April Newsletter
LITERACY:
Reading: Poetry:
Throughout National Poetry Month, we read all types of poetry; rhyming poems, haikus, short and long poems. Within poetry, we discovered many elements that poets used to strengthen their poetry. Some of those elements included; similes, metaphors, personification and alliteration. While reading, we also noticed the Point of View poets wrote from, the main idea and the overall theme of a poem. While exploring and writing responses about our discoveries within poetry, we will carry this knowledge into writing our own poetry.
Some of the poetry that we will begin to write is more interpretive; not following the typical structure of writing but using line breaks, stanzas and verses. The use of writing with our five senses will be essential to creating poems that will help the reader visualize the scene. We will also experiment with other structures like rhyme schemes, reverso poems, haikus and color poems. While poems are typically short, sometimes those few words can be so powerful and descriptive.
Persuasive Writing:
In our new Lucy Calkins curriculum, our 2nd unit of study is titled “Changing the World: Persuasive Speeches, Petitions, and Editorials.” Students will continue to use critical thinking to create meaning strategically in the genre of persuasive writing. To start the unit in bend one, third graders will gather and support bold and brave opinions as they write persuasive speeches. Students will learn that persuasive writers look at their world and imagine how it could be better to grow ideas for possible writing projects. They’ll see problems that need to be addressed and imagine solutions then write quick persuasive speeches. After practice writing many short speeches, students will spend the second bend of this unit choosing to work for an extended amount of time on one piece, taking it through the writing process. In the third bend of this unit, students will transfer and apply everything they have learned about writing persuasive speeches to writing other types of opinion pieces-petitions, editorials, persuasive letters, and so on. Students will see that much of what they have already learned to do applies to these other persuasive genres. In the final bend of this unit, “Cause Groups,” students will work in collaborative groups to support causes. These groups will decide on various projects they need to create to get others to act for their cause. To finish off the unit, students will write a final piece and consider where in the world the text should go for it to reach the particular audience the write has in mind. This entire unit will allow our third graders to put their civic responsibility into action through writing!
SCIENCE:
Earth Materials- Rocks
For our rock unit students will be exploring solid materials from the earth, rocks and minerals. The focus is taking materials apart to find what they are made of and putting materials together to better understand rock and their properties of the rock cycle. Students will:
- Use measuring tools to gather data about rocks.
- Collect and organize data about rocks.
- Use evaporation to investigate rock composition.
- Learn that rocks are composed of minerals and that minerals cannot be physically separated into other materials.
- Compare their activities to the work of a geologist.
- Acquire vocabulary used in earth science.
- Exercise language and math skills in the context of science
- Use scientific thinking processes to conduct investigations and build explanations; observing, communicating, comparing and organizing.
MATH:
Parts of a Whole Can Be Modeled and Represented in Different Ways
Students have begun to develop an understanding of fractions as numbers. We will begin to start solving problems, describing fractions as numbers on a number line, and explaining equivalence of fractions. Through all activities, our class is using critical thinking to make sense of problems and demonstrating resiliency when persevering in solving them. This requires them to interpret, evaluate, summarize and synthesize every day!
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:
April 11-April 14: Math PARCC testing
April 15: PARCC Party
April 22: No School
