Team 22 Highlights 5/18/18

Dear Team 22 Families,

We are finally done with MCAS for the year!

Math
On Monday and Tuesday this week, the students completed their MCAS Mathematics exam (both session 1 and 2). We are so proud of all of their hard work!

In Math class, the students are continuing to explore with both area and perimeter.

Reading
The students have now finished up their Mystery unit and will soon begin Social Issue book clubs!! The students impress me every day with their reading skills. It has been an absolute pleasure to watch their progress over the past several months.

Writing
The students have finished their first fairy tale adaptations and have recently begun sharing their tales with the class! Each time a student shares their work, all classmates write a compliment to the presenter. The kids love receiving positive feedback from friends. Listening to each others' stories provides students with more ideas to draw on when starting a new piece. Team 22 is filled with wonderful story tellers. I can't wait for you to read these fairy tales. :)

Social Studies
The students have been learning so much about the Revolutionary War over the past month. This week, we focused on the Battle of Bunker Hill. The students were also introduced to Peter Salem, an African American slave who earned his freedom after enlisting in the Revolutionary War. Peter Salem was a great soldier, helped the colonists fight many battles against the British, and was from Framingham!

Science
We have recently returned back to our Mystery Science curriculum where students focused on the mystery, "Why Do Your Biceps Bulge?" Mystery Science is a class favorite. The students were very engaged in this lesson and will soon be participating in an activity where they will be able to create a robot finger (to show how similar it is to how our own fingers work)! Students will be using paper, tape, string, and paperclips to do this. Stay tuned!

Best,

Miss Weinstein

Team 22 Highlights 5/14/18

Dear Team 22 Families,

We had a wonderful week in school and to wrap it all up, we ended the week with our annual third grade field trip to the Framingham Historical Center. Participating in hands-on activities, studying artifacts from the museum, and learning from all of the guides at the center really tied-in nicely with our third grade social studies curriculum. The students loved hearing about important figures from the Salem Witch Trials and the Revolutionary War whom we had previously studied. The students were very interested to hear that so many of these famous figures were from Framingham, their own hometown! Who knew there was so much history in our own backyard?! 

At the museum, the students did a little time traveling. They went back in time to colonial days. Each student had a chance to help collect water from the "well", use washboards, irons, and sock stretchers, and hang garments up on the clothes line.

The kids even got a feel for what it was like to be a student in the colonial days!

Thank you to all of the parent volunteers who helped chaperone our field trip!

After we returned to school, we ended the day with a class picnic lunch! :)

Best,

Miss Weinstein

Team 22 Highlights 5/4/18

Reading

In Reading, the students have continued working in their Mystery unit. Each day, students are encouraged to add to their suspect/clue charts, entering any new information they have learned about important characters in their books.

In class, we have been reading a book from the Whodunnit Detective Agency series (The Diamond Mystery). We are using this book as our new mentor text. Each day, several pages are read aloud to the class. After the reading, students are able to discuss any ideas or predictions they have with their classmates. The children are constantly on the look-out for important clues, new information on suspects, and red herrings. 

Math

In Math, we have begun working in module 7, our last unit. The students have spent much time getting familiar with a number of key vocabulary words important to geometry concepts (polygon, quadrilateral, rectangle, pentagon, square, rhombus, parallelogram, perimeter, right angle, etc.). Recently, the students have been focusing on problem solving with perimeter and recording perimeter and area on line plots. They are doing a fantastic job!

Writing

In Writing, the students have continued working on the fairy tale adaptations. These third graders are quite the story tellers! Their pieces have been so much fun to read and they love sharing their work with classmates.

The students are putting so much effort into their classwork! Each time a student earns a check for positive behavior, these checks are documented. After receiving 6 checks, students have the opportunity to cash them in for a reward from our class prize bin! The most popular prizes chosen has been the special privilege of eating lunch in the classroom with the teacher and 3 friends as well as the opportunity to join the teacher outside for a picnic in the courtyard. 

Have a great week! 

Best,

Miss Weinstein