Geography

Social Studies

This week we began our Social Studies curriculum with the entire third grade. On Monday we discussed the question: "What is geography?" Students discussed what they know about the word geography and what they want to know. Your children are filled with lots of good questions and observations! To find out what they know about the world's continents and oceans, students were asked to filled out a blank world map. This exercise was difficult for many. As teachers we assured them that it was simply to help us understand what they can already identify so that we can tailor our teaching. On Friday, we all viewed a large map of the world and discussed the differences between and the definitions of towns, states, countries, and continents. It will be very interesting to give the children the same blank map at the end of the year and see what they have learned about continent and ocean placement.

FIELD TRIP-- On Friday, October 15th the third grade will visit the Lloyd Center in South Dartmouth to learn about and participate in a program entitled "Mysterious Monarch Migration: Tagging Monarch Butterflies." This program allows students to participate in an on going research project by assisting Lloyd Center staff in catching and tagging Monarch butterflies. The students will be introduced to Monarch Butterfly biology and migration patterns, before heading out to catch and tag these beautiful insects.

The data acquired while tagging will be contributed to Monarch Watch, an international

organization dedicated to conducting Monarch research. Students can follow the migration patterns of the butterflies on the Monarch Watch web site.

Reading and Writing

Our Making Meaning reading selections this week have been Cherries and Cherry Pits by Vera B. Williams and Have You Seen Bugs? by Joanne Oppenheim. Both of these mentor texts have helped us to practice the reading comprehension strategy of visualizing. Students are learning how to pay attention to writing and to utilize detail words to paint a picture in their mind of a setting, event, or character.

For writing this week we used two texts by Tomie DePaola, Things Will Never Be the Same and Oliver Button is a Sissy to help us understand how authors get ideas for their writing. Students have added a list of "small moments from my life" to their writing idea section of their writing idea journals and are beginning to flesh some of them out as starts to writing pieces.

Math

In Math we continue to explore place value to the hundreds. We have utilized many different tools for representing the ones, tens, and hundreds place including base-ten blocks, number disks, and money. In addition, children are learning different ways to write and represent numbers such as through numerals, words, expanded form, and pictures. This week we have also been practicing our addition and subtraction facts.

Constellations

On Monday we had our first Constellations of the year. One Monday a month, students in grades K-6 get together in multi-age groups to meet, share, and engage in activities and discussions. This "family" grouping is a wonderful way for students throughout the school to get to know each other and establish cross-grade connections. Ask your child about their Constellations experience!

Dates to Remember

Saturday, October 2: Founder's Day

Monday, October 11: Columbus Day (No School)

Friday, October 22: Parent-Teacher Conferences (No School)