Explorers Unit Vocabulary

Important vocabulary words went home with students today, Monday, March 9th. Check under the Social Studies tab on the right to find the vocabulary. 

Keep in mind students should be bringing their Social Studies books and packets to and from school every night! Explorer projects are due March 13th!

Explorers Project

This week, we will begin our Explorers Unit in Social Studies. For their Explorers Project, students will become an expert on one of the Explorers in our unit. Students will create a poster to represent their explorer as well as write a five-sentence paragraph explaining the significance of their explorer. At the end of our unit, each student will present their posters and paragraphs to the class. We hope that this will be a fun way to learn about our explorers!

Requirements for the Project:

1. Students must pick one of the following explorers for their project: Christopher Columbus, Juan Ponce de Leon, Christopher Newport, or Jacques Cartier.

2. Students must create a creative and colorful poster to represent their explorer. The poster should include the following: 
                       - The country that sponsored the explorer
                       - Where the explorer traveled 
                       - The reasons and motivations for the explorer's travel 
                       - Birth date and death of the explorer 
                       - Interesting facts and pictures about the explorer 

3. Students must write a paragraph (minimum of 5 sentences) about their explorer that they will read to the class with their posters. 

Students may also dress as their explorer if they choose, but this is not required. 

Due Date: Friday, March 13th, 2015

 

Reading Log

Changes to Reading Homework

For the time being, we have switched from a weekly literacy packet to a nightly reading log. Third graders will be required to read for 25 minutes each night and then record their reading on the log. Students need to fill out the book, author, the pages read, and the amount of time they read. Students should write a summary, in their own words, about what they read about. Summaries should not just be sentences from the book. Additionally, students are always more than welcome to read more than 25 minutes. Parents are asked to sign for students to get credit so we can be sure students are completing the nightly reading requirements. Please do not sign the log if you not seen your child complete the reading. Each morning, I will be checking the reading logs. If a student did not complete his/her log, they will be expected to go to work room to complete the reading and the summary.

The goal of this assignment is for students to make reading at home a nightly habit, as well as increase their reading fluency and reading for enjoyment. The more we read, the better we read. Students are welcome to read books, magazine articles, newspaper articles, graphic novels, recipes, textbooks, etc. 

Parents are encouraged to get involved in the nightly reading. You can do this by listening to your child read, asking questions about what your child is reading, and helping your child pick out "good fit" books. Below you can find some questions to ask your child after he/she has read for the night. If your child is reading a chapter book, please encourage him/her to stick with it to the end. If your child is in need of reading materials to complete the log, just let me know! 

Parent Questions: 

- What can you tell me about what you just read? 

(This information should be included in your child's summary) 

- Retell the story 

(use a 5 finger retell - characters, setting, beginning, middle, end, problem and solution)

- Who are the most important characters in the story? Describe them. 

- How did a character change in the story?

- What is the setting of the story? 

- What is the problem in the story? How was the problem solved?

- Did you learn any new words? What do they mean?

- Is your book fiction or nonfiction? How do you know?

- Tell me some facts about __________ (the topic about your book). 

Parents, if you have any questions about the nightly reading and this homework change, please feel free to let me know!