Team 22 Highlights 3/16/18

Dear families,

I hope you all survived the crazy blizzard this week!

We had a short week of school, but the students did put in their best effort and produced high quality work.

Reading
In Reading, we continued preparing for the MCAS. This week, the students worked in small groups to read a number of short passages and answered comprehension questions that related to the text. Before the students were sent off to read, we went over several vocabulary words as a class and reviewed different parts of speech. (This week, the students reviewed proper nouns, verbs, compound words, and contractions.) We also reviewed what synonyms and antonyms are and the students had to work, as a class, to help sort word pairs into these categories.

Math
In Math, we started discussing the idea of "equivalent fractions". We have been using lots of visuals, charts, and drawings to demonstrate this concept. The students even participated in making their own Fraction Pizzas where they practiced writing equivalent fractions based on the toppings on their pizzas. The students also had an opportunity to work "hands on" with equivalent fractions, working with fraction blocks and strips. Many fraction games were also available for the students to use during Math Workshop.

Science
In Science this week, the students worked in small groups, exploring wheels, axles, and ramps. Their task was to experiment with different materials to learn what affects a change of motion in regard to the wheels. The students created a number of different systems using an axle and different sized wheels and recorded what they noticed about the direction in which their system moved down the ramp. Many students made comments about how their system curved when they used one large wheel on one end of an axle and one smaller wheel on the other end. Some groups even combined their materials with another group and worked together to form a larger system, some comparing their model to that of a car.

Writing
In Writing, the students have been responding to short answer questions and open response questions about their passages from Reading. The students spent time pulling details out from their text and also practiced citing specific lines from their text as evidence to help support their claims, a critical skill.

Best,

Miss Weinstein

Team 22 Highlights 3/9/18

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)

Math

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

Team 22 Highlights 3/2/18

3/2/18

Dear Team 22 families,

Happy Friday! Below, you will find an update of what we have been working on in each of our core subjects over the past week. :)


Reading

In Reading, the students have continued working on poetry. They have now learned about several types of figurative language. We have studied similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, and alliteration! After learning about each of these literary devices, the students had a chance to find examples of it in their poetry books in class and also had a chance to create some examples of their own. The kids did a great job with this! 

Today, we focused on "theme". We discussed the idea that not only do books have themes, but poems contain themes as well. We then returned to a poem we had read, as a class, several days before, "Dreams", by Langston Hughes. The students worked together to figure out what the theme of the poem was. Some responses that were shared were:

• "You need to work hard to achieve your dreams"
• "Never give up"
• "You need to have confidence to reach your dreams and hopes for the future"

Math

In Math this week, the students worked on partitioning a number line and placing fractions on a number line when the end points are 0 and 1. They did an amazing job with applying all they have learned about fractions so far to correctly complete their problem sets. Today, we started working with number lines that have a start point of a number other than 0. The students had to think more deeply about how to label their fractions. (It was a bit more challenging for them as the idea of using fractions greater than 1 is still a bit new).

Social Studies

In Social Studies this week, the students had a chance to learn more about Puritan communities. We spent time, as a class, talking about jobs that people in our own communities have. We thought about our parents', aunts, uncles, and family friends' occupations. We also thought about community workers we see every day. As a whole class, we made a list of typical jobs people have in our present day. Then, we read about Puritan life and compared the jobs that the Puritans held with the jobs of today. We discussed similarities and differences between these. The students were then assigned one particular job to learn about and were given a passage describing that job. The students worked in partners to pick out the responsibilities the person in each of these jobs had. They included these responsibilities in addition to an illustration on a poster which they presented to the class to teach their peers.

Today, the students learned about an event that happened in 1676 known as The Eames Massacre. 

A little background on this event- In 1676, tension was rising between the Native Americans and the colonists. One day, a man named Thomas Eames, who lived with his family in Framingham, traveled to Boston to obtain ammunition and soldier protection to keep his family safe. While Thomas was away, eleven Native Americans came onto the Eames' property, burned their house and farm to the ground, killed Thomas' wife and five of their nine children. The other children were taken and held for ransom.

The students were split into two groups. Each group was assigned a "side" to be on for our class debate. The first group was given a primary source document explaining what a number of the colonists had done to provoke the Native Americans. The other group was given a primary source document explaining all the details of the massacre that occurred and what happened to the Eames family. The students on the Native American side worked together to come up with reasons that supported the idea that they were justified in partaking in the Eames massacre. The students on the colonist side worked together to come up with reasons that supported the idea that the massacre that occurred was problematic and unjust. The students shared so many wonderful points during our class debate. I was impressed with all they have remembered in regard to the early American history we have covered thus far.

Science

In Science, we have continued working with FOSS science. We finished the second session of our first investigation today where we explored the magnetic field. Students worked in small groups to build on the observations they made in session 1 and looked for patterns in data they collected to predict how far the magnetic field extends around two magnets. Students used a ruler to track and record how close or far (in centimeters) a paperclip needs to be to one, two, or three magnets in order for the paper clip to attract to the magnet(s). Students used their data in their investigation to answer the focus question, "How is the magnetic field affected when more magnets are added?"

Writing

In Writing, we are starting to wrap up our unit on realistic fiction. The students have been working hard on their stories and are taking great pride in their pieces. They have enjoyed adding in dialogue into their stories, working with friends to edit, fill out checklists, and offer suggestions for improvement. Today was used as a conference day where students were able to focus on revising.

Have a great weekend!

Best,

Miss Weinstein