I can't believe that it is almost February. Time is flying here in our classroom. The third graders are absolutely loving Because of Winn-Dixie, a story that brings so many emotions to our hearts. We have been doing a lot of character work this unit. Students have made new friends right in their books! We have spent a lot of time getting to know our characters and noticing patterns of behavior. We have also been following characters up and down story mountains and noticing how they react to problems. We have done this work with Peter's Chair and Because of Winn-Dixie! As we have gotten to know our characters we have begun to grow theories about them. We use what we've noticed and learned about characters to develop theories and make predictions. We are coming to the end of Because of Winn-Dixie, and have noticed we are at the climax of our story! Can things get any worse for poor Opal? Ask your child to take you up and down the story mountain of their books when reading at home! 

We have been learning and sharing a lot of different strategies for addition and subtraction. Students have also been practicing rounding and estimating to the nearest ten and hundred. Students love to share their different strategies for solving different word problems. 

In the coming weeks, we will learn the standard algorithm for addition and subtraction. We will learn to use the algorithm with and without regrouping. This strategy will be the encouraged strategy to use as an efficient mathematician! 

Writers have just begun brainstorming and flash drafting persuasive writing ideas. Who knew they were so good at persuading?! :) There have been so many different ideas brainstormed and they are so exciting to read. Writers have learned that we state an opinion, support with strong reasons and then show examples/give detail to support each reason. The final product of this writing process will be a bit different than others. Students will be publishing a Digital Story for their persuasive writing. Students will create a storyboard (an outline) and then use WeVideo to create and publish a Digital Story. Students will be learning writing skills as well as video editing skills. It really is an exciting task and students in the past have loved it! Their stories really come to life when they are voiced using a video! Stay tuned as we begin to work on those. 

We also have been spending a lot of time on grammar and spelling practice. Students have been working on paying CLOSE ATTENTION to their writing, whether it is during writer's workshop or not. Capital letters and punctuation seemed to disappear so we have been working on bringing them back! If a student is not using capital letters or punctuation, they are doing the work over! We also have been learning about contractions and homophones like there, their, and they're, to, too and two, and your and you're. Students are expected to have these words spelled and used correctly in their writing! Please work with your child at home to help master this understanding.