Unified Arts Open House and Picture Day Retakes

Please join the Art, Music, Physical Ed., and World Language teachers for our Unified Arts Night. It will be on October 20, from 6:30-7:30 PM.  Please meet in the cafeteria at 6:30 for a brief introduction. Students are encouraged to attend this event with you, and share some of the great things they are learning in their UA classes.

Picture Retake Day is October 13th!

Magnets and Motion!

We ended the week with some excitement as we started our first science unit of the year: Forces and Motion.  During this unit the students will do investigations, collect data in their science notebooks, design models, and make claims based on the following focus questions:

• What happens when magnets interact with other magnets and with paper clips?
• How can we change the motion of wheels rolling down a ramp?
• What are some important features of a cart that will roll from here to there? How can you improve the design of your cart?

Today we experimented with magnetic force through a variety of magnet activities. What did your child notice about the magnets and how it interacted with paperclips and other magnets?

During Reader's Workshop, we have begun working on comprehension strategies. These strategies help support independent thinking and understanding of a text.  This week we practiced the strategy of making connections to books.  We read aloud several picture books through the week and looked to make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections.  The children then practiced this strategy independently using their thinkmarks.

In Writer's Workshop, we tackled learning how to write paragraphs! This is something brand new for third graders!  Most of their writing thus far has not been organized into paragraphs.  We talked about that a paragraph is a group of sentences about the same subject.  There is a topic sentence, three sentences with detail, and a closing sentence.  This week the children have use a four-square graphic organizer to help plan their paragraphs before writing.  What did your child write about this week in a paragraph?

We finished Unit 1 in math this week by working on developing strategies for subtracting double-digit numbers.  Many of these strategies were similar to the work we did with addition.  We used number lines to subtract friendly numbers (ex. fives or tens).  We also learned two new Work Places: Target 100 and Anything But Five.  Both encouraged us to use addition and subtractions strategies to play the games.

Just a reminder that there is no school for students on October 9th and October 12th. Please make sure you also sign up for a parent conference on our Esprit Google Site. Thanks

WIN Time and Word Study

This week brought about two new additions to our daily schedule: WIN time and Word Study.  During WIN (What I Need) time, all third grade students have been placed in small groups and are working in different academic areas, such as reading, math, or writing.  These groupings will change throughout the year based on student need. Ask your child what he or she is currently working on during WIN time?

 We also began Word Study. Word Study is similar to Fundations in that it is an opportunity to work with words and notice spelling patterns.  Each week your child will be given a group of words and will need to sort the words based on the spelling patterns he or she notices.  For example, a sort may be long vowels vs. short vowels, vowel teams, homophones, digraphs, or blends. Your child will complete several sorting activities throughout the week to help reinforce the spelling patterns in the week's words.  Be sure to ask your child about the his or her words from this week.

In writing, we continued to discuss how author's generate ideas for stories.  We continued to write our stories about important people in our life and practiced adding detail and action to the stories.  We also made Heart Maps.  Each child received a heart on paper and filled the heart with drawings and words of important things in his or her life.  The children then used these Heart Maps as inspiration for stories.

We have been very busy reading a variety of genres during Reader's Workshop.  This week we focused on the thinking that goes on as we read.  Readers can keep track of their thinking as they read by writing notes on Thinkmarks.  Thinkmarks are bookmarks with space to jot down thinking.  Readers use Thinkmarks to  make predictions, ask questions, make connections, make inferences, visualize scenes, and to note favorite, funny, or surprising parts.  We will continue using Thinkmarks throughout the year as a way to build reading comprehension with both fiction and non-fiction text.




Much of our math time so far this year has been spent developing strategies for adding double-digit numbers.  Through modeling, discussions with partners, and Work Place games we have uncovered a variety of ways to represent our thinking and strategies:  sketches of base ten pieces, open number lines, equations, splitting diagrams, or a written description.  Many of our mathematicians can solve problems using more than one of these strategies.  Be sure to ask your child about the two new Work Places we learned this week called Carrot Grab and Rabbit Tracks!



Lastly, please check your child's Friday Folder as his or her homework for the month of October is in there.  Each month your child should read at least 500 minutes and record it on the October Reading Log.  At the end of the month, if your child met the reading homework goal, then he or she will be invited to a Literary Lunch with Deb and Miss Niles.  Also included in this week's Friday Folder, is the October Share schedule. Please look over the schedule and talk about it with your child so he or she is prepared to present on the assigned day.

Have a great weekend!

Fire Prevention Day

Esprit Third Grade welcomed teachers from Shelburne Farms to do team building activities with us. We participated in a variety of games that encouraged cooperation, communication, and collaboration.  Ask your child about his/her favorite team building activity.
We also participated in Fire Prevention Day.  This is our first year visiting the mock home located in a trailer.  We learned the importance of working smoke detectors and checking our homes for fire hazards.  We talked about ways to keep ourselves and our families safe.  We practiced climbing out a window to safety, and we encourage you to have a plan with your family.
During Writer's Workshop, we have been talking about different ways writers generate ideas for stories.  This week we practiced making a list of 10 good memories and thinking about stories inspired by a special person in our lives.  We have spent the week doing a genre study during Reader's Workshop. We have been sorting books by genre and identifying characteristics of each genre of writing.
Please check your child's Friday Folder for Picture Day forms and information.  Esprit will be having our pictures taken on Friday, September 25th.  Also, check the Friday Folder for information and permission slips for the Global Read Aloud Project.  Please sign and return those as soon as possible. Our classes will be reading The Year of Billy Miller and will be communicating about it with classrooms around the country.  Visit theglobalreadaloud.com for more information.

Welcome to Esprit!

Welcome back to a new school year!  Deb and I are excited to be working together this year on  Team Esprit: a third grade team that honors liveliness of mind and spirit!  We believe it is important to create a community where all learners feel safe, respected and have a sense of belonging. It is important to focus equally on the social, emotional and academic needs of students.  We strive to meet children where they're at by differentiating instruction, choosing developmentally appropriate activities and providing a balance between teacher-directed and self-directed learning.  We value play, the arts, movement, creativity and laughter as important and meaningful parts of the learning process for children.

We will be using this blog to share with you all that we will be learning and doing this year in third grade!  Please check our blog weekly as it will be updated each Friday.  We are looking forward to a great year with your children!