The weeks still seem to be passing by too quickly; more quickly than ever. Our days are full of so many lessons, projects and activities. Here’s a partial list of what we’re doing: informational writing about our animal, informational writing about our state, mastering division and fractions, reading and responding to both fiction and non-fiction, learning about the interconnectedness of life in our world and understanding patterns of growth and how habitats compare. We’re working on our portfolio wall, our digital portfolios and our blogs.

S.E.L. – Empathy

Knowing how we feel and how we make others feel

In and around all the projects and activities we are working on, your children are taking care of one another by being great friends. We are thinking about what habits support learning: our own and the learning of others. This week we began a discussion around whether you can be a “bully” to yourself. You can. Every time you say you are not good enough, or not capable of doing something new – that’s a self-put down. We’ve been trying to come up with options so instead of saying, “I’m not good at…” try saying “If I keep trying, I’ll get better at…”   Instead of, “I can’t do it” try saying “I can start and then I can ask for help when I feel stuck.”

I am hoping that we will catch ourselves when we make comments that begin with “I can’t…”, “I don’t…”, “I’m not…”, “Everyone else can…, but…” so we can begin to turn our impressions of ourselves around to feel more capable and full of possibility. If we believe we can, we can. We can all try and we can all help each other. We can recognize that practice makes progress and effort leads to growth.

Learning the Relationship Between Fractions and Division

Last week our morning mini-lessons were designed to explore long division. We worked to understand division as a concept and connected it to fractions. Both deal with breaking an amount into equal parts or fair shares. Each morning the lesson was greeted with moans and groans. Either, “not this again, I don’t get it” or “I already know how to do this, why…” We persevered. We worked to turn the talk around to look at the process with an open mind. We began to look at the steps to see exactly when understanding was lost. And we began to ask ourselves, “What can I do to help my friends understand – how did I make this make sense to me?”

This week the class is working to practice this more independently during our daily problem solving. Though still greeted with a bit of nervousness, the class is making steady progress. The understanding is still in the early stages, but there is a growing feeling of accomplishment as each problem is met and solved. When you look at your child’s work from the last two weeks I think you’ll see how he or she is trying to solve some different kinds of problems. I am proud of them to taking the risk to try new things and to work through challenges to learn.

Food Chains – Food Webs

Taking Care of Our World

Each of the children has created a food chain featuring the animal they have chosen to study. We know that each food chain begins with sun and water and some type of plant because only plants can make their own energy. Some food chains are short, involving just two or three links. Some are more complex with five or six links.   All, if we explore a little deeper and add in the decomposers turn into endless cycles. These cycles we are discovering are all related. Chains turn into food webs and we are learning about how every organism is linked around the world.

When we began our growing and habitat projects we wondered if it mattered whether one species went extinct or not. We all agreed that it was a terrible thing – because to not exist was bad. As we read and learn more we are realizing it is much more than that. We are also learning about what people are doing to turn things around and hopefully coming up with things that we can do ourselves to help heal the world.

Bits and Pieces

• We’ve almost finished The Secret of Zoom. Christina’s found her mom, but she’s also learned how careless people can be with others when they wish for importance, recognition and power. Lenny Loomski is not a nice man.
• It has been two months since we planted our broccoli seeds. We moved our seedlings out to the greenhouse two weeks ago. We tend to the plants and keep track of the plant changes from week to week. It is pretty amazing to notice the changes and to keep track of them in our Diary of Broccoli. Here is one entry:

March 20 – 3 weeks old

My leaves are bigger than before. My stem is getting thicker. My roots are getting longer and slowly spreading out. I have more leaves and I’m proud I’m getting bigger. I think I’m starting to figure out what I’m going to be. I heard the kids say, “Oh, this is going to be the best broccoli ever.” I’m pretty sure I’m going to be a vegetable.

your friend,

Broc

• These pictures show how the plants have changed in the last four weeks. Pretty remarkable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Thank you for the comments left on the student blogs. The children really appreciate being read.

Our weeks keep flying by. It feels almost impossible to fit everything in. Some of that feeling comes because we are doing so much and some of that feeling comes from poor use of time. There is a great deal of chatting and it is really getting in the way of learning. It would be helpful if you could have a conversation with your child to see if he or she feels as though there are different choices that could be made by him or her during lessons and independent learning times. It would be helpful to have them consider the importance of quiet time to think and puzzle things through without interruption about favorite songs, pokemon cards, different sport practices, video games, etc. … Thank you for helping your child understand what his or her first priority is at school. Fun is terrific, but not at the expense of learning.

SEL – Defining the Five Core Groups of Social and Emotional Competencies

This week we’ve been working together to define these five competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. We’ve been talking about feelings. We’ve been naming them and looking at pictures to see if we can find clues in body language and facial expressions that lead us to that conclusion. We’ve also been talking about empathy through book examples and scenarios. We’ve been working to consider how we could answer different questions. If we can see how someone is feeling and relate to that, how can we move one step further to help and support that person? If someone seems to be feeling happy, what can we do to keep that feeling growing? If someone seems to be feeling confused, what might we do to support him or her? We’ve discovered that it’s complicated but we are committed to helping everyone in our class feel safe, listened to, and treated kindly. We are working to do this so that everyone is comfortable to be him or herself while also being able to do his or her best learning.

Thinking of Ways We Can Care for Earth

While the students were researching the animals they have chosen as important to their states, the number of animals that are endangered struck us. This led us to question if it mattered and why. To answer these questions we’ve been slowly exploring Planet Ark to learn about biodiversity and the interconnectedness of everything on earth. We were surprised to learn that scientists think that we only know 10% of all the different species on Earth. We couldn’t believe there were that many species yet to be discovered. We were also saddened to realize that we may never learn of some species with the way people are impacting the environment. We are eager to read more to discover things that we can do in our own backyards to help promote biodiversity.

We know that learning about growing things through our broccoli project is a good first step. We know the learning as much as we can about animals and teaching others about them and how they fit into the web of life on our planet is a good second step. And we are going to do what we can to learn of different things we can do, because everything , no matter how big or small, has an impact.

As part of this learning process we’re learning the song, Habitat by Bill Oliver. See if your child can at least teach you the chorus. Soon he or she will know the whole song. You may also want to ask your child about the poems we’ve been choral reading about his or her animal. It’s just been a week, but many of them know them by heart already.

Information Writing

Most of the children have completed the first drafts of their animal information writing. We are hoping that everyone in class will complete this project. If that happens we will be able to create a class magazine sharing everyone’s work with every family. We plan to follow the format of the Where in the Wild and Where Else in the Wild books and present our information through poetry, pictures and informative texts. Some of the children are creating diaries, while others have created main characters so the animals are telling about themselves and still others have selected more traditional topic paragraph formats.

The drafts I’ve been able to read so far are fun, funny and informative. They share information creatively with an attention to detail and their readers. I am looking forward to reading everyone’s drafts and to working as a class to publish this great work.

Bits and Pieces –

• Next Wednesday, April 22 third grade will be having a special presentation given by nature photographer, Robert Michaelson. We’ll be learning about biodiversity and habitats, while also having the opportunity learn about his profession and his passion for restoring and maintaining vibrant habitats.
• Our broccoli is thriving. This week we watered and weeded though we don’t think there’s been much growth this week. We also began to write The Diary of Broccoli to chronicle the life of our plants from seed to edible flowers.   We’re feeling pretty excited.
• Four students and their families signed and returned the float information slips. It would be great if all families can do that. This is a big project and we want to make sure everyone has seen the information. The children will need your help to organize their time and help them with the basic float idea. Their animal collage, paper person and drawing of their structure will be finished and sent home next week along with a completed listing of their wonders.
• The Secret of Zoom has gotten to the exciting part where Christina knows her mother is alive, but she doesn’t know where she is.   Also Christina is stuck in the middle of the Starkian Mountains and has to find a way to save Taft, the orphans and her dad all by herself.
• The children would love some comments on their blogs. I’ve upgraded the blog so it should be easier to access from any mobile device. The children are eager to know they have been read. You can also sign up to be alerted that new post has been made on the class site if that would be a helpful reminder.

It is hard to believe that Friday is here again. It seems as though our week just began. It has been full of conversations about manners, consideration and self-control, fractions, sentences and paragraphs, research and growing.

S.E.L. – Becoming More Self-Aware

We began our week thinking about compliments and appreciation for others. We are thinking more about what it means to be a friend. Friends care about others. Friends have manners. Everyone agrees that there are different kinds of friends and that friends are nice to be around. That said, it dawned on me that perhaps no one had told the few children in our class who flail down the hall, arms swinging, feet jumping and mouth going that they were rude and annoying to the rest of our class and to every classroom they passed. We talked about this in general. Each student had to honestly assess his or her behavior and notice how some people in our class were never around that group in line. We talked about what it means to be polite and then looked at a list of synonyms and antonyms to help us realize how others might label our impolite behaviors. We’re not perfect of course, but some of our movement through the halls has become more controlled and courteous. Our next goal is to tackle side conversations during lessons and work time.

Sentences versus Paragraphs

Most everyone in the class knows that each sentence must have a subject and a predicate. They can identify when word collections are complete sentences and when they are not. Most of the class would say that a paragraph is a group of sentences on one topic. They are organized to make a point. The first sentence is important because it sets the topic and the last sentence helps a reader understand what the writer’s message was. We know about indents too.

It is much easier to talk about these ideas as a class than it is for children to use these ideas on their own. It is challenging for many of them grasp this concept either when asked to write on a given topic or a topic of their own choosing. Hopefully, at the conclusion of our research for both the animals and the state wonders children will feel sure of their abilities to use paragraphing as an organizing structure to craft interesting pieces.

Out to the Greenhouse

After 6 weeks our broccoli seedlings are ready to be transplanted into our foot square beds. We are choosing the seedling we think is most likely to survive, thrive and provide produce for the cafeteria to plant. We’ll be watching closely and measuring growth to see what changes happen to our plants when they are out in the open. We’ll also be able to compare how our crop is growing compared to the kale and endive being grown by the other two classrooms.

Becoming State Specialists

The children have been exploring their states – reading about them in books and online. They’ve explored people and places, landmarks and structures. They’re learning about history and trying to understand how time and progress impacts understanding and beliefs.

In art the children have been working to create a collage of the animal they’ve chosen as important to their state. They’ve made a representation of a famous person from their state and finally will be creating an architectural drawing of an important structure from their state. These pieces represent three of the “wonders” chosen for their state. Creating the State Float Blueprint will be part of next week’s homework. These three projects should be included on the float plans somewhere. The artwork will be completed and sent home as a collection just before April vacation. That way the children will have them as they work to build their floats for the May 28th Parade of the States.

 

 

 

Bits and Pieces –

• We continue to develop map reading skills with Mr. Caron. This week we used maps of the school to find pegs hidden by classmates. Some were easy, but others were challenging.
• We are enjoying The Secret of Zoom and the idea of moving things with our thought vibrations.
• We’ve been exploring fractions with geoboards and pattern blocks. We are making the connection between fractions and division.

We are certainly in need of sun and melting and fun. This week we can sit on the benches on the playground for the first time since January and all the swings can be used. There are a couple places where you can see a bit of ground, but mostly the children are playing on the blacktop – soccer, basketball, versions of 4-square and jumping rope. It feels good to move freely without too many clothes. Bring on the sun and the spring breezes.

S.E.L – Being a Friend

We’ve continued our daily discussions about what it means to be a friend and how we can support each other to learn well and to be happy together. Here are the ways the children completed the sentence stem “A friend is…”

• A friend is nice, happy and shares.
• A friend is someone who listens to you when you talk, someone you can trust, someone you can count on and someone who cares about you.
• A friend is nice.
• A friend is a person you always hang out with, somebody who does not hurt your feelings, and that can cheer you up.
• A friend is some one you trust and know will always help you and be there for you when you’re sad and scared. A friend is someone you want to be “sisters” or “brothers” with. A friend is someone you care for a lot, a lot, a LOT. A friend is someone you hug every time you see them and that is a true FRIEND.
• A friend is trustworthy, great, helpful, crazy, kind, happy grateful, excited, nice, peaceful and fun.
• A friend is a helpful person by your side to help you and you help him/her.
• A friend is someone who helps someone and stands out for that person. They hang together and are nice to each other.
• A friend is someone that can help you with your troubles.
• A friend is a nice person.
• A friend is a person who listens to you.
• A friend is someone that you trust. You admire him or her. A friend is a person that doesn’t laugh at you and picks you up again. A friend is a person who believes in you. A friend is always kind, helpful, trustworthy and friendly. A friend gives you good advice. A friend is someone who backs you up and who gets your back. A friend is a friend.
• A friend is a person who is nice and likes you.

I think the class made some amazing statements about being friends. Now we need to bring all of them to life. We read a book this week called Say Something. In it the girl sees other students being teased, feeling sad, and being left out. She feels badly for them and comments that she would never do or say anything. One day her usual group is not there and she sits alone at lunch. Some kids come over and begin joking around and then turn the joke on her. She feels hurt, especially when she notices that some other friends were right there listening but not saying anything. She’s angry about it when she tells her brother and he says she can’t be angry because they didn’t do anything. That’s when she realizes she could be different – maybe there is more to be done that just not participating. It is a short and simple book – the message is subtle. It would be great to have a conversation about at home. Please feel free to borrow it. Our next goal is to define what it sounds like to be nice, what it looks like to be nice, and how it feels to be nice.

Fractions and Fair Shares

We are continuing to grow our understanding of fractions. This week we spent some time identifying fractions and seeing them as a way to divide a group of things into smaller groups AND also a way of cutting one thing into smaller pieces. We worked to solve problems of how to share a number of brownies with a number of people. For example: how would you share 2 brownies with 4 people or how would you share 5 brownies with 4 people?

Next we’ll be applying what we are learning to recipes. We will work to double a recipe to see how that changes how the fractions were recorded. We will also work to cut the same recipe in half. Hopefully this is a fun way to explore fractions and think about the information the different parts of the fractions give us. If you are following a recipe while you cook at home this would be a great opportunity to explore fractions together.

Bits and Pieces –

• Christina and Taft are trying to discover what Lenny Loomski is doing in the mountains and the mines with the orphans in The Secret of Zoom, our current chapter read-aloud.
• We have a challenge with Mr. Caron on April 7.
• We are reading and researching both our state wonders and the animal we have chosen to focus on from each state.
• The children are continuing to learn about sentences and paragraphing. We’re also choosing different formats to present information through – question and answer, poetry, diaries or essay. We’ve got some interesting ideas that we hope to put together into a class magazine.
• This week we were able to work on our animal masks in art. They are coming out great.