Mrs. Kershek Grade 3: November 2014

Word Study

A huge component of our word study program is recognizing patterns in words. Every time we dive into a new sort, we sort the words into their categories and come up with a pattern statement that goes with those words. This helps us to be able to internalize the patterns and find other words that can also fit that pattern.

Math

We are in module 4 and have been spending most of our time looking at 4 digit numbers and being able to represent them in various ways. We have also been comparing and contrasting them and using a number line as a helpful tool to do just that. Now we are beginning our exploration of fractions and how different fractions can be represented in a variety of ways.

Reading and Writing

In reading and writing we have moved onto our informational units of study. We are focusing on the strategies that good informational readers and writers use. We have been studying the structure of informational texts. We have looked at sequential structure (information given in order, like animals growing up), descriptive structure (describing something), compare and contrast structure (looking at 2 different things and their similarities and differences), and cause and effect structure (when something happens because of something else). We have also been working on using the text features to grow our ideas and help us talk about the text. Your child is busy creating their own informational text about a topic that they chose and that they know a lot about.

Minerals

We are nearing the end of our rocks and minerals unit. We have done many field tests in order to describe our minerals. We did tests to figure out the minerals luster, magnetism, hardness, shape, and streak color (just to name a few). Then the class had to try to identify which mineral they thought it was by having another read off those attributes. The class learned a lot from this. They came to the conclusion that Geologists and Scientists need to be very descriptive. We are now looking at descriptions written by Geologists of the various minerals and seeing if they can match them to the clues they found for the minerals.