Fairy Tale Anthology

During this time of distance learning, third graders spent many weeks watching videos of lessons, workshopping their stories at home, and creating amazing fairy tales!  Students were given many choices throughout this unit: to write adaptations of fairy tales, to write in notebooks, to write and publish as a document, or even to publish in a story book creator application!  The result: MAGIC that truly captures the unique qualities of each writer!  Enjoy!

Third Grade Fairy Tale Anthology

Photos from November & December

Just catching up from the end of the decade! Photos included in this slideshow include the following events at RES:

• Financial Literacy with Community Bank
• Author Visit with Diana Dunn
• MMUUSD Literacy Coaching with 3rd Grade Teachers
• SNOW!!
• Mystery Oreos -- What is that mystery flavor?
• Ice Skating (Thanks Mr. G!!)
• Small Moment & Graphic Novel writing celebration
• Mrs. Ayer's class leading the RES All School Meeting
• Dance Party PBIS Celebration
• Perimeter Exploration
• Pillow Polo Tournament in PE
• RES All School Holiday Sing-Along
• And so much more!!

 

Writing Celebration

Image Courtesy: https://www.clipartwiki.com/iclip/hbTRb_writing-clipart-for-teachers-writing-a-book-clipart/

Let's CELEBRATE our third grade writers!

After the RES Thanksgiving Dinner (around 1:15 pm on Thursday, November 14th), families and friends are invited to third grade classrooms to read & revel in the small moment narrative & graphic novel stories that students have published this year!

We can't wait to share with you!

Westward Expansion Focused Research!

This spring, third graders have been learning about the era of Westward Expansion, during the 1800s. Small groups of students researched topics of interest related to this era. Together, they took notes, synthesized the information, and planned for teaching others. These slides are a result of this hard work! Please enjoy!

World Culture Celebration

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to our World Cultures Celebration! We loved sharing our learning with you and tasting the wonderful treats (even crickets!) from around the world! While we were able to share our essays, posters and games with you at the Breakfast, we weren't able to take you to the countries that we studied. BUT we did create Google Tours and hope you will travel with us virtually! Check out the link to our webpage and join us around the world! Third Grade World Cultures 2019

Breakfast Around the World

Thursday, March 14th8:30-9:15 AM in the RES Cafeteria

For the past eight weeks, students have been researching cultures around the world during Reading Workshop, and are using a variety of note taking strategies to gather and organize the information they've learned.  During Writing Workshop, students have been using this information to write articles about the cultures they've studied, working to find connecting ideas between two different cultures and writing to support their ideas with facts.  With all of this hard work under our belts, we're ready to celebrate!

If you're able, please volunteer to bring a breakfast (or snack) item from around the world on the Sign-Up Genius and join in celebrating all of the learning students have accomplished!

**Please DO NOT arrive prior to 8:30 as this causes congestion in the parking lot during morning drop-off for both RES & CHMS.**

WORLD PREMIERE: Information Writing Celebration! #tcrwp

We've spent many weeks gathering ideas, drafting chapters, and editing to make our information books the BEST they can be!  To celebrate, we're sharing our favorite parts with YOU!

We hope you enjoy hearing our writing!

And just in case the video above doesn't work, here's the link!

Celebrating Culture and Our Learning

A huge thanks to all the families that joined us today to celebrate the awesome learning of our students!  They worked hard to learn about how where you live impacts how you live by comparing and contrasting two countries.  Their writing was amazing and the breakfast foods this morning were very tasty.  

Breakfast Around the World!

Breakfast Around the World

Friday, April 21st

9:00-10:00 AM in the RES Cafeteria

For the past six weeks, students have been researching cultures around the world during Reading Workshop, and are using a variety of note taking strategies to gather and organize the information they've learned.  During Writing Workshop, students have been using this information to write articles about the cultures they've studied, working to find connecting ideas between two different cultures and writing to support their ideas with facts.  With all of this hard work under our belts, we're ready to celebrate!

If you're able, please volunteer to bring a breakfast (or snack) item from around the world on the Sign-Up Genius and join in celebrating all of the learning students have accomplished!

Bold Opinions: Persuasive Speeches from Mrs. Ankerson's Class

Third graders recently wrapped up their opinion writing.  This week and last they finished recording VoiceThreads for their favorite piece. They worked hard to express their opinions and to be as convincing as possible! Some wrote speeches to raise awareness or to make a change, while others wrote to try to get people to recognize someone or something they feel is noteworthy. Please listen to what they have to say! You can also leave a comment for students at the bottom of this post. 

Brave, Bold Opinions from Miss Darby's Class

Third graders wrapped up their opinion writing unit prior to February break.  This week they finished recording a VoiceThread for their favorite piece.  I am so proud of the great work and risks they took in developing their opinions.  Please take the time to listen to their awesome writing and respond via a voice, video or text comment on their thread!  You can also leave a comment for students at the bottom of this post.

Our Brave, Bold Opinions--Mrs. Ayer's Class

   Third graders wrapped up their opinion writing unit prior to February break.  This week they finished recording VoiceThreads for their favorite piece.  I am so proud of the great work and risks they took in developing their opinions.  Please take the time to listen to their awesome writing!  You can also leave a comment for students at the bottom of this post.

Mr. Alberghini's Storytelling Extravaganza!

This week, we worked hard to publish our very first stories as third graders -- small moment stories about one time in our life.  Throughout the unit, writers were working to use a storytelling voice instead of a new reporter voice.  So, in celebration of all of our hard work throughout this unit, we invited Superintendent Alberghini in to our classrooms to share his own small moment stories!

You see, Mr. Alberghini grew up in Derby Line, Vermont, and he has LOTS of stories to share from his childhood shenanigans with his two older sisters.  Today, our writers were honored to hear his retelling of his run-in with an old, forgotten bear trap near a hunting cabin in the woods around Derby.

Here is Mr. Alberghini's impression of a gray squirrel...

And here is the moment Mr. Alberghini accepts his sister Gina's dare to jump over the bear trap...uh oh!

Mr. Alberghini's gift of storytelling certainly had us all hooked from the very beginning...we really felt like we were hiking through the woods with him on an adventure!

And, in case you were thinking that maybe Mr. Alberghini is a big fibber (!), here's the scar to prove it!

What a wonderful way to celebrate our work as storytellers!  Thank you, Mr. Alberghini, for inspiring us to continue our work as writers...we look forward to hearing more of your stories in the future!

And, if you're curious, here's the RES Podcast of Mr. Alberghini's Bear Trap story from a previous year!

Or a YouTube video from another year:



As you can tell, this is a favorite story of our RES 3rd Grade authors!

Changing our World #tcrwp #comments4kids

For the last few months, third graders have been working on opinion/argument writing in workshop.  We first began by developing opinions about the characters or themes in the books we were reading.  Now, we're writing to convince others about changes we think need to be made or people we think should be recognized.

During writing workshop for the past few weeks, students have been revising and editing a speech that they felt particularly passionate about.  Some students will be presenting these speeches in front of others.  Others chose to present via VoiceThread to a more global audience.  Please listen and leave a comment to these convincing speeches!

Miss Darby's Class










Mrs. Ankerson's Class











Mrs. Ayer's Class

Brave, Bold Opinions #tcrwp

We've embarked on a new Writing Unit of Study...writing our opinions in order to change the world!  Alas, before we get too carried away, we're trying our hand at small, little changes in our local world -- RES.

So, after a class conversations about little changes we'd like to see to make RES a better place, we struck out to write mini-speeches in order to convince Mr. Berry to see our side of the issue.  At the end of our first class, Mr. Berry happened upon our classroom and listened in on our opinions, and even gave us some excellent advice to make our speeches even stronger!

We think that the RES Cafe should have breakfast as a lunch option more often!



After listening to Mr. Berry's sage advice, we put the finishing touches on our speeches and sent them off with Mr. Berry to give to Chef James...

[embed]https://youtu.be/CSf0gTifCwA[/embed]

We're anxiously awaiting Chef James' thoughts on the subject...stay tuned!
UPDATE January 25:

  
Chef James stopped by to check in with us regarding our speeches about more breakfast.  We were quite pleased to hear Chef say that we have convinced him to not only offer breakfast more often, but to also offer more choices when breakfast is served for lunch!!  Woohoo!

An Expert Talk #tcrwp

We are soooo lucky!  Katie Webster, a 3rd grade parent AND a published information writer, came in yesterday to share about her writing process.  She shared her cookbook, Maple, with us and even made us a little treat from her cookbook, Maple Sour Cherry Shirley Temples!




 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

We were surprised to learn that she uses some of the same strategies that we use when writing our information books.   For instance, when Katie first started writing her cookbook, she began by writing the Table of Contents.  We were just working on that last week!  She also had to use elaboration strategies to introduce each recipe to her reader...she shared some her favorites and our mouths were watering!  She also shared her struggles with introductions; boy, can we relate!  We'll certainly be referring to her advice as we continue our work in this unit!

Here's just a snippet of what she shared with us!  (Thanks to Mrs. Redford for recording and Mr. Berry for putting together the video!)



A huge thank you to Katie for taking the time from her busy book tour & cooking schedule to come in and talk with us!  We learned a LOT!

A Celebration of Writing! #tcrwp

Last week, we completed our first unit of writing and celebrating by sharing our true, small moment stories.  We invited families and friends to join us in the Library Media Center to share our stories...and listen to those of our peers.  Superintendent Alberghini & Board Chair Mr. Milazzo joined us, too!  What a special day!

Here's a slideshow of our journey throughout this first writing unit:



After the celebration, Superintendent Alberghini shared another of his childhood tales...what a treat!  Here's the story of "Big Bad Bob, the African Bullfrog!"



 

How lucky we are to have a storytelling treasure in our midst!

Writing Celebration! #tcrwp

It's time for a celebration!

 

We're celebrating the conclusion of our first Writing Unit of Study: Crafting True Stories in a big, big way!!

 

Thursday, October 1st, 2015

10:30-11:30 am

RES Library

Our 3rd grade authors will be sharing their stories from 10:30-10:50...listen to as many as you can to celebrate the fabulous writing (& learning) that has been accomplished in our first six weeks of school!

Then, Superintendent Alberghini, our storytelling mentor throughout the unit, will share another of his childhood tales with us...it's sure to be a great celebration of words!!

 

We're featured on the RESVT Podcast!

Last week, Mr. Berry joined our 3rd grade writers during Writing Workshop to hear a mini-lesson from Mrs. Ayer and listened in while Superintendent Alberghini shared his "Bear Trap" story with us.

Listen in...

Superintendent Storyteller, Extraordinaire! #tcrwp

Last week, we were surprised to welcome Superintendent John Alberghini into our 3rd grade to tell us a story from his childhood.  In writing workshop, we're learning to use our "storyteller's voice" instead of the usual "news reporter voice" of our previous writing.  Lucky for us, Mr. Alberghini has lots of stories to share from his childhood growing up in Derby Line, Vermont.

We noticed that Mr. Alberghini used a funny lead in his story and shared a lot of information about the characters, mostly his sisters, Gina and Debbie.  We certainly remember which sister was the trouble-maker!

We're using Mr. Alberghini's story as a mentor for our own story writing, referencing it for the various pieces of our 3rd grade checklist and working to make our stories the best they can be!

Thank you, Mr. Alberghini, for taking time from your busy day to visit with us and support us in our writing!

And, thank you, Mr. Berry, for coming to our classrooms to video this story for our future use!