Weekly News 12/20

What an amazing week we've had! Students have explored, persisted and worked together to create creative Rube Goldberg Systems! We've refined our definitions of systems and learned more about potential and kinetic energy and the transfer of energy.  Up next, each student will be diving deeper into learning about a new system of their choice during our nonfiction reading and writing. 

We hope you have a wonderful holiday and vacation with your families!

Weekly News 12/13

This week had us designing, building, experimenting, and wondering! Our inquiry about systems has continued as children learn about how the parts of a system work together to accomplish a job.  This means we are diving deep into the crazy mind of Rube Goldberg! After watching some videos of Rube Goldberg machines in action, students have been working to design a system that completes a simple task.  We drew up plans and brainstormed the supplies we would need and the building and testing will start on Monday! Your child should know what they need to bring.

We also explored how systems need energy and learned about potential and kinetic energy. After defining these terms the classes applied these ideas to amusement park rides! We built several models to test how to get enough energy to make the ride work, as well as how energy can be transferred.  Be sure to ask your child what they learned!

We will be working to integrate reading and writing into our systems inquiry.  This week we learned about determining importance with non-fiction texts.  We read a biography about Rube Goldberg and highlighted and summarized the important parts.  We will continue to build non-fiction reading skills through research about systems.

In math both 3rd grade and 4th grade has reached the end of our addition and subtraction units and are working on showing what we know! Children are using real life data to write and solve word problems using addition and subtraction. Some of the data we are using includes population, cost of vacations, football stats, and National Park visitors.  Ask your child what questions they answered!

A note about our holiday party
We will be doing a book exchange at our holiday party next week.  Books DO NOT need to be new! We encourage your child to bring in a book they love and have already read!

Upcoming dates
12/20- Holiday party
12/23-1/1- Winter break

Weekly News 12/6

We've packed a lot in to a few days! We started our new inquiry on systems! This will be an integrated unit with nonfiction reading and writing.  Students explored different types of systems and came up with our own definition of systems:

1. it has different parts

2. needs energy or power

3. it has a job or purpose

4. the parts work together

5. each part plays a different role 

We are planning a holiday celebration on Friday, December 20th in the morning.  We will send out more details early next week- it crept up on us! 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Weekly News 11/22

Happy Friday! It's been a week of deepening our thinking, challenging ourselves and engaging in meaningful conversations about our learning.  We are wrapping up our Great Bay inquiry by choosing a way to share our knowledge about why the Great Bay is worth protecting and what we can do to help.  We spent time looking at a lot of data (see pictures below!) and interpreting the information about the natural and man made ways the bay has changed.  A highlight was having Abigail Lyons, a Great Bay expert, come in to answer all of our unanswered questions about the bay. 

In reading, students are about halfway done with book groups and we've shifted the format a little bit.  We noticed that the conversations falling a little flat so we began using a simple T-chart labeled "text" and "thinking".  After a lot of modeling and guided practice students used this format to reflect on each section of reading to think of two parts of the book that they had some deep thinking they wanted to share.  We had a discussion after our first meetings using these T-charts and the feedback was that the conversations were deeper, longer and more focused.  So, we will continue using this format!

In writing, we are wrapping up our narrative writing unit by focusing heavily on revising, editing and peer feedback.  Students are starting to meet with peers to give feedback on how to incorporate the lessons into their writing and students are practicing going back to their writing after receiving feedback.  Teachers have been meeting with students throughout the process and we will do one final conference after the peer feedback session.  Soon, you will see these stories on Seesaw.  These stories will not be "perfect" but reflective of the student's learning and growth throughout this unit.  All students' stories have progressed from the beginning of the unit!

In third grade math we have been focusing on several strategies for adding and subtracting three digit numbers.  Students have been exposed to and practiced using an open number line, using expanded form and traditional addition and subtraction.  Students are able to use any strategy they feel comfortable with to add and subtract.  Up next, we will be applying these strategies in problem solving. 

After reviewing addition and subtraction strategies, the 4th graders have been working on applying those skills to problem solving.  This we sorted word problems based on whether you should add or subtract to solve.  This helped up tune in to key words like "combined," "how much more," and "total." Students then worked to solve word problems that involved more than 1 step and compare strategies with a partner.  We finished the week by doing some real world math using data tied to our Great Bay inquiry.  Students looked at data about the number of volunteer hours people spent in 2015 and 2016.  They used the data to ask questions and got busy solving!

Upcoming:
Book fair- both classes will be visiting the book fair on Wednesday, December 4th

It's the season to reflect on what we are grateful for and we want to share that we are grateful for our students, our families and our amazing SMS community.  We feel so fortunate to love our jobs and to spend time with your children every day.  We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving next week!

Weekly News 11/15

The first big chill of the year hit this week...everyone agrees it seems little early to have indoor recess due to the cold! As conferences wrap up, we want to thank you for supporting your child in the goals they have set for themselves! Stay tuned for follow up reflections around goal setting.

Here's what we were up to this week with some questions to ask your child:

• Revising story leads to hook the reader
• How does your story start?
• Choosing books for character book clubs
• Discussing expectations for book clubs and reviewing things to talk about
• What book are you reading?
• How did your first meeting go? What did you talk about?
• Exploring addition and subtraction
• What have you learned about addition and subtraction?
• What was your favorite math activity this week?
• Creating our Great Bay murals
• What animals are on your mural?

Next week book clubs will continue to meet, narrative stories will be revised, and we will visit with a Great Bay scientist!

Upcoming dates:

11/27-11/29- No school, Thanksgiving break

Weekly News 11/8

This week has been a whirlwind of activity! We are finishing up our animal research and creating 3D animals to add to our class mural.  Up next, and to wrap up our inquiry unit on why the Great Bay is worth protecting, students will be investigating either a natural or manmade change.  They will be researching and sharing how this change has affected the bay and what we can do to help.  Students are still working on their fiction stories and most students have chosen to continue drafting on their Chromebooks.  A large focus is how to show the passing of time in a story and how authors choose certain parts of the story to focus on and add detail.  In reading we are continuing our character work and in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving students will be in book groups.  In math both grade levels are working on estimating and mental math strategies with a focus on how these strategies apply to real life.  On another note, we are so proud of the students and their thoughtful reflections, goal setting and leading their parent conferences.  

Upcoming:

11/11- No school, Veteran's Day
11/14- Early release, conferences

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Weekly News 11/1

Happy Friday! It's been a busy week in 3/4 GW! Be sure to ask your child about:

• their word study patterns this week
• discussing why we should protect the Great Bay
• synthesizing our research on Great Bay habitats
• choosing a Great Bay animal to research
• creating rubrics together for show what you know in math
• self-assessing our show what you know work
• planning our stories in writing
• discussing problems and challenges people and characters face
• noticing how and why characters change in reading 
• Global Play All Day!
• preparing for student led conferences  

4th Grade Parents:
The Geography Bee is coming up! Here is a link with more information: SMS Geo Bee.

Upcoming dates
11/5- No school, teacher in-service
11/7- Early release, conferences
11/11- No school, Veteran's Day
11/14- Early release, conferences

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update 10/25

Another week is behind us...it's hard to believe that October is coming to an end! This week proved to be another busy one!

Our inquiry into the Great Bay continued with an investigation into the different habitats that make up the Great Bay watershed.  Small groups worked to become "experts" on one habitat.  They then taught others what they had learned and had to think about why each habitat is important. 

In Readers' Workshop students are thinking deeply about characters by noticing:

-Actions

-Internal and external traits

-How they treat others

-Feelings

-Attitudes

-Backgrounds

After noticing different aspects of a character, we are asking ourselves: what does this tell you about the character? This will help us move from thinking about the text to thinking beyond the text.  And eventually help us to realize that characters in books are just like us. We can learn a lot through looking looking deeply at characters!  This is definitely something you can practice at home when your child is reading!

In writing we explore what makes short stories "good." We read lots of short stories to notice what authors do to make their stories great. Here's what we came up with:

-Problems and solutions

-Beginning, middle and end

-Stories teach a lesson

-The author conveys strong emotions

-Main characters and secondary characters

Looking at what published authors do can help up raise the quality of our writing.  Students sat down to write and developed a plan so they knew the direction their stories were going in before they began.

Both 3rd graders and 4th graders have reached the end of the 1st unit on place value.  Students are working hard to show what they know.  They were given a list of "I can" statements for skills that were covered in the unit.  We talked about ways they can show they can do each skill and then get to choose how they will demonstrate and explain that skill.  Kids are using SeeSaw, making posters, and slideshows to show what they can do! It is great to see the children ownership of their learning.  Many have expressed how much more they are having to think as they create their own assessment!

Upcoming dates
10/31- Global Play all day to celebrate Halloween
11/5- No school, teacher in-service
11/7- Early release, conferences
11/11- No school, Veteran's Day
11/14- Early release, conferences

Weekly News 10/18

Happy Friday! We've been diving into some new learning! Be sure to ask your child about:

• what book they are reading during reading workshop
• how readers make mental movies when reading 
• how readers step into the story to envision the main character's world
• free writing! 
• decorating their writer's notebook 
• our discussion about why is the Great Bay worth protecting? 
• creating their own watershed
• what variables they changed in their watershed experiment
• what represented the Great Bay in their experiment
• strategies for rounding numbers 
• starting word study routines 
• learning about self-talk with Mrs. Eitler 

Upcoming:

10/31- Global Play All Day to celebrate Halloween
11/5- no school, teacher workshop
11/11- no school, Veteran's day
11/7- early release at 11:50 for conferences
11/14- early release at 11:50 for conference

Weekly Update 10/11

It was another busy week in 3/4GW! We were busy getting into our Great Bay inquiry by noticing things we were curious about and asking lots of questions.  A big focus as we began the inquiry was how to ask deep questions.  Children wrote all of their questions of sticky notes and then sorted them based on topic.  The big topics boiled down to sea life, history, navigation/gundalow, watersheds, and environment.  Next we discussed the difference between closed and open questions....ones that have a single answer versus those that require more complexity to answer.  Children worked to rewrite closed questions to make them more open.

Be sure to ask your child what they are wondering about!

We introduced SeeSaw reading reflections this week.  When your child finishes a book they will turn to SeeSaw to reflect on their reading.  They can choose between making a book recommendation, analyze the sticky notes their wrote as they read, or connect the book to our learner dispositions.

4th grade math
This week was all about rounding! We spent a lot of time discovering why the rule, "5 for above give it a shove" works using number lines.  They now have a much deeper understanding of how rounding works using number sense rather than a rhyme! Here's a quick video on how to round using a number line.

3rd grade math
This week we moved on to determining value of a number vs its place and comparing and ordering numbers up to the thousands place (although we've been working with much bigger numbers, too).  A lot of this has been review from second grade math but third grade math involves the same concepts but working with larger numbers.  Students have been meeting with the teacher in small groups, completing a "must do" and then choosing from a "may do" menu based on the math concepts they feel like they need to practice.  Next week we will move on to rounding numbers both to the tens place and the hundreds place. 

Upcoming dates
10/11 (today)- early release at 11:50
10/14- no school, Indigenous People's Day
10/31- Play day to celebrate Halloween
11/5- no school, teacher workshop
11/11- no school, Veteran's day
11/7- early release at 11:50 for conferences
11/14- early release at 11:50 for conference

Weekly News 10/4

It was so wonderful to see so many of you last night at Open House! It's awesome to see the kids taking ownership over their learning and be excited to share their learning with you!

Be sure to ask your child:

• How was the field trip?
• What was your favorite part?
• How did it feel to steer the gundalow?
• What is a watershed?
• What did you find while tidepooling?
• What are you interested in learning more about? 
• How did it feel to do your first Seesaw reflection?
• What is included in your class agreement? 
• How was guidance time with Mrs. Eitler this week?
• What have you learned about place value in math? 

Xtra Math:

All students received log in information for the website Xtra Math.  This is a great (but totally optional) way to practice math facts at home.  

Early Release: Friday, October 11th at 11:50

Have a wonderful weekend!  

Weekly Update 9/27

What a wonderful week we've had! We've been seeing kids collaborating, asking questions, and immersing themselves in some fabulous learning! The highlight of the week was the community panel discussion on Wednesday.  We had 5 members of the Stratham community come together to share how they get involved to make Stratham a positive community.  The kids asked some incredible questions and were inspired to get involved in their own communities.  We brainstormed and shared things that they can do personally, at home, in their neighborhoods, at school, and beyond.

We also began taking a closer look at the 9 learner dispositions that we are focusing on this year.
Students worked with a group to define their disposition, come up with a motto and symbol that represents it, and made a short skit to show the disposition in action.

• Taking responsible risk, being kind, self awareness, learning together, managing impulses, questioning, optimism, persisting, thinking flexibly.

We will be using the dispositions all year as a way to help us reflect and set goals.

In math, both grades are starting a unit on place value. We will be exploring how our number system works.  Third graders will be working with numbers up to the thousands place and 4th graders will build on what was learned last year to work with numbers up to the millions place.

On Thursday SMS Wolf Pack advisory groups met for the first time this year.  Each group developed a definition of community.  This ties in perfectly to what we have been talking about in our classes!

Here are some questions to ask your child:

• What disposition did you work on? Tell me about the skit you made.
• Who is in your Wolf Pack? How did you define community?
• How can you be involved in your community?
• Tell me about the panel discussion.  What were some big takeaways you had?

Upcoming events

• October 2- Gundalow field trip
• October 3- Open house 6:00-7:00

Weekly News 9/20

It's been a great week in our classes! We are diving deeper into reading strategies, our community inquiry and our writing.  A large focus has been "What makes a strong community?".  We've been reading stories, watching short videos and listening to podcasts about big and small ways people are making their communities better.  We are excited for our community panel next Wednesday at 9:00!

We've also starting talking about nine dispositions- being kind, thinking flexibly, persisting, managing impulses, self-awareness, optimism, questioning, taking responsible risks and learning together.  We have seen examples of these in our classroom, school and in the stories we are reading.  We will be spending time with these dispositions all year long and we will also use them for goal setting.  

4th Grade Math:

The 4th graders have been working hard at building routines and setting expectations for math workshop.  We have been playing math games, answering open-ended journal prompts, and having rich discussions about our thinking. A big goal is for students to learn from each other and feel comfortable speaking up and sharing strategies. We have just begun our first official unit exploring place value.

3rd Grade Math:

The 3rd graders have also focused on building routines and setting expectations. We've worked on what math games, task cards, partner work and problem solving looks like in third grade. Students have also spent a lot of time practicing explaining their thinking using thinking stems.

Math facts:

We want to emphasize that each child/family should be hopefully settling into a math fact routine that works for them. Whether it's flash cards, worksheets, oral practice, online or apps, kids should be practicing their facts each day (along with some reading!).

Three Act Math:

A highlight of our week was doing Three Act Math all together! Kids start by looking at an image and coming up with noticings and wonderings. From there- they choose a problem to solve! See our image below on the dice. Students were amazing at challenging themselves, helping each other and doing some deep math thinking. Some questions were: How many dice are in a column? How many dice are pictured? How many dots are pictured? How many dots are there total- even the ones we can't see? We will definitely be doing this again!

Upcoming:

Gundalow field trip on the Great Bay- Wednesday, October 2

Open house with your child- Thursday, October 3

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update 9/13

We have had an amazing week together! Our classes continue to build community through celebrating and valuing everyone's unique identities. We began our first big writing project of the year..."Where I'm from" poems inspired by George Ella Lyon's poem. Learning about all of the places, people, and memories that make up our identities has been a wonderful experience. Be sure to ask your child what they have included in their poem!

We also started switching classrooms for math this week.  Each class has been working on math routines and expectations through math games, problem solving tasks, and independent work.

Our first Choose Love lesson was Monday.  Choose Love is a social and emotional learning program that every child at SMS will be doing this year.  We talked about what it means to have courage.  Some acts of courage are big...but we show small acts of courage every day.  Ask your child what a "Brave Breath" is and how can it help you?

Questions to ask your child about their week:
-What makes you engaged as a reader?
-What can do you do to help you be more engaged when you are reading?
-What math activities did you enjoy this week?
-Tell me about your Where I'm From poem

Room parents:
We are looking for some room parents for Mrs. Ganier's class.  The job is pretty low key! Basically, you would need to be a liaison between the PTO and class parents and help us organize some of our classroom parties.  Let us know if you're interested!

Donations:
If you have any legos, board games, blocks or building materials at home that you are not using much anymore we would love to use them in our classrooms!

Upcoming:

• Open house (with your child!)- evening of October 3rd

Weekly News 9/6

Happy Friday! We've been spending time getting to know each other, learning what makes up our identities and beginning some of our routines in reading and writing workshop.  Another large focus has been community and what makes a strong and positive community.  We've had some great discussions, teamwork and self-reflection throughout the week.

Be sure to ask your child about:

• exploring our classroom libraries 
• why do people read? 
• how they know they are in a just right book
• the different genres of books
• painting self-portraits
• their goals during team challenges
• flexibility and persistence during team challenges
• beginning writing workshop
• brainstorming special people and places
• playing the name game
• our identity bag museum
• sharing their identity bag
• "practicing" for indoor recess and morning choice time 

Room parents:
We are looking for some room parents for both classes.  The job is pretty low key! Basically, you would need to be a liaison between the PTO and class parents and help us organize some of our classroom parties.  Let us know if you're interested!

Donations:
If you have any legos, board games, blocks or building materials at home that you are not using much anymore we would love to use them in our classrooms!

Upcoming:

• Picture day- September 12th 
• Open house (with your child!)- evening of October 3rd