January

January 27 - January 31

Students spent time this week again turning to our program the Leader in Me to really think about ways they can be upstanders about their own learning. Students thought about the ‘circle of control’ and what it means to take initiative for their own learning. It was so amazing to see students rise to the occasion this week to begin to make good choices that allowed them to focus on their work and not get distracted by others in all situations. Students read about Greta Thunberg as a young leader and were inspired by her role in trying to protect our environment and cause change. Students worked with their 4th grade partners to learn about how sound vibrations travel and the power of sound vibrations. They were amazed when they saw a video that showed the front windshield become cracked and blown out from a set of speakers. They loved participating in their own experiments as well, giving them a hands on look to the invisible sound waves as they travel. Students worked on visualizing in reading this week. Together we spent time paying attention to the author's words and how we as readers get to make our own movies in our minds. Students also learned how to summarize using the strategy of “Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then”, which provides a structured way to write a brief summary for a book, or even just the reading within a session. This week students focused on Acts of Kindness and Gratitude during morning meeting time. A place was created to write notes that highlight these ideas and celebrate the acts of kindness and gratitude we have on a daily basis in the classroom. Finally, students participated in a morning meeting where Dr. Glader came and did a fun guided meditation with us, extending our gratitude to all around us.

January 21 - January 24

Students continued to brainstorm in writers workshop in connection with writing a personal narrative. This week students used the strategy of thinking about a place that is important to them. The strategies the students are learning help to focus the broad idea of writing into smaller meaningful pieces. The students are practicing trying to be specific when writing story ideas. Their favorite part of writers workshop is when they get to share their ideas with their peers. In reading, students practiced being reading detectives. They are learning to go back in the text to answer a variety of questions and underline where they found the specific detail. As a class we worked together to read aloud and share ideas for answers. Students are working on writing neatly and in complete sentences. This week students continued to practice applying their knowledge of adjectives and adverbs. They also gained exposure to the prefixes ir-/in-/il-/im-. Each week students learn about the meaning of prefixes and suffixes and then practice applying them with new words. It is so fun to watch students make connections to other words they use often. Students continued working with their fourth grade partners to learn more about sound vocabulary so they can use the terms as they engage in more experiments in the upcoming weeks. To end the week students got to spend time with their JK buddies! This is always a favorite. Students enjoy reading books to their buddies and then write a written response to the book. This week, students got to write a story about a penguin instead, since this is the current unit in the JK room.

January 13 - January 17

This week the 3rd graders started their combined science unit with the 4th grade. The unit this year is on sound. We had a wonderful kick off learning about echoes and vibrations. Students participated in a few experiments to learn how sound travels. Together they learned some basic key concepts, then made a cup and string telephone. They felt the way sound travels through the different components and tried to put this into their own words in writing. Then, they worked with their partner to think of ways to make a “better” phone. Students changed the types of cups, sizes of cups, types of string or yarn, etc. to see how the sound changes. It was so fun to see them really learn to hypothesize and make changes as they went. Student also participated in some webquests together learning the basics of sound. We continued to work on questioning strategies in reading. We spent time revisiting adjectives and adverbs and how to find them in a sentence. In math, we are learning to apply the distributive property by playing a few games and drawing representations. Students are also continuing to work with area and perimeter, and of course designing their zoo. Again, throughout the day we find periods of time to stop and breathe. This week we used our expanding ball as a visual for our breath. The students enjoy breathing with the ball and practicing breathing and exhaling with their nose and mouth. At this point, all students have a new word list during Word Study and have met with me once. During our Word Study rotations, students participate in a variety of activities and have the opportunity to meet with me twice to learn and apply the skills, and then to take an assessment. Our assessments are not just repeating the words they have been working with, but also receiving new words that apply the same pattern. The students really love this time of day. Students also spent time this week remembering Martin Luther King Jr. through picture books and nonfiction text. Students worked together to create a timeline of the important events and contributions of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life.

January 6 - January 10

Welcome back! I hope that everyone had a wonderful break with family and friends. The students were so excited to come back to school and share about their adventures. I always love the energy the first day back from anytime away from school. This week we eased back into school, focusing on goals for 2020 and remembering highlights from 2019. The students are starting the year by learning about questioning as an active reading strategy. This week we specifically focused on questioning words (meaning, why they were chosen, and author’s purpose). Students will spend time this month writing personal narrative stories. As writers we learned how focusing on a person we care about can help to generate ideas. We also learned about the components of a personal narrative essay. During our mindfulness practice, we spent time talking about gratitude and learning a gratitude breath, as well as remembering to acknowledge gratitude for ourselves. We focused on doing body scans and remembering how to use our breath as a calming and refocusing tool. In 3rd grade math students were introduced to a project based learning task were they are going to design their own zoo and figure out the area and perimeter for all the components. It was wonderful watching as they organized ideas and began the blueprint for the zoo. We talked about the proportion of buildings and importance of locations. All in all we are off to a wonderful start to the new year!