Excitement filled our classroom as students tore open their letters from their pen pals in Savannah, Georgia. I loved seeing kids excitedly read their letters and wanting to write back immediately. Our pen pals told us about the climate in Savannah, told us about themselves, and asked us questions to get to know us better. My morning class is still waiting for their letters from their pen pals in Chicago.
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Frankie was our super hero last week! He did a great job at presenting his poster, and he wore his cape proudly. Way to go Frankie!
Nolan was our super hero of the week! He could be spotted being safe, responsible, and respectful with his cape billowing out behind him. Way to go Nolan!
In reading, we have been discussing how important it is to visualize, or make a mental image, when you read. We talked about how reading isn't all about racing through a book in record speed. Books are meant to be thought about, savored, and enjoyed. To get the most from books, we need to pause and make a movie in our head about what is happening in it. We practiced using this poem. First, I only read the kids the title and they sketched what they pictured. Next, I read the first half of the poem. The students pictured a purple dog, with big green eyes and a very long tail. Then, I read the rest of the poem. It has a surprise ending, where they purple dog winds up being a painted crocodile! Students learned that we often have to adjust our mental image as the author gives us more information.
Izzy was our Super Hero of the week! She is a safe, responsible, and respectful hero, who could often be seen with her cape billowing behind her. She is a super hero!
Grace came to our rescue this week as our Super Hero of the week. She proudly wore a cape and her wonderful smile. Way to go, Grace!
We have started our opinion essay unit by first generating a list of problems and opinions we can write about. We brainstormed problems and opinions about our house, school, and community. We have some opinionated third graders! We now are choosing topics from our list and writing about them. We are trying out several of our ideas to find the one that we feel most strongly about and have a lot to write about. Here are some of the lists from some of the students.
Today, we launched readers workshop in our classroom. We first discussed when reading for us is at its best. We want reading to be at its best this year in our classroom and at home. I had the kids jot on a sticky note when reading is at its best for them. I loved reading these! During readers workshop, I will teach the whole class a mini lesson (usually about 10 minutes), then the students go back in a book of their choice and practice what was just taught. I use this time to pull a small group or readers or to conference with individual readers. This is my favorite part because I get to learn what kind of reader each child is. Today, students red for 30 minutes with no interruptions!
We have been studying the characteristics of the different genres- informational, biography, autobiography, poetry, science fiction, realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, and traditional literature. Students then sort through book orders to find examples of each. They cut out the book picture of the book and then glued it in the correct spot. We were then on our way to the high school pep assembly. What a beautiful day for a walk! After returning, we got out the chrome books, logged into Epic, and explored the website and all the amazing books at our finger tips. A note came home about it. Check it out if you get a chance!
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Mrs. Ellis's Class
Learning & laughing our way through third grade. Archives
June 2020
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