It has been great meeting with you parents in the conferences over the last several weeks.  If you and I have not had a conference, please contact me to set one up.  

Reading:  We continue to read Wonder and are closely examining character development, voice and perspective.  Our Global Read Aloud (GRA) books for the past two weeks were I’m Here and Ish.  Students have engaged in rich discussions in class about the author’s message.

Math:  During Number Corner, students in Grade Three Math have been working with volume measurement using milliliters and liters. The class is creating a rainbow of colored water while practicing measuring 250 ml. Number Corner also involves an introduction to multiplication through the game, Frog Jump! Unit one math lessons have revolved around showing multiple pathways to solve two-step number problems with addition and subtraction. The finale of unit one was the assessment on Friday. Next week will be the October Number Corner assessment.

Fourth Graders continue to build multiplicative reasoning as they work with multi-digit multiplication and early division.  In Module 1, students use base ten area pieces to investigate place value patterns, as well as model and solve single- and double-digit multiplication problems.  In Google Classroom, a Doc with support games for Unit 2 has been shared.  They are welcome to use this valuable resource as their fact practice.

Theme (Science):  We are well into our science investigation - Variations and Adaptations of Living Things.  Students are really enjoying this science and literacy integrated unit, and are observing characteristics of living things that show relatedness and variation.  listening to bird calls to distinguish between songbirds and nonsongbirds was a treat!  Ask your child what birds we listened to!  Students are reading nonfiction text, observing animals in photographs, watching videos of animal movement and listening to bird calls to distinguish songbirds from non-songbirds.  We are also beginning a mold investigation!

Writing:  In writing we are guiding students into what many fiction writers consider the heart of fiction: character struggle and motivation.  We have created believable characters and now we will decide what this person wants or hopes for.  In our next writing sessions we will try to balance a combination of hopes and obstacles.  

We framed our blog updates by having each child choose a topic and each had a checklist with which to review and edit their own work.  These narrow parameters have helped us post in a more timely fashion.

Community:  We are working on internalizing our SMART behaviors whether or not an adult is present.  We have played some fun games including pictionary-ish and charades using the animals from our science unit.  We are finally beginning to get our Jobs going too!  Overall we have had a great, full week!

Next Week:  The WCS Harvest Festival will take place at school on 10/31 during the day.  Your child will need to bring a few things-please see the separate post.

Science, Global Read Aloud, Theme Time Spiders!

The week has been busier than ever!  Likely we have had more fun than ever too! We have added a science/literacy block with Ms. Ward’s class and the joined the Global Read Aloud project.  We continue to try to post a weekly reflection from every student and from me!  We have not quite figured out how to do this in the time we have and have ‘clean’ work.  

We've enjoyed the reading of two books during Read Aloud this week.  We continue to read Wonder and students have felt great empathy for the main character, Auggie as he faces  some cruel social challenges.  We are also invited to shift perspectives as we hear from his sister, Via.  I have encouraged students to draw on these moving passages as we develop our own ideas for writing realistic fiction stories.  

As members of the Global Read Aloud project we are studying the books of Peter Reynolds.  This week we read The North Star.  Students have written several reflections connected to this book. The book itself focuses on each person’s personal journey and choices.  We will all be  blogging to connect our thinking about reading Peter Reynold's books as a way to connect beyond our classroom and Williston walls!

Our class is studying science topics with Ms. Ward’s class.  We are doing close reads to learn about the variation and relatedness of organisms, adaptation, heredity and so on.  We are implementing a program called Seeds of Science, Roots of Reading as one way to address the Next Generation Science Standards.  Students have enjoyed the partner reading of these nonfiction texts with their vivid photographs and interesting concepts.  We all enjoy partnering with Ms. Ward’s class.  

As I’ve mentioned above, in writing students have spent time finding ideas for realistic fiction stories by examining small moments from their lives. noticing and collecting these small moments has been very challenging.  We are learning to find characters in our own experience that we can use. This involves some dramatic story telling on my part.  

We love using the Chromebooks.  One challenge has been figuring out how to complete the much needed editing on the first draft of blog posts.  We continue to grapple with this. Once again most posts will be published on Monday.  

In math fourth graders completed the work for Unit 1-multiplication and division.  They took the unit test on Friday.  On Monday we will begin some work on measurement.  There was no paper homework last week rather I sent links to games that will help deepen the conceptual knowledge of factors, multiples, prime and composite numbers.

That’s all for now, oh...except that we saw a spider emerge from it’s egg sack in the kiva on Friday and we had a great time at the Potluck on Thursday! Please remember that next week is a three day week for students and please sign up for a conference with me using the link I sent.

 

Better Late Than Never...

Sorry we did not get our posts up Friday!  Students used a ‘story frame’ that I posted in Google Classroom to write their blog posts last week.  This morning they were able to copy and paste their entries into Kidblog pretty independently.  It is great to see their skills build.

We are beginning our work in our Writer’s Notebooks.  Our first unit of study will be realistic fiction.  We are following  the Lucy Calkins curriculum.  Right now we are searching for small moments that can be seeds for important stories.  This week we’ll also be working on character development.

During Reading I have been conducting assessments as students read, make connections and visualize.  This is also the work we are doing and discussing in Read Aloud as we have read Wonder. With the other Equinox classrooms, we are participating in a Global Read Aloud.  With other participants around the world we are doing a Peter Reynolds author study (The Dot) and responding to the texts.  Today we read The North Star. You can learn more about Global Read Aloud via this link.

Multiplicative comparisons are the focus of our math work in my class.  We are working with multiples, strategies for ratio tables based on multiples and the phrase “X times as many as.”  We are continuing this work during the week.  We are working in Work Places playing games designed to deepen students’ knowledge and skills with these concepts.  In third grade math students are working on strategies for practicing adding and subtracting numbers.  There has been a lot of work on the concept of equivalency. They are also working with Work Places.

Starting on Tuesday our class will pair with Ms. Ward’s during Reading block to begin an integrated science and literacy program.  We’ll be studying adaptations.  

We hope to see you this week at our family Pot Luck in the cafeteria on Thursday.  It will be a great chance for us all to socialize.