Week 9

We have been learning a lot about continents this week! In class, students are watching brief films from The Continents of the World Series for Kids. These short films teach children about the people, landforms, climate and resources of each of the seven continents. Students have been practicing quick  note taking strategies and using their notes to help them talk about the information they have learned. We have also been practicing lots of information writing this week during Social Studies and Science.

In Writing Workshop, we have begun drafting our personal narratives. Children have been learning to write with greater details and are now trying to add dialogue into their stories.

Here's what is happening next week:

• Students will take home a Reading Response assignment. This assignment will be handed out on Monday and due the following Monday.  It builds on the work we have been doing in class regarding characters. We have been studying the main character of The Shoeshine Girl. Students have been naming character traits to describe the main character and paying close attention to how the character has changed as the story moves forward. As always, we use evidence from the story to support the ideas we have made. This is challenging work, and the children have come up with exciting ideas in our book talks!
• In Math, we are beginning a new unit on Multiplication Concepts. Multiplication will be introduced to students in this unit as the repeated addition of equal groups. We will have time in further units to deal with the multiplication facts but for these first lessons, we are looking at what Multiplication is and giving children strategies to find  products without relying on memorizing facts. Here are three links to preview the upcoming lessons:

https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3/count-equal-groups
https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3/identify-multiplication-expressions-for-equal-groups
https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3/write-multiplication-sentences-for-number-lines

Have an excellent weekend!