Week 29

Thank you to all of our parents who helped prepare our 3rd grade otters for a fun, full day in the forest!  The rain started as soon as we opened the school door to begin our adventure.  We had set up maple-work rotations for the morning, but quickly realized that it was too wet to write anything!  Our third graders were flexible and full of positivity!  We started our morning by checking in with our wonderful DBS parent who had organized our sugaring operation for the day.  Throughout the day students helped stack wood, tasted the sap, smelled the steam and were amazed as the liquid gold was forming!
Back in the classroom we continue to focus on multiplication and division.  Each math class starts with a "number talk" where students must engage in mental math while exploring and articulating various strategies.  During writing workshop, students continue to focus on persuasive writing.  This week we spent time going back over speeches we have written and tried to make them even better.
In reading workshop many partnerships have moved on to a new book.  Here are some of the titles that are being read: Coyote Autumn, The Sign of the Beaver, Chocolate Fever and Sadie.
The third grade is also working together to learn more about the SBAC test which will be taken after spring vacation.

Week 28

HAPPY SPRING!!!

It was a short, but invigorating week!  Spring is in the air, and our 3rd grade otters are busier than ever!  During writing workshop, students continue to craft persuasive speeches.  This week we focused on thinking of a problem that needs to be changed (homelessness, pollution.)  We are considering our audience and predicting what they might say back to us.  Students are taking this concept very seriously and are sharing their ideas/speeches with classmates.  This week during reading workshop we continued to focus on character traits.  In math we are deepening our understanding of multiplication and division.  We learned how to play a new game called, "Line 'em Up."  We spent Wednesday morning in the woods, we enjoyed snack, a read aloud and exploration time.  

Week 27

Spring is in the air!  On Wednesday morning third graders ventured out with buckets, drills, taps and a lot of enthusiasm!  Everyone got involved in the tapping process.  Now we are just waiting for the sap to flow!  We had a visit from Susan Shimko from Ava Gallery.  We learned more about the villages in Hartford.  Students choose a historic building to watercolor.  Students reviewed our science unit, "Animals Through Time" and took a summative assessment on Friday.  We continue to explore multiplication and division through story problems. 

Week 26

This week was all about teamwork!  Students are working hard in their village groups on collaborative projects.  Their maturity and independence is shining through!  Students are eager to use even their free time to focus on social studies.  In writing workshop students continue to work on persuasive speech writing.  At the end of the week they each chose a noteworthy person to write about, making sure to give reason and examples to back up their thesis.  In reading we continue our character work, digging deeper into why our main characters act a certain way.  The essential question for science was,  "How long can people and animals survive in outer space?" Our week concluded in the forest with some seriously FUN sledding... and many signs of spring! 

Week 25

3U had an awesome week!  Students arrived on Monday, refreshed and ready to learn!  They always seem to have grown so much after a vacation.  We had one of our best weeks yet.  We launched a new unit in math, linking multiplication and division.  Students were given equations and wrote story problems to match.  In reading we began a new unit on character studies.  We are starting to notice patterns of behavior in our characters and coming up with deeper theories about who they are as people and why.  During writing workshop students wrote persuasive speeches about needing more magazines in our school library and backing up their opinions with reasons.  Finally we enjoyed our whole school reward of the entertaining circus show (which included 4 stars from our class!)