Entertaining Beginnings

We are currently learning about how to write entertaining beginnings to our stories.  We talked about how the beginning of a story forms our first impression and that we want it to be a good one.  One that holds the reader’s attention.  To identify beginnings that are effective, we first had to look at beginnings that generally aren’t effective (or are tired and overdone).  Here are some common ineffective beginnings:

Once upon a time….

One hot, summer day…

Long ago in a far away place…

Hi my name is Joe.

This is my story about a pirate who finds treasure on a buried island.

Tonight your child will bring home a newsletter that gives more details about how to write an “Entertaining Beginning”.  Your child will be expected to use action, dialogue, thoughts or feelings, or sound effects (or a combination of all) to begin a story. To help them write entertaining beginnings, your child is should try to identify entertaining beginnings when they read. They can make a list at home and write down their favourite beginnings – ones that really grabbed their attention and made them want to read more.

Using Context Clues for Unfamiliar Words

Today we covered a new reading strategy:  using context clues for finding the meaning of unfamiliar words. Children should already be using pictures and titles to help them guess at unfamiliar words.  But they can also use the context (or surrounding sentences) to understand the meaning of new words. Most people do this in everyday conversation.  They use the situation or words in a discussion to decipher the meaning of a word they aren’t familiar with. The same skill can be applied to reading.

For homework, children were sent home a bookmark to add to their reading strategies kit, which gives steps for how to use context when they encounter a new word.  This strategy should be used with “Just Right” books and challenging books that are read by an adult.  Instead of skipping over an unfamiliar word, or asking an adult what it means, children are encouraged to:

– look at the sentence with the new word

– look at the sentences before and after the new word

– think about the way the word is used in the sentence

– use these clues to think of a meaning for the new word

This strategy is also important when applying it to homonyms (words that are spelled the same but can have several meanings, for example “shoulder”).  If they are confused by the use of the word, they are encouraged to use clues to think about alternate meanings (eg. a shoulder to cry on, versus the shoulder of a road, or to shoulder the weight).

Math Lesson 2.7 – Addition Methods

In Math, we are currently practising addition of 2- and 3-digit numbers.  By Grade 3, most children are familiar with at least two methods of addition, usually a number line or hundreds number grid and regrouping (vertical addition).

We have reviewed these methods in class, however, the following links are videos that show examples of these methods if your child would benefit from further review:

Addition Using a Number Line

Addition Using Regrouping

Addition Using a 100s Number Grid

To work with children’s understanding of place value and strengthen their number concepts, we are teaching them another addition method called the Partial Sums Method.  Click here to watch a video of the Partial Sums Method.

We encourage children to use whatever method they are most comfortable with, however, it is expected that they show proficiency with the Partial Sums method when prompted. The partial-sums method involves partitioning digits into their place value, however, it requires a fluent understanding of place value and basic addition facts (which is expected in Grade Three).

Step 1) Write the sum vertically, with numbers aligned in their correct place value

Step 2) Draw columns to separate the different place values, and label them 1s, 10s, 100s, etc.

Step 3) Beginning with the largest place value, add the digits in the column and write out their sum in expanded notation.

Step 4) Combine the expanded numbers, one place value at a time, to make the total.

Great Readers Recall Facts and Details from a Text

In class today, we added a new reading skill to our repertoire:  recalling facts and details.  Recently, we have been practising finding the main idea of a book or passage (by asking what is it mostly about).  Today, we expanded on that skill by talking about the facts and details that support the main idea.

In general, children should be able to recount facts and details from the stories and information texts they are reading.  If they cannot, then they may not have understood the passage or else they may not have been reading for meaning.  To help them monitor their comprehension of a text, they have been sent home with a bookmark with questions they can ask themselves at the end of a reading such as:  who was the story about and where did the story take place?  They should be able to answer the questions on their bookmark when they have finished a reading.

If your child has trouble recalling facts and details, it can help if they think about the main idea (what was it mostly about?).  If they can answer that, they should also be able to answer the question “how do you know what it was mostly about?” (these are the facts and details).

Tonight for homework, children are asked to practise recalling facts and details while they are reading by answering the questions on their reading strategies bookmark.

Elapsed Time

Today we continued reviewing time and extending our understanding into “elapsed time”.  Elapsed time is simply the time between the start of an activity and the end of an activity.  For homework this weekend, children are asked to complete Homelink 1.13, which involved displaying time correctly and measuring elapsed time.  We did several examples in class today and children were shown 2 ways to calculate elapsed time:

1) using an analog clock

2) using a T- chart

Children took home a make-your-own clock which just needs to be cut out and fastened together (instead of a brad I gave the children a piece of pipe cleaner).

If children prefer to use a clock to solve the problem, the first step they should do for each problem is set their analog clock to the starting time.  They then count up in increments that make the most sense for the problem (example: count up in increments of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or hours) until they reach the finish time.

If they are using a T- chart, they begin by writing the starting time in the top left corner.  They keep track of the time that has elapsed on the right side.  Every time they move the time ahead, they record how much time in total has passed.

Here are two examples we did in class today:

Blackbeard the Pirate – Tonight’s Homework

Tonight for homework, children have taken home a book called “Blackbeard the Pirate”.  I have asked them to read this book aloud to one of their parents, which is an opportunity for you to hear how your child reads.  This is a Level N book, which means that children be fluent with all of the words and phrases by age 7 – 8.

In class, we have been talking about the skills that “Great Readers” use.  So far we have reviewed that great readers use decoding skills for unfamiliar words.  Most of these would have been learned in Grade 1 and 2 and include:

– sounding out the letters

– looking for word chunks (prefixes, suffices and root words)

– looking at the pictures

The skill that we focussed on last week was “visualizing“, which means that when a reader is engaged in a book and understands fully what is going on, he or she makes a picture or movie in their head.  He or she can represent their understanding by drawing a picture of what their mind envisions.  A reader can visualize great illustrations in their head when an author uses specific details or descriptive words.  Tonight, children need to draw what they visualized when reading p. 11 of their book.

This week, we will are moving on to finding the main idea in a text, which means identifying what a text (a chapter, a paragraph) is mostly about.

Continents and Oceans Review – Websites

For our continents and oceans quiz tomorrow, here are some fun and interactive website that your child may find helpful with reviewing:

Continents and Oceans

World Geography

Week 3 Spelling Pattern – ‘y’ changes to ‘ies’ after a consonant

This week’s spelling pattern focuses on the ending “ies.”  This ending can apply to verbs as well as nouns.  For homework this weekend, children are asked to practice this spelling pattern by changing singular nouns that end in “y” to plural nouns.

The general rule for this is as follows:

When a word ends in “y” with a vowel before the y (as in the word boy), you simply add and “s” to make the noun plural (boys).

When a word ends in “y” with a consonant before the y (as in the word puppy), you drop the ‘y’ and add “ies” (puppies).

Health – Short Term Goals for Term 1

Today in Health we discussed how planning helps us to learn.  We talked about that each of us has different areas we need to improve on.  We can do that by recognizing our individual strengths and weaknesses and setting goals for ourselves.

Children were asked to think of three short-term goals for Term One:  one behaviour goal, one academic goal, and one friendship goal.  Together we discussed different examples of each:

Example Behaviour Goals

– raising my hand without talking out

– sitting properly in my chair

– staying seated and being quiet during seat work

– using self talk to focus attention and listen

– working more quickly

Example Academic Goals

– improve my basic subtraction facts

– improve my spelling

– reading questions more carefully

– checking my work for mistakes

Example Friendship Goals

– making a new friend

– using my words when I am upset

– being more inclusive on the playground

Children are asked to share with their parents their goals and the steps they are going to take towards achieving them.  They should also identify potential obstacles that might interfere with their goals. As children take steps towards achieving their goal, they will get to colour in the stars on top of their goal.  Hopefully all will be coloured in by the end of Term One 🙂

Maximum, Minimum, Range and Mode

Today in class we explored ways to collect information, display it and analyze it.  The subject of our class survey was “What Size is Your Family?”  Together we made a tally chart that reflected the sizes of our different families (only the totals of our tally marks are shown here):

We then made a bar graph displaying our results:

Children were taught how to come up with a title that is appropriate for the graph, as well as titles for the x and y axis.  They were also asked to colour the bars of their graph different colours.

They were then asked to find the maximum (greatest or largest) family size.  Some children mistakenly thought that the answer was 12 (reflecting the family size that had the most votes) or 7 (which was an option on our survey, but no one in our class had 7 members in their family).  The correct answer in this case was 6.

Students were then asked to find the minimum (the smallest) family size.  Some children thought the answer was 1 – as this was the smallest family size listed on our bar graph.  But since there was no one with a family size of 1, the correct answer is 2.

To calculate the range, we simple found the difference between the maximum and minimum family size:

6 – 2 = 4

To find the mode, we looked at the family size that had the most votes, which was 4.  Twelve people had a family size of 4, therefore 4 is the mode.

For homework tonight, children are asked to complete Homelink 1.5 which asks them to create a tally chart for the number of hours of tv watched.  They must then determine the maximum, minimum, range and mode.  You may find that your child will benefit from drawing a bar graph as well as looking at the tally chart.  If you would like to create a bar graph with your child, feel free to attach it on a separate sheet and send in with the homework tomorrow.