Week of November 6, 2017

In 3EV we have been busy with our nonfiction reading and writing units. We were fortunate to have skyped with the author Melissa Stewart. She sparked our excitement for information writing and taught us that nonfiction writers revise, revise, revise! The students were able to ask questions and learn more from the author. This was a special opportunity for them to meet an author we have been studying in class. We actually worked with three authors last week- lucky us! Please ensure that your child is reading each day at home (ideally as we are in a nonfiction unit at least part of the time should be spent reading an informational book). A few minutes a day of basic math fact practice is important for many third graders unless your child already knows the addition and subtraction facts (to 20) fluently. In 3EV students have online access to Reflex Math and Prodigy. Students also know many games they can play to practice. Many students have fact triangles they can use to practice as well.

This past week we celebrated Deepavali. It was a wonderful day of performances and hallway activities. Please check the class blog for a few pictures from this event.

Friday we will have our annual International Flag Parade. Your child can come to school dressed in either the traditional attire or the colors of their passport country. Each student will be given an individual flag based on the passport they are enrolled with at school. We will walk around the school and field for a flag parade. Parents are invited to attend this wonderful ISKL tradition. The flag parade will be from 8:15-9:00. Please do send in PE uniforms if your child has PE on odd days.

Thanks to the parents who have started commenting on our blog posts. You can access all the student blogs from the right side of our class blog. Students are starting to comment on each other's blogs too using: a compliment, a connection, a comment, and a question. We are asking students to include at least three parts to their comments.

This week will begin on Day 1.

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 continue 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. This is the last week of this math unit.

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.

On a personal note: As you know, I am working with teachers who are teaching refugee children here in KL. At our next session in late November ( the 25th) we will be making teaching resources from everyday items.  I am hoping to collect plastic bottle tops, cereal boxes/similar thin cardboard boxes, toilet/kitchen rolls, cardboard egg containers. Many thanks to those of you who have already sent things in and please keep sending in items. In February we will be collecting gently used picture books to donate.  

This week we will have two teachers from a local Malaysian school visit one of our math lessons. These teachers are learning more about the way we teach math and will be in for six math lessons over the course of the year.