This week because there was so much written information sent to you about report cards:  term one expectations for meeting standards, how we are using the coding system to communicate progress and parent teacher conference sign-ups: I decided not to write my usual (perhaps too long) note about our doings in the classroom.  Instead I decided to share our week through pictures and captions on our blog.  Thanks to the families who have found and commented on the student pages.  They would love to know they are being read.

We begin each day with literacy centers.  The children work each morning reading, writing, developing understanding of spelling patterns and building content vocabulary, and deepening their comprehension strategies of visualizing, inferring and predicting, questioning and understanding by connecting personal experience with more background information.

It was a week of Social Emotional Learning through group projects.  Small group work builds tolerance, acceptance and patience.  Through small group projects children learn how to include everyone.  They learn when to take control and when to let go.  They learn how to share and become more flexible and adaptive as the group works with and molds an idea.

We used Rory’s Story Cubes to guide small group story writing with a focus on adding detail and description.  We learned about adjectives and we learned to expand sentences.  We learned to share ideas and reach compromise.  We also learned to deal with and work through disappointment when “our perfect idea” was not agreed to by the whole group.

We listened to The Stray, a short story from Cynthia Rylant’s book All Creatures Great and Small.  Again we worked in small groups to tell and write the story that would come after.  One group developed their tale through descriptive dialogue.  The other group told their story through narration.  Each group worked to add detail and learned the need of only keeping what is essential.  Sometimes there can be too much description and the story is lost in a swirl of detail.

Our final group work was a challenge with Mr. Caron.  This week we explored “The Secret Maze.”  This challenge was designed to help us develop self-control and observation.  To achieve our goal, each member of the community had to focus and  find a balance between independence and acceptance of peer support.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d love to know if you read the blog and find it helpful.  Would you rather the paper memo, just the blog or both?  Do you and your child use the book recommendations and math posts?  Are there other things you would find helpful?  Do you have any suggestions?

I would be very glad for your feedback and comments.  Thank you.

We have had a busy week.  Things have felt a bit chaotic, but when I stopped to think about what I could share with you, I realized we had accomplished a great deal.  I am proud of the way the class has worked to support each other in getting ready to present their work to families and to think about the choices they can make to be successful and excited about their learning.  In all the bustle and chatter, they are thinking, questioning and wondering.  That’s what learning is about – curious minds are exciting to be around.

Preparing and Sharing at Goal Setting Conferences

            Again this week the children spent time thinking about the choices they could make to support themselves and to think about work habits and behaviors that help them feel good about all they can do.  They have written learning narratives – some are a few sentences, highlighting what they are specifically proud of in their work; others are a couple pages, describing everything done in a particular learning area.  Regardless of the length, each story represents careful thought and consideration.  They have worked for several hours to select, plan and draft what they have chosen so you will know how they see themselves as learners, readers, writers and mathematicians.  They deserve to be proud of their efforts.  I know you will only hear your child present, but as I conference with each of the children to review what they have selected, it puts a smile on my face to hear their individual voices and personality shine in their presentation.

Old Elm Speaks Celebration

            Thank you for your support with this project.  It seems as though the children enjoyed working with you, choosing a favorite poem and creating an image to represent the poem’s meaning.  They children were excited to learn which poems each other had chosen and to see how classmates had interpreted the meaning.  There were Lego sculptures, drawings, paintings, clay figures, a natural scene and a diorama, complete with moving panels to create the illusion of the passage of time.

I was so pleased that each one of them chose to read their poems aloud to the class when they presented their artwork.  Many of them said they were nervous, but they all did it!  What a great accomplishment – taking risks to do something that makes you nervous.  Please let them know how proud you are of their efforts.

Working to Read Numerals into the Billions

This week we have continued working to read larger amounts and to think about how the value of a digit changes according to the place it can be found in a number.  We are considering questions like this:  Jane wrote the numbers 264,301 and 48,210.  In which number does the digit 4 have the least value?  Explain your thinking.  A question like seems so simple, it can be hard to imagine all the steps to fully answer it and particularly hard for our children to put into words.  Their first reaction is to label 48,210 as the number with the least value.  They know that 40,000 is larger than 4,000, but putting the reasoning altogether to explain and completely answer the question is tough.  If you have the opportunity to talk about amounts like this and help your child find the words to fully explain what they know it would be a great help.  Finding ways to  fully answer questions orally before having to write their reasoning out is always helpful.  Thank you.

Bits and Pieces

• We are reading The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs as our new chapter read aloud.  Eben is on Day three in his search for “wonders” in his small town in the middle of Missouri. It takes place in 1923 and the children seem to enjoy imagining what it was like to live when most people didn’t cars and traveled by train, if at all.
• We have begun building the individual student blogs.  A few of the children have been able to complete and publish a post or two.  (I hope everyone will have a least one post done by the end of the day Monday.)  {We have moved from a few to 10.  They have each written one or two brief posts.  The rest will certainly be done on Monday.} We have only done a few things with the blog formats so they still look a little impersonal.  Over the course of the next few weeks we will customize them even more.  Be on the lookout and please leave comments.  They truly means a lot.
• We’ll have an outdoor challenge, weather permitting, on Thursday, November 21.  Students should be ready for cool weather.
• Term 1 report cards will be sent home to you by email on Tuesday, November 26.  These report cards will not have written comments.  Instead we will schedule parent teacher conferences in early December to review current work and set learning goals for the next third of the year.
• We have learned all the lower case cursive letters and now will move on to upper case letters.  Many in the class are having fun with this new way of writing.  We will keep practicing connections as we get better at letter formation and reduce the size of our letters.
• Our Readers’ Theater Production is coming up on Tuesday, December 10 at 5:30.

Each week I have been trying to tweak our schedule so we meet with more success and feel good about what we are accomplishing.  This week our mornings began with language arts centers that explore science concepts dealing with seasons, trees and the web of life.  We are reading and writing, working with words and sharing our understanding and comprehension of various texts.  There has been time to integrate art with writing and begin book clubs.  The days seem more productive for everyone to have this routine in place.  The children can count on time to create stories and work together to share what they understand.

Thank you for talking with your children about the work they should be focusing on at school and thank you for supporting them in accomplishing the tasks they have at home.  I know that is not always an easy thing and I appreciate what you do.

Writing Narratives

            We have continued our study of narrative writing.  The children have been working to think about the choices they can make to create exciting and engaging stories.  Some have chosen to write personal narratives, while others have chosen to create fictional narratives.  A few of the children are writing books that are modeled after favorite books they are reading.  I have been impressed with the efforts of some of the children to research and purposely add facts into the stories they are writing to add interesting details and description in realistic ways.

All the children are working to understand what “adding detail and description” means.  They are considering word choice.  They can identify words that sparkle as they read, but are challenged to create images through their own written words.  It is difficult.  When you are reading together at home it would be helpful to have conversation about where the authors have chosen interesting words or created strong images through the phrases they have crafted.  I just finished reading a book where the word “muzzy” was used to convey confused and fuzzy.  I liked it.  Helping your child notice things like that could connect to the choices they can make to improve their own writing.

We are writing our learning reflections for our student led conferences as narratives. They are the stories of our learning and ourselves as learners.   The children know you will be their audience and so they are trying to find ways to describe themselves as readers, writers, mathematicians and thinkers at school.  They are writing stories to describe themselves fully and honestly, along with choosing the next steps they would like to take in each of those areas.

The Study of Trees

            As we continued to learn about trees, the children considered the question:  Does one tree mater?  At the beginning of the week most of the children said no or not really.  Through the week we read about trees and considered their importance to both people and animals.  They make the world a more beautiful place.  They provide us with many of things we need and seem essential for many animals as both home and food.  They are an important part of the web of life.  We read about Wangari Maathai from Kenya.  We learned that cutting all the trees down to create commercial farms there had actually hurt the land and did not bring economic prosperity.  The roots of trees allow water to reach the surface more easily.  They hold the soil in place and allow for greater biodiversity.  That means a healthier world.  We read about how even dead and rotting trees matter.  By the end of the week the children were sure that one tree was important for all the things it provides in our world.

Problems of the Day

            This week took a break from our Numbers of the Week work and began solving a problem of the day.  We are using these problems to learn different strategies.  We are focusing on addition and subtraction problems at this time.  We are working to move from solving the problems horizontally to solving them vertically.  The children are working to use what they know about place value and organize their work through expanded notation so they can accurately solve problems with larger amounts.

They are beginning to realize that when they take the time to write out their work and follow a step-by-step procedure they are able to solve multi-step problems more easily.  When they take the time to record each step many of the children have noticed they are more successful.  It is a good feeling for them.

 

Magic Hoop Challenge – S.E.L.

            Mr. Caron helped us realize how important staying positive is if we are going to meet with success.  He placed a hula-hoop on our index fingers and asked us to lower it to the floor.  We had to keep the hoop balanced on our fingers until it reached the floor without hooking our fingers or letting the hoop drop.  We learned that as long as we stayed calm and concerned with doing our part, the hoop went down.  When we became bossy or blaming the hoop rose.  When the children believed they could do it and concentrated on their part the hoops went down.  The challenge was a clear example of how optimism and positive thoughts matter if we are going to meet with success.

 

Have a great weekend.  Enjoy your time with your family as we set time aside to remember and thank all those who have served our country and helped keep it an amazing place to be.

Happy November!  This week we have been celebrating, writing reflections about ourselves as learners, readers, writers and mathematicians and studying trees.  Reflecting is a challenging process; finding words to describe the things you do everyday is difficult.

Taking Time to Know Ourselves as Learners

Social Emotional Learning

            To begin the reflection process the children have been looking at their work – either the books that seem to be a good fits when reading, or the many pieces of writing they have been drafting or the math problems they have been solving – to reflect upon their learning process in each of those areas.  Some of the children are able to see what they are doing and seem excited to explain how they make their choices and why.  Other children just can’t.  I don’t know if they can’t see what they do in contrast to what they worry they don’t do or if they can’t imagine explaining something they assume you know about them already.  It is hard for them to find words to describe what is going on inside their minds as they work and learn and choose.

This struggle is typical for 8, 9, and 10-year olds.  They are in a transitional stage moving between concrete thinking to more abstract.  They are becoming more aware of their choices and the unique strategies they use for thinking things through.  The truth is the more they practice, the better they will get.  Metacognition (thinking about your thinking) is the way we all grow and learn.  Challenging or not, the children will each do what they can and be ready to share their reflections at goal setting conferences in mid-November.

Painting Our Fish

            Mrs. Haight helped us paint our rock fish.  We have fun designing our own fish inspired by Lillian Kranz’s books, Only One You and You Be You.  First we selected the rocks and traced them, next we painted them white.  While they were drying we used our tracings to plan patterns and designs for our fish.  Next we copied the designs onto the rocks with sharpie and finally we painted.  This was one time when we were truly working to stay in the lines.  They were beautiful and the children were excited about their accomplishment.

Celebrating Science

            Thank you for the support you gave your child in learning about their scientist and coming to understand the work they do.  Each of the children did a terrific job sharing their artifacts and explaining the work of their scientist to the class.  As Hajna put it when she had finished sharing her artifacts, “I didn’t know very much about what a meteorologist did, but now that I do, it pretty interesting.”  That was a goal of our study – to increase awareness and open doors.

It was fun to meet together with the other third grade classes to see if there were matches and to compare different artifact collections.  Children thought of things in very different ways.  Some children were “one and onlys” and they shared their work with a different type of scientist so they could learn about that area of science.  Sharing across classes was exciting as well.

Yesterday Mr. Gustafson came to school from the SEE Science Center in Manchester talk to us about problem solving and science.  One of the first questions he asked the third graders was if they knew about scientists.  Every hand went up – seismologist, speleologist, psychologist, volcanologist were a few of the names given.  The children were excited to know and realize they had lots of information and answers for that question.

Next he asked them for help in finding out how many different ways they could solve the problem of dropping two letter size pieces of paper so that one hit the floor before the other.  The kids came up with lots of different solutions and had fun thinking of more later on.  They also realized the piece that hit first when crumpled was not heavier – aha!

The next idea he encouraged us to think about was realizing that observations are made with all our senses, not just sight.  We learned about exothermic and endothermic chemical reactions, combustion and catalysts while he showed us some pretty amazing things. It was exciting.  He encouraged them to stay involved with math and science because working as a scientist and developing new things in a lab was pretty exciting work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bits and Pieces:

• Our next challenge with Mr. Caron  – outdoors weather permitting  – will be on November 7.
• Our Student Led Goal Setting Conferences are planned for November 14 and 15 – please select a time on the attached schedule
• Term 1 report cards will be sent home November 26.  These do not have written comments.  We will meet for parent – teacher conferences in the first week of December to review the goals your child presented and set some of ourselves as we work together to support and promote learning.
• We finished Marty McGuire Digs Worms and hope to begin a worm composting project too.