Month: January 2011

Each child has chosen and is reading a Classic book which has been abridged and written for children.  They are required to write and present on oral report to the class about their chosen book.  A template to be used for this report is glued into their Writing book.  The following is a rubric used to assess children’s oral language skills through out the year.  This report will particularly focus on the speaking section of this rubric.

Oral Language Assessment Rubric for Grade 3

Listening
·         Sits Still ·         Maintains eye contact with speaker ·         Asks sensible questions ·         Ignores those that try to distract them ·         Shows respect and courtesy ·         Co-operates with others ·         Can follow instructions ·         Can recall the main idea from a read aloud text (displays effective listening comprehension skills.)
F	D	C	B	A
Fails to meet any of the above criteria.	Meets two to three of the criteria.  Often needs to be reminded to improve their listening skills.	Meets four (half) of the criteria.  May meet other criteria but is not consistent in displaying these skills.	Meets 6 – 7 of the above mentioned criteria.	Meets all of the above criteria.
Speaking
·         Speaks clearly and confidently in small groups or with one other person ·         Speaks clearly and confidently to the whole class ·         Can sequence their ideas ·         Can describe an object or recall an event using descriptive words and phrases ·         Can answer questions clearly and succinctly ·         Can retell stories, showing an understanding for basic story structure ·         Talks about characters and situations in stories
F	D	C	B	A
Fails to meet any of the above criteria.	Meets two to three of the criteria.  Often needs to be reminded to work on a specific speaking skill	Meets  3- 4 of the criteria.  May meet other criteria but is not consistent in displaying these skills.	Meets 5 – 6 of the above mentioned criteria.	Meets all of the above criteria.

Math– This week we look at division.  Children will be able to understand division in terms of equal groups.  They will also be able to relate division to subtraction and multiplication.Literacy – Each child has chosen a Classic book to read.  They will then prepare an oral report to share with the class about their chosen Classic.  Oral reports will be presented next week.Science Inquiry – Children will be introduced to the field of Physical Science.  This week they will investigate what matter is.  Some helpful activities can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/Bible – As a school we continue to focus on the Lord’s prayer, particularly the third petition “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”  Our memory verse is taken from Mathew 12:50.

Monday – Spelling, Lesson 17, Contractions.  Also complete title page for our new science Inquiry into Physical Science.Tuesday – Math (division), Homework book p45 – 46Wednesday – Grammar, Contractions p58-59.  Also complete set Challenge activities on Spellodrome.Thursday – Reading.  Bookworms – Classics Study.  See booklet for activities that need to be completed alongside the reading.  Radical Readers and Word Sleuths to work on their Oral Book report about their chosen Classic book.

Tuesday – Spelling, Lesson 16, Words with Short UWednesday – Grammar, The verb “be”, Workbook Plus p44-45Thursday – Math.  Complete selected activities from the Algebra booklet and/or assigned activities from Accelerated Math.  See your child’s agenda for specific information.

Inquiry – Children will present their Inquiry PowerPoint presentations on an aspect of Cayman.  Parents are warmly welcome to this presentation held from 12:30 – 1:30pm on Wednesday, 26 January in the Grade 3 classroom.Math – This week we focus on Algebra.  Children will be learning to identify and continue a number pattern.  They will identify a rule for a continuing number pattern and be able to complete a function table.  A mini Algebra test will be given at the end of this week during our Friday morning Math session.Literacy – Radical Readers and Word Sleuths will be developing reading with expression and fluency.  They are practicing and will then present a short play to the class on Friday.  Bookworms have started working on their Classics study.  They have each chosen a Classic book to read and then complete a variety of Reading activities to extend their comprehension and higher order thinking.  All students have also been asked to read a Classic book and then share this book with the class.  This whole class mini oral book report will be presented early in the third grading period.  Extra details about this assignment will be sent out later next week.Bible – We look at the second petition in the Lord’s prayer, “thy kingdom come.”  Our whole school memory verse is Philippians 2:10

Numeracy– We continue our focus on multiplication.  We will develop strategies to solve multiplication problems.  This includes identifying groups, seeing arrays (rows and columns) and using repeated addition as well as skip counting.  Children will also be working on improving their speed and accuracy when recalling 1, 2, 5 and 10 times tables.Literacy– Children will be writing instructions, folk tales and learning to take notes when reading.  We are also practising listening comprehension skills so as to improve in class listening as well as being prepared for SAT tests later in the year.Inquiry – Children are researching answers to their questions about their chosen Inquiry topic.  Research assistance will be given in class and the children are also expected to complete some research work for homework.  Parent help in this area is greatly appreciated.Bible – The whole school focus is on Prayer.  Children are encouraged to memorize the Lord’s Prayer as well as this week’s Bible memory verse, Luke 11:1.

Welcome back to FBCS for the start of this 2011 year!  Here’s an overview for what’s in store for Grade 3 in this coming week.Literacy – Reading.  Children will be identifying the difference between fact and opinion as well as identifying key features of folk tales.  Writing.  Writing focuses are varied this week from speed writing (10 – 15minute writing segments based on a writing prompt – phrase and/or picture), writing instructions, posts on our Blog and writing folk tales.Numeray – This month we start focusing on Multiplication.  By the end of grade 3 all children should be able to recall the 0, 1, 2, 5 and 10 times tables.  They should also know and be able to use strategies to help them solve the other multiplication tables.  This week we focus on defining what multiplication is (repeated addition and seeing numbers in groups), how to use arrays to solve multiplication problems and strategies to solve the two times tables.  Each Friday we will have a short basic fact test.  The test will cover concepts taught during that week.  The purpose of the basic fact tests is to help children improve their accuracy and speed when recalling multiplication basic facts.Inquiry – children will review a variety of aspects of being Caymanian which we have looked at so far in this unit.  They will choose one of these aspects to further research and then present their findings in a Power Point presentation.  This project will take approximately 3 weeks to fully complete.  An assessment rubric and time frame for this project will be posted shortly.Bible – Our whole school devotion focuses is on prayer.  Our Bible memory verse is Mathew 26:41.

Tuesday – Spelling.  Lesson 13, words with short o, p76 – 81. Children will be tested on these spelling words on Friday morning.Wednesday – Reading.  Radical Readers and Word Sleuths to re-read Aero and Officer Mike, Police Partners in Storytown 3-1 p 200-215.  They can read this silently and with a parent.  Parents are to sign in their child’s agenda to verify that children have completed this reading.  Book Worms to read at least two folk tales and complete the comparison chart.  Folk tales can be found from the links on this webquest http://schoolweb.missouri.edu/nixa.k12.mo.us/sullivan/tales/index.htmThursday – Math.  Children are to review the 1, 0 and two times tables for our basic fact test tomorrow.  Complete Homework Workbook pages p28 -29Friday and weekend homework – Inquiry.  Children may start researching their chosen aspect of Cayman.  Specific information and the assessment rubric for this inquiry project will be handed out shortly.