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!