The Write Stuff

Monday: Today was a busy day. We used base 10 blocks to measure the area of 6 different rectangles.  In the afternoon, we read our poem of the week, What Is Earth?  We also worked on our word work and started researching SOUND as a lead-in to our Power of Song unit.  We had an extra birthday recess and a fire drill.  The afternoon just flew by. 🙂

Tuesday:  During Reading Workshop, we read another book about a powerful songwriter.  This book was called Which Side Are You On, the Story of a Song.  In small groups, we compared this book to John’s Secret Dreams.  We also learned about a new vocabulary word:  ludicrous.  The Indian School literature circle met.  Great Conversation!  We researched SOUND as a kick off to our Power of Song unit.  At the end of the day we worked with partners to use tiles to figure out area and perimeter.

Thursday:  Hoorah for Thursday.  The Lion to Guard Us literature circle had a phenomenal conversation.  We talked about writing main idea sentences.  We read a picture book called Voices In the Park, a story that’s told in four different voices.  We practiced our spelling words during PAWS time.  We worked with fractions on our geo-boards at Math time and also practiced our multiplication tables using Xtra Math.  Super fun afternoon recess! We’re enjoying our read aloud, The Last Mapmaker.

Friday:   Today we worked on a double bubble assessment this morning, comparing two articles about women in sports.  We also discussed our Voices in the Park read aloud.  We ran the pacer test in Gym.  Great literature circle discussion with the Indian School group.  It was fun to go to the library in the afternoon.  3rdLanders share title suggestions with classmates.

 

Monday:  We met with the Lion to Guard Us group and we had a good talk about the book.  We almost finished The One and Only Bob. We worked in our handwriting book and our handwriting is getting better.  We have our portfolios. During Reading Workshop we practiced writing main idea sentences.  We also discussed theme again.  At math we used geoboards on our tablets to practice making different polygons.  Everyone finished their informational paragraphs about the Suffragettes.

Tuesday:  We began with Writing Workshop today.  We worked on revising our fiction stories, finishing up our Bloomington poems and our bug paragraphs.  During Math time, we did a checkpoint assessment for two step problems.  During Reading Workshop, we learned more about inferences.  The Indian School literature circle met and shared their sticky notes.  We finished our chapter book, The One and Only Bob.  A great book!

Wednesday:  We learned more about writing a paragraph with a strong main idea sentence and supporting details.  We talked about the THEMES in The One and Only Bob.  We worked in groups to sort quadrangles according to various properties.  We did a little ILearn practice with the repository items that are available online.  During Reading Workshop, we compared two texts about schools in different parts of the world.  The Sarah, Plain and Tall group had a great discussion about the beginning chapters.

Thursday:  We began our day by writing in our notebooks about creative school designs.  In Math, we worked on sorting quadrangles.  We also solved problems with perimeter and area questions.  In the afternoon, we worked on word sorts and partner read some YHBA nominees with partners.  We ended the day with another double bubble assessment, comparing 2 fables by Aesop.

Monday, March 6:  We started off our day with a practice IREAD test.  We had no computer glitches at all, so that was fabulous.  We’ll be good to go tomorrow.  During Math, we learned more about making line plots.  We created line plots to represent the leaves on our beanstalks.  At Writing Workshop, we began our google slide about the person we’ve been researching.  We are writing “in role.”  We had gym and music in the afternoon today.

Tuesday, March 7:  We took two parts of the I-Read test this morning.  Not a super fun way to start a Tuesday, but we stayed strong and focused.  At Reading Workshop, we read and discussed an article about agroforestry in Brazil.  We talked about the main ideas of the article, the different problems described in the article, as well as our own opinions about why agroforestry seems like/doesn’t seem like a good idea.

Wednesday, March 8:  We finished the last section of I-Read today.  WooHOO!  After our I-Read was done, we had a Math test!  But then at Espanol, Senora Coolidge brought us out for recess.  We worked on our slide shows and learned more about persuasive writing.  At the end of the day, we visited 2 fourth grade classrooms to see the National Park presentations.

Thursday, March 9:  Another action packed day in 3rdLand.  In Math, we worked on equivalent fractions, AREA, and traits of quadrilaterals.  We finished our math test.  We learned about the major Monroe County shape shifters in the 1800’s, including IU, the Limestone Industry, Railroads, and Showers Furniture Factory.  Author Jeff Gottesfeld talked to the second and third grade classes today. He read his book, Twenty One Steps.  He also gave us 5 “creatips” for producing good writing. We worked more on our google slides.

Friday, March 10:  We created polygon posters today, identifying the key traits that make a trapezoid, parallelogram, or a rhombus.  In Writer’s Workshop, we read some outstanding research slides and worked on revising our projects.  We had library in the afternoon. And now…. it’s time for spring break!

We’ve had a great week in 3rdLand.  At Afternoon Meeting on Friday, I asked our crew to help me with our weekly newsletter.  I asked for highlights of the week and students suggested that I mention the following:

We’re researching important Americans.  We’re reading 2 or more texts about our person and taking sketch notes.  We’ll make a google slide with our information.

Our Land Acknowledgement statement was read on Morning Announcements!

We read a book called The Night I Followed My Dog and wrote our own stories about following an adventurous pet.

We have worked more with fractions.  We’ve compared unit fractions by putting them on a number line.

We also made beanstalk posters and measured the beanstalk leaves to the quarter inch.  Next week, we’ll make a lineplot with our data.

We practiced for our I-Read test, looking over sample items together.

We created brochures that tell about Bloomington in 1818.

We’re enjoying our read aloud, The One and Only Bob.  It’s on the Young Hoosier middle grade list of 2022 nominees.

We had a busy and fun week.

Monday, February 6:  We are using metric measurements to measure mass, length and volume.  We went outside this afternoon to imagine how we would live on this land, if we could only use natural resources.  Then we came back inside and learned more about natural resources and how they shape different communities. We enjoyed reading about William Still, a great American who’s known as the “Father of the Underground Railroad.”

Wednesday, February 8: Lots of independent work in math this morning.  We also worked on two step problem solving strategies with the whole class. During Writing Workshop, we worked on a photo essay about the year 2022, using information and photos from our Time for Kids. We studied numbers and time in Espanol.  After lunch, the fourth graders came and gave persuasive speeches about their favorite vegetables.  Then we learned more about natural resources.  Natural resources are things from nature that living things use in our daily lives.

Friday, February 10:  We spent most of our day studying Native American History in Indiana.  We focused on the Delaware tribe, read articles and books, took sketch notes, studied maps and compared 2 texts on this topic. We read about clashes between the white settlers and the indigenous people.  We had a lively discussion about the Ten O’Clock Line of 1809.  Many different viewpoints were shared.  In the afternoon, we checked out books in the library.

 

Monday, January 30.  We learned about the difference between mass and weight today.  We are using the 2 pan balances to figure out the mass of various objects.  Nearly everyone is done with their fossil report rough draft.  Hoorah.  We worked this afternoon on our first Shape Shifter lesson.  We learned about Bloomington Stoneware, the fountain in the front of the Showers Building.  The sculptor, Brad J. Goldberg, used concepts from our town’s history to shape his sculpture.  We used playdough to re-create the sculpture.  Now we are reflecting on what we’ve learned.

Tuesday, January 31. Today was a busy day.  We worked on learning how to measure to the ¼ inch.  We measured our pencils and then gathered our data onto a line plot.  We also continued to work on measuring mass with grams and kilograms.  In the afternoon, we worked on our various writing projects.  Then we read a non-fiction book, Children of the Indian Boarding Schools, that gave us background on the Indian Boarding Schools that were featured in our fiction book about Thomas Blue Eagle.  We made bumper stickers about these books.  At the end of the day we had time to discuss the most important article in a TFK issue.

Wednesday, February 1.  Happy Month of LOVE!   We started our day by solving our Problem of the Day together.  The 3rdLanders have made so much progress with their problem solving skills.  Hoorah!  Then we kicked off African American History Month with a fantastic African American READ IN.  #AARI started in 1990 to bring literacy in African American History Month.  We focused on reading books that have earned the Coretta Scott King Award.  We learned about writing book quotes for the books we read, after a lesson on using quotation marks.  During PAWS time, we practiced our words to get ready for Friday’s test and finished some writing projects.  We ended the day with some quiet writing in our notebooks.  What a dreamy Writer’s Wednesday!

Thursday, February 2.  Today we worked on division concepts.  We connected division facts to corresponding multiplication facts.  We learned about the life of Aesop and read some of his fables.  We’ll use Aesop’s fables to learn more about identifying themes in fictional texts.  We worked on multi-meaning words, homophones and suffixes during PAWS time.  We read about the highlights of 2022 in our Time for Kids at the end of the day.

 

 

Tuesday, January 17:  Lots of work getting our portfolios ready to bring home today.  We also worked in our visual writing notebooks.  In Math, we solved a two step problem about a hiker named Miranda who was trying to reach a summit.  We also practiced AREA and PERIMETER.  We practiced some work with ROUNDING numbers to the nearest hundred. If you ever have an opportunity to practice rounding in the real world with your 3rdLander, that would be great practice.  Today we talked about shopping for books at Book Corner and rounding up to figure out how much money Dr. H. needed from her husband to pay her bill.  3rdLanders were proud of their portfolio work.  I was proud as well!

Thursday, January 19:  We had a productive day in 3rdLand.  We read a TFK article about different inventions from 2022. We worked in our writer’s notebooks.  We learned how to play a game called Round Ball 100s.  We practiced for our spelling test.  At the end of the day, we worked in our fossils packet.  We’ll be working on our fossil reports once we get our notes organized.

Friday, January 20:  We learned about grams and kilograms today in math class.  We used the pan balance to measure various objects in our classroom.  We also continued with our study of AREA and PERIMETER.  In the afternoon, we met with partners to discuss The Ledgerbook of Thomas Blue Eagle.  We also took sketchnotes about CRINOIDS, in anticipation of our fossil report.  During PAWS time, we took a spelling test and we worked on our own nonfiction research.  We went to the library today.  It was fun to talk about books with 3rdLanders as they searched for titles.

Monday, January 9:  Wow!  It feels so good to be back in 3rdLand.  We worked on CUPS review this morning.  While the 3rdLanders know the rules about capitalization, they’re not always following those rules in their writing.  We worked on some practice sentences together.  In Math, we practiced “rounding” and played a new game called Round Ball 10’s.  We also reviewed line plots and completed work in our math books.  During PAWS time, we worked on sorting our new words and reviewed some spelling rules.  We started Reading Workshop by practicing a poem together, The Unwritten.  We talked about lines that stood out to us.  We’ll continue with that poem tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 10:  We worked on suggestion box signs.  We came up with some great suggestions for ourselves, for our classroom and for the world.  During Math time, we worked on a problem of the day.  We also took a multiplication test.  In the afternoon, we celebrated Liam’s birthday (belated) with an extra recess.  The weather was wonderful.  We worked on writing a paragraph with interesting adjectives at the end of the day.

Friday the 13th!  On Wednesday, we celebrated Hadley’s birthday (belated) with an extra morning recess.  We used Xtra Math to practice our addition facts.  We’ll move through addition, to subtraction, and then to multiplication and division.  We began learning about AREA and PERIMETER, using our January calendar.  We are also learning about measuring to the quarter inch.  We practiced by measuring our fossils and comparing our measurements.  We learned a new rounding game called Round and Add Tens.  We continue to practice solving multi-step word problems.

In the afternoon, we made a multi-flow map about an 11 year old fashion designer, who had an interesting solution to a problem she was having. We are looking at how a text could be organized with a problem-solution structure.  We also read about 2 kids who go to boarding schools in different parts of the world.  We compared the similarities and differences between Yordi and Anita.  We made flow maps about Todd Bol, the man who created Little Free Libraries.  At the end of the day on Friday, we worked on our portfolios.

 

Tuesday, December 6:  We are working hard on two big math skills:  ELAPSED TIME word problems and comparing FRACTIONS.  We also have been working on reading nonfiction texts to locate the main idea, and to compare and contrast 2 nonfiction texts on the same topic.  Yesterday we read two texts about tornadoes.  Today we read a text about zoo habitats.  Mr. Shute came in to help us with our CANVAS page.  The TEAMS meeting links is still a bit glitchy, but we seem to be getting there.  The Shredderman group met today and had a lively discussion.  The main character, Nolan, is secretly keeping a web page to expose the bullying activity of a classmate.  We talked about Nolan’s actions. We understand his desire to respond to the bullying, but we wonder if he is going too far.   At the end of the day, we went on a comma hunt with our partners.  We found and read a LOT of sentences that contain commas.  More work on commas tomorrow.  A great Tuesday!

Thursday, December 8:  We are working hard on equivalent fractions and comparing fractions.  We worked with partners today on a Zoo Field Trip Schedule activity using the Indianapolis zoo website.  We had an indoor recess because of the rainy weather.  We read an article about a girl who is an app inventor.  We worked independently on creating tree maps with the main idea sentences and supporting details. We hope we can get outside tomorrow!

Friday, December 9:  We had a classic “Finish Up Friday” today.  3rdLanders worked on a long list of projects that needed wrapping up.  They worked on comparing non-fiction texts, writing book blurbs, elapsed time problems, Xtra Math, Freckles Fractions, Literature Logs and fossil research.  We were a bit like factory workers, moving through our To Do List tasks.  We went to the library in the afternoon.  Dr. Frye hosted us at peace project presentations at the end of the day.  Super productive time in 3rdLand!

Tuesday, November 29:  We had a busy and fun day.  We learned about global citizenship. Global citizens are people who are informed about global issues and takes action to help make a better world. We learned more about writing a cohesive paragraph with a strong main idea sentence, supporting details and a thoughtful conclusion sentence. Our IB evaluation is taking place this week, so teachers are in and out, attending remote meetings about various aspects of the IB program and how it’s developing at Childs.  All the teachers who have helped out in Room 204 have commented on the super behavior of the 3rdLanders.  Hoorah!  Music to this teacher’s ears!!!

Wednesday, November 30:  We worked on elapsed time problems today.  Some of them were really tricky. We also worked on reading two non-fiction texts about the same topic:  BUNNIES.  We talked about the similarities and differences in the two texts.  Did you know that carrots aren’t super healthy for bunnies because they cause tooth decay???     We also got to participate in a TEAMS meeting in the afternoon, where our IB evaluators talk to us about how we’re doing with our IB culture.  We heard many great compliments about our school.  WE ARE IB!

Thursday, December 1:  CAN NOT BELIEVE WE ARE INTO DECEMBER ALREADY.  I feel like I’ve just blinked and time has passed in an instant.  Today we used fraction bars to compare fractions and find equivalent fractions.  We also compared two texts that were both about ladybugs.  One text was a poem and the other was a factual report.  We worked more on our book blurbs about the Young Hoosier Picture Book, Crash, Smash or Moo. We will read this year’s nominees during 3rd semester, so we need to know how to write cohesive book reviews.  Captain Cash came in the afternoon and talked to us about spending money on NEEDS vs WANTS.  We ended the day calmly by writing in our notebooks.  So pleasant!