A Classroom Fit: What happened and Why?

Saturday, September 8, 2012

What happened and Why?

We had another successful week of school at Emerick Elementary! Our pace in third grade has been hectic but it seems that the students are adjusting and settling in rather well. We got our reader's workshop up and running this week but the routines and independent tasks will take some time to master. Thank you parents for sending in a 3 ring binder!! These will be used to hold a portfolio of assignments and activities during reading.

Each week I will focus on a comprehension or fluency skill that I will model with a shared reading book. This week I shared the book, Cliff Hanger by Jean Craighead George. The skill focus was to set a purpose to find information and to find a cause and effect that happens in their independent reading book. Each reading center time begins with the students choosing a "just right" book and while reading this book independently, they must complete a task to monitor their comprehension. Cause and effect seemed to be a difficult task for many of the students. I encourage parents to support this skill by pointing out cause and effects that occur in our daily lives. I will continue this skill into next week and I will also be adding the challenging skill of inferencing (more to come on inferencing).

Our "Math Switch" got underway smoothly! Please be sure to email your child's math teacher with questions or concerns. Our focus for this week and next week will be on graphing and interpreting data. We have been carefully pointing out how data is displayed on a graph and for the children to pay careful attention to the key in a pictograph and the increments on a bar graph axis. There is always confusion with interpreting line plots. Students will often confuse questions such as: How many students had 2 or more pets? They will not include the data for students with 2 pets and count 3 and above. They will also confuse the numbers on the number line for data recorded. For example: What was the most frequent number of pets in the class? They will often answer, 5. Please review this information with your child at home.

SCIENCE ALERT!: TEST NEXT WEDNESDAY!

Matter is all around us and we have now taken matter through phases. Associating process words with the different phases is a new skill. For example when a liquid turns into a gas the process of evaporation is occuring!

Just a quick picture of our Balloon Rocket experiment last Friday. We took the investigation through the steps of the scientific method! Which balloon will travel the farthest? Ask your child about this experiment.

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Fit

This blog has been created for the soul purpose of communicating the weekly events and learning that take place in my classroom. If you are a parent of one of my students, my hope is that you will feel more connected to your child's learning. If you are another teacher, my hope is that you will be as inspired by ideas as I am when I search the Web. If you are a student, my hope is that you will enjoy the documented memories of your learning and that they may stay with you indefinitely. I encourage you to respond to each post! However if you are a student of mine, please use only your first and last name initials.

Please email me if you have any questions or concerns:

krista.mccracken@lcps.org

“Communication works for those who work at it.”

-John Powell

fit 1 |fit|adjective ( fitter , fittest )1 [ predic. ] (of a thing) of a suitable quality, standard, or type to meet the required purpose : the meat is fit for human consumption | [withinfinitive ] is the water clean and fit to drink?• (of a person) having the requisite qualities or skills to undertakesomething competently : he felt himself quite fit for battle | [withinfinitive ] Ted was ghastly pale and fit to do no more than switch channels.• Biology possessing or conferring the ability to survive in a particular environment : survival of the fittest.• suitable and correct according to accepted social standards : a fit subject on which to correspond.• [with infinitive ] informal (of a person or thing) having reached such an extreme condition as to be on the point of doing the thing specified • informal ready : well, are you fit?2 in good health, esp. because of regular physical exercise : I swim regularly to keep fit | figurative the measures would ensure a leaner, fitter company.verb ( fitted or fit |fit|, fitting ) [ trans. ]1 be of the right shape and size for : those jeans still fit me | [ intrans. ] the shoes fit better after being stretched.• (usu. be fitted for) try clothing on (someone) in order to make or alter it to the correct size : she was about to be fitted for her costume.• [ intrans. ] be of the right size, shape, or number to occupy a particular position or place : Angela says we can all fit in her car.2 fix or put (something) into place : they fitted smoke alarms to their home.• (often be fitted with) provide (something) with a particular component or article : most tools can be fitted with a new handle.• join or cause to join together to form a whole : [ intrans. ] it took a while to figure out how the confounded things fit together | [ trans. ] many physicists tried to fit together the various pieces of the puzzle.3 be in agreement or harmony with; match • (of an attribute, qualification, or skill) make (someone) suitable to fulfill a particular role or undertake a particular task : an MS fits the student for a professional career.nounthe particular way in which something, esp. a garment or component, fits around or into something : the dress was a perfect fit.• the particular way in which a thing matches something else : a close fit between teachers' qualifications and their teaching responsibilities.• Statistics the correspondence between observed data and the values expected by theory.