With one more week of school there are mixed feelings circulating in the classroom. Relief, joy, sadness and worry are some of them. “Do you really have to go up the front stairs when you get off the bus? Is that a rule? Will I be able to come this way to return books?” “I’m going to really miss 3rd grade.” Summer will come and go. They’ll all be ready for their new challenges – but right now some of the class is feeling a bit unsure and unsettled. Others are excited for new challenges. Our room is full of excitement and possibilities.

This week we put our final Artist-Writers’ Workshop gallery. We wrote our final on-demand writing piece to share with fourth grade teacher. We are doing our final round of fact checks, adding to our blogs and watching our broccoli and tadpoles grow (some have back legs!)

Coming Full Circle by Developing Digital Portfolios

In the fall one of your units of study was exploring the theory of multiple intelligences and thinking about all the different ways we are smart in the world. We identified habits that lead to success like effort and taking action, appreciation and gratitude, hopefulness and perseverance. We graphed our multiple intelligences to share with you in the October. We set learning goals for ourselves. In the last few weeks we have reconnected with that study by looking through our work collections, listening to recordings and sorting through photographs. We’ve discovered that some of the goals have been met, and others have not. The children are looking at their accomplishments and reflecting on learning growth. This can be challenging to see and name in third grade. The evidence of learning in not as concrete and obvious as in past grades. It is subtler and shows up in how they think and understand. They have grown as readers in how they think about and make connections to what they read. They have grown as writers in how they work to clearly express their ideas, their sense of humor and their interests. They have grown as problem solvers and mathematicians. They know about all four operations and are better able to approach a problem with a clear sense of how to imagine the action taken and record their thinking numerically. They are excited to share their portfolios with you next week.

Humphrey Book Clubs

The children are working to read and record their thinking to share what they find important in their books. What I find amazing is the connections they make between the book we read in April and the books they are reading now. Humphrey is a classroom hamster who shares classroom life as he sees it. He tries to be helpful to all his classmates and to find ways to encourage them. One group is reading about Humphrey and his class at the start of the school year, another group is reading about October, another group is reading about December and the final group is reading about February. Together we read about this class in April.

As the groups read, they are discovering which characters in Humphrey’s classroom are changing the most. They can see their challenges and their accomplishments – Mrs. Brisbane’s class is much like ours. It is fun!

Bits and Pieces –

• We’ll be celebrating Mrs. Sherouse on Tuesday.
• We’ll be meeting fourth grade teachers on Wednesday
• We’ll be celebrating our year together on Thursday.
• Please make sure kids come to school with empty backpacks all week so we can fill them bit by bit with journals and sketchbooks and artwork and more.