Happy Weekend to All! We've been busy bees and here is a small snapshot of our week:
Monday: During Reading, we continued with our Pilgrim theme, exploring perspectives from both a pilgrim boy and a pilgrim girl. Samuel Eaton provided the young boy's perspective and Sarah Morton for the young girls. Both books were written by Kate Waters, photographs provided by Russ Kendall. After reading, we compared and contrasted the two different experiences, environment, and responsibilities. We then continued this by using "perspective" as a focus on journal writing. The kids were all assigned "families" and will write from their character's (real-life pilgrims!) perspective.
*Fun Fact: Several of our tadpoles have sprouted legs!
In P.E, we continued working on our striking unit, with underhand serves. Special spotlight on Dominic who made amazing serves and catches. He also did a great job of encouraging team members to try their hardest and gave lots of cheers when his friends did an awesome job as well.
Tuesday: In Math, we were introduced to new units of measure. We are exploring how to properly measure gallons, quarts, pints, and cups.
Wednesday: Mrs. Gerritsen lead the charge and was a wonderful substitute for our class. We were introduced to our new librarian, Ms. Cote. We read the book titled,
"Fabulous Frogs," written by Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Tim Hopgood. The book detailed fun facts about different species of frogs. Thiago LOVED learning facts about African tree frogs. Ms. Cote also "ushered -in" an introduction to non-fiction books. We defined important differences between fiction and non-fiction books.
Thursday: We began our morning taking the Math portion PARCC. I'm so proud of Room 48. We utilized our test-taking skills that we've been working very diligently on. You should be proud of your kids. We also had a nice change in schedule. We went outside to write in our pilgrim journals. It was a nice change to work outside and enjoy the weather with some writing under the sun.
Friday: In art, we were introduced to Nathalie Miebach. She is an amazing artist, who combines both science and art in her pieces. We watched an interview, where she explained her process and how she incorporates weather and art together. As John eloquently stated, "She is expressing how she feels through weather and science." Ms. Frusciante made 3 major announcements for Room 48. (1) We are donating some tadpoles to Ms. Merrell's class (their taddies are dying at an alarming rate); (2) We are changing the tadpole environment to suit the needs of tadpoles who have both back and front legs; (3) We will be having some animals visiting on May 19th and we will be able to can observe them in our classrooms!
A little word from Ms. Frusciante:
This week we also enjoyed some wonderful Read Alouds! I brought in more books like "Home Now," and one of the class's new favorites, "Fly Away Home," by Eve Bunting.
During Math centers the concept of basic algebra has also been introduced, along with Mr. Gallon (ask your child about it!). This will be continued next week, along with a stronger focus on multiplication and equations, as well as using more than one digit. Please remember to practice your multiplication facts at home. A quick drill here and there or game can really spark some good momentum as the kids try to learn them and become faster and more accurate at solving problems. They will need this to master this concept and dive deeper for Fourth Grade! I recommend getting some good old-fashioned flashcards as they can be used on-the-go, as well as continuing DreamBox at home. ;-)
Below you'll also enjoy some new pictures! It will show that last week the kids also shared their Opinion pieces with the other third grade classes.
Muffin of The Week: The muffin of the week is being awarded to someone who is extremely bright, as well as an excellent writer/essayist. She taught an excellent unit on animal classification, which consisted of a mini lesson, followed by a hands-on group activity. Emily continues to amaze us with her fiction writing. When she recites her evolving pilgrim character story, she leaves the class captivated and wanting more. Emily B, you are the muffin of the week!
Enjoy the weekend everyone and until come back and visit again next week! ;-)