What Did Students Do This Week

Our Journey to Mars: Reading, Thinking, and Making Connections

Over the past few weeks, the grade threes have been on an exciting learning journey—one that took us all the way to Mars! Through reading, writing, watching, and discussing, students have been strengthening their reading and thinking skills while exploring real-world science and technology.

Our Class Novel: A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga

As a class, we began reading A Rover’s Story, a novel told from the point of view of a Mars Rover named Resilience. Students learned how authors use thoughts, feelings, and experiences to help readers connect to a character—even when that character is a machine.

Students recorded their thinking in reading response notebooks, using:

• Pictures
  
  

• Words and key vocabulary
  
  

• Complete sentences

Building Vocabulary

Throughout the novel, students focused on learning and using new vocabulary, especially words connected to space, exploration, and emotions. Students practiced using these words in discussions and in their written responses to better explain their thinking.

Connecting Fiction to Real Life

To deepen our understanding, students watched a video by Mark Rober. The video was about the real Perseverance Rover landing on Mars. This helped students build background knowledge and see how real scientists and engineers explore space.

Making Connections and Inferences

Students compared the fictional story (A Rover’s Story) with the true story of Perseverance. They discussed:

• How the rover in the novel and the real rover were similar
  
  

• How they were different
  
  

• Which parts of the story were realistic and which were imagined
  
  

Students used their background knowledge, asked questions, and made inferences to better understand both texts.

Alberta Grade 3 English Language Arts Outcomes

This learning connects directly to the Alberta Grade 3 English Language Arts Program of Studies, including:

Reading and Viewing

• 2.1 Use Strategies and Cues
  
  

• Use prior knowledge, personal experiences, and connections to make meaning from texts
  
  

• Use questioning and connections to construct meaning
  
  

• 2.2 Respond to Texts
  
  

• Make connections between texts and personal experiences
  
  

• Make connections among texts, ideas, and information from different sources
  
  

• Connect texts to events and ideas in the world
  
  

Writing and Representing

• 2.3 Understand Forms, Elements, and Techniques
  
  

• Organize ideas using pictures, words, and sentences to communicate meaning
  
  

Oral Language

• 1.1 Discover and Explore
  
  

• Share ideas, listen to others, and build understanding through discussion
  
  

Student Learning Goals: “I Can” Statements

Students have been working toward the following Grade 3 learning goals:

✔️ I can make connections between a text and my personal feelings, experiences, or background knowledge.

✔️ I can make connections between different parts of one text or between two texts.

✔️ I can make connections between texts and ideas about past, present, or future world events.

✔️ I can make inferences by making connections.

✔️ I can make inferences by asking questions before, during, and after reading.

Possible Questions to Ask Your Child:

• Summarize what has happened in the story so far.

• What connections did you make to your prior knowledge while reading A Rover’s Story?
  
  

• How is the story similar to the real Perseverance mission?
  
  

• What questions did you ask to help you understand the story better?

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