"It's Monday…What Are You Reading?"

Did you know that a man once tight-rope walked between the two World Trade Center buildings?  It's true!  Ask your child about Philippe Petit, an aerialist who "spent almost an hour walking, dancing, and performing tricks a quarter of a mile in the sky."  This was a 'character' who demonstrated traits including bravery, courage, and determination in the book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.  He was goal-oriented and a risk-taker.  Check out real-live footage of Mr. Petit!  Although we read this book at the end of last week, it's such an inspiring story, I really wanted to share it!  We will continue our study of character traits and discuss what moves/contributes to the actions of characters in a story.  We are currently reading different Gooney Bird books in our book clubs and observing her grow and change as a creative, fun-loving, unique character!

"It's Monday…What Are You Reading?"

Today, we continued to discuss our reading strategies/thinking while reading post-its with a focus on Author's Craft.  We talked about John Updike's use of literary devices in his poem, October.  We made great connections to how we feel in the month of October.  However, students were a little stumped on what "frost bites the lawn" might look like in the early October morning.  Perhaps show them one morning!  We also noticed that he intentionally writes with beautiful craft, including personification, similes, metaphors, and imagery.  We discussed some new terms, too, including idiom, hyperbole, and assonance.  See if your child knows these literary devices!  We also continued our discussion of Gooney Bird Greene, noticing that the author writes with a lot of repetition in her story.

  

"It's Monday…What Are You Reading?"

I am officially restarting my meme, "It's Monday…What Are You Reading?" as a way to share what our class is reading together!  What is a meme?  Check it out!  This week, our class is studying what good readers do while independent reading.  I am giving mini lessons on each of the strategy posters that were in the Open House packets, including: Predicting, Questioning, Making T-T Connections, thinking about theme, inferring character traits, and noticing Author's Craft.  I will model through my read-aloud Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry.  What a unique character she is!  At the end of the week, ask your child what makes Gooney Bird so special!  I think your children will enjoy hearing the unique stories she tells in Mrs. Lowry's story.  I also shared the story, The Boy Who Loves Words, with the class today.  See the video below!  It's a great story with a lot of high-level vocabulary in it.  It goes along with our unit, Building a Reading Life, which we just completed and now we move on to Character Traits with Gooney Bird!    

Poetry Journals

This morning, we put together our poetry journals that we will use all year!  These journals are where we will paste in and work with poetry daily, a new poem each week!  We will read and reread the poems each morning then complete the assignment described in our morning message found on the Smartboard.  The assignments will include:  highlight specific author's craft (similes, metaphors, rhyme, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.), picture the poem, circle special words, underline specific parts of the poem, or illustrate your favorite stanza!  I'll share these journals at conferences in December, then look for this journal to come home in June!  Ask your child about our weekly poem, September, by John Updike!

Book Clubs!

Today during Reading, we started the first of a series of lessons that will teach students how to be active members of a Book Club.  Book Clubs will occur throughout the school year.  During Book Clubs, students will read and discuss a book together that connects to our learning theme, genre, or strategy.  Reader's Workshop will include the following pieces: a minilesson at the rug area, Book Clubs, independent reading, then conclude with Reader's Round-Up.  Check out the video we watched and discussed today to learn what Books Clubs are all about!

Great first week!

We had a great first week of 3rd grade together!  I hope all of the students enjoyed it while adjusting to the schedule and routines in room 23.  In reading, we read lots of great books already that revolve around the theme of feelings, including how to treat others and stay true to yourself.  These books included:  First Day Jitters, Chrysanthemum, Don't Laugh At Me, Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, and A Bad Case of the Stripes.  These books helped to lay the foundation for how I expect my students to treat one another in our classroom.  We will read more of these themed books this week, including my personal favorite Thank You, Mr. Falker, Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, and Do Unto Otters.  Check out some of these stories on storylineonline.net.  All students finally got to choose a book from our classroom library, and learned what independent readers do at reader's workshop.  Beofre picking, students learned the "I PICK" chant to help them choose a good book!  Check out the chart below for tips on how readers choose a book!  We developed it together after students picked out their first independent reading book of the year.  Stay tuned as I share with you more good reads from our first unit, Building a Reading Life.

Our Classroom Library

Way Readers Choose Books anchor chart

I Pick!

Welcome to 3rd Grade!

Welcome to 3rd grade!  Thanks for visiting my blog.  Here you will find weekly blog entries, photos, and videos connected to what is happening in our classroom.  Today, I want to share a little bit about myself.  This is my tenth year of teaching!  I currently live in Newington with my husband and two daughters.  You will get to hear a lot about them during the school year!  Brooklyn is 3 and Camryn is 1.  During the summer, we spent everyday doing something FUN!  We spent two weeks at our beach cottage, days at the local park, evenings getting ice cream at Carvel,  a day at the farm, and we read lots and LOTS of books!  Both of my daughters love to "read!"  I am sharing a summer mosaic of pictures from our beach vacation of Brooklyn, Camryn, my cousins Emi and Dori, and my nephew Mason.  Enjoy!  I look forward to a SUPER school year with all of you!

Also, check out a video of myself that I created last year!