Week of November 19th

Greetings, 

It has been another exciting week in Grade 3! We have been busy with our nonfiction reading and writing units. Over the past few weeks, we have been reading a lot of non-fiction books by the author Melissa Steward and we are looking forward to skyping with her to ask questions about non-fiction writing and the process she goes through to write her books! 

This week is a shortened week with no school on Tuesday in honor of the Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday.

We are looking forward to skyping with Melissa Stewart on Wednesday morning and making ornaments with parent helpers on Thursday. 

On Friday students will celebrate Deepavali and are encouraged to wear traditional Indian clothing to celebrate. 

Just a reminder Scholastic Book Orders went home with students on Friday and you should have received an email on how to order the books – as this is a cashless system. 

This week will begin on Day 8

No School on Tuesday, November 20th

Reading Students will continue reading nonfiction. Every time the students pick up a new nonfiction book it is important for them to rev up their minds by asking and thinking: What sort of text is this? What will this must be about? What parts/subtopics? Recall prior knowledge and build expectations Students will also continue to practice finding the main idea of the nonfiction texts they are reading along with pushing their thinking and having discussions with others about their texts.

Writing Students will work on connecting the information in their chapters by balancing facts and ideas. We will revise our work and use strategies that will focus on word choice and structure. If we do not have enough interesting facts, we will become researchers who can research and find more information to enhance their informational books.

Math Students will continue to work on word problems and applying different methods of subtraction, including the standard algorithm.

Science Students have completed a model of the rainforest ecosystem as a class and are finishing a model of an ecosystem they worked on in small groups. We will now move into how animals survive. We will look at adaptations, migrations, and working in groups.

Week of November 12th

Greetings,

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and the International Fest on Saturday. Even though last week was a shortened week it was a wonderful week of learning and celebrations. Our first international flag parade at our new campus was a huge success and showcased how fortunate we are at ISKL to have such a diverse group of students. 

Students continue to immerse themselves into our non-fiction reading and writing units. Choosing topics for their information books and organizing that information in a way that makes sense. Students are getting help by looking and reading different non-fiction texts and noticing how the author presents the information and what text features they use. 

We look forward to a full week of learning this week!

This week will begin on Day 3

Reading Students will continue their work on talking about texts in conversation with their reading partners using prompts such as: This makes me think that.. I wonder.. It is important to notice that… Students will also determine perspective. One of the questions they will ask themselves as they read a text is: “Is the perspective or point of view of this topic different from the reader's’ point of view?” This foster the concept that authors can write about the same topic, but have varying perspectives.

Writing Students will work on connecting the information in their chapters by using different transitional strategies, phrases, and words. They will continue to study mentor texts to help develop ideas on how to best transition in their own informational books.

Math Students will begin to look at different subtraction strategies for three digit numbers. They will be using place value, number lines, decomposing, and a standard algorithm. As students become more familiar with subtracting strategies, they will select a strategy that they feel is effective. We will also begin to work on rounding when solving subtraction problems to check the reasonability of their answer.

Science Student will examine the interdependent elements of an ecosystem. (The consumers/producers, food chain, food web and the competitive relationships that help promote adaptation in the ecosystem.

Week of November 5th

It has been another busy week in grade 3 as we dove into our non-fiction reading and writing units. We ended the week with a wonderful field trip to FRIM and learned a lot about the different living and non-living elements in that diverse ecosystem. A HUGE thank you to our parent volunteers for helping make it a smooth trip. 

This week is a shorten week with no school on Tuesday in celebration of Deepavali!

There will be no after-school activities on Monday due to the expected Deepavali traffic.

Friday will be our International Festival Flag Parade – This is an annual event at ISKL and students are encouraged to wear clothing that represents their culture and wave flags in the parade.

This week we begin on Day 7

Reading Students will organize the bits of information in a nonfiction text into categories.  They will also teach others what they’ve learned from their nonfiction texts, paying close attention to the main ideas and supporting details.

Writing They will make plans for how to organize their information writing and try different organization structures on for size. Writers look at the different parts of an information text paragraph, breaking them apart and identifying their purpose. They will write an informational paragraph.

Math Students will continue to practice a variety of addition strategies to find the sum of 3-digit numbers. They will also be solving real-world problems involving addition and measurement.

Science Students will look for commonalities among components of biomes in different locations, as well as adaptations that plants and animals make to these different biomes. They will begin to study food chains/food webs to think about the interconnectedness of living and non-living elements in an ecosystem.