identify the main idea of a section of nonfiction text is hard work for a third grader! Your children have been working SUPER hard at it this week with lessons from from Mrs. Steck, our Literacy Resource Teacher, and me. An example of the way your child is learning to identify and state the main idea is in the picture below.

If your child is reading a nonfiction book at home, you can ask him/her to pick one section of it and tell you the main idea. It should be in a full sentence.They might need a reminder that it should be what the whole section was about, not just one part of it. Next week we’ll work more on this skill, as well as identifying supporting details that tell more about the main idea.

Once the snow starts to fly and your child is wearing boots, feel free to send in a pair of shoes for them to change into if you don’t want them in snow boots all day. I’ll be sure to give them time to change back into their boots before they head out.

If you have any extra plastic grocery store type bags around your house, we could use them in the classroom. They come in handy when kids have a cold and need a personal trash bag for tissues, forget their backpack at home, or have more stuff to carry home than can fit in their bag. Thanks!

Here's what we're learning about next week:

• Social Studies: Cultures Across CT
• Math: Multiplication
• Reading: Finding the main idea and supporting details in nonfiction texts
• Writing: Rough drafts of nonfiction (information) texts

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Weekly Wrap Up

Yes, it’s true, I told your kids today that gum is welcome in our room starting on Monday. You should have heard the cheers when I said that! So, as long as it’s okay with you, they can have it in class. The only rules I have are that they can’t share their gum with others (so your child is only doing what you want him/her to do), they have to keep it in their mouth, not chew like a cow, and they can’t lay down with it. If they leave the room for specials, lunch, or a wellness break, they have to throw it away.

Just as a reminder, here are all the ways (as of right now) that I regularly communicate and share information…

• The newsletter that goes home in print just about every Friday. If your child needs more than one copy and isn’t getting it, please be sure to let me know.
• This blog, where I post everything from the newsletter, and occasionally post more. You can choose to sign up to be notified by email when I post. Please know that if you ask a question in the comments section of the blog, I’ll respond through my district email.
• Twitter, where I post almost daily recaps of what we’re learning, pictures, and sometimes links to resources we use in class. You can choose to either sign up on Twitter to follow us at http://twitter.com/MrsCarnevale3rd, or just go to the feed and see what was posted. Like the blog, if you reply to a tweet with a question, I’ll respond through my district email.

As you know, part of our learning often includes participating in a variety of learning experiences using technology. That means that children might be sharing headphones throughout the day. If you do not want your child sharing headphones used by others, in either the classroom or the computer lab, you can send in a pair of headphones or earbuds in a baggie with their name on it. They can keep it either in the classroom or in their locker.

Stuffed animals, pillow pets, and small blankets are all welcome during reading time. If it makes your child cozy and able to focus on their reading, then I welcome it in our room! The items have to stay in their locker until reading time.

Here's what we're learning about next week:

• Reader’s Workshop: Unit skills review with summarizing, character traits, and predicting.
• Writer’s Workshop: Finish typing and illustrating personal narrative story. 
• Math: Topic 4 - Meanings of Multiplication

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Weekly Wrap Up

We’ve been working hard on learning to make higher level predictions in reading. This means that your child doesn’t just predict what might happen in the story or with a character, but they also use evidence from the story to support their prediction. We’re even learning to kick it up another notch to include information we know from our own lives to help understand the motivation of the characters. You can help at home by asking your child to tell you about what they read, and then ask them to make a predication about what might happen next, reminding them to use “because statements” to support their prediction.

October is Fire Prevention Month! Does your child know what to do in case of an emergency? Does he/she know your home evacuation plan and family meeting spot in case of a fire? Does he/she know how to use the emergency call option on a smart phone?

A draft version of the contact list will go home next week. Please check it over carefully, and let me know if you want any changes made (or if I made a mistake on your information).

Here's what we're learning about next week:

• Reader’s Workshop: Review of making predictions and doing the “big step” retell.
• Writer’s Workshop: Writing endings, and editing/revising
• Math: Unit 2 review and test. Start Unit 3 on 3-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping.

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education! Enjoy the long weekend!

Weekly Wrap Up

A number of you have expressed concern to me over whether or not your child has more homework than reading and math facts practice. No, they don’t. Board of Education policy limits homework at the third grade level to 30 minutes a night. This has to include reading time. So, that’s why it’s only 20 minutes of reading and 10 minutes of math facts. In just a little over a month they’ll be working on learning multiplication facts, so it’s really important that right now your child learns their addition and subtraction facts. Just as quickly as they know that 1+1=2, they should know harder facts such as 17-9. It shouldn’t take more than 2-3 seconds per fact, otherwise they don’t actually know them. Reading should be any book they want, 20 minutes a night, 5 nights a week, and math facts should be 10 minutes, 5 nights a week.

Speaking of math, as you might have noticed from the papers coming home, we’ve been doing some review of 2-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping (what we used to call carrying and borrowing). If you’re wanting your child to do more schoolwork at home, writing up some problems that involve regrouping would be great practice! Soon we’ll be doing 3 and 4-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping, and “double regrouping” such as 323-176.

We’ve also been working making predictions in our reading and using information we’ve already read, as well as what we know about the character’s traits and personality, to help support those predictions. When you talk with your child about what he/she has read, you can ask them to predict what might happen next, and encourage them to support those predictions.

Here's what we're learning about next week:

• Reader’s Workshop: Decoding tricky words, using context clues, and figurative language
• Writer’s Workshop: Continuing to write small moment stories bit by bit, and including dialogue and characters’ thoughts and feelings
• Math: Estimating sums and differences

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Weekly Wrap Up

Next week your child will bring home their first weekly progress report. It is intended to keep you informed of your child’s academic and social/behavioral progress during the week. It’s probably very similar to what was used in second grade. Please sign it and have your child put it in their Jungle Book to turn in on Monday. Children who return it signed on Monday get two Tiger Tickets!

Weekly reading logs and math fact logs start today, and will go from Friday to Friday.  This is your child’s homework. Each week your child is asked to read at home for 20mn., at least five nights a week, and record it in their reading log. They can read anything they want, that you approve of. They can also count time reading with you, to a sibling, or doing reading for any outside group or club such as scouts or church school. They’re also asked to work on their math facts for 10mn. a night at least five nights a week, and record it. Right now we’re sticking with just addition and subtraction facts. Later we’ll add in all multiplication and division facts. While there is a spot on the logs for parent signature, I don’t require it unless your child is not completing their weekly logs. You’re still more than welcome to monitor and sign them if you’d like.

I want to clarify that the student thoughts on how you can help them with math facts were their thoughts, not mine. :)  Please don’t feel like you need to go spend money on apps or give them extra computer time if that’s what your child wrote. Do what works best for your child and your family!

Do you have any extra plastic forks and spoons hanging around your house? Do you have a growing collection of plastic silverware from take-out dinner nights? We could use them in the classroom! Kids often have a snack that needs a fork or a spoon, and if I don’t have any in the classroom they have to go down to the cafeteria to get one. Any extras you have and could send in would be greatly appreciated!

Remember to follow our class on Twitter and get up to the minute pictures and news! We are @MrsCarnevale3rd. Also, follow our district at @PlvComSchools. On Twitter you can also follow the district hashtag, #plainvilleschools as well as #plainvillerocks and #toffolontigers

Here's what we're learning about next week:

• Reader’s Workshop: Comprehension checks and retell
• Writer’s Workshop: Using leads and stretching a story out bit by bit.
• Math: Place Value to 999,999 - including word, standard and expanded forms

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Weekly Wrap Up

This week we started our new topic of study in math, fractions. Students are learning that fractions are equal parts of a whole, of a set, or of a length. This week they learned to name fractions with the help of M&Ms! That made for yummy math!  :) Next week they’ll learn to locate fractions and mixed numbers on a number line. At home you can help by asking your child to identify fractional parts of a set. For example, you could ask them what fraction of the silverware on the table are forks, or what fraction of items (such as toy cars or rubber bands) are a certain color. Keep the objects in the set to 12 or less, and ask your child to also use the fractions 1/6, 1/4, 1/3, and 1/2 to identify the fractional set when possible. Example: Of the 12 rubber bands, 6 are red, so 6/12 or 1/2 of the rubber bands are red.

Also this week, your child learned a framework to use when summarizing a narrative (fiction) or narrative nonfiction (biography) story or chapter. It’s one you can ask them to use at home when they talk about their reading with you. We'll continue practicing this framework next week.

Don't forget that Curl Up and Read is next Friday, January 29! Please join us from 2:45-3:15.

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Weekly Wrap Up

We’ve been working hard on identifying main idea and supporting details! It’s an important third grade skill. We’ll keep working on it in the classroom, and here are a few ways you can help your child practice at home:

• After your child has completed their daily reading, ask them to tell you the main idea of what they read, and at least three details that tell more about the main idea.  
• Let your child read an age/content appropriate news article of interest to them. Three good online sites are dogonews.com, timeforkids.com, and htekidsnews.com (still monitor the content though since third grade is on the young end for some material). Ask them to write down the main idea and three supporting details. Count their reading time towards their reading log.
• After your child has listened to a story or news article (or watched one on TV), ask them to tell you the main idea of what they heard. Ask them to tell you some details they heard that tell more about the main idea.

As a reminder, we have snack around 9:45 each day. Please send 1 or 2 healthy snacks with your child - enough to keep them going until lunch at 12:30. While we do have a school share box for snacks, there’s not always something in it.

Also, music is on Tuesdays. Your child should bring their recorder back to school that day, along with their music. Other days it can stay at home for practice.

New pictures will be added to our online class photo album before the end of the long weekend! You can find them on the Class Photo Albums page on our class website.

Here's what we're learning about next week:

• Reader’s Workshop: Summarizing biographies
• Writer’s Workshop: Writing information books
• Math: Fractions
• Social Studies: Connecticut

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Reading Comprehension

When we return from vacation I will begin adding a new component to homework. Each Monday I’ll send home a reading comprehension passage along with questions to be answered. It will be due at the end of the week. There is a certain process that I will teach the students, and we continually use for answering comprehension questions. Students will be asked to use this process at home, so I want to be sure to share it with you.

Here’s how we’ll approach reading comprehension questions:

1. Read the passage
2. Read all the questions
3. Reread the passage, keeping the questions in your head.
4. Do question one, looking back at the passage to be sure it’s the right answer.
5. Underline the answer in the passage.
6. Write the paragraph number where you found the answer next to the question.
7. Repeat steps 4-6 for each question.

This process will ensure that students closely examine the text, and use text evidence, to answer questions about it. If you have any questions, please be sure to drop me a note.

Weekly Wrap Up

Please try to set aside time from 2:45-3:15 on November 20 for Curl Up and Read time here at school. Join your child in the classroom for a special half hour of reading together. Let them share some of their favorite classroom reads with you, and see a little of what they’re learning in action! Siblings from other classes are welcome to join us, as long as you send a note to t!heir teacher. Also, if you want your child to leave our room and go to a sibling’s room, please send a note.

Earlier in the year I told the kids that after Halloween they could bring in electronics for Fun Friday so long as it’s okay with their parents. I wanted them to first spend some time playing with another human, and getting to know each other.  :)   So, now we’re past Halloween, they can have electronics. If you want your child to bring something in, the only thing I ask is that each week they bring a note from a parent saying it’s okay. Without a note, I won’t let them use it. All electronics have to stay either in their locker or in a container in the classroom closet until Fun Friday time. Don’t worry if you don’t want your child to bring in electronics, there are many classroom games and activities they can enjoy.

Don’t forget, Scholastic book orders, both online and paper forms are due Friday, Nov. 13. Please don’t send cash, check only or order online. Thanks!

All students are encouraged to wear red, white, and blue on Wednesday for Veteran’s Day!

Here's what we're learning about next week:

• Reader’s Workshop: Review of skills taught in unit 1 and assessment of unit 1 skills
• Writer’s Workshop: Finish small moment stories
• Math: Multiplying by 0, 1, 10, and multiples of 10
• Social Studies: Northeast Woodland Native Americans

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Weekly Wrap Up

Next week we start Topic 3 in math, which focuses on 3-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping (what we grew up calling carrying and borrowing). We’ve actually already been working on addition with regrouping as part of our morning work, so our lessons will be focused more on subtraction with regrouping. By late in the week we will be doing what’s called subtracting across zeros. This means doing problems like 400-127. To help students with this, there’s a great free iPad app we use in school, Number Pieces Basic. If you have an iOS device at home, you may want to download it for your child (there doesn’t appear to be an Android version, but there might be something on the same idea). It can also be accessed on the developer’s website: http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/web-apps/number-pieces/.

 Did you hear the news? We blogged AGAIN this week! Last week your child wrote their introduction blog post. Today your child blogged about the favorite book he/she read in September. Please take a minute to read your child’s blog, and comment. Feel free to share their blog with every relative you have, and have them comment!, too. :) The kids LOVE it when people comment on their writing, and it is highly motivating.

 It was a techie week. Along with blogging, the children created their first Educreations slideshows on the iPads as a review for math. Each group had to choose whether to teach how to round numbers to the nearest ten and nearest hundred, or teach about the three properties of addition. A couple of the presentations are in the next blog post down.

 As you might have noticed this week, your child does not always have some type of worksheet to do for homework. I only send worksheets home when there’s been a skill taught in class that day (or sometimes that week), that I want them to practice and apply their new knowledge to, reinforcing their in-school learning. Even when there’s not a worksheet, they still need to be doing their home reading and math facts, and recording on their logs. 

Here's what we'll be learning about next week:

•  Reader’s Workshop: Strategies to read and understand tricky words and phrases (including figurative language, synonyms, and antonyms) 
•  Writer’s Workshop: Putting together all the pieces of personal narrative writing. 
•  Math: Addition and subtraction of 3-digit numbers with regrouping. 
•  Science: Matter 

 Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Weekly Wrap Up

We’ve been working hard on learning to make higher level predictions in reading. This means that your child doesn’t just predict what might happen night in the story or with a character, but they also use evidence from the story to support their opinion. We’re even learning to kick it up another notch to include information we know from our own lives to help understand the motivation of the characters. You can help at home by asking your child to tell you about what they read, and then ask them to make a predication about what might happen next, reminding them to use “because statements” to support their prediction.

A DRAFT copy of the contact list is coming home today. Please note that DRAFT is on it. When I was putting it together I realized just how easy it is to make a mistake typing all that up. Please check over the info. for your child. In most cases of multiple phone numbers and emails I just listed the house phone and the first email written down. If you see an error or want all contact info. listed, please let me know by Wednesday. I’ll send home a final contact sheet by the end of the week.

Any time your child has a special event in his/her life, such as a sporting event, music or dance recital, trip, etc... feel free to send in a picture or email it to me. Short videos are okay too. I’ll put it up on the SmartBoard so your child can share his/ her big events with the class. No show and tell tickets are required for this! Also, I know it’s not until the end of the month, but send in a picture of your child trick or treating so they can show their costume off to their friends in school!

Here's what we'll be learning about next week:

• Reader’s Workshop: Strategies to understand a story, including retelling
• Writer’s Workshop: Writing endings
• Math: Estimation for addition and subtraction

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Weekly Wrap Up

Yes, it’s true, I told your kids on Thursday that gum is welcome in our room. You should have heard the cheers when I said that! :) There are actually some studies that show that chewing gum can help improve concentration. So, as long as it’s okay with you, they can have it in class. The only rules I have are that they have to keep it in their mouth, not chew like a cow, and they can’t lay down with it. If they leave the room for specials, lunch, or wellness break, they have to throw it away.

I do not have enough computer headphones for everyone to have their own, so they need to share. If you would prefer that your child not share headphones, you are welcome to send a set of headphones or earbuds to school. The earbuds that fit iPods, iPads, and iPhones fit our computers just fine. Please send them in a zip lock baggie with your child’s name on it.

A few FYI items for you:

• It might not be cold outside yet, but our classroom can get chilly. Your child is welcome to bring a sweater or sweatshirt and keep it in their locker for when they need it.
• Stuffed animals, pillow pets, and small blankets are all welcome during reading time. If it makes your child cozy and able to focus on their reading, then I welcome it in our room!
• Please send a water bottle in with your child, if possible. They’re usually pretty hot and thirsty after wellness breaks and recess.
• Home reading and math fact logs MUST be turned in to earn Fun Friday play time. Missing time or incomplete logs will result in a loss of Fun Friday time.

Here's what's on our learning safari for next week

• Reader’s Workshop: Strategies to understand a story
• Writer’s Workshop: Using storyteller voice, and working on meeting goals set for themselves.
• Math: Place Value to 9,999 - including word, standard and expanded forms

Don't forget that Tuesday is an early dismissal day, with open house from 6:00-7:30PM, and Wednesday is picture day.

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Classroom Library

As our year winds down, there’s lots of cleaning and organizing that takes place. It will be helpful if all classroom library books that might be hanging around at home are brought back to school as soon as possible. Please encourage your child to check all around his/her room, and other spots in the house where classroom books might be hiding.

Waterslide Update

Our class isn’t very close to meeting the goal for the waterslide! We’re about 7,000 minutes under goal. I need your help to make sure your child is filling in the bubble sheet each night for his/her reading. If they lose it I have more in the classroom where the reading logs are (your child knows where to find them), and I placed a digital copy on the File Cabinet page of our class website. Don’t forget, parent signatures are needed on this form. Thanks for helping make sure our class gets to enjoy a fun reward for all their hard work reading!

Reading for the Water Slide

Have you heard the news? We have a new reading incentive program to earn the water slide!  Just when it seemed like winter would never end, here we are getting ready for the water slide! In order for our class to go to the water slide, we need to read a total of 10,000 minutes. I know if all of the kids do all of their reading, they can make it. It’ll be important for each child to read at least 20 minutes 5 nights a week though. If not, we might not make it. The children brought home a water slide reading sheet this week. They should be coloring in a bubble for every 10 minutes they read. The sheets need to be handed in each Friday with their reading log. Thanks in advance for keeping an extra eye on your child’s reading, and encouraging them to get it done each day. If you need another water slide reading log, you can find it in the File Cabinet section of our class website.

Accountable Talk

This week we're practicing using Accountable Talk to discuss books we read. Here's a copy of the poster your child is using in school if you want to try this discussion method at home.  

Click the picture for full size.

The Process to Answer Reading Comprehension Questions

Here's the process we use in class to answer reading comprehension questions.

The Process We Use to Identify the Main Idea of a Passage

As a reminder, here's the process we use in class to identify the main idea of a passage.

Nightly Reading

As tempting as it may be some nights to let your child skip their home reading, this image really illustrates the importance of nightly home reading.

Weekly Update

If there’s one word to describe our week, I think it’s techie. It seems that we have so many projects coming together with technology right now.

In reading late last week the children wrote book talks on a nonfiction book of their choice. This week I filmed them, taught them how to import their video into iMovie, add in a credit slide, sound and transitions. Then they saved a picture of their book and inserted that into the movie. It wasn’t easy but they persevered and had a lot of patience. They just have a little bit left to do, then they’ll export their movies and put them on their blogs.

In writing your children were busy typing their information books. They are typing them in Google Slides, so they can always login from home and show you their progress. It’s their same login as school, just with @plainvilleschools.org at the end of their login name. Next week they’ll learn how to add in pictures and other text features, as well as set backgrounds. Hopefully by the end of the week they’ll be finished. I’ll then convert their books to an e-book format, and upload them to our class website. If all goes as planned (it’ll be my first time trying to convert pdf files to epub format) they’ll be able to download and read each others’ books on their devices and computers at home.

On Tuesday we had a special center activity in math. The children used a new iPad app, Pic Collage, to create an infopic to illustrate the concept of division. You can read more about it, the video they watched ahead of time to learn about some techniques to try, and see their final products here. Next week there will be a center activity using the iPad app, Educreations, to create a presentation on division. Stay tuned for upcoming greatness!

Keep practicing those math facts at home. Next week we have our district math fact assessments on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These are the 100 question tests similar to what I shared with you at conferences. Mastery is 90% or higher, and Goal is 80-89% on each test. Of course this is the beginning of division, so this test will just be their baseline.

Here's what we'll be learning about next week:

Reader’s Workshop: Finish editing book talks and Comprehension strategies
Writer’s Workshop: Finish Information books
Spelling: Unit 17 - Words home on Tuesday, test on Friday
Math: Topic 8, Division

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. Together we are partners in your child’s education!