Hate That Cat

This week Third Graders were thrilled to read Sharon Creech’s novel , Hate That Cat, the sequel to Love That Dog. In this novel our main character continues to study poetry and use writing as an avenue to express his feelings about pets and family. Third Grade readers spent the week examining various aspects of character relationships while providing evidence from the text in class discussions and in written responses. Students continued to study poetry greats through the poems studied by the main character. Our Writing Workshop lessons were closely tied with the poets studied by the main character. Brave young poets examined shapes of poems and stanzas to find purposeful ways to reorganize poems they had written. Young poets even chose a mentor poem to inspire their own poetry writing. Ask your Third Grader about this week’s Reading and Writing Workshops!

Seed Soak

Third Grade scientists continued their exciting investigation of seeds this week. Scholars came to school on Monday and observed the changes in the mini-sprouters they set up last week. Students observed that the seeds were “puffed-up”, “splitting” and beginning to sprout! Third Graders shared ideas about what caused the changes and decided that the seeds had absorbed water. They then collaborated to design an investigation and determine how much water seeds soak up. Each group compared the weight of their dry seeds on day 1 with the weight of their soaked seeds on day 2. Ask your Third Grade scientists all about their seed discoveries in science this week!

Equal Shares

This week Third Grade mathematicians launched Unit 8 with a review of fractions. Scholars used manipulatives to solve problems involving fractional parts of collections. They know that when looking at fractions that the numerator represents a part of the total amount shown in the denominator. Third Graders practiced using visual representations with various shaded regions to compare and identify equivalent fractions. A Third Grade class favorite was sharing number stories that required equal shares. Scholars will continue to build onto this understanding of comparing fractions with fraction cards, which are shaded to show a variety of fractions. Ask your brave mathematician what they enjoy most about fractions this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Important Dates:

Tuesday, April 4                                The Velveteen Rabbit and The Ugly Duckling

Wednesday, April 5                           Make-Up Picture Day

Monday, April 10 – 17                      Spring Break, No School

Tuesday, April 18                              School Resumes

Thursday, April 20^th                         TCS Silent Auction 5:30

Tuesday April 25^th                            JICP Climbing Wall

Tuesday May 2, 9, & 16                    JICP Climbing Wall