Newsletter: Wednesday, August 31st

Dear Families,

This past week found us moving into more typical routines, structures, and curricular studies - as opposed to the "getting reacquainted" activities that make up a good bit of the first few days of the school year. Here's a quick run-down of what we're doing...

In reading we have been collaboratively enjoying and discussing great books each day as well as reading independently for as much as half-an-hour at a time. As the kids read from their own texts, I am able to move about the room conferencing one-on-one with the kids to support them in various ways.

In writing we are learning to write in cursive. Our MAT, Mr. Smith, taught the kids each of the lower-case letters last year and now we are dedicating ourselves to relearning these as well as the upper-case letters. Within the next few days the kids will begin writing everything in cursive across the entire day. Though it will slow them down for some time, they'll eventually become more comfortable with it as cursive will become second-nature. I'm going to ask them to write everything in cursive until some point this winter at which time I'll give them the option of which they'd like to continue using - print or cursive.

In science we have started an inquiry into habitats and environments. Our initial studies have included a look at the basic needs of animals. As part of this, the kids used their Chrome Books to create food chains detailing the food sources of various living organisms. Soon they will explore ecosystems, looking to see the ways in which these provide the needs of the organisms living there.

In math we started with a review of place value and computation, including those problems that require regrouping (carrying/borrowing). We've also explored other mathematical concepts as well as they have presented themselves. For instance...

We've played a few math games already. This game called on the kids to create a
strategy using their knowledge of place value in hopes of generating the largest sum.
Afterward, they calculated to see how many points they won or lost by when playing
with a friend.

Once or twice a week we do something we call "Number of the Day." For this, I place
a numeral in the middle of the board and give the kids a few minutes to generate as
many representations of the number as they can. This allows us to explore so many
different concepts within a short amount of time, over and over again throughout
the course of the year. On this day I told them they needed to have at least one equation, sum,
and difference. This is a great way to revisit mathematical terminology.

Number of the Day allows to look at things many of the kids have seen before but do
not yet understand. In this example, we are working to understand why IX represents 9 in
Roman Numerals.

We also create a daily line plot showing how many laps our class did at Morning Milers. This data
allows for some pretty cool representations and calculations.

In this photo, you can see how the Morning Milers data can be turned into multiplication
problems (equations) that also require addition to tally the final count. We can even begin
to think about division as we look to see how many miles our class walked/ran on a given day.
Using math to make sense of our daily activities is a great way to explore concepts and skills without
the limitations of the traditional "one topic at a time" approach to learning.

That's all for now. I hope you're hearing great stories at home. I can't tell you how much I love returning with the same group of kids for third grade. They really do take off running right from the get-go!

Chris