Quick Summary of What Has Been Happening and What is Coming in 3B

As usual, we are very busy in 3B.  I am so pleased with the routine the students have gotten into as well as how hard they are working.  Along with having some fun,  3B is doing wonderful!

Below is a quick summary of the activities, strategies, and events that have been happening in 3B or are coming up:

1.  Reminder that this coming week is Character Counts Week.  Students should have brought home a letter last week stating the activities for each day focusing on different pillars.  The information is also below in the picture.

2.  Our literacy focus on the strategies of determining important information and main ideas are wrapping up (for now) as we move on to inferencing this week.  Everyone worked hard on building their understanding of main idea and supporting details by working with a group to match supporting details with a main idea before working on the same idea individually with ice cream.  We then moved into reading passages to determine the main idea before checking our understanding through an assessment on Friday.   These assessments will be shared at conferences.

Everyone did an excellent job building a better understanding as well of author's purpose.  We used the following visual to remind us of the three main reasons author's write:  PIE.  P-persuade, I-inform, and E-entertain.

This coming week we will be moving into reviewing prefixes and the strategy of inferencing.

3.  Addition and subtraction of 2-3 digit numbers, along with estimating, problem solving, and fact extensions have been the focus of unit 2.  Students will be taking an assessment over these concepts this coming Friday.  I will not be sending home a review packet for students for this unit but will be working with them reviewing concepts and problem solving this week in preparation for the upcoming assessment.  Students can be working on addition and subtraction of 2-3 digit numbers, with and without regrouping, at home with parents as practice.

4.  Everyone is ready to apply the concepts to what they learned about plant and animal populations to their final unit assessment.  This is a project based assessment.  This week I will be introducing students to their project of making a video that focuses on a selected animal and highlights/demonstrates the understanding of the key concepts and vocabulary we have focused on during this unit.  

5.  Writing will continue to work on applying the writing process towards publication of a piece of writing that will be shared at conferences.  (see previous post below)