Dictionaries from the Rotary Club

On Friday, Dr. Creeden and Mr. Shannon visited Steward School and taught the third graders about the many ways Rotaty Club helps make the world a better place. The children watched  a video and learned how the Rotary Club helps provide clean drinking water, polio vaccines and scholarship money. Our Student Council is an Early Act Club which is also a part of Rotary Club. The entire third grade received dictionaries from the Topsfield/Boxford/Middleton Rotary Club. The children loved their dictionaries and put them to immediate use back in the classroom looking up vocabulary words. They were very grateful to the Rotary Club for their dictionaries!

Holiday Party

Our Holiday Party was a huge success! The children loved making the craft and playing Holiday Bingo! Two minutes before dismissal they didn't want to stop! Thank you to everyone that provided food, paper products, the craft and helped with the party.  Mrs. Corliss' class wishes everyone a joyous Holiday season!

Wreaths Across America

The Third Grade student Council recently donated money to purchase 6 wreaths for Wreaths Across America. The wreaths were made in Maine and the trucks made a stop in Topsfield on their to Arlington National Cemetery. On December 13th, volunteers were able to place the wreaths in every section of Arlington National Cemetery and honor over 230,000 veterans!  Mrs. Costa and I met some of our third graders at the Topsfield Fair Grounds to welcome the volunteers and attend the ceremony. A wreath was presented to Topsfield and it was placed at the memorial in front of the town library.

Wreaths Across America's mission is: Remember. Honor. Teach.

Click the link below to see the Wreaths Across America convoy leaving Ellsworth, Maine.

http://safeshare.tv/w/CLoKyyjjkk

To learn more about Wreaths Across America, please visit their website.
http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/

We are waiting for the Wreaths Across America Trucks to arrive!

The children counted 12 tractor trailers filled with wreaths.

Each truck was filled with thousands of wreaths.

Some of the volunteers were on the bus.

Book Swap

I would like to celebrate the holidays with the

children by having a book swap on Tuesday, December 23^rd.  Please

send in a third grade level paperback book wrapped and marked:

boy (if your child is a boy)

or

girl (if your child is a girl)

Your child’s name does not need to be included on the wrapped

gift.  Please contact me if you have any questions.  

Books should be sent in by Friday, December 19^th!

Chinese Acrobats

On Tuesday we saw some very talented acrobats perform. This was an amazing Cultural Enrichment program. Thank you to TESPTO for providing these enrichment programs for us!

Hour of Code

On Thursday our class participated in Hour of Code. This is a global event to expose students to computer science. The boys and girls had to write the code of a video game. The children loved doing this! It was definitely challenging and required students to use problem solving and logical thinking skills. If the children would like to continue coding they can click on the link below.

http://code.org/learn

Click here to see the video we watched about Hour of Code

They can also try the other challenges on the page, such as the Frozen Game.

Students had to give the commands to make the Angry Bird move.

Student Council

Just a reminder that the Third Grade Student Council will meet tomorrow at 8:00. I hope to see you there!

Jeans for Troops

The Third Grade Early Act Club recently organized a fundraiser to support the G.I. Go Fund. The G.I. Go Fund helps our veterans with health care, education, employment and housing needs.

Our class made posters to let everyone know about the event.

The third graders put the signs up in the hallways and helped collect the money.

We counted the money during math and used our addition and multiplication skills. It was very exciting counting real money!

The fundraiser was geared toward the staff, but we also had some generous students show their support with donations. I am proud to report that we collected $270.19 for the G.I. Go Fund!

If you would like more information about the G.I. Go Fund, please click here.

Veteran's Day Assmebly

During our Veteran's Day assembly we had a surprise visitor. Task Force Commander, Christopher S. Vanek skyped with us from Afghanistan! Last year, students from Steward School wrote letters to some of the troops serving with Commander Vanek who had been injured. To show appreciation for the letters and support, Commander Vanek presented Steward School with this flag which had been flown in Afghanistan. We were so honored and proud to receive this gift. The flag is currently on display in the Steward School library. Check it out next time you visit Steward School.

Bar Models

We used the website Math Playground to practice bar models.

The class has been solving one and two-step real-world
 problems using bar models. The children learned to draw
 bar models to help them visualize and make sense of the 
relationship between the values given in the problem. 

In class we used the following steps to set up bar models:
1. Read the problem
2. Ask, "What are you solving for?"
3. Ask, "What information do you know?"
4. Write labels
5. Draw Bars
6. Fill in "The information you know."
7. Solve the unknown

Math Playground is an excellent site to practice bar models. Math Playground calls them "Thinking Blocks," but they work the same. The link below can be used for extra help with addition and subtraction word problems.

Click here to access Math Playground

This math unit addresses the standards 3.NBT.2 and 3.OA.8. The students will be assessed on their Report Card for their proficiency with these standards all three terms this year.
3.NBT.2 -  Uses place value understanding to fluently add and subtract within 1,000

3.OA.8 - Solves two-step word problems using addition and subtraction

Cursive

Every Monday and Friday the children learn two cursive letters during Fundations. The class has already learned all of the lower case letters and are now learning capital letters. The students love learning to write in cursive and they are really good at it!

The students practice their cursive on white boards.

Subtraction with Regrouping

The class recently learned to subtract two 4-digit numbers with and without regrouping. On the day these pictures were taken, the students were practicing subtracting across zeroes. The children worked with a partner to demonstrate their understanding and took turns being a "builder" and a "recorder". The"builder" solved the problem using base-ten blocks and a place value chart and the  "recorder" solved the problem using the traditional algorithm. 

How are addition and subtraction related?

As we worked on subtraction problems, we discussed the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction. I reminded the class that when good students solve a subtraction problem, they  check their answers using addition.

This lesson addressed standard 3.NBT.2.

Fluently add and subtract within 1000 using strategies and algorithms based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction

Halloween Party

Here are a few pictures from our Halloween Party.  The children looked great in their costumes! Thank you to everyone that provided food, crafts, paper products and helped with the party.   

We had fun making our craft!

Everyone enjoyed dressing up in their costumes!

Raz-Kids

 

The students are excited about Raz-Kids! The more you read the better reader you become!

Yesterday the class was introduced to Raz-Kids. This is a wonderful resources which gives the children access to hundreds of e-books.When using Raz-Kids, the children should listen to the book, read the book and then answer the comprehension questions. When the students read the book, they can even choose to record themselves as they read. Passwords and a letter explaining Raz-Kids went home today.  Students should spend at least 15 minutes on Raz-Kids for homework tonight. (Please note: Although Raz Kids will be assigned for homework periodically, the children can use the website whenever they would like.) The class was really excited about Raz-Kids. Last night, many students used Raz-Kids just for fun!  I love how excited they are to read!

Click on the book to access Raz-Kids

Here is a quote from another third grade teacher that uses Raz-Kids. I'm sharing it because it sums up the features of Raz-Kids that I think are beneficial to my students.

I have some students that didn’t like to read and struggled reading. …[H]earing the story first diminished some anxiety that my struggling readers had. With my higher reading students they tend to read but not really read for meaning. Raz-Kids asks them questions at the end and stops them. This allows them to think about what they are reading and reinforces comprehension.Katrina Willette
3rd Grade Teacher
Charlotte Mecklenburg School, North Carolina
Standard Addressed:RF.3.4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

Halloween Party

After school today I attended a Tech Talk at Steward School. This is a workshop where teachers get to learn about technology. Mrs. Costa taught me how to make a Pow Toon slide show. I think it's really cool! So I decided to make the invitation to our Halloween Party using Pow Toon. Check it out below. I'd love to hear what you think. click here for information about our Halloween Party Thanks for taking the time to look at our class blog, P.S. If you didn't have a pen and paper ready the party is October 31st at 10:30. Below is the information from the Steward School Newsletter about Halloween.    As you know next week may mean costumes, trick-or-treating and candy.  In following our health/wellness guidelines, we are asking that candy not be sent to school, but rather saved for home.  If you do send candy to school, we of course ask that it not contain nuts and that it not come in large quantities.  This is a family choice but we need to keep our students safe as well.  
      We are looking forward to our Halloween celebrations that will take place in classrooms, as determined by individual teachers and room parents.  We ask that no weapons such as swords, knives or other props that may be viewed as violent are sent to school.  Masks are permissible, so long as they are not frightening or gruesome.  In addition, face make-up should be saved for trick-or-treating as well.  This is the BUSIEST holiday of the year as many events occur simultaneously.  Whenever possible, please carpool!  You may refer to teacher newsletters or notices for information regarding holiday classroom or grade level celebrations.  

Character Traits

During reading we learned that character traits are adjectives that describe what a character is like. First, we listened to the story, Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco on Storyline.com.

Click here to listen to Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco Then, we were character detectives and discussed the character traits of Patricia and Mr. Falker To determine what a character is like we thought about: * What does a character say? * What does a character do? * What are they thinking? * What do other characters say about them? The students were challenged to choose a character and explain in writing, using evidence from the book, why they chose the character traits. Here are just a few examples of our detective work.