Thank you.  It was wonderful to meet so many of you prior to the start of school at interviews and the Open House.  We’ve had a smooth, though melting, start to our year.  We are getting to know how we’ll work together and (in the words of Goat from Unicorn – he thinks he’s so great!) become an unstoppable team.  Thank you also for sending in the supplies.  We are already putting them to good use.  We appreciate your help and support.

Community Building

We’ve begun to learn about each other and figure out what we can each do to make our class a fun place to learn and grow.  We created a plan for establishing our Open Circle(see the Open Circle note for more information).  This is an opportunity for us to learn how to become even more respectful, kind and cooperative.  We’re learning how to celebrate what makes us different and unique, while also discovering how we are the same.  We’ve shared books like We Don’t Eat Our Classmates and It’s Okay to be Different. We’ve played the Name Game.  On day 1 we were able to successfully toss two balls around the circle.  On day 2 we were able to successfully toss three balls around the circle – more than one time each.  Accomplishing this takes focus, patience and concentration.  WOW!

Another part of the Community Building process is this newsletter and the blog.  On the last day of the school week, I’ll send home a weekly summary.  The same note will be posted on the blog, but illustrated with photographs of the classroom in action.  I hope you’ll visit the blog – pictures really are worth a thousand words. (3enews.edublogs.org) I will also make posts during the week with book suggestions, math problems or writing prompts for the children. Sometimes I’ll share an exciting happening of the day.  Through these, I try to keep you informed and involved with our classroom.  I hope this information will spark conversations with your child about what’s happening in the classroom.  These connections help bring learning to life.

Exploring What it Means to Be a Scientist

One of our first explorations this year is to think about what it means to be a scientist.  We watched a Mystery Doug video to discover why scientists seem so smart.  He helped us discover that one of the ways scientists seem so smart is because they are curious, ask lots of questions and make careful observations.  We did some wondering too.  I’ve copied those sheets to send home this week.  (I won’t always do that, but I wanted to you see some of what your child’s been doing this week.  I’m not sure of how well and/or willingly school activities are shared.) Each of the children observed and drew their hand.  At first it seemed a little odd.  Who would wonder about a hand, but then we began thinking and wondering.  We came up with some rather interesting questions about joints and veins, fingernails and knuckles, skin flexibility and sizes.  We discovered that once we began wondering, we noticed more.  Staying curious and open to ideas is part of what leads scientists on to new discoveries. Many of the children chose objects from nature – shells, stones, feathers, nests, flowers – to observe and wonder about as well.  Living life as a scientist is full of wonder!

Weather is a new science topic for third grade.  We’ve started gathering the facts we think we know.  We’ve illustrated our favorite types of weather.  We’re learning how to read the thermometer and about other weather forecasting tools.   We’re learning about cloud types and the water cycle.  Soon we’ll be exploring all different types of weather, both day-to-day and extreme storms.

Bits and Pieces –

• Our first chapter read aloud is Dragons and Marshmallowsfrom the Zoey and Sassafras series. It combines science and magic. Ask your child what’s happening with the story – we’re just getting to the exciting part.
• We’ve done a little reading and a little writing.
• We’ve learned two different math games, done some Quick Imaging with cards and chosen problems to solve.  Because I am just getting to learn who your children are and how to support them as learners, you may see some work coming home in your child’s folder that you feel is either too easy, or too hard.  That may certainly be so at this point.  It won’t stay that way.
• We’ve created name patterns, and explored different ways to organize one hundred things.
• We’ve worked as partners and in small groups and found ways to listen to each other and share ideas.

3E feels like a fun place to be. 

Have a wonderful weekend. It will be great to be back together again on Tuesday!