Your children are so excited for the holidays. They love their elves and time with their families. Our classroom is filled with spontaneous carol singing and talk about secret plans and presents. It is a magical time. On top of all that energy and enthusiasm we have a lot going on in our classroom too. We are exploring the world through books and research, learning about mapping and experimenting with magnets. We are learning about time, solving problems and checking fact fluency. We have also begun to look more closely at our writing intentions – what our purpose is, who we’d like our audience to be, what genre will work best for that and how to organize our topic. We are excited about different publishing options.

Global Geography – Learning More About the World

I trust you have heard about the continent, country and animal your child has selected to research and become an expert on. This integrated unit of study is centered on developing informational reading and writing skills, understanding our place in the world, and exploring cultural diversity.

We are developing strategies to deepen our understanding. One is to read the easiest materials first before moving on to more challenging texts. This helps build background knowledge and allows us to make more connections. The fancy term for this process is developing schema. We are also learning how to gather information from visual resources.

We are planning to share our research by creating another museum in our classroom. We will be working to make displays to teach others what we have discovered. Be on the look out for more information about the details of this sharing.

Read – Cover – Jot – Reread

There is a lot of nonfiction reading happening in our class. Nonfiction is interesting because it doesn’t have to be read from cover to cover. It can be read topic by topic. We are reading about magnets, maps, and global geography. The children are learning the difference between skimming and scanning and reading for understanding. We have been practicing a four step note-taking procedure with each page. This helps the children focus on reading for meaning while developing strategies with synthesis and summarizing.

After reading a page or a section the children cover the text so they are not tempted to copy. They write what stood out to them as the main idea of that section. When that has been “jotted” down they go back to reread to add important details. This process is helping the children notice whether they are getting any meaning from the words they read. They are when they are able to express their own ideas. Do they restate facts or are they able to retell in their own words?

Magnets

Experimenting is fun. We’ve read that Earth is a magnet and we are trying to discover how that is so. We have lots of different magnets that we are using in several different science labs. We are following the scientific process: Question, Hypothesis, Material, Procedure, Observation and Conclusion, and learning how a lab is written. Our first lab was to see if we could turn a nail into a magnet that would lift a paper clip. Ask your child what happened with that experiment.

We are working to understand poles and how strong different kinds of are. We are testing out magnets to fine tune our thinking and clarify fact from assumptions. For example at first we thought that metal was magnetic. Now we know only some are and we need to look further to discover and identify the metals that are.

Bits and Pieces –

• Our Secret Friend gifts should be brought in on Monday if they are not already in the classroom. Please make sure they are wrapped and labeled with the receiver’s name only.
• Our Secret Friend celebration will be on Tuesday. Snacks and lunch will be provided for this day of celebration. If your child does not like pizza please let them know it is fine to bring a lunch they will enjoy.
• This week the children completed a second round of math fact fluency checks. They are in your child’s folder this week along with a scoring sheet showing how they have progressed since early-October. The children have not seen this yet. I hope you will find some time to look at this with them. We have a time for fact work each day in our class – but they need more practice in order to meet proficiency standards.
• We are working on kite string letters in cursive.
• Wildwood is getting exciting. The Dowager Governess and the coyote soldiers are attacking the Bandits. And Prue is trying to find a way to meet with Owl Rex, the king of the Avian Principality, without being seen or followed.
• We are changing our Artist-Writers’ Workshop gallery out in the hall. If you’re in the school at the start of the New Year, please come down to see it.

This week has been full of reading about the world and learning about maps. We practiced reading maps with Mr. Caron in our challenge this week. We learned  about different scientists and enjoyed seeing how each student created and shared his or her “Who Am I?” project. Thank you for all your help with that project. It was obvious that the children had your support to help them think and plan and present. In Math we explored time in our problem solving work and practiced facts each day as well. We’ve worked on setting a purpose for our writing and deciding on a target audience. We worked more with homonyms too along with the reading, writing, blogging, and art making we continue to do each week.

Secret Friend Project

           I hope all of you have had a chance to read through the instructions for the Secret Friend project and that all of the children will be here and able to share on the Tuesday before the New Year break. Many families did sign-off on the parent signature sheet, but not all. If you have any questions or concerns please let me know.

          The completed and wrapped writing and artwork should be brought to school no earlier than Friday, December 18 and no later than Monday, December 21. Please write your classmate’s name on the outside of the gift. Do NOT write your name on it. Your identity will be revealed when you give the present to your friend.

Reading Clocks – Telling Time – Solving Elapse Time Problems

            For the past two and a half weeks we have been working to use what we know about multiplying by5’s and 10’s. We’ve been exploring the passage of time by looking at both analogue and digital clocks. We’ve also been looking at time on a number line where the hours are the beginning and ending of the line with the 60 minutes in between. Some children find this whole process very challenging, but I can tell those who have decided they will figure it out are. I appreciate that effort. You may want to choose one or two problems coming home this weekend to start a conversation of how minutes are grouped and hours recorded.  See what your child can explain to you about his or her thinking. They have some interesting strategies.

Bits and Pieces –

• Thank you to the Hyetts for sharing a bit of their Hanukkah tradition with us this week.
• Enjoy the pictures of all our amazing scientists sharing their “Who Am I” projects. Have your child tell you about what they learned and what they saw as their classmates shared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Wildwood is our present chapter read-aloud. It is complex and exciting. Prue and Curtis are each in different parts of the Wood. As a class we are trying to figure out how the magic works and whether our suspicions about the Dowager Governess, the coyotes, the birds and now the Governor Regent will play out. See if your child can explain what he/she finds most interesting and puzzling about this story as it unfolds.
• Our next classroom research project is beginning next week. We’ll be learning about the cultures of different countries and the habitats of an animal from that country.

Here our some pictures of our grade level scientist share.  We learned a lot from each other.

Thank you for taking time to meet with me this week in our parent teacher conferences. It has been wonderful to meet with you to develop learning plans for the next trimester. You have wonderful children. They are a great group to be with every day. Our week has been full of reading, writing, picture making, problem solving, mapping and thinking. We have discovered all maps have six things: titles, keys, symbols, labels, scales and a compass rose. We are learning about bird’s eye views and the need for “keeping it real” when reading a map. We’ve been looking at different kinds of maps and trying to identify the continents and oceans on maps of the world.

Exploring Our World

As our study of maps grows, we have begun to explore the diversity of our world. We’ve been reading about the different continents to learn about the special features of each one. We discovered that North America has 11 countries. South America has 12 countries. Europe has 47 countries and Asia has 51. Africa has 54 countries, Australia 1 and Antarctica 0. We were pretty surprised by those amounts. Our estimates about the countries of the world went from 4,000 to 50. The number of countries seems small to us because the world is so big and there are so many people.

Our goal is to have each student choose a different place in the world to discover. Through research, they will develop expertise and share aspects of the country and its culture with the class and with families at an evening open house. The children have chosen a continent, country and animal to learn more about.

Through this work we will talk about assumptions and stereotypes. We will explore the cultural differences by learning about holiday traditions celebrated by all like the New Year, birthdays and weddings, housing, food and traditional clothing, We are looking forward to extending our study of maps to include an exploration of geography and people as we work to uncover what is the same and what is different.

Blog Posts

If you haven’t had the chance to stop by, please take a moment or two to read your child’s blog and leave a comment. They would love to hear from you. There is great variety in their posts. Some are sharing the slide shows they created in technology class. Some have written book reviews and “how to” drawing directions. Lots have shared the antics of their elves; while others are sharing special interests and favorite things.

Each week the children will have time to post on their blogs. With practice, the steps for posting will come more easily and I imagine the posts will become a little more descriptive and informative. The children are excited about the work and the possibilities of making connections beyond the classroom. This form of writing requires a different type of attention to an outside audience. They are aware that the writing needs to be specific and clear. They are learning to take another’s point of view to explain things to readers who may know very little about their topic.   While they know about posting with an audience in mind, right now it is a challenging demand to meet. Currently their main focus is learning all the in’s and out’s of posting, adding media and reviewing comments. It will come with practice. I am looking forward to seeing how the blogs create a record of how they grow and learn. If you have time to check out their work, please let them know by leaving a comment.

Bits and Pieces –

• We’ve been learning about different types of sentences. You might want to see if your child can tell you about them. Not everyone is certain of them at this point, but keep checking.
• We have begun to explore magnets. Earth is a big one. We are hoping to discover what they are and how they work.
• We began reading Wildwood as our next chapter read-aloud.  It is a complex and exciting fantasy adventure.  We are just getting into the good part!
• We have a challenge with Mr. Caron on Tuesday, December 8. If the weather is clear we will be outside so the children should be prepared for that.
• The Who Am I projects are due Thursday, December 10. We’ll be sharing them on Friday. We can’t wait!
• Thank you to the families who have returned permission slips for the field trip to the SEE Science museum. We are still missing a few. Do you need second copies?

 

 

We have had a full week. We began learning about mapping and geography. We launched the “Who Am I” scientist project. And the children had the opportunity to share their learning reflections and goals with their families. I am proud of the way the class has made choices that allow their classmates time to prepare to present their work at student let conferences.   Many classmates have been considering their behavior choices. More are thinking of how behaviors may impact others’ learning. In all the bustle and chatter of 3E it is obvious that thinking, questioning and wondering is happening. That’s what learning is about! Curious minds are exciting to be around.

Preparing and Sharing at Goal Setting Conferences

Thank you for coming in for your child’s student-led conference. This week most of the class had the opportunity to share their reflections on their own learning with their families. They shared graphs of their multiple intelligences and their learning narratives – some are a few sentences; others are a couple pages. Regardless of length, each narrative represents a story of careful thought and consideration. Your children worked many hours to select, plan and draft reflections to share how they see themselves as learners. They made a real effort to be thoughtful and create a story to show who they are as early third grade learners. They can 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 presentations.

Telling Time and Noticing How Time Elapses

This week we learned about multiples and focused on multiples of four. We also explored multiples of five by looking at clocks and exploring time. We’ve been reading analogue clocks and comparing them to digital clocks. Our math problems have helped us consider the passage of time and how to keep track of and record it. The children are working through multi-step problems that ask them to use different operations and shift their thinking from considering how much time has been used to imagining how the hands of the clock would change from start to end. Many more of the class is excited by the challenge of following the line of their thinking through to the end and a solution.

Learning About Our World

We have begun to learn about the geography, mapping and our world. Through our study of maps we will explore the diversity of our world. We’ve been reading about the different continents to compare their similarities and differences. North America has 11 countries. South America has 12 countries. Europe has 47 countries. Africa has 54 and Asia has 51. We’ll be finding out about Australia and Antarctica next week. We’ve noticed there are fewer countries then we originally thought. The number seems small to us because the world is so big and there are so many people.

Our plan is to have each student select a different country in the world to discover and explore. Through research they will develop their expertise and share aspects of the country and its culture with the class and with families at a second evening open house. (Not to be confused with the Parade of the States that will be held in spring.) It seems as though many of the children are thinking and wonder already. You may want to talk to your child about different possibilities – several of the children have talked about cities like London and Paris. I have learned through past experience that it can be challenging to find enough information understandable to eight and nine-year olds about a city. It is easier and less frustrating to have the broader lens of a country for this research project.

Through this work we will continue our S.E.L. conversations and talk about assumptions and stereotypes. We will explore traditions and consider the difference between native and contemporary cultures. We are looking forward to our study of maps, geography and people as we work to uncover what is wonderful around the world.

Launching the “Who Am I Project?”

Today we launched our first whole grade level project – Who Am I? – with a visit from the S.E.E. Science Mobile. Through Mr. Gustafson’s presentation the children learned more about thinking scientifically. He shared some exciting interactions and reactions. The project following this kick-off event is designed to help the children learn about different types of science and scientists. At the end of this month long exploration the children will share their discoveries with each other. In addition, have planned a trip to the S.E.E. Science Center on December 18. Look for details about the “Who Am I?” project in your child’s communication folder on Monday and about the field trip at the beginning of December.