Saturday!

Well I am gearing up for a very busy week. I can't wait to see parents at conferences! Remember if your conference is on Monday we are meeting at Plum Gar rec center. This was a choice for teacher to hopefully make it easier on parents in getting to conferences this year. Please let us know how it works for you! Conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday will be at Daly! Here is what we are going to be working on this week!

Reading - On Friday we examined the pictures in one of my favorite books The Stranger by Chis VanAllsburg. After we examined the illustrations we created REASONABLE predictions on what would happen in the story. Good readers think before they read! On Monday we are going to read the story and check to see if our predictions were correct! It is not about being right or wrong with predictions it is about thinking before, during, and after we read. This week our main focus is going to be on answering BCR responses. These are written responses to reading questions. I am going to work with students on how to answer these step by step. We will begin by reading a story, then filling in a graphic organizer together to make sure we have all the parts of the story. Then we are going to answer the question, "What was the problem in the story and how was it solved?" Students will have to use their graphic organizer to answer the question. I am so excited to get students writing more! BCR responses are a BIG part of MSA in third grade and beyond. We need to get started NOW so students will be confident and successful.

Writing- As I stated before we are writing for information this quarter. Last week students began pre-writing strategies of illustrating places they knew a lot about. This week we are going to sort places students have knowledge about into categories. Students will then be selecting one place to write about. I will model for students along the way so they know exactly what is expected in their writing. We are constantly working on capital letters, punctuation, and complete sentences as a part of grammar, but it is the content that we are really stressing during the writing block.

Spelling- This week we are moving on to long u words. For the next two weeks students will be sorting, writing, and hunting for words that have the long u sound. PLEASE make sure your child is completing their homework each night. I glue in the spelling test following the two weeks of homework. It is clear to see how students perform on the spelling test based on their homework. Please continue to work with them!

Language- For the upcoming week we will continue to work on verbs. Students are trying to sort nouns and verbs as well as identifying them in sentences. It is challenging to ever write a complete sentence without knowing all the parts:-)

Book Talks!
This week during reading rotations students will be creating book talks for their favorite books. This will be a formal speaking grade for the second quarter. I modeled book talks this week and students even got to grade me using the rubrics we designed in class. That way everyone is on the same page with what the expectation will be. No surprises here! All of this assignment will be done in class. If your child wants to practice their book talk at home it is up to them. For the first one I will not be assigning any home activities.

I hope everyone enjoyed this beautiful fall day. Have a great rest of your weekend and I will see you on Monday!