The end of the  week comes so fast and with each week I worry about whether we’ve done enough.  But then I go through the pictures the class photographers have taken and I think about the work in the student folders ready to go home and I am pleasantly  surprised.  We have accomplished quite a bit of reading, writing, social studies, and math.  We have shared our thinking and ideas through artwork and plans, sketches and problem solving.

Artist-Writers’ Workshop

The children have begun to enjoy our time with artist-writers’ workshop.  A time where we combine art and writing.  Some of the children spend more time with the art and some with the writing.  A few spend lots of time with both.  We seem to have moved into a thoughtful routine where the children are thinking about their learning and problem solving.  At first it was difficult for the children to respond to the reflection prompt, “If I did this picture over again, I would…”  Now they are beginning to consider how their image might change with a different medium or if they changed the color scheme completely.

One of the main goals of this process is developing habit of mindfulness and we can see and hear that growing.  We have finally settled on Tuesday and Friday as they days for this workshop and now that the children can count on those times they are planning for them.  Our last two sessions have been very quiet and peaceful. The children have been surprised that what they have been working on and working through in their art can be seen so differently by others.  We tend to be very self-critical so when  classmates have complimented them on great work it has been a nice surprise – those kind words change a person’s perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Alphabet of Gratitude

Last week each student generated a personal alphabet of gratitude.  Some of the children worked alone and others worked in table groups.  Some letters had large collections while others had few.  We listed families and friends, love and life, hope and help, medicine and meals. We resorted to yo-yos and zebras for letters that were a real stretch for us.  Once our personal collections had been made, we created a class collection.  The main principle was if you suggested something for the class alphabet you had to think that at least 2 others would agree.  The example was instead of saying, “I am grateful for Beth.”  I would need to say, “I am grateful for sisters.”  Clash of Clans was the only thing that was contested on the list, but everyone had to concede that it met our criteria.

This week each child randomly drew out two different letters and worked to illustrate the gratitudes that matched with them.  When the illustrations are all done we will share them in the hall by turning them into a paper quilt.  Upon completion of the quilt, we’ll begin the tradition of keeping track of the things – both large and small – that bring us happiness each day.  Smiles, sunshine, opera hugs, laughter and caring friends will top my list.  I wonder what the children will notice.  I wonder if they will feel their own happiness grow.

Informational Writing

We are beginning our second drafts.  Once all of the children completed their first drafts and experimented with a variety of different leads the class reviewed the five different organizational format we have explore of informational writing.  Each writer had to recognize what format they had used for their first draft and then select a different format for their second.  Once the new formant was selected, the children worked to create a graphic representation planning out the main ideas they would present in their writing and the supporting details they would like to include.  Most of the children were eager to give this a try.  Some of them were even playfully thinking of voice and audience and how they might create a character to present the information.  It is pretty exciting to see how willing the class was to take this challenge on.  The following pictures show some of the ways the children planned to share their writing in a different format.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our third and final draft will be a combination of the first two drafts with feedback from classmates and teacher.  These will be illustrated and published in a class magazine.  We are excited about the idea of a publication – we can’t wait to share it with you at home.

Launching the State Project

We have begun our study of the United States.  We are excited about this project because it combines so many different areas and it is fun!  We do, as always – but a little more – need you help at home.  In mid-April (if all goes as planned) we’ll be sending home the guidelines for how you and your child can create a “float” for the Parade of the States.  Hopefully by this point you all have heard about the state your child is researching.  After a few fits and starts it seems as though our class is pretty excited about the state they have and are eager to be learning as much as they can.  The children will be learning about their states and identifying that state’s ” seven wonders.”  These wonders will be represented on a “float” to be presented in the Parade of the States.  It is our plan that the children will have researched and identified their seven wonders by April 18.  Mrs. Haight has been collaborating with us all year and has planned several of her units of study to coincide with this project.  In school the children will be creating a paper-mache model of an animal, a man-made structure and a representation of person important in their state.  These will represent three of the wonders.  The children will combine this work with your help at home to build an float for the parade.

We will send home clear guidelines when the time comes.  A couple of the children talked about beginning the building process new.  Please don’t do that yet.  We have learned from past parades that we should slow the process down and we think we have built in enough time so that learning AND building go together.

Here are a few photograph examples to get you thinking.

Bits and Pieces –

• Viviane has not joined us yet.  We are hoping to meet her next week.
• Mr. Caron has rescheduled our next challenge to Tuesday, April 1 at 9:45.  Hopefully we’ll be outside, but because it will be earlier in the day than our typical time please be sure children are prepared for cold.  The nature trail at that point in the day will not have warmed up.
• Two eighth graders, Sky and Matt are joining us each Monday and Wednesday to help us with book clubs.  We are looking forward to reading and discussing great books with them.
• We are beginning to explore division and fractions.  These new topics are being introduced and we are still working in math to master basic facts in addition, subtraction and multiplication.  Any and all help that you can offer at home is greatly appreciated.  We just do not have time in the school day to support the memorization required by standards.

 

Happy Spring!  Yesterday was certainly a taste of warm weather AND we finally got to on our snowshoe jaunt.  There was still quite a bit of snow in the woods so we enjoyed our walk down the nature trail with one classmate we wanted to get to know better and our walk back up the nature trail with another friend.  We talked with Mr. Caron on either end to share what we had learned.  It was a fun way to develop and strengthen friendships – as long as we stayed with our partner followed the direction so no one felt left out.  Unfortunately the latter happened a little – too bad!  We’ll keep working on that in order to learn what it means to be a caring and considerate friend in 3E.

Secrets According to Humphrey

            We finished our chapter read aloud Tuesday.  It hit home when we talked about secrets and secret clubs and how it feels to be excluded.  Unfortunately, it seems as if everyone knows what that is like.  We talked about the difference between good and bad secrets.  We know that the good kind is the kind that everyone will find out in the end.  It is something that anyone can know at the right time, but a bad secret is intended to be kept away from others.  Humphrey did a great job letting us know that we should tell a bad secret to an adult and get some help.

At the end of each chapter, Humphrey wrote a “secret scribble” as he tried to figure out how to help his friends in Room 26 deal with their issues surrounding secrets.  At the end of the read aloud we created our own Humphrey’s along with a “scribble” to remind us of how to be a more caring friend. If you look on the blog you can see the Humphreys we made and by clicking on the images you’ll be able to read our messages about secrets and friendships too.

Secrets According to Humphrey is the tenth book in the series.  If you’re looking for a family read aloud any of the others would be great to share.  Humphrey is a classroom pet who notices all the things around him and tries-tries-tries to help the friends in his classroom find solutions to any problems they have.  Humphrey is unsqueakably observant and smart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning About Our Country

This week we began our exploration of the United States.  This is in preparation for our big parade event in May.  We are structuring this project a bit differently this year.  We plan to spend more time learning about the country as a whole and about the individual states before we send the “float” information home.  Our intention in doing this, for those who’ve had someone involved with this project before, is to help the children better define the elements of their project prior to the home building portion.

For those families who have not yet been involved with this exciting project, for the last few years 3rd Grade has held a Parade of the States in May.  Each student researches a state to discover, much as Eben did in Sassafras Springs (a mid-year read aloud), seven Wonders found there.  Once the wonders are identified the children make symbols of them to put on a float that becomes part of a parade.  The parade is an evening event combined with a recorder concert and a presentation of maps and writing about the states.  This year they will also have the opportunity to create some of their wonders in school.  We are collaborating with Mrs. Haight so the students will be able to create some of the symbols for their wonders in Art and in the classroom.

This is an integrated project that allows us to explore and further develop many of the science, social studies, math, reading and writing standards for third grade.  It is also a wonderful way to bring all the children in the grade together for a grand celebration of hard work, learning and accomplishment.  If you’re on the blog, look on the posts from last May to see some examples of last year’s celebration.  We will let you know in the next week what the date for this year’s parade will be.  We know this is a challenging time with so many spring sport commitments  – it is sure to conflict with something.  Our hope is that if we plan early enough families will be able to make plans and work things out.  Thank you for that!

Bits and Pieces –

• We have begun learning about fractions and division in math.  Thank you for your continuing work to help your child learn the facts.  Multiplication War, Salute and Tiguous are great games for that, along with several on the eboard.  Fourth grade is counting on the children being proficient with addition and multiplication.
• Report cards are being sent to you today via your email address.  If you do not receive it, please let us know.  We may need to update your email address and of course, we can send you a printed copy.  There is a handout defining term expectations so you have a sense of what habits and behaviors at this point of the year will lead your child to meeting the end of the year standard.
• Report cards come with narrative comments this time.  If you have any questions and would like to schedule a conference, please do!
• A new student is joining 3E.  Her name is Viviane (pronounced Vivi-ann).  We are excited to have her join our class.

I would like to begin by complimenting our class for their ability to be flexible and stay calm when our schedule changes.  That isn’t always easy to do, and when you couple that with the disruption of the time change, rolling with changes and upsets is tricky.  I want to thank them for their efforts and continued attention to doing what’s best.

Taking Time for Gratitude

            This week as part of our social/ emotional learning curriculum we have been exploring gratitude and thinking about what it means to take the time to be thankful.  The last line of the book, The Secret of Saying Thanks by Douglas Wood, caught our attention:  “We don’t give thanks because we are happy.  We are happy because we give thanks.”  At first we weren’t sure we agreed, but the more we thought about it the more we realized it could be true. We are in the middle of creating an alphabet of gratitude.  Hajna suggested that once everyone has had a chance to create his or her individual alphabet we could work on a class alphabet.  “After all 13 X 2 = 26 so we could each have two letters.”

That seemed like a great idea to the class so we’ll be working on it next week.  I imagine the more we take time to be mindful of the kind, fun and thoughtful things around us the happier we will all be.

 

 

 

 

Using Reading to Develop Writing Craft

            Last week I explained our new unit of study – learning how informational texts are organized.  We have now explored five different text formats:  Description, Sequential, Problem and Solution, Cause and Effect and Compare/Contrast.  We have learned about the formats and we created models of graphic organizers based on reading a sample of each type.

In addition to this, we have been reading a wide variety of informational texts to see if we can identify the formats an author has chosen to organize the facts and ideas.  So far we have noticed that often books combine forms.  We have noticed that informational books are often descriptive and sequential.  We noticed that books about animals are often sequential because they are often written in a timeline sharing facts from birth to adulthood, but when they add a list in extra facts at the end or sprinkle them throughout the text they can be descriptive too.

We are working to identify mentor texts for each format so we can use those models of writing to guide our own informational text.  We want each piece to be great writing because we plan to publish it for all to read.  The children have chosen to write about topics from art to making grilled cheese sandwiches to caring for cats to football to art and on to playing video games.  They have each written a first draft and have experimented with leads.  They are working to write four different types of leads and exploring different ways to add detail and description throughout so our writing shows more than tells our readers.  We are crafting our writing one part at a time.

Working for Efficiency with Math

            We have been working to solve problems as efficiently as possible.  At this point in our year that means we are working to use the standard algorithm with addition, partial differences or the standard algorithm with subtraction and multiplication rather than repeated addition for two single-digit factors or one single-digit and one double-digit factor.  We could use your help to encourage your child to take the plunge and give these strategies a try.  At this point they are feeling more comfortable using expanded notation.  They feel they will be more accurate if they add on or use a number line strategy for subtraction.  And their first reaction to multiplication is to double and add the groups up.

We are trying to stop and think about what operation is being used in the problem and to think about the most efficient strategy is so the children can practice them.  Statements like “I don’t like to do it that way” or “This is hard” can be heard  through the classroom at math time.  They are right.  It can be hard when something is new – but practice brings about progress.  It will always stay hard if they don’t try.  Any gentle suggestions you can make as you review your child’s work with him or her this weekend would be appreciated.  Practice does make progress and we’ll keep moving forward one problem at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bits and Pieces –

• Happily, we are turning into a super reading class.  More and more of the children are exploring “just right” titles and are beyond the quick gratification of graphic novels.  I think they are amazed at the number of books they are reading and actually finishing.  Ya-hoo for them!
• The children are sharing what they know about magnets by creating a “Doodlecast” on the ipads.  This is an app that allows you to combine photographs, drawings, and audio-recordings to create a final video explaining what you know.  The children have been asked to answer four questions:  What is a magnet?  How does a magnet work?  What do magnets do or how are they used?  What do you think is most interesting about magnet?  It is a fun assessment though I know when you see the final products on their blogs over the next week or two you will only be learning a smidgeon of what they know.  Ask questions and have them explain as you view them together.
• Another try at an outdoor challenge … weather permitting we’ll be going snowshoeing with Mr. Caron next Thursday, March 20.
• Report cards will be sent our on Friday, March 21

 

I hope you had a great vacation.  It seems as though the children are mostly rested and back in the swing of things.  We are nearly into our last third of the school year.  It is hard to believe.

Reading and Writing Informational Text

This week we have been learning how informational texts are organized in several different ways.   We have been examining different forms and formats – descriptive, sequential, problem/solution and compare/contrast this week.  We have been exploring how different graphic organizers can help us uncover the information in the text.  And we have been discovering how can use them to organize our thought and prepare for our own writing later on.

Through this study we have been reading about many different topics and they have sparked some interesting discussions.  We have learned about skeletons and how puppies are born.  We read the story of Henry “Box” Brown and how he escaped slavery and we also read about the Underground Railroad.  Finally we explored volcanoes.  There have been many questions and great conversations.  They may come up at home as well.

We are working to use what we have been learning about in Readers’ Workshop when we gather to write.  The children have each chosen a topic they feel they can teach others about and they have begun a first draft of this work.  We will examine how we can organize what we know differently and choose how best to present this information.  It will be interesting to see how each child chooses to craft his or her piece of writing and bring it to a final form for presentation in a class magazine.

Monitoring Self-Talk

We have been working to pay attention to the voice in our heads to see if it is encouraging or discouraging.  We are learning about metacognition and have been thinking about our thinking.   We are working to become more aware of how we help ourselves solve problems and deal with difficulty.  We have also been trying to pay attention to how we cheer ourselves on and keep on going.

Self-talk is an important way for each of us to solve problems and to take responsibility for staying on the positive side of things.  In the classroom we have been working to put ourselves in book characters places during different parts of the story.  We have discovered that characters change and develop.  They do not stay the same.  We have also discovered that characters change throughout a series of books.  We do too.  We do not behave exclusively in a single way.  We are learning about temperament and we are learning about choices.  We are trying to remember to stay calm when we are on the edge of upset because it is then that we can identify our different choices and feel better about ourselves and our work.

Artist-Writers’ Workshop

One time that we are specifically trying to pay attention to our inner voice is during artist-writers’ workshop.  We are trying to stay quiet and think about all the things we are wishing to say outloud.  Sometimes this talk bubbles out, but mostly the children are thinking about how they are dealing with frustrations when the work isn’t coming out as expected or the excitement when the work is going well or even better than expected.

In this first round of work we have been exploring six different media – crayon, colored pencil, marker, tempera paint, watercolors and mixed media.  The children are working to create the same picture six times.  They are uncovering what works well for them and what does not work as easily.  Once the children finished their six pictures they were asked to write about the one they liked best and to explain why that was their choice.  Finally they were asked to write a story to go along with their pictures.  It is a fun way to create and strengthen our problem solving abilities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bits and Pieces:

• We are continuing to explore multiplication.  We have been playing and enjoying each others’ math games every day.
• We started a new chapter read-aloud, Secrets According to Humphrey.  It connects to our conversations of how we are all responsible for ourselves and also for creating a peaceful classroom where everyone feels cared for.
• The children are reading more than ever as they keep track of “just right” pages.  Being aware of pages read seems to be very helpful to them.  It is a concrete way of knowing which books are good fits from them.
• We are completing our unit on magnets and magnetism.  Hopefully you’ll begin to see some blog posts about that work next week.