Thriving Thursday

Before I forget, tonight is Chick Fil A night.  A flyer came home earlier this week and students should be wearing a sticker this afternoon, when they get home.  :-)

After reading quietly, working on keyboarding skills or exchanging books at the media center, we began our mat rotations.  Today we only had two.  Students were either in small group with me or working with a partner.

During the small group instruction students used tiles to measure the area of a rectangle and then wrote an addition and multiplication equation to represent it.  We also identified the importance of labeling the units we used to measure.  Finally, we practiced estimating the area of a rectangle and then measuring to find the actual answer.

The only other rotation today was math with a partner.  Students created maps of a zoo with at least 6 different exhibits.  How does this relate to math?  Each exhibit had to have the area measured and identified.  It also had to have an equation to represent the area with a label of the units.

For HOMEWORK the students will answer an area word problem on Google Classroom.  There WILL be a quiz tomorrow.

After math we took a quick Go Noodle brain break.  Then I reviewed the rubric and my model paper for the inquiry informative paragraph.  I also spoke to the class about my expectations of how to use lessons I post, and assign, on the third grade web site.  If it is assigned they are responsible for the material in it.  They might need to watch it more than once or stop and rewind certain parts.  I told them that this is the beauty of taped lessons, because they can't stop and rewind me!!  :-)

Following lunch and outdoor recess the students worked on independent reading group tasks, completed the rough draft for their informative paragraph for the inquiry project (including a hook) and explained, in writing, why it is necessary to be an informed voter.

During this time I met with reading groups.

Tigers:  Half of the group was absent, so the rest of the group met with me while I met with the Panthers.  For HOMEWORK they are to read pages 12-15 and write a main idea statement on a sticky note.

Panthers:  Prior to group the students watched the main idea lesson on Brain Pop Jr.  In group we reviewed examples of cause and effect.  Then reviewed what the main idea is and how to identify it in text.  Then I modeled identifying the main idea by thinking out loud as I did.  After that we worked as a group to identify the main idea in a different section of text.  For HOMEWORK the students will read page 7 and identify the main idea on a sticky note.

Leopards:  The children watch the Brain Pop Jr cause and effect lesson and then attempted to identify an example in their reading book.  In group we reviewed the concept of cause (why) and effect (what happened) and practiced identifying a few real like examples.  The children took notes on this in their RRJ.  After that, the children reread page 4 and wrote an example of cause and effect from the text. For HOMEWORK the students will  reread pages 9-11 and identify an example of cause and effect n a sticky note.

Lions:  Independently the students reread pages 13-16 and wrote a main idea statement in their RRJ.  In group we shared the students' cause and effect homework from Tuesday night.  Then we reviewed and discussed their main idea statements.  For HOMEWORK the students will read pages 17-19 and write a main idea statement on a sticky.

After our literacy block we reviewed the concepts of compare and contract.  Then the students were put into groups with a goal; they were to come up with a plan to test the speed of two objects travelling the same distance.  Tomorrow we will share our ideas and conduct our experiments.

The students ended their day in art.