Yesterday as part of our Food Day Celebration, ex-Patriot player, Jermaine Wiggins talked to us about being responsible for doing our part to become successful.  He reminded us that having all kinds of opportunities were useless if we each didn’t make an effort to do our best.  As he spoke I thought of our class.  For most of our class, it isn’t that the children can’t accomplish great things; it is that they don’t choose to.  Hours are frittered away chatting.  Our class will benefit from any reminders from you about what your expectations for their behavior and effort at school.  We will continue those conversations here as well.  Thank you.

Working Effectively in Groups

Social-Emotional Learning

            This week the children worked in small groups to create a write up for the raisin science experiment and again to write the narrative for a blog post reviewing Marty McGuire. Group dynamics are challenging – how do you include everyone, what do you do when some in your group won’t participate, how do you listen, cooperate and compromise.  Through these projects it was interesting to see quiet careful leaders arise in a few cases.  While some groups were all about grabbing the markers out of each other’s hands, other groups were about building consensus and taking pride in doing careful work.  As each of these projects is completed, we will post them for you to see on our blog.

 

 

 

 

 

We also had to work together to complete our Trust Fall challenge with Mr. Caron.  This challenge was about taking risks and trusting others to help and support.  After a rocky start of talking over and through Mr. Caron’s safety instructions we were able to begin.  Half of the class found the courage to take the challenge and fall back into the arms of their classmates.  Others were able to lye under the arms of their classmates to while another fell back into their arms.  Taking risks and working together are also important parts of learning that lead to success.

Writing Well

            We are continuing to set goals for our daily writing.  We have noticed that no matter what type of writing, narrative, persuasive or informational, each piece needs a lead and a conclusion.  Writing also has to flow and transition from idea to idea in a logical way.  We are learning that we have to write enough so that a reader can understand our intention.  And we are learning that our writing can benefit from a plan.

Most of the children have set adding detail and description as a goal for their writing.  Some of them are interested in publishing their work and are willing to revise and work through a drafting process.  They are learning about crafting complete sentences and about the interesting adjectives and strong verbs.  They are listening to their own pieces of writing to find those places were they have included words that give their writing power.

Autumn versus Winter

            Last week we chose a favorite season. This week we selected three main reasons why the chosen season was the best and worked to write a persuasive piece convincing others that the season of our choice is, in fact, the best.  In this writing project we learned how to state our opinion in the lead, support it with facts and then conclude with a statement reaffirming our opinions.  When these pieces of writing are completed we are wondering if others will change their minds based on what we have written.

Bits and Pieces:

• Now that we know raisin seem to float and dance when buoyed up by the carbon dioxide bubbles of soda, we decided to see if other things of similar size would do the same.  See if your child can describe what they discovered and learned through their experiment.
• Remember your “Who Am I?” project is due on next week.  We will be celebrating science and scientists on Thursday with a special presentation given a scientist from the SEE Science Center from Manchester.
• We are reading the second Marty McGuire book called Marty McGuire Digs Worms.  Ask your child what they suspect is going to happen with the worm project.
• We voted for the state Ladybug Book Award.  Have your child explain their choice to you.
• We learned more about healthy choices and being safe and responsible with Mrs. Yeaton.

We have completed all the NECAP testing for this year.  The class worked to finish all six of the tests to the best of their abilities.  In general we are glad they are completed, but some of the children will miss the quiet time drawing and thinking.  Some of them will miss the concrete doneness of questions with a single answer and no teacher to prod them on to more thinking, elaboration and details.  No one will miss the confusing wording without being able to ask for clarification.

Description and Details

 – Working to Develop our Writing

            This week we have been thinking about our writing and looking at it more closely.  We are learning what adding detail and description looks like in writing.  We are learning about strong verbs and how to change voice by taking a different perspective.  Of course we are just in the beginning stages of this work and many in the class are not sure how to purposefully revise their drafts, but we will get there over the course of the year.

Most days as we take the status of the class the students tell what they think they are working on and are going to put thought toward in this writing session.  Here are a few examples of the engaging leads, description and detail, voice and efforts to choose unusual and interesting words.  These excerpts are from pieces of narrative writing the children have worked on this week.  I have tried to use different text formats so you can tell one student from another.  The blog doesn’t give different font options.

Bo-bo was bored and had absolutely nothing to do.  He went outside to get some nice fresh air and started to take a stroll.  When he got to the other side something ZOOMED right past Bo-bo and ran into the woods.

James gets into a lot of trouble.  His owners say don’t get into stuff.  “No human food for you, James.”  Meow.  That’s right.

The best thing about having two dogs is playing fetch and going for a walk.

Pete loved the nest.  He loved the ferns that made it warm.

This is a story about my life and how I got my forever home.  We were born in a mill- cage 6, batch 3.  I have three brothers and three sisters including me.  My name is Crystal.

 Word choice from Why?:  spectacular, interesting, curiosity, majestic

Winter 1912 Sunday

We are in the house and Pa just lit the fire.  Ma is lying on the warm rug.  She will have her baby any day now.  Pa said that we will not be going to church because the horses, Shadow and Lily, are not strong enough to pull the wagon through the snow and Pa won’t take the chance with Ma having the baby soon.  Why?  I wonder. 

Isn’t it fun to get a glimmer of the variety and voice of the different student writers in class?  We can see how they are influenced by what they are reading and listening to as well.  We are a class that enjoys writing and creating stories.

Exploring Science

            This week we explored ways a scientist would write as we attempted to create a full explanation of our Raisin Experiment.  We worked to be concise and specific.  It was challenging to remove some of our more poetic descriptions “floating up and down, up and down as if they were dancers defying gravity.”  What a great image, but  that is not what how a scientist would express the process.  We are working on that and it means learning more about how and why things happen.

We are learning terms like buoyancy and carbon dioxide so that we can understand the cycle of the experiment.  Our next step is to use the information we learned in our first experiment, to conduct a second experiment to see what will happen with a wider variety of objects.  We will use what know to make detailed predictions and then record our observations again, eventually writing a conclusion.

Observing a process right in front of us is different than learning about something we live with but cannot see.  This week we read two different books describing how and why the seasons happen for us on earth.  We read The Reason for the Seasons by Gail Gibbons and Sunshine Makes the Seasons by Franklyn M. Bramley, along with the four season poems written by Lily to compare genres and to consider how we learn from different types of texts.   We will be using this seasons thinking to write a short persuasive piece to see if we can convince others to change their minds and select our favorite season over theirs.

Bits and Pieces:

Of course we are also solving math problems each day and working to solidify our understanding of place value through the ten thousands and work to develop ever-more efficient strategies for addition and subtraction.  We have been challenged to find half when working with odd amounts:  500, 90 or 7,000 for example.  Our numbers of the week this week were 343 students at NHS and 4,301 residents of North Hampton according to the 2010 census.

Our read- aloud for these last two weeks has been Marty McGuire by Vermont author, Kate Messner.  We are enjoying the story of the class play and how frog-loving Marty has been cast in the princess in The Frog Prince.  We will be working on a digital writing project to post on our blog so be on the lookout.

We’ll be celebrating National Food Day – October 24

We have an outdoor challenge (weather permitting) on October 24

Harvest Fest is Friday, October 25

Have a great weekend.  3E

It has been another start and stop week.  The testing is two thirds done and your children have been amazingly patient, resilient and thoughtful.  Yesterday’s math test was a zinger.  The way the questions were worded left many children across the grade confused and befuddled.  You would have been proud of their persistence and effort.  Please give them a hug and thank them for their efforts.

The Muse

Social Emotional Learning

This week we were able to work through a challenging puzzle that required self-control, creativity, cooperation and focus.  The Muse is a challenge that demands thought as well as action.  In the challenge there are notched stumps and lengths of board that fit from one stump to the next.  The goal is to create at least one path from the supply area to the end so the entire class can cross on the path.

Our class was excited to build the path and committed to finding as many options as possible.  They worked carefully and cooperatively.  Once a path was built, they thought of creative ways to help the entire class cross safely.  It was an excellent way to end our day – with a blast of success and fun.

Continuing to Describe How We Are Smart

Social Emotional Learning

            We have completed our pie graphs of how we are smart.  All eight sections have been defined, labeled and colored in.  The next step of this project will be describe what we do and how we know about our strengths as thinkers, doers and learners.  We are discovering that our brains stretch and grow.  In the book The Fantastic, Elastic Brain the author compares learning to play soccer with developing connections and growing capacities in our brains. At first you can’t kick very far or with much strength but with practice your abilities grow.  The same is true when developing neuron connections in the brain.  That description made a lot of sense to the class.

We have discussed how we think of ourselves now is not fixed.  We can always develop and strengthen abilities that we do not use much at this point.  We know that how we are smart can change depending on our goals and our focus. If you are interested in reading more about this Carol Dweck has studied and written about mind set and how attitude impacts success.  It is interesting to consider the difference between a fixed mind set and a growth mind set.  Adults have a great impact on how children see themselves and their capabilities.  It is challenging to support the development of a growth mind set by offering precise feedback and support about process rather than the outcome.

Working Through the Steps of Scientific Inquiry

            We began with a question:  What will happen when we drop raisins into ginger ale. Next we developed a hypothesis or prediction.  Many in our class thought the raisins would sink.  Some thought they would dissolve.  Still others thought they would break apart.  Once our predictions had been recorded we conducted the experiment and observed.  Our final step was to record our observations and state a conclusion.

We learned that observing a process is different from observing a thing because there are changes over time – some occur quickly and some occur slowly.  We also learned it can be a challenge to use accurate and clear language to scientifically describe what we are observing.  We are learning that the language of a scientist is different from that of a storyteller.  It is interesting to compare the two voices and to work at developing both.   That is what we will be working on over the next week or two.

Leads and Conclusions

            As part of our narrative writing project we are learning about leads and conclusions.  We are sharing a wide variety of picture books and stories to help us develop a sense of the choices that authors make, first to draw the reader in and then to leave them satisfied at the end.  It can be challenging to consider choices.  In general our class likes to be “right” from the start so learning to play around and try something one way and then another way doesn’t feel that comfortable.  We are learning though that being flexible and considering options might be messy at the start, but can lead to a stronger outcome if we are willing to consider options.  This will be a process for sure as we work to build writing skills.

Bits and Pieces

• This week we met Mrs. Moriotti and learned about the role of a counselor in our school.
• We began a new chapter read aloud, Marty McGuire by Kate Messner.  We are hoping to connect with another third grade class somewhere in the country who is also reading this book as part of the Global Read Aloud Project.
• We are thinking about the purpose for our writing and the audience as well.