Academic Updates: This week has been filled with Patricia Polacco books and other realistic fiction stories. We’ve been working our way more and more into our “Stories Worth Telling Again and Again” ELA/ Social Studies Unit. The students enjoyed both Thunder Cakes and My Rotten Red- Haired Older Brother, with their lively characters and Babushka. They did a fantastic job finding character traits to describe the main characters Tricia and Richard. They did this through looking at what the character does, says, learns, and looks like. There was a lot of great group work done around this. Early next week, they will create “Character Trait Playing cards” to represent a character from their independent reading books. We have now practiced three of the five Literacy Center stations: Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Partner Reading. Next week the third graders will be introduced to the final two stages of our centers, Work on Words and Listen to Reading, which means we will most likely be ready to start our spelling and reading groups for the trimester! Writing period will focus on “true stories” and small moments in the student’s lives. We’ll continue to talk about characters, plot, and setting. During Social Studies, we’ll move into Folktales and Fables around the world, which will Segway into geography as well. The students did an excellent job earning tokens, and were given the privilege to watch a movie and wear pajamas today! What a treat! Upcoming events & Reminders: Monday, October 2nd- Picture Day! Wednesday, October 4th- Walk to School day! Teachers will meet at the Hartland Town Library at 7:50am to walk with groups of students to HES. Friday, October 6th- Noon Dismissal Monday, October 9th- Columbus Day- No School!
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What a busy week we’ve had! The students have been so patient with each other, practicing new routines in the classrooms. We’ve recently introduced a “Quiet Time” in the ELA/ SS classroom to help students take some time to recollect and reflect in the middle of the day. During Literacy, we’ve started using our Writing notebook, brainstorming reasons people write, and making our own topic list of topics we like to write about. We’ve also put our first Interactive Notebook entries into our Reading notebooks. This week we’ve started learning about how illustrations effect our understanding of the text we read. A great example of this was through the book, Dear Mrs. Larue by Mark Teague, where Ike LaRue, the family dog, has been acting out so much he was sentenced to Obedience Camp, The Igor Brotweiler Canine Academy which to Ike seems like a horrible prison, but in actuality, is a beautiful kennel for dogs. The only way the reader would understand this is by reading the letters he sends home, but looking at the illustrations and learning through the details in the pictures. We’ve also officially begun our first inter-curricular unit, Stories worth telling again and again, where we have started to discuss family traditions, and how each one of us has a different background, which makes us unique. We have done this through an author study on Patricia Polacco who describes growing up with her Ukrainian grandmother or Babushka, and her beautifully told stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. Upcoming events & Reminders: * Heads up: It was suggested that students bring in a picture or two (or stickers) to personalize their Writing Notebook covers. (I have extra stickers as well!) / Also, in the next couple weeks the students will ‘interview’ a family member about childhood memories/ stories which will then be made into writing pieces.
* Remember: Forest Fridays will happen almost every Friday, so please make sure to bring your inclement weather gear: raincoat, rain boots, hat, sneakers, etc. as necessary. What luck we had with the weather! Thank you parents who chaperoned the Tunbridge field trip. It's greatly appreciated! We all had a great time learning about the animals, farm equipment, and trying tasty treats. But I think one of the most exciting parts for most of the students may have been the free candy and fidget spinners. :)
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June 2018
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