A Sneak Peek at Our Week

• Writing:  Students will learn the "key word strategy" to write nonfiction summaries.  After focusing on the "5 W's" of a text, they will choose key words from their responses to help them construct a brief summary.  They will begin learning strategies for fictional text later this week.  

• Math:  Work on Unit 4: Decimals will continue this week.  Lessons will focus on the following: 
• 4.4: Explain why decimals are useful and estimate the sums and differences of different decimals
• 4.5: Extend methods of whole-number addition and subtraction to decimals
• 4.6: Adding and subtracting decimals to compute balances in a savings account
• 4.7: Extend basic computation to the thousandths
• 4.8: Review relationships between metric units of length
• *** A test will be Wednesday or Thursday of next week!

• Interactive Read-Aloud:  When reading There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom this week, students will focus their thinking and discussions around character motivation.  After identifying things the main characters say and do, they will look deeper at the motivation behind their choices.  

• Reading: The third grade will be reading James and the Giant Peach for a shared Character Study Unit.  This week, students will focus on learning about characters "deep down" by analyzing their appearance, the things they say, what others say about them, their actions, and their thoughts, and then conclude what this reveals about them.  

• Social Studies:  Unit 2 focuses on How Chicago Came to Be.  A brief unit description can be found on the third grade website: Unit 2: How Chicago Came To Be.  For the final project, students will create an Alphabet Book demonstrating their understanding of the guiding questions and key concepts of the unit.