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!