An Exciting Year to Come!

We hope all families enjoy the final days of vacation together!  Thursday morning we look forward to welcoming students (and a couple of hermit crabs) back into the classrooms. With the new year comes some exciting learning opportunities for third graders.  They will be learning all of their cursive letters, wrapping up persuasive speeches, jumping on Prairie Schooners to head west, writing fairy tales, exploring geology through stream tables and hands-on field trips, and producing a musical play!  Yes, we can't wait for the 2014 and wish you and your family a safe and Happy New Year!

Marie, Tonya, and Emily

Snowy Recess!

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After spending recess indoors for the last few days, we were delighted to get out and play in the snow today!

Words for Thirds

This morning, volunteers from the Beacon Light Grange in Richmond visited the RES Third Grade in support of The Dictionary Project and The Grange's "Words for Thirds" program.  Through the tireless efforts of the Grange’s network of more than 300,000 volunteers, America’s oldest rural and agriculture organization has presented third grade students across the nation with more than 100,000 dictionaries -- our RES third graders are the latest recipients.

A dictionary is one of the most powerful reference tools young children will be introduced to during
their schooling years. Its usefulness goes beyond just providing correct spellings, pronunciations,
and definitions. It is also a companion for solving problems that arise as children develop their
reading, writing, and creative thinking abilities.

The Grange, headquartered in Washington, D.C., partnered with The Dictionary Project, a 501(c)
(3) nonprofit organization, in 2002. The goal of the program is to assist third grade students to
complete the school year as good writers, active readers and creative thinkers by providing them
with their own personal dictionaries. The dictionaries are a gift to each student to use at school and
at home for yeas to come.  Nationwide, the Grange has provided more than 1.8 million dictionaries to students.

To learn more about the Grange's "Words for Thirds" program, please visit www.nationalgrange.org.
Thank you to the members of the Beacon Light Grange for this exciting program!

Hour of Code

Or: http://youtu.be/_6hDhD42kpg

This week, December 9-15, is Computer Science Education Week and Miss Darby's third grade participated in an "Hour of Code" to celebrate!  It's an opportunity for scholars to have the opportunity to try computer science for just one hour, the first step on a journey to learn more about how technology works and how to create software applications.  Several tutorials were available on the CS Education Week website: www.csedweek.org.

Check it out!!

Author's Celebration

Or: http://youtu.be/5tuCmIPgSuc

This morning, the library was abuzz as third grade authors shared their nonfiction books with families and friends, the culmination of writing workshop for the last two months. Student authors were immersed in nonfiction during reading workshop, learning the various parts of nonfiction books from mentor authors. In writing workshop, student authors researched information on an organism, and practiced organizing books using a table of contents, writing strong leads and making sure that each chapter was connected by the book's main idea. Again, authors returned to mentor texts to learn how the experts (real authors) tackled these tasks. As the publication date neared, authors worked to revise and edit their books, and to include text features (diagrams, maps, illustrations) to help their readers understand. Third grade authors were quite proud sharing their books! Thank you to the families, friends, and VIPs who took time to share our books with us today.

Tradition Shares

We are enjoying learning all about various traditions students and families have--from all times of year, friends, families, places, and more! Thanks for sharing!

[caption id="attachment_130" align="alignnone" width="225"] Tradition: Opening a gift from her brother on Christmas Eve.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_131" align="alignnone" width="225"] Tradition: Every year the family "Elf on a Shelf" comes back and does silly things.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_132" align="alignnone" width="225"] Tradition: Getting salt water Taffy in Ocean City, New Jersey every summer.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_133" align="alignnone" width="225"] Tradition: Going to Cape Cod with family every summer.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_134" align="alignnone" width="225"] Tradition: Making special family recipe Christmas cookies every year.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_138" align="alignnone" width="225"] Tradition: Elf on the Shelf--new this year![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_149" align="alignnone" width="300"] Tradition: Advent Calendar and Nativity story[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_151" align="alignnone" width="225"] Tradition: Nativity scene[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_150" align="alignnone" width="225"] Tradition: A new Nutcracker every year[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_152" align="alignnone" width="225"] Tradition: Special birthday breakfast[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_153" align="alignnone" width="225"] Tradition: Waterbury River of Light Parade[/caption]

 

A Huge Thank You to Parents!

Every dollar parents spend through Scholastic book orders helps teachers accumulate points.  I used my collection of points last month to purchase these new books for our classroom library!  The students are so excited to read these new titles.  :) Marie Ayer

Counting Class Collections

Each third grade classroom selected an object to collect throughout our last math unit...we were quite successful!

Mrs. Ankerson's class collected nearly 1,000 plastic bottle lids. Perhaps there is another mural project in their future! Mrs. Ayer's class collected over 1,100 pennies which they plan to donate to the Richmond Food Shelf. Miss Darby's class collected nearly 5,000 metal pull-tabs to donate to the Richmond Grange to help support the Ronald McDonald House charity.

All in all, it was a successful project giving all scholars an opportunity to practice addition strategies with real world applications! A huge thank you to everyone who helped with our collections!

Science: Organisms

Our current science thematic unit is "Organisms." This year in grade 3 we are studying this unit in two parts. Part one, which we are studying now through November, focuses on classification and structures and functions. The essential questions for this part are: How are groups of organisms alike and different and how does this help us classify them?, Why do we classify organisms?, and How do the characteristics of organisms help them survive?  Part two, which we will be studying in the spring focuses on life cycles. During that time we will hatch chicks and grow "Wisconsin Fast Plants" with our classroom grow labs. Our essential question for that part is How are organism life cycles the same and different?

One big aspect of helping students learn about classification is getting them to make careful observations of the world around them. We have each student keeping a Scientist's Notebook. One of the first entries in this notebook is a scientific drawing for which students collected an interesting plant and made a careful, detailed drawing including labels for the parts of the plants that they knew. While we did not expect students to know all the parts of the plant at this point, it was an exercise to help them begin to notice details about organisms and their structures, and how scientists and naturalists might use drawings of what they find to begin to identify them. Then students compared and contrasted stuffed animals using a Box and T-chart frame. Again, to help students begin to look carefully at features, but to also teach them how to use a specific comparison tool.

From there students began looking carefully at photographs of different animals and classifying them by creating their own categories that made sense to them ("furry animals," "animals with tails," and so on). Students were asked to record their categories for classifying the animal in their scientist's notebook. Our field trip to ECHO helped us with the next step in learning about classification. There we participated in a school program that focused on the specific features the five vertebrate classes have that scientists use to classify them. We have followed up by having students work in groups to record criteria for each of these five classes and then teaching other groups of students about them. They also worked on writing riddles in which they list features for a specific animal and by the end of the riddle they should have provided enough information for other students to "classify" them.

Our next step is to zoom in on specific characteristics of organisms and how these features or characteristics help them survive. We look at structures and functions of plant parts, and compare and contrast them to human structures. We study bird beaks and feet and what these features tell us about those particular birds and how they survive (what they eat, where they live). Students look closely at the organism they are studying in readers and writers workshop and determine what special features or characteristics that organism has to help it survive.

In the spring we will come back to organisms to compare and contrast similarities and differences between organisms' life cycles. To get a closer look at specific life cycles we will hatch chicks and grow "fast plants" in our classroom grow lab. This will be a great way to wrap up our year-long theme of "Growing, Moving, and Changing."

Our Current Math Unit

We are more than halfway through our second numbers in operations book called, "Collections and Travel Stories: Addition, Subtraction, and the Number System 2".  Throughout this unit "students practice and refine their strategies for solving addition problems with three-digit numbers to 400 and subtraction problems with two- and three-digit numbers to 300. In addition to solving removal problems, they expand their understanding of subtraction as they solve comparison problems and problems in which they find the missing part of a whole.They increase their understanding of place-value as they extend their work into three-digit numbers up to 1,000 and study the structure of 1,000." (©TERC 2012)

There are many things that  you can do to support your mathematician at home during this unit.  The most important thing you can do is to help them master their addition and subtraction facts, through FASTT Math, games, flash cards, etc.  Mastery of the basic facts will allow your mathematician to be more confident and fluent in the computation of larger numbers.  Students are using basic facts like 9 + 5= 14 to help them make sense of 90 + 50 =140.  For example,if 9 ones plus 5 ones is the same as 14. then 9 tens plus 5 tens is the same as 140.  All third grade students should be fluent in their basic addition facts by the end of November!

The link at the end of this page will take you to a sample lesson that we completed this week.  In this lesson, you can read about the way in which we are teaching subtraction to third grade mathematicians.  While we no longer want them using the number line for addition, the number line is a very valuable tool to help model subtraction!  When subtraction problems go home in the next few weeks, please encourage your child to use a number line if they are stuck.

Addition Strategies Mathematicians Should be Using to Solve Addition Problems



Link to a math lesson from this week:  http://investigations.terc.edu/library/curric-gl/sample_g3_u3_s3-3.pdf

Thanks!

Word Study in 3rd Grade

We are using Words Their Way, a developmental approach to word study in 3rd grade.  In early September, students were given a spelling inventory to assess their understanding of common spelling patterns found in written English.  From there, we placed students into groups within the continuum of spelling development based on their individual results from the assessment.  By doing so, we are able to meet the individual and unique needs of each student, reinforcing concepts that they are just beginning to master and introduce new patterns to extend their knowledge.

The five stages of spelling development are: Emergent-Early Letter Name; Letter Name; Within Word Pattern, Syllables and Affixes, and Derivational Relations.  Each stage has its own characteristics and features which also align with the characteristics of readers and writers at these various stages.

During Word Study in class, students work with words in a variety of ways.   Each two-week lesson begins with a word sort, where students sort the words in their "list" in a variety of ways, depending on the focus for that particular set of words.  Words can be sorted using pictures, sounds or spelling patterns in order to draw attention to the feature of those words.  Other activities that students may complete while working with their words include: writing sentences, alphabetical order, blind sorts, dictionary/thesaurus work, a variety of spelling games, and more.

Students are given an assessment at the end of the two-week lesson (usually, the second Thursday) to see if they have mastered the spelling pattern in a typical "spelling test" format.  Occasionally, students may be asked to sort their words, too, in order to see that they fully understand the concept.  Students are also asked to write sentences that are dictated to them to assess grammar skills.

Musical Petting Zoo: Volunteers Needed!

Greetings RES families!

We're in need of 6-7 adult volunteers to assist with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra's Music Petting Zoo visit to RES Friday October, 25th.

Please come help our learners explore and experience the instruments of the symphony orchestra!

Volunteers would be helping students with instruments but there is ZERO musical ability required!  The primary focus would be facilitating an "instrument station" giving students a turn on each instrument, and (when necessary) sanitizing the instruments for the next student.

The schedule for the day is below.  Please feel free to volunteer for one, or both sessions!

11:00 - 12:00    3rd Grade

1:20 - 2:20        4th Grade

Thanks for your help in making this day a success for our students!

Mr. Arthur

RES Music

Field Trip: Echo Lake Aquarium & Science Center

On Monday, October 14th, we'll be traveling to Burlington to visit the Echo Lake Aquarium and Science Center as part of our theme unit on Organisms. While at the Center, we will have an opportunity to explore all of the permanent exhibits, "Cool Moves: the Artistry of Motion" exhibit, and to participate in the hands-on "Life in Lake Champlain Program," where we will learn the characteristics and classification of some of the 400 species of invertebrates that call the Lake home.



 

A few reminders for our field trip:

• We will be leaving RES promptly at 9:00 am and returning by 1:00 pm. Students should be prepared to walk to/from the bus to Echo, walk around Echo, and participate in a hands-on program.


• We will be eating a picnic lunch at Echo.  Third graders should bring a healthy lunch from home OR order a field trip lunch from RES.


• Chaperones need to meet at RES at 8:45 to review field trip expectations and to join us on the bus.  If alternate arrangements are needed, please coordinate with your child's classroom teacher ahead of time.

NECAP Testing Next Week

 

Just a reminder:  We will be taking the New England Common Assessment Program assessments (NECAPs) in reading and math next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  In class, we practiced with sample problems and released tasks, we discussed test-taking strategies, and we modeled expectations during important tests.  We are ready!

This weekend and next week, students will want to be well-rested and eat a hearty, healthy breakfast each morning in order to be focused and able to put forth their best effort on the assessments.

Also, thank you to the families who have volunteered to send in gum or snacks each day of the NECAPs--it will help us sustain our stamina for the entire morning!  Please make sure the snacks are prepared, ready-to-eat and delivered to your child's classroom teacher before 8:00 am each morning in order to be available during snack time each day.

 

Scientific Observations

 

In our Organisms theme unit, we are learning to make accurate scientific drawings of the living and non-living things that we observe.  In class, we read Crinkleroot's Guide to Walking in Wild Places by Jim Arnosky and then went on a (brief) nature walk.  When we returned to class, we made our first scientific drawing and gave one another feedback.

Then, we watched this video: "The Story of Austin's Butterfly" to learn how to give critical feedback and, more importantly, how to use that feedback to improve the accuracy of our scientific drawings.



After the video, we returned to our drawings to make improvements.  We are certainly on the right track to making accurate, scientific drawings in third grade!

Living or Non-Living?

Our first theme unit this year is all about Organisms. This week, we began with a discussion (and picture sort) of living and non-living things.

Students worked in pairs and small groups to sort any number of things into these two groups including: a river, an egg, pupae, chrysalis, a hibernating bear, a leaf and much, much more. For each decision, students needed evidence to support their thinking. Together, we wrote a working definition of living things that we'll refer back todos the rest of the unit.

Open House Success

 

It was wonderful to see all of the families visiting our classrooms during Open House!  The excitement was bursting throughout the school as scholars shared all of their hard work during these first few weeks of school.  This work included the narrative stories and acrostic poems hanging in the hallways, their 3rd grade hopes & dreams, their writing journals, reading logs, and scientists' notebooks!

We also surveyed families to determine the best way for us to share 3rd grade curriculum information with you.  Overwhelmingly, families preferred we share this information via our blog and website.  However, we will be more than happy to have a conversation regarding curriculum as part of your child's parent-teacher conference later in October.

We continue to look forward to a terrific year "Growing, Moving, & Changing" together!

Reading Time!

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Summer Reading Challenge P.A.R.T.Y.

Today, our classes gathered to enjoy the summer-like weather AND, more importantly, to celebrate all of the summer reading we completed with a PARTY--Popsicles And Read To Yourself!

In June, on Move-Up Day, we challenged our future 3rd graders to try to read a variety of genres during the summer vacation and to keep track in a reading log. We've tallied all of the books read and will displaying the information at Open House on Wednesday, September 18th!

We're very proud of all the summer reading completed by all of our students!

Launching the Writer's Workshop

This week we launched the writer's workshop in our classrooms.  Scholars worked to decorate their writing journals in ways that represent themselves as writers.  Also, we dove into writing personal narratives using our summer artifacts.  We will continue to build our writing muscles throughout the coming months.

 

Make sure to check out your child's journal at Open House!

Our First Week Together as a Third Grade Team!

Enjoy the slideshow of our first week together.

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Move-Up Day

 

Today, we gathered with our new 3rd grade friends and teachers as part of RES's Move-Up Day!  Each class had a meeting where we spent a few minutes getting to know one another, talking about what will be happening in 3rd grade, and answering questions.

Scholars also had the opportunity to decorate their "Summer Reading Challenge" folders.  All summer (starting on June 20th), scholars should keep track of the books they read or listen to and write it down on the reading log in their folders.  Then, at the beginning of the school year, they should bring them in to share with us!  We're all looking forward to seeing the wonderful books you read this summer!

Keep checking the blog this summer for updates, sneak peeks, and adventures!  Have a wonderful end of 2nd grade...we're excited to see you all again on August 28th!