Reading- EQ:  How can I show cause/effect relationships within a text?  How can I apply the UNRAAVEL strategy with longer texts? We have spent a lot of time using the UNRAAVEL method on very short readings. This week we will learn how to apply the strategy to longer texts.  Towards the end of the week we will introduce cause/effect relationships using Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Peoples' Ears   Spelling-EQ:  What letter combinations make the short and long /u/ sounds? This week's words focus on the long and short /u/ sound.  Our next Spelling test will be Friday, October 10.    English -  EQ:  How can Shurley English help me to identify all of the parts of a sentence?  How can the guide words help me to locate a word in the dictionary?    This week we will be starting our Shurley English program. This is a fantastic program that teaches all parts of grammar in an interactive way.  Students will begin by learning the jingles and will sing them each day.  We'll begin diagramming sentences for the different parts of speech such as subject nouns, adjectives, and verbs.  There is also a vocabulary focus with each lesson.  A new word is introduced with each lesson and the students will practice saying the word, its definition, the synonym, and antonym for it as well.  This program is proven to work wonders!  Combining this with our regular english instruction proved to be very successful last year with 99.7% of 3rd grade students at Frey meeting or exceeding English on the CRCT.  We will also introduce dictionary skills such as guide words, entry words, pronunciations, multiple meanings, parts of speech, synonyms and antonyms with a fun Spooky Spider art project.  Over the next few weeks we will look  each in depth. Our focus this week will be on guide words.   Math- EQ: How many ways can I show multiplication? On Monday we will pretest for the next nine weeks.  We will begin the second nine weeks journaling and practicing the following different ways to show multiplication: Number sentence:  factors  multiple ^    ^     ^  4 X 5 =  20 Arrays:      4   X       5   Groups/ Sets: If you have five rainbows with 4 stripes each, how many stripes are there in all?   Intersecting lines: Sorry, I could not draw one with the software provided.  Picture a tic tac toe board.  If your equation is 4 x 5, you would draw 4 vertical lines and then intersect those lines with 4 horizontal lines.  Draw a dot over each intersection.  The number of total dots should equal your product.    Following our introduction, we will move to multiplying by 10 and 100, which students tend to pick up very quickly.  We will then move into journaling the four properties of multiplication, zero property (any number times zero always equals zero), identity property (any number times one always equals that number), commutative property (4 x 5 = 5 x 4), and the associative property( (4 x 5) x 2 = 4 x (5 x 2) ).  Finally, we will finish up the week with some awesome Multiplication Monsters.                Social Studies- EQ:  How am I affected by the economy?  As we approach our first Market Day, we will spend some time talking about economic understandings.  Through a great program called Econ and Me, students will learn concepts such as supply and demand, decisions regarding opportunity costs, the concept of scarcity, and the importance of interdependence.      Writing-EQ:  How can I use what I have learned about grabbers and paragraph format to write about October topics? Interspersed with our unit on dictionary skills, students will have the opportunity to write creatively in their writing journals using fun October prompts.