We are off to a great start in 3E. I hope you’ve been hearing about some of the things we’ve been doing. In case you haven’t, each week I will do my best to share happenings from our classroom in a newsletter. My hope is that the notes will provide you with opportunities to talk about what is going on at school. We all know children thrive best when they know home and school are connected. This is one of my attempts to build that connection. If you read our blog, 3E News, at 3enews.edublogs.org you will also find pictures of the students working, covers of books we are reading and other links and connections. If you subscribe to the blog by email (that option is found on the right-hand sidebar) you’ll get notification of new posts.

Each day this week we’ve worked to uncover answers to the question, “What can we do to help everyone learn, feel safe and enjoy 3E?” We are discovering there are many different answers to that question. Each depends on the person and/or the activity.

We’ve focused on teamwork through the hula-hoop challenge, the name game and the Ping-Pong ball challenge. We’ve noticed that staying calm and being focused helps us succeed. We’ve noticed that sometimes working slowly and intentionally leads more easily to success as well.

Each day we have built something in a small group challenge. The groups were formed by randomly choosing name sticks. We’ve discovered each group has a different dynamic. Some groups are easy to work in; while others are more challenging. Throughout the year we will continue small group challenges to help the children grow socially and become better team players. This week we’ve been challenged to build the highest freestanding Lego tower in 7 minutes. We’ve worked to create a new perch for “Harry” with time for design and building. Our final project was the penny challenge where groups agreed upon a design and then constructed a pipe cleaner structure that would hold a cup of 50 pennies off the table.  Sharing ideas, listening to others, and finally merging the ideas to come to consensus has all been part of our learning process this week. It hasn’t always been pretty, but we have managed.

In and around those challenges we’ve done a little reading and begun our first chapter read-aloud, The One and Only Stuey Lewis. Ask your child to tell you about him and what he’s been doing with his friends. Ask your child how he or she’d feel about having Stuey in our classroom. We’ve also learned a bit about how our brain works and how we can make it grow by having a positive attitude and puzzling things through. We’ve begun to think about the different ways we are smart by learning about the Theory of Multiple Intelligence.

We performed our first experiment. We identified the inquiry process scientists use: ask, predict, investigate, observe, explain…ask,.. and then gave it a go. Our question was: What will happen to the black line? We drew a line on a strip of paper towel with a black marker. We put one end of the strip into a cup of water and taped the other to the white board. When we left school on Wednesday the water had wicked up the strips about 4 and 1/2 inches, but there were no changes in the lines. It will be the first thing we see Thursday morning.

We’ve explored many different topics within mathematics. Our focus has been to uncover that notion that while there might be only one correct answer, there are many ways to get to the solution. First we looked at a configuration of dots – there were 6 but the children found that solution in nine different ways. We also challenged ourselves to find the smallest number of squares an 11×13 rectangle can be divided into. This was tricky. Many of the children didn’t know how to approach that task at first. You can’t cut 11 or 13 in half. Together, the next day, we found two solutions. One solution had 11 squares and the other had 8. We think we might be able to find an even smaller solution. If you like that sort of puzzle, get out some graph paper and try it at home. We also looked at patterns and shapes. Finally we learned about quadrant grids and used them to share information in a range. We’ve had fun examining the many different sides of mathematics. It’s much more that numbers and calculations.

The more I write the more I realize we have done! It has been a full week. In between the picnic and the start of school we welcomed Jayce to our classroom. We are glad to have him with us! Thank you to the Duffy’s for boxes of tissues, wipes and extra snack. That was a generous gift.

It feels good to be part of 3E. We’ve had a great start. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call, send a note or email.