Dear Team 22 families,
Our third graders had another wonderful week in school!
Reading
In Reading this week, we wrapped up our poetry unit by reciting the poems the students worked so hard to practice and memorize. The kids did a great job with these and the class very much enjoyed listening to all the different selections that were presented. On Wednesday, we started our MCAS preparation. Over the next several weeks, the students will be working on practice tests, reading selections from past MCAS exams, and answering comprehension questions that go along with each reading. During Writing, the students will be working on short answer and open response questions that go along with the passages they read. Next week, the students will even have chance to participate in an online tutorial which will take students step-by-step on an investigation of how to use all of the tools available on the MCAS website which they will be using to complete the test (The MCAS for English Language Arts will be held on April 2nd and 3rd)
In Math, we are continuing our work with fractions. This week, we started comparing fractions and whole numbers on the number line by reasoning about their distance from 0. If one fraction is closer to 0 on the number line and the other fraction is farther away, then the fraction that is farther away will be greater in value. The kids have been working to compare thirds and sixths on the number line, halves and fourths, and fourths and eighths. They are starting to realize that after partitioning a number line into thirds and labeling their fractions, they need only to cut each of their thirds in half in order to find sixths.
Science
In Science, the students are continuing to learn about force and motion. They are starting to use vocabulary from our lessons in their language to explain what is happening when force is applied to certain objects. The students participated in several demonstrations on Wednesday, where they worked together to show a balanced force and an unbalanced force. Two students presented a balanced force when they positioned themselves one on each side of a chair. The two students both pushed on the chair with the same amount of force (because the chair did not move at all, we call this a balanced force). Two other students then showed what an unbalanced for might look like by making sure one student applied more force to the chair than the other so that the chair moved in the direction that the student who was applying more force was pushing.
Social Studies
In Social Studies this week, the students learned about the Salem Witch Trials! The students were very interested to learn about this period of history. They were fascinated, hearing how people who were accused of witchcraft were often sentenced to be killed even when there was no evidence that they were engaging in witchcraft. We learned about Sarah Clayes, one woman who was accused of witchcraft in Salem and was sent to jail. She actually escaped from jail and fled to Framingham! Her house is still standing on Salem End Road today!
To wrap up our unit on the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the students participated in a class project. The class was divided into four groups and each group was assigned to a poster focusing on one of the main topics we covered in this unit. Each group of students worked together to complete a reading on the topic and took notes of important information to share with the rest of the class.
Writing
In Writing, we finished our last lessons in realistic fiction and the students have now completed their realistic fiction pieces. Students had an opportunity to share their work with the class. I am so impressed with their pieces. The third graders put so much effort into them and have spent so much time revising and editing over the past several weeks. These pieces will be hanging up in our hallway shorty!
Social Emotional Learning-
During our weekly circle, the students participated in a class kindness lesson that focused on empathy and the power of actions and words. After coming into a circle on the floor, the students passed around a giant red heart cut out of butcher paper. 24 situations were then read out to the class (some of them have happened in our classroom and some of them were made-up). The students were told to wrinkle and crumple up the hear each time they heard a situation read out loud that might hurt someone's feelings or body. Examples included: "Someone steals your pencil when you are not looking" and "Someone calls you a hurtful name". When the heart finally reached the last student, it was completely wrinkled. We had a class discussion about what happened to the heart and how this connects to the hearts in our own bodies when our friends and classmates act or speak in a negative way towards us. The kids were very much engaged in this lesson and all had something to contribute in our conversation. We then went over the lesson, "Before you act, think and be smart. It's hard to fix a wrinkled heart." Each student was given a band-aid and wrote their name on the band-aid and then placed it on our wrinkled heart. This showed how we can try to fix our hearts and our friends can try and fix our hearts by apologizing, but there will always still be a little hurt there. Our paper heart will never look quite the same as it did before the students passed it around.
We have recently been having a stealing issue in class in regard to school supplies (part of the focus of our "wrinkled heart" lesson). In order to combat this, we will be starting a new class policy on Monday. Students will only be allowed to use communal pens and pencils. Each cluster of desks in the classroom will receive one container filled with necessary writing tools. The students will be asked to choose one writing tool and when they are finished with it at the end of the day, they will be expected to return it to the container. This way, we can better track the supplies and make sure no one goes without what they need.
Word Study
We had a bit of a mixed up day on Friday as we did not have full power in our classrooms (our lights and technology was limited). The students did not all get a chance to complete their spelling quizzes so we will be finishing these on Monday (3/12).
Have a great weekend!
Best,
Miss Weinstein
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