The Jungle Journal for the Week of 12/9/13

Class News

We are in desperate need of an electric pencil sharpener!

We are working to gather supplies for our upcoming holiday activities.  Please look for an email regarding item donations.

Readers’ Workshop

We are continuing to develop theories during our study of characters.  This week we will focus on character motivations and lessons learned in the text.  Your child should be doing this same deep thinking in their nightly reading.  Ask your child to show you their “thought jots” in their independent text.  Students are working to organize these jots, noticing trends, and ultimately growing theories about their characters.

Our fifth Reading BINGO Response is due this Friday, December 17^th.

Writers’ Workshop

This week we will continue drafting persuasive speeches.  We will work to develop ideas, keeping in mind our target audience and how to address them.  As writers, we want to make sure our audience can always read our drafts, so we will stress the importance of editing as we write, as opposed to holding all editing until the end of the drafting process. 

Skills

Students should study and complete one of the homework options for spelling list 10.  Our quiz will be Friday. The quiz will also cover our skills sheet.  This week’s focus is synonyms and antonyms.  Our daily skills sheet (in their ROAR folder) will serve as their study guide.

Social Studies

We will continue our study of state government.  Students should study their blue sheets to prepare for Friday's quiz.  They will need to be very familiar with the role that lawmakers, the governor, and judges play in Florida's government.

Math

This week we will continue practicing proper division notation as we solve more multiplication and division problems.  Students will continue using multiplication equations as a strategy for solving division situations.  We will have a multiplication and division quiz Wednesday on Unit 5 material.  Students should review workbook pages 42-44, 47, and 48 to prepare.  We will also have a fluency quiz Friday on the 3s and 6s.

Our goal is to finish this math unit before Christmas vacation.  We are aiming for our unit test to take place on Tuesday, December 17th.  If there is a change in this plan, it will be indicated in your child's planner, as there will not be a newsletter next week.  Students should review unit 5 in their workbook, and they should be aware of the following concepts:  multiplication is the combining of equal groups; division is the splitting of quantities into equal groups; there is a relationship between skip counting, repeated addition, and multiplication; and they must be able to use and demonstrate understanding of multiplication and division notation.

Science

We will continue our discussion and exploration of light energy.  There will be a quiz Thursday, covering the workbook material and lab notes on light energy.  We will continue to explore the way light travels when it hits different mediums.  We will discuss why light moves at different speeds through different states of matter.

The Jungle Journal for the Week of 11/12/13

Class Needs

Our class is in need of an electric pencil sharpener.  We would greatly appreciate a donation!

Readers’ Workshop

This week we are revisiting “Thought Jots”.  As students read, they have been taught to record their thinking on the yellow post-its they received in class.  Our focus this week will be analyzing our thoughts to determine what is worthy of a “Thought Jot”.  Your child should have a small stack of post-its in the front of the book they are reading.  These post-its should be used to record their thinking during their 20-30 minutes of nightly reading.  Ask your child what thinking is worthy of a “Thought Jot”.

Our second Reading BINGO response for the second nine weeks is due this Thursday, November 14^th.

Writers’ Workshop

This week we will continue to draft our Harris Burdick narratives.  We have studied dialogue and paragraph rules and will work on building suspense this week.  Your child is welcome to bring their Writer’s Notebook home to share their progress.

Skills

Students should study and complete one of the homework options for spelling list 8.  Our quiz will be Friday. The quiz will also cover our skills sheet.  This week’s focus is adjectives.  Our daily skills sheet (in their ROAR folder) will serve as their study guide.

Social Studies

We will continue learning about citizenship.  Students will not have a quiz on Friday, due to the shortened week.  We will spend our class time reading a play that depicts a group of kids trying to work for the common good.  When they learn their soccer field may be replaced by a new building, they brainstorm ideas to save the soccer field.

Math

We will have two quizzes in math this week, as we continue our study of multiplication. Wednesday's quiz will be moved to Thursday this week, due to the shortened week.  It will cover our in-class work with arrays, or rectangular multiplication models.  Students will be learning to recognize smaller arrays inside a larger array.  We will practice skip counting our way to the product two ways (using either dimension).  For example, to find 7x3=21, students could count by 7 three times or by 3 seven times.  To prepare for the quiz, students should study their yellow sheets "Finding the Number of Squares in an Array.”

Our second quiz is a timed fact fluency quiz on the 5s and 10s.  Students will have three and a half minutes to solve as many of the problems as they can.  They should review their fluency homework sheets, review their multiplication charts, and play the "Snapping Skipcount" game to prepare.

Science

Our study of energy is underway.  Students will have a quiz on Friday.  Students should study their review sheets from lesson one, as well as the Energy:  Causing Motion and Creating Change charts in their notebooks.  We will explore more of the basic forms of energy as we work to build and Energy House.  Students can earn monkey moolah by bringing in small pictures (printed, clipped, or drawn) of objects that can fill the house.  Items will be added to the house if students can explain how they cause motion and/or create change, in addition to the type of energy they exhibit.  We will take our study of the basic forms of energy to the next level by taking a look at potential and kinetic energy in our rollercoaster lab.  Ask your child about their rollercoaster design!

The Jungle Journal for the Week of 11/4/13

Welcome Back Mrs. Z!

Mrs. Zollinger is now back and teaching math, science, and social studies.  If you have concerns about the upcoming units of study, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs. Z at pattersonl@duvalschools.org.

Awards Ceremony

Our Awards Ceremony for the first nine weeks will take place this Thursday at 9:15 AM, in the Dining Room.

Readers’ Workshop

This week we will continue growing ideas about characters, but will also take a small detour to explore visual texts.  We will be examining and analyzing both written and visual texts to grow and challenge our thinking. 

Our first Reading BINGO response for the second nine weeks is due this Tuesday, November 5^th.

Writers’ Workshop

We will spend the early part of the week completing our story mountains for our Harris Burdick narratives, before beginning our rough drafts.  With a clear picture of their character in mind and a detailed outline of their story complete, drafting should be a breeze. 

Skills

Students should study and complete one of the homework options for spelling list 7.  Our quiz will be Friday. The quiz will also cover our skills sheet.  This week’s focus is vocabulary.  Our daily skills sheet (in their ROAR folder) will serve as their study guide.

  

Math

We will continue our study of multiplication with an opportunity for students to write and solve story problems.  They will use known multiplication combinations to determine the product (solution) of more difficult combinations they do not know.  We will work to develop an understanding of how halving one of the factors in a problem also halves the solution. For example, a student could notice that 6x3 is 18, but 3x3 is 9, or half of 18. Likewise, doubling one factor would also double the product of the expression.  A heavy emphasis will be placed on the patterns and relationships students observe on their multiplication charts.  Skip counting in the car is a great way for your child to practice their multiplication facts. There will be a quiz Wednesday.  Students should study their multiple charts and workbook pages 13 through 20 to prepare.

Science

Our new energy unit is beginning.  Energy is anything that causes motion or creates change.  Students will learn to identify basic forms of energy (light, heat, sound, electrical, and mechanical).  We will also be learning that energy can change forms.  Students will continue to learn to think and communicate like scientists.  Ask to see your child's science journal.  We will spend some setting up the a title, vocabulary, and connections page to get this unit started.  Observe how your child's thinking changes and grows throughout the unit!

Social Studies

We will be studying Chapter 7, Lessons 1 and 2, and there will be a quiz on Friday.  We will discuss ways that citizens can help out in their communities, as well as how volunteers work together to make a difference.  Students will learn about their rights (ex. freedom of religion, freedom of speech) and responsibilities (ex. voting, obeying laws) as citizens.

The Jungle Journal for the Week of 10/28/13

This Thursday at 10:00 our school will be participating in a drill to practice evacuating the school to our designated off site safe area.  Our evacuation site is Chets Creek Church and students will walk from the school to their building, be seated in designated areas for a short period of time, and then walk back to the school.  The drill should take no longer than one hour from start to finish.  During this time we will not be able to check students in or out and there will be no one at the school to answer the phone.  Please make arrangements accordingly.  Thank you for supporting us as we work to ensure that your children are safe.

Readers’ Workshop

Our work empathizing with characters is taking a slight shift this week.  Previously, our focus was “becoming” the character, creating mental movies and connecting emotionally to characters.  While this is, and will always be important, we are now working to grow ideas and theories.  Our work begins by recognizing that a character’s actions are a window into the sort of person he or she is.  With our work in Second Step, we have developed our ‘social intelligence’ that basically means the ability to read people well, to glean what they are thinking and feeling.  We are applying these skills to the characters in our books.

Students will receive their new BINGO board and response deadlines this week.  We will work to review Reading BINGO expectations and introduce new response options this week.

Writers’ Workshop

This week, we will continue our use of the ‘story mountain’ template to organize and plan out  our story’s structure.  This tool will help us to introduce the characters and setting, slowly build suspense toward a climax, and then work towards a resolution.  Ask your child how their story planning is going.  Students are welcome to bring their writing journal home to share their progress.

Reminders

Please send in bags of individually packaged candy for our Fall Carnival!  Also, we are still looking for parent volunteers for our carnival booth, the Soccer Kick.  Please let us know if you are available to work a shift!  We appreciate your support!

Skills

There will be no spelling or skills test this week. 

Math

We are continuing our unit about multiplication and division, called Equal Groups.  One way your child has explored multiplication is by skip counting.  You can continue to build on this work by asking questions such as the following:  What number would we land on if we counted by 4’s and everyone in our family said one number?  How many people would have counted by 3’s to reach 27?  Students are developing an understanding that we use multiplication to combine a number of equal groups and that we use division to split a quantity into equal groups.  Ask your child the following question: There are 4 spiders.   If each spider has 8 legs, how many legs are there? 

They will have a Math quiz on things that come in groups on Tuesday, October 29^th.  They can review workbook pages 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 to prepare.

Science

We are concluding our study of matter and how it can be described.  Students should know that properties of matter, such as mass, volume, length, and temperature can be measured and compared using tools.  Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass.  Properties of matter include shape, size, color, texture, and hardness.  Three states of matter are solid, liquid, and gas.  Matter changes states through heating and cooling.  Water melts, freezes, boils, evaporates, and condenses.  The students should review workbook pages 99-103, 105-107, and 109-113 to prepare for the end of unit assessment on Thursday, October 31^st.

Social Studies

There will be no Social Studies blue sheet or quiz this week.  

The Jungle Journal for the Week of 10/14/13

Readers’ Workshop

This week we continue our exploration of characters.  We will be recognizing how our personal experiences can help us understand and relate to characters on a deeper level.  It is important that students are not making superficial connections like “I have a dog, too,” or, “I’ve been to Texas, too.”  In this unit we are pushing students to recall a time when they have experienced a similar situation in order to draw upon their emotional memories.  This emotional connection to characters is what will help students empathize and connect to the text.  Student connections may begin, “This reminds me of…” and should transition into, “This makes me realize…(something about the character’s thoughts/feelings/motivations).”

Last Friday, students were given their first Brain Builder.  Each Friday from now on, students will be given a brief comprehension passage, or Brain Builder.  If students complete this passage carefully and demonstrate strategy use reviewed in class, they can earn Monkey Moolah.

Writers’ Workshop

Students will be writing a fictional story that explains an illustration in the book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.  After choosing the illustration they want to write about, students will learn how to use a planning tool called a story mountain.  The shape of the tool encourages rising and falling action to become a natural part of the story, with a main problem at the peak.  Look for more info on the blog!

Skills

Students should study and complete one of the homework options for list 6.  Our quiz will be Friday. The quiz will also cover our skills topic of the week, irregular past tense verbs.  Our daily skills sheet (in their ROAR folder) will serve as their study guide.  Please note that skills tests will now assess the current skill, as well as any past skills.  Skills addressed so far include

• Sentences vs. fragments
• Singular vs. plural nouns
• Possessive nouns
• Action verbs
• Past, present, future tense verbs 

Math

Our Unit 3 End of Unit Assessment is scheduled for Tuesday, October 15^th.  The topics covered during this unit include understanding place value, addition strategies, subtraction strategies, and being able to identify an equation to match a story problem.  Your child can review any of the sheets in Unit 3 of their Math workbook or yellow packet found in their ROAR folder to prepare.  Our next unit, beginning Wednesday, will focus on objects that come in groups, skip counting, and arrays to build an understanding of multiplication and division.  

Science

We are studying the three states of matter, solid, liquid, and gas.  We will recognize that water melts, freezes, boils, evaporates, and condenses.  Try this fun and easy at home lab:  Get two cups.  Fill each cup with the same amount of water.  Mark the water level.  Put one cup in the freezer.  Put the other cup on a shelf.  Observe what happens to the level of water in each cup after 12 hours.  If your child writes a short summary of what happened (or you can email us pictures!), they will earn Monkey Moolah.   

Social Studies

We are discussing the continents and oceans on our world map.  The quiz on Friday, October 18^th will cover two weeks of material, including last week's map skills. 

Narrative Memoirs: E.E.K.K.!!!

As we continue to work on our memoirs, we are proud of the way you have embraced the idea of making your ideas better through the writing of several drafts.  Many students began to notice that their rough draft was looking like a "sloppy copy" by the end of the week, as we continued to add more and more detail.  We also did a check to see if we were following the rules of writing (i.e. using appropriate capitalization and punctuation).  In many situations, being sloppy is a bad thing.  The messier your room is, the more unhappy your parents will become. But in writing, having a "sloppy copy," like the example pictured, is a good thing. It means you're thinking about how you can make your writing better, more clear, more detailed, and more grammatically correct.

Some of us can make changes to our writing and update our "sloppy copies" all on our own, but most writers need feedback.  We learned how to get feedback from peer partners by E.E.K.K.-ing!!!  Have you told your family about your eye-to-eye, knee-to-knee peer conference?  Have you thought about the compliment and suggestion your partner gave you?  Do you agree with their feedback?  Why or why not?  Check out these students getting feedback.

We will continue to E.E.K.K. with our partner this week, as we move toward publishing our narrative memoir.  Check out our rubric below.  This is our guide in ensuring our writing moves toward meeting third grade expectations! 

Nonfiction Narrative/Memoir Rubric

Narrative Element	Description of Narrative Element
Title & Focus	Related title is used and moment of overcoming a fear is mentioned
Engaging Beginning	Characters and setting have been introduced in an engaging manner
Story Structure & Sequence of Events	Beginning, Middle, and End that follows a chronological sequence of events
Details	True, exact details are used to create a picture in the mind of the reader
Closing	Ending wraps it up and reflects on lesson learned using an engaging format
Editing: C.U.P.S.	Corrections have been made to a 3rdgrade standard in capitalization, awkward wording, punctuation, and spelling

Author’s Comments: 

I am proud of_________________________________

I need to work on______________________________

The Jungle Journal for the Week of 10/7/13

Reminders

Field trip forms and $ are due October 11^th.

The Book Fair is this week!  Our class visit is Tuesday.  Students are welcome to bring money to shop during our visit.  Family Night is Tuesday from 5-8 PM.

Readers’ Workshop

It is essential that stories ignite a vital sort of imagination, one that allows readers to live inside the world of the story, to identify with the characters, seeing and sensing situations from inside the characters’ minds.  This week, we are beginning to focus on personal response, envisionment, and empathy to strengthen the connection between readers and characters.  One way of accomplishing this goal, is focusing on the mental movie playing in our minds as we read.  Ask your child what they envision as they complete their nightly reading.

Writers’ Workshop

This week we will work to edit our memoirs.  We will be using CUPS to help us as we edit our pieces.  C stands for capitalization, U stands for understandable, P stands for punctuation, and S stands for spelling.  Students will work with a peer and in teacher led small groups to make necessary changes to their pieces before we begin publishing our memoirs.

Skills

Students should study and complete one of the homework options for list 5.  This week’s list features homophones, so students will need to focus on correct spelling as well as the correct meaning of each word.  Our quiz will be Friday. The quiz will also cover our skills topic of the week, past, present, and future tense verbs.  Our daily skills sheet (in their ROAR folder) will serve as their study guide.

Math

The students are discovering different ways to find the difference between 2-digit numbers and 3-digit numbers, through travel problems.  They will have a Travel Story quiz on Wednesday, October 9^th.  Students should review Unit 3, pages 54, 55, 58, 59, and 62 in their workbook to prepare.  Some of the workbook pages have been completed in class and can be a study tool, while some of the pages are additional review.  Ask your child to explain their work to you, focusing on writing the equation that matches the story, finding the difference between two numbers, and jumping to landmark numbers.     

Science

We are exploring what matter is and how it can be measured.  Students should recognize that the properties of matter (mass, volume, length, and temperature) can be measured and compared using tools.  Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass.  Properties of matter include size, shape, color, texture, and hardness.  They will have a quiz over Chapter 3, Lessons 1 and 2 on Friday, October 11^th.  The students can review Lesson 1 (pages 99-103) and Lesson 2 (pages 105-107) in their Science workbook to prepare. 

Social Studies

This week we are learning how to read a map key and compass rose.  There will not be a quiz until next Friday, October 18^th.

The Jungle Journal for the Week of 9/30/13

Reminders

Fall picture day is this Friday.

Field trip forms and $ are due October 11^th.

Readers’ Workshop

This week we will continue to work with our reading partner, exploring different ways of retelling a story.  Readers might start at the beginning and move forward through the story, or they might start at the current moment in their storyline and then back up.  Reading partners will use these retellings as a way to share and recommend texts with one another.  Ask your child how their partnership is working out!  What have they learned about their partner as a reader?

Writers’ Workshop

Student rough drafts should be completed at this point, as we move towards revising our memoirs.  We will work to construct engaging beginnings and satisfying closings.  Your child is welcome to bring their writing home to show you their progress.  Look for their use of sensory details, as this has been the main focus of this writing project!

Skills

Students should study and complete one of the homework options for list 4.  Our quiz will be Friday. The quiz will also cover our skills topic of the week, action verbs.  Our daily skills sheet (in their ROAR folder) will serve as their study guide.

Math

Students are solving distance riddles in which they find pairs of 2- and 3-digit numbers at given distances from a landmark (such as 100, 200 or 300) and determine the difference between the numbers in each pair.  We are focusing on jumping to landmarks on the number line.  Ask your child the following distance riddle question:  I am 36 more than 200.  What number am I?  I am 36 less than 200.  What number am I?  What is the difference between those two numbers?  There will be a Distance Riddle Quiz on Wednesday, October 2nd.  You can review Math workbook Unit 3, pages 49, 50, 51, and 57 to prepare.

Science

We are learning about some of the properties of matter.  We have discussed that matter is anything that takes up space and has mass.  Properties of matter include size, shape, color, texture, and hardness.  We are also participating in hands-on explorations to learn how matter is measured.  Properties of matter, such as mass , volume, length, and temperature, can be measured and compared using tools.                                                                      

Social Studies

We are studying Chapter 2, Lesson 3:  Communities and Resources.  Please study the blue sheet to be prepared for the quiz on Friday, October 4^th.

The Jungle Journal for the Week of 9/23/13

Reminders

Field trip $ and forms are due October 11^th.

Open House is this Thursday, September 26^th at

6:30 PM.  Please note that our Open House is a museum, where your child will be your tour guide.  If you do not bring them with you, it will be difficult to navigate each station on the tour.  Also, Mrs. Z is excited to attend our Open House and meet everyone!

Readers’ Workshop

This week we will be exploring reading partnerships.  We will learn about a classmate’s reading habits and brainstorm keys for successful conversation. 

Look for your child’s first reading comprehension test to come home this week in the Tuesday Take Home Folder.

Writers’ Workshop

This week students should have a completed first draft of their memoir.  Students will work to analyze their writing, noting strengths and weaknesses; ultimately setting a goal as a writer.   We will also focus on creating engaging beginnings, to captivate the reader’s attention!

Skills

Students should study and complete one of the homework options for list 3.  Our quiz will be Friday. The quiz will also cover our skills topic of the week, possessive nouns.  Our daily skills sheet (in their ROAR folder) will serve as their study guide.

Social Studies

This week we will be focusing on Chapter 2, Lesson 2; Our Country’s Geography.  Students should study the blue DOSS sheet in their ROAR Folder for Friday’s quiz.

Math

We are continuing to refine our addition strategies.  Students should be able to solve addition problems with 3 and 4-digit numbers by using strategies that involve breaking numbers apart (decomposing by place value), number lines, visual representations, left to right, or the traditional algorithm.  It is important for students to use a strategy they feel confident using to produce an accurate result in an efficient amount of time.  The students should also have a 2nd strategy for double-checking purposes.  They will have an addition strategy quiz this Wednesday.

Ask your child to solve the following story problem:  Lauren has 256 rubber bands to make bracelets.  If her friend gives her 185 more, how many rubber bands will Lauren have to make bracelets now?

We will also begin to work with subtraction stories at the end of the week.  The students will be introduced to different types of subtraction problems and we will discuss their strategies.

Science

We are beginning Chapter 3:  Matter and Its Properties.  In this chapter, students learn how to measure and compare the length, volume, mass, and temperature of objects.  Your child will also learn how to compare matter using some of its properties, such as size, shape, color, texture, and hardness; how to identify the states of matter; and how water changes states (from solid, to liquid or gas, and so forth).

Your child is receiving the Chapter 1:  Practice of Science end of unit assessment in their Tuesday Take Home Folder.  Please refer to the letter attached regarding a revision opportunity that can help your child earn some additional points on this assessment.  These revisions are due on, or before Friday, September 27^th.  All students are encouraged to complete the test revisions in order to earn a higher score.

The Jungle Journal for the Week of 9/16/13

Readers’ Workshop

This week we will continue exploring clues in the context of the stories we read.  We will recognize how these clues can help us determine the meanings of unknown words.  We will be examining homographs (words with similar spellings but different meanings depending on the context) and will end the week by introducing common prefixes and suffixes.  Be sure to check out the blog later this week for more information about the prefixes and suffixes we are exploring! 

Scholastic orders are due this Thursday.  Look for a reminder in the Tuesday Folder!

Writers’ Workshop

We will continue drafting our memoirs this week.  Our focus will be to include oodles of exact, true details in our pieces.  Students will be reviewing and ultimately adding sensory details (details that appeal to the five senses) to their drafts.  These details will help bring their stories to life and let readers feel as though they were in that moment with the author.  We will then move toward noticing our strengths and weaknesses as writers, as we move toward the editing phase.

Skills

Students should study and complete one of the homework options for list 2.  Our quiz will be Friday. The quiz will also cover our skills topic of the week, regular and irregular, plural nouns.  Our daily skills sheet (in their ROAR folder) will serve as their study guide.

  

Math

Students are practicing solving addition problems with 3- and 4-digit numbers.  We are discussing different ways to start addition strategies.  We are also choosing from among several first steps (called starter problems) for solving addition problems to find the solution.

Addition Starter Problems

100 + 200 = _____           136 + 200 = _____

136+ 4 = _____                                                                     Ask your child:  Which of these problems was easiest for you to solve?  Could you solve some of them in your head?  The three above problems can be used as starter problems, or a first step, for solving the below problem?

136 + 127 = _____                                                                     The students have an addition strategy quiz on Wednesday, September 18^th. 

Science

We are concluding our study on how scientists investigate.  The students should know:  They use tools to observe.  They keep records and communicate their results.  They observe and infer.  They ask questions and perform experiments.  The end of unit assessment is on Wednesday, September 18^th.  

                                                                      

Social Studies

Our lesson is Earth’s Land and Water.  The quiz will be on Friday, September 20^th.  Please be sure your child reviews their blue sheet nightly to be successful.