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.