During the months of November and December, all classroom teachers were invited to sign up for a lesson with Mrs. Gregory using the Blue Bots. Blue Bots were purchased last year by the SCA, and they are used to help students learn and practice early computer coding skills. Students LOVE the bots, and now that we have our own set teachers can check them out from our library any time.
Language Arts:
For several weeks, students worked with nonfiction science texts from our Brain Bank materials. They self-selected texts from among many choices, and they completed a variety of comprehension and word building activities based on the topic of the text. Most recently, we have been reading some amazing picture books which have helped us develop higher level comprehension skills and vocabulary. From Grandpa's Teeth we learned complain, description, mystery, suspect, conspiracy, and sleuth. From Dear Mrs.LaRue we learned melodramatic, misconception, neglected, obedience, despair, and persistent. Math: During math, a small group of students has worked cooperatively to solve logic problems called "Kids with Stuff." The first problems was a true challenge for the group because they had to learn to really listen to each other and communicated clearly. Once they got used to the teamwork aspect of the problems, their success rate improved dramatically. Students also learned to play an amazing thinking game called "Set." Set is a card came available at many retailers, and it would make a wonderful addition to your family collection of games since it's appropriate for many age levels. Most recently, students have been building their critical thinking and problem solving skills with a series of puzzles called "Logic Links." I've enjoyed going into both third grade classes this month to work with students on some fun rhyming riddles called "Hink Pinks." Given a specific clue, students had to decide on two one-syllable rhyming words to fit the clue. For example, an "overweight feline" would be a "fat cat." A Hinky Pinky or a Hinkety Pinkety works the same way with more syllables. For example, a "silly rabbit" is a "funny bunny." Students worked in pairs and trios to solve these riddles, and they really stretched their thinking in a fun way!
A small group of Mrs. White's students has been working with me during math to extend their understanding of addition and subtraction. These students have been estimating then finding sums and differences of four-digit numbers both with and without regrouping. They have also worked on developing their math vocabulary with a matching activity which included words such as addend, sum, difference, algorithm, compose, and decompose among others.
During reading, a small group of students has been working to develop stronger skills and strategies for reading nonfiction texts. We are using a Scholastic resource called Brain Bank which includes small leveled readers for science. Students will be assessed on their written responses following their reading of each book. |