Reading Workshop

There are many components of our Reading day:

These are some of the ones we have started to incorporate:

Reading skills and comprehension:We have started our first unit on Sequencing. Signal words like "first, then, after, in the year ___, finally" help us figure out the order in which events happen.

D.E.A.R time (Drop everything and read) is our favorite time of the day. We each get to pick a book of our choice and read quietly to ourselves! Each student also has a reading log and will read for 10 minutes everyday at home too.

Guided Reading - is when students get to read independently on their own level of reading fluency and comprehension. During this period every student will also have time to work with the teacher on specific goals to help bring them on to the next level! This week we have begun to assess the students and determine which level they are up to.

Writers Workshop

We are starting off the year with Personal narrative Genre. We have all got lots of personal stories that we would like to share with our readers!

This week we have immersed ourselves in lots of Personal narratives written by amazing authors. We have noticed that Personal narratives come in many different forms and styles - Poems, diaries, picture journals, regular prose etc

We have compared illustrations - and found out how it sets the tone for the book. We have noticed how alot of the books are about different cultures - nevertheless share common feelings and are engaging to the reader. We have highlighted and discussed good descriptive writing!

Next week we will be starting to generate ideas for our own personal narrative...

Science

We have begun our first unit of LIFE SCIENCE - starting off with our first chapter on Plants.

This week we introduced the key words from the chapter:

Decidous, coniferous, seedling, seed leaf, system, pollinate, fossil and extinct.

We have learnt and practiced a new science skill - "compare and contrast". Each student made their own venn diagram to compare and contrast the leaves and roots of radishes and grass.

We also learned about the main parts of a plant and how leaves help the plant live and grow...

Maths

We start our day with Mental math routine- counting back and forward in 1's, 10's, 100's, practicing time, large numbers and place value... Each student works on their own slate - giving everyone the ability to work at their own pace!

Everyday mathematics concepts - At Mazel we teach maths in a way that is applicable and relevant to our lives. We do not teach abstract concepts...

This week we learned how all numbers are associated with a unit; how bar graphs and tally charts make comparing data easier; We practiced finding the range, mode and median values...

There is a homelink workpage for every lesson. The homework is a review and practice of the days lesson. It is very important that it is taken seriously - it will reinforce the skill that was taught and be used to assess if it was mastered properly. At the beginning of every unit a family letter will be sent home to explain the concepts of the unit. Attached, there will also be an answer sheet for all the homelinks in the unit. Please use it to check over your child's work and guide them in correcting.

We have

started assessments for 'Attack maths' and each student will be attacking 2 or more computation skills at a time.

New for this year: We will be starting soon 'Its elementary' problem solving workbook. Students will have to read and process problem and figure out which function to use to solve the problem.

Our 1st week of School

Our class has got straight to work - wasting no time at all.

The students have already shown seriousness and enthusiasm towards their work and even though it has been the first week we have had a full week of lessons and already started every subject...

Welcome to The Third Grade Blog

Dear Parents,

Welcome to our blog, where we will share news and events from our classroom!

I'm Looking forward to meeting you and working together with you over the coming year - to help our students have a successful year!

I can already feel the enthusiasm from our students and I'm very optimistic that we will be having a great year of learning and growing!

Please feel free to email me or call me at any time - if there are questions or concerns. I believe that when Parents and teachers have an open line of communication - children are able to achieve the most! You can email me at Morahrivki@mazeldayschool.com or call me at school and I will return your call as soon as possible!

Shana Tova,

Morah Rivki