This week’s post is illustrated with pictures taken by Tera, our class photographer.            This week we completed the last three sections of the SBAC state test. This week’s test focus was math. It seemed to take less time, but was still a challenge to complete. There are a few children who need some more time to complete one of the testing sections. We hope to get those done next Tuesday and Wednesday.

In and around the testing, we read and wrote, solved some math problems and continued share as many acts of kindness as we could.

Celebrate with The Parade of the States

            Thank you so much for all you did to make the Parade of the States a real celebration. The floats looked wonderful. The children were all super excited to share. I hope you had the chance to speak with some of the children after the parade to ask them about their Wonders. They have learned a great deal about them and their states.

We apologize that the writing wasn’t on display last night. We didn’t factor in the testing time drag when we made the change from display board or book, to digital poster. Their writing is complete and now needs to be reformatted onto the Glogster. The children will share this, their finished persuasive piece of writing, along with their completed fable at their student led conference. Please look for a sign-up schedule on Tuesday.

Student-Led Conferences

            The year began with a goal setting conference in October where the children shared the “best” reading, writing and math work. They shared reflections about their work. This is a challenge for 8 and 9-year olds. The learning process is difficult to put into word and yet, thinking about thinking is one of the best ways to deepen learning. That’s why we do it.

The children have begun the process of looking back at little at a time. They’ve looked at their fall goals to see if they’ve been met or not. They are not gathering evidence of their growth and considering all they have learned about and how they have grown. At their June conference they will be presenting end-of-the-year work samples and sharing their thinking about how they have grown and changed throughout their 3^rd grade year.

Bits and Pieces:

• We are continuing to enjoy Maxi’s Secret. It’s fun to read a book so closely connected to Wonder – our favorite book of the year. If you do family read-aloud, The Thing About Georgie by Lisa Graff would be a great one to follow those two with.
• We’ve begun our last set of math fact checks along with the math assessment to pass on to fourth grade.
• The children have continued blogging. Many have posted acrostic poems featuring their classmates. They are special. A few are publishing stories.

We are looking forward to a “normal” week to start our last month of 3^rd grade.