Next week will be October.  We are all wondering how that can be possible.  Yesterday the comment arose, “didn’t school just start?!”  This week we released our monarch butterfly.  Caroline had brought in the caterpillar in the second week of school.  It molted twice to become a chrysalis and then in 10 days emerged as a beautiful butterfly.  We think she flew off to Florida.  This week, Parsley, the zebra swallowtail caterpillar that Noah brought in became a chrysalis.  It is interesting to see how completely different the two are.  Parsley will need to winter over in a safe place, to hopefully emerge in the spring as one of the first butterflies we see in summer.

Book Clubs – Story Elements 

Social Emotional Learning – Building Relationships through Cooperation and Collaboration

            A week ago the children were able to preview sets of books.  They were all picture books about the challenges and joys of writing.  The children selected their two top choices in the hope that they would read one of those in their club.  All of the children were able to read either their first or second choice.  They met this week to read and discuss together.

The class developed a few guidelines for book clubs before they began.  We decided it was important to make sure everyone had a chance to speak.  We even agreed it would be nice if it was equal – the children are aware if they have a tendency to talk more than listen.  We are working together to build both skills.  They asked each other to be serious about the work and not silly.  They thought those guideline would be enough.  They were.

   The four groups met and decided how they would read the book.  Some groups read silently on their own and then met, while others read the book aloud to each other.  Once all the reading was done, the clubs worked to identify the story elements and to describe the plot.  Finally they shared what they, as reader, had learned about writing.  Here is some of what was discovered:  “Don’t give up.  Believe in yourself even if you get rejected at first.”  “Write from your heart.  Simple stories can sometimes be the best.”  “Look all around you and write what you see.  Life isn’t really boring.”  “Everyone can be an author.”

The general agreement was that the book clubs had gone well.  Everyone participated and said they were looking forward to reading together again.  Our next book club groups will be centered around a particular genre.  We will all read a mystery.

Growing Writing Possibilities

            We have been reading a lot about writing.  We have been learning about the elements of stories and about the traits of all good writing.  The children have listed many favorite things they like, places they enjoy, and memories they love.  They have considers times that have been exciting and times that have been calm.  Each of those items could contain a possible piece of writing.

In Word After Word After Word the author, Ms. Mirabel, says that she writes to make her life change they way she wants it to be.  She says that if each of the characters in the book (and us as readers) listen carefully we will hear words whispering to us.  She says when we do they will just spill out onto the page word after word after word.  From that book and our discussions we know we can write about people and places and moments.  We can capture our feelings in lists and phrases and poems.  Many of the children have been writing poems to capture things they like.  Several have met the challenge of writing poems about writing to join the queue of poems we read each day – writing, and writing well, has been our focus for the last week and a half.  Several of the children are writing sports stories.  Some are writing adventures and some are writing personal narratives.

We read The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark and Goldilocks and Just One Bear this week to act as mentor texts for innovations and extensions of old favorites.  The first is a fishy version of The Three Little Pigs.  The second is an after story of what could happen when Baby Bear and Goldilocks grow up and meet in the city.  We generated a long list of “the three …” and “the big bad…” Many of the children are playing around with those ideas too.  Writing is a fun time in our room full of creativity and ideas.

Number Sense and Place Value

            We have continued to work with estimation of amount and we have added distance.  At the beginning of the week the children learned what the term diameter is.  The estimated the diameter of a watermelon one day along with the weight.  They also made estimates of the length of different parts of their bodies and the diameter of their head.  We discovered that estimates of amount over time are easier than estimates of distance.  We also discovered that we get better with practice and attention.

We worked together to make sure that everyone understood the term place value.  When I asked earlier in the week we got some very interesting responses.  Only a few of the children described it as the value of a numeral according the place it was in a larger number.  We will continue to solidify this understanding while learning about thousands and more

There is so much more to share and explain – ask your child about:

… his or her super power  and how the art for that project is coming along.  Thank you Mrs. Haight for helping us with that this week

…the pie graph showing all eight intelligences and how he or she will explain the choices and decision that were made, or

… what s/he is reading and writing.

We have lots going on in 3E.  Your children are great – they do have super powers!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Dates to remember –

NECAP dates – Reading Tests – October 9, 11 and 12

Math Tests – October 15, 16 and 18

Author Visit – Steve Cotler – October 17

 

It is amazing to realize that our first month of 3^rd grade has passed.  We have moved into fall – time certainly flies!  Last week I told you my goal was to have our blog ready to share.  After three years of sharing information through iweb, Apple discontinued the service.  The blog that I am able to create is not working as I wish.  I am still looking for ways to share images, video and audio files so you can easily access them.  However, I worried that if I waited until I felt like all was perfect most of the year would have passed.  So with its bumps and bruises at the start, here is our address:  3enews.edublogs.org.  I hope it will give you a window into our classroom that mere words cannot express.  Feedback is very welcome.

At this point I have written all of the blog posts.  Soon the children will add their voices to the site.  Please check it often – the initial goal is to have the children generate 1 or 2 posts a week in addition to the newsletter – share it widely and comment when you can.   The children have not seen it yet.  Share it with them if you have a chance.   They might like to see the pictures and think about what they would like to post and share.

A Focus on Who We Are as Writers

            This week we focused on the qualities of great writing.  We are working to generate a list of different types, or genre, of writing and to define the traits that make writing “sing.”  We know that ideas are important.  We know that details are good and that the whole piece needs to be organized.  These are the first two of the 6+1 Traits of writing we are working with.  (The complete list of writing traits is:  Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency and Conventions.  The +1 has to do with presentation that includes handwriting and over-all neatness.)

We explored expanding ideas and gathering descriptive detail through our senses.  Our first exploration was of an apple. We described what we saw, felt, smelled, heard, smelled again and tasted.  We also explored the difference between taking time to think of all the ways we could describe an experience and describing an experience with the first reaction or quick glance.  We each have different tendencies – the children know if they are ponders or glancers; each has its important place with learning and getting things done.

We read Frederick by Leo Lionni and The Other Way to Listen by Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnell.  Both of these book highlight the long ponders.  I don’t know of books that honor the quick glancers, if you do please let me know.  Both are important approaches to be aware of.  Knowing you have choices can be an empowering thing.

How We Are Smart  – Social Emotional Learning

Knowing Yourself

Last week we chose our top four intelligences and described what we knew about ourselves that made us think that.  This week we worked to add in our other intelligences.  We took an informal multiple intelligences survey created by another teacher, Laura Candler.  The children were given a list of 24 statements to rank – 5 if it was always true to 0 if it was never true.  There were three questions for each intelligence.  The children rated the questions.  Their ratings were totaled according to each category.  This gave them a sense of how someone else might see them as intelligent.  This is the first year I have shared something like this with the children.  I wondered how it would work and I think it helped.  I think it allowed some of the children to consider interests, habits and traits they may not have recognized.

Using the survey data, a chart summarizing the traits and their own knowledge of themselves the children created a pie chart to represent how they are smart.  To support this thinking we read Shel Silverstein’s, A Missing Piece.  And together we worked to define what it means to be 100%.  (The class doesn’t think very highly of weathermen.) They are, however, proud of who they are and how they are smart.  It is interesting to consider each intelligence and how interest, experience, opportunity and effort can make them develop and grow.

Stuey Lewis – Against All Odds and The One and Only

            We completed the two Stuey Lewis books this week.  We used Stuey as a model to uncover all the ways he is smart.  We used evidence from the book and lots of deductive reasoning to decide.  Stuey is a creative problem solver.  He imagines unique solution to puzzles and problems that arise in his life.  He is always planning and picturing how lots of things can come together to make things happen.  He knows himself well – what he feels, what he hopes and how he will achieve his goals.  He knows others well too.  He works well with others – even the most difficult- and he can recognize how others are feeling.  He is empathetic and caring.  We know he is trying at soccer and getting better.  We know that though he didn’t feel confident as a reader at the beginning of second grade, he has progressed.  We know this and much more.

Using what we know and also a bit of what we are not certain of we created a pie graph of Stuey’s intelligences.  We are in the final phases of writing paragraphs of our reasoning behind our choices.

Bits and Pieces – ask your child to share and explain:

• We continue our daily math exploration of number and place value.  This week we learned a new game called How close to Zero? and we worked with Base 10 Riddles
• We read a beautiful book about Johnny Appleseed called Seed by Seed. It shares the five tenets he lived by.  Perhaps your child can share one or two they thought were most important.
• Our school alphabet project is progressing.  See if the children feel they know a bit about using cameras to take pictures – thinking about light and composition.
• We had our first outdoor challenge this week – The River Runner.  Check out the post about that.
• We got a rug!  Thank you!

We are doing lots and enjoying what we do!

Have an amazing weekend!

Dear Families,

Thank you to those able to attend Curriculum Night.  We appreciate your time.  There were several handouts describing the United Arts classes and their points of focus for the year.  We sent how the curriculum outline for Grade 3 and a packet to guide you in establishing a workspace for your child full of the things he or she might need to create, do and learn.  That packet includes math activities, handwriting models and the spelling sight words that children hopefully have mastered by the end of third grade.  There is also a handout describing problem solving and why strong understanding of number and place value is a prerequisite to learning the standard algorithm.  We encourage you to read and keep these resources to refer back to them as questions arise through the year.

Our classroom this week has been full of learning more of how to work well together, care for each other and make sure we are all able to do our best work. It has also been full of reading, writing, “alliterating”, math, science and fun.

Establishing Our Class Constitution –Social and Emotional Learning

Developing Relationships With Others

Two weeks ago we began by listing things we each try to do to be successful.  Last week we discussed how we what we did affected others.  We listed behaviors that would be helpful so that everyone could learn and do his or her best.  Individually the children looked through those lists to select the behaviors most important for their learning.  They also selected the behavior they find most challenging – most chose being focused, quiet or not distracting to others.

This week we read Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco.  (I highly recommend this book.  There is much to talk about through this amazing true story – caring, kindness, difference, strength, change and confidence.) We used it as a basis for examining learning differences and challenges.  Those discussions lead us to our final list.  We will:

Treat others as you want to be treated

Be encouraging

Be confident

Try your hardest

Be focused

Be respectful

Be yourself

choose the right time to be silly

Each week we will spend some time reflecting on how well we each lived up to our constitution – what did we do well and what we could work on.  Certainly if we can work in our classroom and school, both individually and collectively, according to our statement we will have an amazing year of learning and friendship.

Intelligence Grows – Social and Emotional Learning

Knowing Yourself

Since introducing Multiple Intelligence Theory we have been trying to identify how different book characters, both real and fictional, are smart.  “How are you smart?” is the title of a book that shares brief paragraphs and poems about accomplished people who display strengths in each of the intelligences.  That is why we have adopted that question as we explore interests and individual preferences to understand how we learn, what our individual strengths are and “how we are smart”.

Again we used the story of Patricia Polacco as told to us through her books Dear Mr. Falker and Junkyard Wonders to realize that how we are smart grows and changes.  She did not learn to read until 5^th grade and she was placed in a classroom where all the children who were considered different were schooled.  At that point in her life she would not have been considered word smart at all, but as we looked at the huge pile of books she has written we knew she definitely was word smart now.  Through her example we know we can do anything and we can develop any intelligence we set our mind on.  We know that “how we are smart” grows and changes through our choices and efforts.

Exploring the World as a Scientist

 We know that scientists observe, create, record and document.  Thanks to Caroline we have a monarch caterpillar.  We watched it grow, have evidence to two different molts and now have a chrysalis that we are carefully observing for change.  Julia brought in a tomato hornworm and right before our eyes we observed the eggs of a wasp emerge from its body.  The caterpillar seems lifeless, though we continue to see occasional movement.  We are curious about what will happen – the the caterpillar, to the eggs…  We have decide to wait and watch.

Out on the edge of the playground we discovered lots of pill bugs – and while one secreted into the school cause a bit of an issue in our classroom – we decided that we would like to create a habit so we could learn more about them through close observation.  As we learn to look and patiently examine, to question and record, we will learn discover more of the connections between us, our schoolyard and the environment we act as stewards of.

 

There is so much more to share and explain – ask your child about:

… Ms Hunt, the UNH student who is exploring teaching through work in our classroom

… Stuey Lewis, the main character of our chapter read aloud,

… our estimates and the information we are using to be accurate,

… his or her super power and alliteration (some are feeling settled with that, and some are still working to figure that out), or

… what s/he is reading and writing.

There is a lot going on in 3E.  Your children are wonderful!

Have a terrific weekend!

Dates to remember –

School Pictures – Tuesday, September 18

NECAP dates – Reading Tests – October 9, 11 and 12

Math Tests – October 15, 16 and 18

Author Visit – Steve Cotler – October 17