Los Feliz Arts

Our current unit in Theatre Arts is Imagination Play.  Students have been, throughout the unit, collaborating and improvising a story and script.  The characters and stories come directly from their collective imagination.  Please print out a script for your child so that he or she can practice their lines at home. The Third and Fourth Grade performance date will be announced shortly.

Ms. Chan’s class: Rainforest Dilemma

Ms. Mellinger’s class: Lava Lava Land

Ms. Son’s class: Tropical Moon

3rd Grade Feb 2010 Newsletter

Dear Families,

We know that you have been greatly anticipating this month’s newsletter, so thank you for patience. Our students continue to amaze us with their thirst for knowledge and their ability to make connections. We are witnessing so much growth in the children these days! Here’s what’s been going on inside our classrooms.

Little Book Buddies
Each 3rd grade class has been paired up with one of our Kindergarten classes as book buddies for the rest of the year (Ms. Mellinger with Mrs. Fann, Miss Chan with Mrs. Pardo, and Miss Son with Ms. Jindra). Each pair of classes recently had an opportunity to visit our neighborhood library on a walking field trip where they looked at books together and read to one another. Thank you to our parent volunteers who came with us!
(Ava reading to her little buddy Kalen)

Writing
3rd graders have been busy writers this past month!  As we began our new unit of study on essay writing, your children have been collecting essay ideas and developing their ideas through a writing process much like their personal narratives/small moments. As we launched into essay writing, it was important for our writers to discover the strategies to generating essay topics. By investigating the question, “Where do ideas for essays come from?” students have learned how to take an idea, an observation, or an issue, and develop topics about it. Students have been crafting how to take a stand, defend their opinion on an issue and support it with details. In this unit, we have seen our students transform their writing into magnificent essays using their individual creativity and voice.

In the month of February, students will journey through a more organized publishing process. 3rd graders will examine an essay writing criteria chart to help revise their essays. We will look at “re-visioning” our work by sharpening our writing conventions, mechanics, spelling, and adding more details to make our essays stronger. Students will begin to discover that “once we are done, we’ve only just begun!” Our final piece will be celebrated, details to follow!

Reading
Students have learned a great deal about two reading comprehension strategies: making connections and determining importance. When students use the strategy of making connections, the book they read may remind them of something from their background knowledge. It may remind them of their own personal experience (text-to-self), another book (text-to-text), or something in the world like the music, a movie, TV, the Internet, etc. (text-to-world). We are teaching children how to determine importance in the books they read. Our learning about non-fiction text included: photographs, illustrations, captions, table of contents, index, glossary, maps, labels, comparisons, cutaways, close-ups, titles, headings, subheadings, bullets, textual cues, punctuation marks, and print cues. We turned our attention to fictional text and discussed that many of the keys to determining importance in non-fiction text are also in fiction. However, we focused on fictional story elements: setting, characters, events, problem, and solution. Be sure to discuss these comprehension strategies with your child when reading together at home.

Word Study
Have you already heard about Affix Awareness Week? Our kick-off to learning about prefixes and affixes began with introducing how word elements are affixed to root or base words. Students have looked at print in the classroom differently ever since! Help open their eyes to examples of affixes in print when you are together. Billboards, advertisements, newspapers, menus, etc. can provide examples of affixes and make learning about them even more exciting. Each student is working in their “Suffix-tionary” by looking explicitly at each suffix, its meaning, and the root or base word the suffix was attached to in order to make a bigger word (i.e. –able means capable or worth of, so lovable means worthy of love). A natural awareness of phonetic rules (like dropping the “e” in love before adding the –able) occurs in our word study. We also see an impact in student spelling during written assignments. Hooray for affixes!

Math
In December, students used blocks to conceptually understand what multi-digit multiplication is. Before teaching the step-by-step process in multiplying larger numbers, our 3rd graders represented for example, what 34 x 5 looks like. They showed 5 groups of 34, and manipulated the blocks by exchanging 10 ones for a ten, or 10 tens for a hundred. By doing so, students understood the rationale behind the steps in a traditional algorithm, deepening the meaning behind the numbers in a math problem.

In January we taught our students how the addition of a decimal point and dollar sign turns the same multiplication problem into a money problem. We spent a week reviewing our multiplication facts 0-9 and students shared with each other different strategies that help them know their facts. Fact family triangles were introduced to show students how three numbers in a multiplication problem (the 2 factors and the product) are related to each other. This provided a nice transition into division, and students developed a deeper understanding of the inverse relationship between multiplication and division. Students saw how division uses the same fact families, and how the use of arrays relates the two operations together. For instance, students were asked to use blocks to show 4 rows of 6. Then they were able to see not only how 4 groups of 6 is 24, but how 24 divided into 4 groups is 6, or how 24 divided into 6 groups is 4. Then, students experienced division in a playful and meaningful context by becoming “employees” at a packing company. They had to figure out how to evenly load a certain number of cartons onto trucks.

Finally, we began to focus on a different problem solving strategy every week. Students are learning how to read a story problem, extract the information needed to solve the problem, use a strategy that will help them solve (like drawing a picture or working backwards), then solve their math and explain their thinking in words.

Extensions
This month, our guiding question was, “What plants and trees are indigenous to California?” and an essential question to our inquiry that sparked our curiosity was, “How did Native Americans of California use plants and trees in everyday life?” Students worked in collaborate groups of three or four to learn all the intricacies about how Native Americans in California used the oak tree, agave (or century plant), mesquite, and pine tree. Children even got to taste a pine nut, so ask your child if it was delicious! Students taught one another about their new expertise on indigenous plants in creative ways (theater, posters, talk shows, dioramas, etc.). What an exciting time of learning!

(Alistair posing as an oak tree while Tiger collects his acorns)

Science
In our unit “Structures of Life”, our 3rd grade scientists saw the effect water had on seeds by observing various seed growth over time. Students observed the features on different kind of seeds, made predictions about the changes that will occur to the seeds in water, and recorded those changes. They learned seed parts such as the seed coat, cotyledon, and the embryo.

During the past few weeks, our focus in Science has been on adaptations- changes in an organism that occur over a long period of time. Students have been learning about how different animals and plants need to adapt to their environment in order to survive. We watched a DVD that showed how organisms have adaptations of movement, getting food, defense, and caring for their young. Each group was given a habitat to become the “expert” in, and we will spend the next few weeks learning from each other, the kids of adaptations organisms have in different habitats.

(Harrison and Sean categorize the
adaptations of organisms in their habitat)
D.W.O.K/ Different Ways of Knowing/ Project Based
“How do we link the past to present by studying the first people of California?” As 3rd graders investigated this guiding question in January, students are making connections to the beginnings of our community. We looked at the main Native Americans, the Chumash, and the Gabrielino/Tongva tribes that inhabited Southern California first. 3rd graders studied their culture, how they used California’s resources, and how their community changed. From there, students continued to explore how Spain, Mexico, and the United States changed California’s history. Each country contributed to the growth and change of the Pueblo of Los Angeles in the 1800’s. Students discovered that as soon as California became a state in 1848, the diversity of Los Angeles also grew. California was becoming a unique state with newcomers from all over the nation and globe, but how did California attract new settlers into our community?

Students learned that advertisements flourished in the 1850’s to lure newcomers into California, especially after the discovery of gold. They are in the process of creating a California advertisement from the 1850’s following a criteria chart, to show them what is expected from their advertisement. Understanding that California is now U.S. territory, our next steps are to zoom out from our community and look at the foundation of the United States by studying some important figures from our nation’s history and national symbols.

We hope you enjoyed reading all our updates!

Sincerely,

The 3rd Grade Team
Ms. Mellinger, Miss Chan, and Miss Son

Dear Families,

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Here are some updates from all the learning that took place in November.

READER’S WORKSHOP: Our 3rd graders have learned a great deal this month about the reading comprehension strategies of predicting and inferring. Both strategies are similar in the fact that as a reader you are a bit like a sleuth, looking for clues. When predicting, the clues spark thinking about what might happen next in the story. Students read many wonderful titles to encourage them to remain interested in their story and eager to turn the page to read what happens next. There is a fine line between making inferences and making predictions. Students have been taught the difference. Inferring is like “reading between the lines.” A reader may make conclusions about the past, present, or future in the story. However, when a reader infers, the text and pictures do not confirm whether or not your inference is accurate. For instance, a character may storm away stomping his feet, and you would infer he is mad. To introduce inferring, students selected magazine pictures without words and made inferences based on the clues. In “real life” we make inferences all the time! The children have become savvy at making inferences to comprehend what they are reading in class. We encourage families to incorporate and discuss these strategies when reading together at home. Using reading comprehension strategies will surely make the stories come more alive!

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: This month, students have been learning what ingredients are needed to raise the quality of their narrative writing. Students are discovering new strategies to make their small moments more powerful by implementing turning points, strong emotions, focusing in on the big idea of their small moment, and creating strong leads. Turning points highlight experiences in a writer’s life when there was a first time/last time they were challenged, or a first/last time they experienced an activity with a person, an animal, or a place, and a time when they realized something important. Students are finding that writers must be able to look back on what they have experienced in the past and share their life in words. Third graders continue to learn how story telling is an effective way for writers to rehearse their ideas and drafts and bring out the true meaning of their small moments. Next month, students will learn how to use scenes from the past or future to bring out the internal story and add more fantasy to their narratives. Third graders will learn how to write with both imagined future events and well-remembered memories.

MATH: In November, students were introduced to the concept of rounding. Students learned how to round to the nearest ten, hundred, and thousand. This concept built on our students’ understanding of number sense as they needed to look closely at digits in numbers and their place value. Before the Thanksgiving Break, our third graders were given an assessment for all the concepts and skills taught since the beginning of the year. We will be happy to share their results with you during conferences next week. In December, students will review their multiplication facts 0-9 as a preparation for 2 by 1 digit multiplication (ex. 24 x 4). Please continue to have your child practice their facts at home. This week, students practiced their facts in a fun way by coming up with their own “Multiplication Rap” song. You should ask them to perform it for you!

ROTATIONS: The 3rd grade teachers are proud to announce a creative idea to further enhance learning! A new rotation schedule will promote team teaching, diversifying instruction, and enriching our students! Beginning THIS week, the children rotate through the three classrooms to work with each of the third grade teachers to learn more about Science, DWOK, and a new aspect of the curriculum we have dubbed “Extensions.” Rotations will occur Monday through Thursday from 11:30 to 12:30. Miss Son will be our Science expert teacher. Miss Chan will dig deeper in DWOK instruction, and Ms. Mellinger is eager to teach “Extensions” across the curriculum. Read below about our exciting curriculum!

SCIENCE: We are excited to begin our first science unit, “Structures of Life”. In the coming months, we will be sharing space in our classroom with plants and land snails. In this unit, children investigate the structures and behaviors of living things, starting with seeds. You can increase your child’s understanding and interest by asking about the investigations at school and by providing experiences at home. You might search for and count the seeds found in various fruits and vegetables as you prepare dinner (children will learn that all plant parts that hold seeds are technically fruits). You could grow plants from seeds, grow and eat edible sprouts, and look for the fruits and seeds of plants in your neighborhood.

DWOK: Our 3rd grade community detectives are continuing their journey through California!  Students have been exploring the four main geographical regions (the Coast, Valley, Desert, and Mountain) by modeling clay maps, discovering the resources found in each region, and creating postcards from each destination. Through this unit, students have been able to identify the location of each region, the characteristics that make them special and unique, and make connections to our community. In the upcoming month, students will be studying the past by examining the first people of California. Third graders will ponder questions such as: How can I link the past to present by studying the first people of California? Who are the people who lived on the California coastal region long ago? Students will discover and learn how the Chumash and Gabrielino tribes inhabited the California regions long ago, and how our community has changed over time with people and places.

EXTENSIONS: This new addition to our teaching day should prove to be VERY engaging! Children will have the opportunity to learn enriching content that strategically sweeps across the curriculum. However, the instruction of this class will specifically target inquiry in social studies (DWOK) and science as it relates to language arts, math, and the arts. The lessons will be project-based in nature so that understanding in content areas and connections to big ideas will be enhanced. For example, this month’s lessons will integrate math, DWOK, and language arts. The children will work in groups to select one city on each of the seven continents to research the week’s weather data. This data will be graphed and analyzed mathematically in comparison to our community’s weather the same week. It will then be written about creatively and presented to the class in a unique way. More details will be shared about these lessons in December’s newsletter, but we hope you see the potential this class has to ignite even deeper learning for the children (and teachers)!

We look forward to meeting with you to discuss your child’s progress during Parent-Teacher conferences next week.

Sincerely,
The 3rd Grade Team

Our current theater arts unit of study is Fables and Fairy Tales. Each class will showcase a fable or fairy tale from around the world.  The third grade classes will showcase on Thursday, December 17 at 6:00pm.

Ms. Chan’s class: THE MAGIC SWAN GEESE (PDF)

Ms. Mellinger’s class: THE SKY IS FALLING (PDF)

Ms. Son’s class: THE BOY WHO DREW CATS (PDF)

Dear Families,

October has been a busy but fun-filled month of learning! Here’s what’s been happening in 3rd grade.

READER’S WORKSHOP: Our students continued to learn more this month about their role during Reader’s Workshop. The children took an inventory of their reading interests and even learned how to make book recommendations to peers. Every classroom now has a recommendation list of “Must Reads” for the students’ perusal. Strategies were taught to increase reading comprehension. Children are using punctuation to help them better understand what they are reading. Each teacher introduced the children to a toolbox of “fix-up” strategies (tools) to equip children to read unknown words. The tools include: skip and read on, sounding out the word, chunking, “reading” the pictures, what I know, context clues, and asking for help to read an unknown word. We will end the month discussing the important reading comprehension strategy of sensory imagery. Children have used their imaginations to smell, taste, hear, feel, and see what an author or poet is explaining in words. Our students even compiled a book of their sensory imagery to several poems. It is exciting to see illustrations of the different imagery students have to the same poem. November will begin with exciting reading opportunities including learning how to use the reading comprehension strategies of predicting and inferring to better understand the text. Guided reading groups will be in full swing this month as well. Encourage your reader to apply these strategies when reading at home!

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: This month in writing we finished up our first unit of study on narrative writing. Students spent time going through the editing process where they checked for spelling, added details, and polished their stories. When all the students completed their finished pieces, we had a celebration and each student read their story aloud. After each reading, students gave the author two stars and a wish. The two stars were put-ups: what they liked about the story, what the author did well, what details they noticed and any other areas where the author really shined. The wish was a question or suggestion for the author. This way the students learn to evaluate themselves as writers. Our next unit is going to delve deeper into narrative writing. We are going to raise the quality of our own narrative writing by looking more closely at published authors and strategies they use. We are also going to go deeper into the editing process and have students really look closely at their spelling, punctuation, and the details of their sentences.

MATH: “How do we add and subtract greater numbers?” was the guiding question in math this month. Our lessons gave students practice with the concept of regrouping, first with the
use of base 10 blocks (exchanging 10 ones for a ten; 10 tens for a hundred, etc.), then in standard algorithms. Students also learned how to add and subtract money, using dollar signs and lining up the decimal points. Regrouping is a critical skill for 3rd graders to master, and we will continue giving students practice as we move onto other concepts like rounding next month. JiJi: This month, students began “JiJi”, a computer-based program developed by the MIND Research Institute. The program helps kids to have a conceptual understanding of math, is focused on problem-solving, and best of all, is motivating and fun for all learners! Currently, our goal is to give students 90 minutes a week on the program.

DWOK: This month 3rd graders investigated the many ingredients that define our community. As community detectives, students researched local maps, examined streets and highways, observed the buildings surrounding our school, and evaluated how all of these ingredients come together to make our community unique. From Hollywood to Downtown Los Angeles, students explored the historical structures that link people to places.

Last week, students designed, modeled, and created different buildings such as the Griffith Observatory, Hollywood Bowl, Dodger Stadium, Mann’s Chinese Theater, etc., using a wide range of materials. With their imagination, community architect skills, and enthusiasm, 3rd graders were able to accomplish incredible representations of our community’s buildings. In the next month, students will take a journey throughout California and explore the four main geographical regions of our state, investigate the diverse life forms, and continue to make connections to our community. Looking forward to sharpening our community detective skills!

IMPORTANT DATES:
11/10  – Picture Day
11/11 – Veteran’s Day – NO SCHOOL
11/23-27 – Thanksgiving Holiday – NO SCHOOL

Sincerely,
The 3rd Grade Team