Our Week – December 19

from here to there            This week was full of excitement and energy, schoolwork and sharing. We have continued our fable reading and writing.  Most of the children have completed a first draft and many are thinking of ways their morals can guide our every day lives.  We are making a variety of painted papers to use in making collage illustrations for our fables and that is great fun.  We had a challenge with Mr. Caron that took some creative problem solving and cooperation.  And of course, there is the usual daily reading, writing, handwriting, math and social studies

Celebration of Friendship

            The most exciting part of our week happened yesterday.  Thank you so much for supporting friendship in 3E. Our Secret Friend Celebration was a great success.  The children had drawn their names randomly from a hat for this project and those combinations couldn’t have been better.  Children had the opportunity to think about classmates in different ways. The thoughtfulness of the letters, poems and stories written for their classmates was touching.  And the gifts friends had created for one another showed the care children had taken.  I wish you could have heard each of them and seen the looks on their faces when they opened their gifts.  Many of them fairly glowed.

The gifts were beautiful and so special!  The expression on the faces of both the givers and the receivers were precious.  I wish I could fully capture the joy and excitement of each of the children as they discovered who their secret friend had been.  The light in each child’s eyes when his or her gift was opened was one of shear happiness and appreciation. Each friend was thrilled by the time and effort. The combined gifts were thoughtful and heartfelt. They are something to keep forever.  We truly have a wonderful class of kind and caring friends.

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Exploring Maps and Mapping

            We have continued learning about continents, maps and the features of maps.  Some of our classmates know a great deal about geography, while others have given “place” very little thought.  We are completing a “me on the map” activity and thinking about the parts of the world we would be most interested in learning more about.

There are lots of words to think about and know when dealing with maps.  It is interesting to consider the difference between county and country, continent and capital.  We are learning about hemispheres and cardinal directions.  We are trying to understand what we can see and where we could see it in our world.

Exploring Place Value With Kilograms

            After making our kilogram weights last week, we have been considering how weight is measured and how different weights feel.  We have been using pan scales and balances to explore these concepts further.  The children have been making estimates and thinking about how much different things weigh.  A kilogram – 1,000 grams – is surprising.  It is small, but it is 1,000.  The children are beginning to grasp that idea as we move into addition and subtraction of those weights and amounts.all this equalsthis

Bits and Pieces –

  • We have learned all 26 of the lower case letters in cursive.  We completed our model alphabet this week.  Each student selected 2 letters from a hat and developed the model for the room.  They wrote the model letters and selected items from around the school to photograph as an example.  Next we move onto learning the upper-case letters.
  • We completed Nuts to You and created a collection of squirrels to populate our classroom.  This author added lots of unique twists and turn to the story – the author’s notes and epilogues added a great deal of interest to the “squirrel’s” story.
  • Ben and Tim have completed and shared their 4th installment of The Pyramid – the 5th is planned to be Lost in New York.  Fun!  They are having fun writing and the class is having fun listening.
  • There is a Music Share, Monday – remember your instruments and music!
  • Thank you to everyone for commenting on the individual student blogs.  They love being read!

2 thoughts on “Our Week – December 19

    • Yes we did! It was a day that made everyone feel happy. How about you and your celebration of friendship in 3CS?
      3E

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