Dear Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful Winter Break and holiday season with your families. It felt good to see everyone back today. Some asked, around midday, if there were a lot of yawns in the room but if the kids were tired they sure didn't show it. Everyone had plenty of energy throughout the day as we launched the back half of our third grade school year. Here are a few of the things we are currently working on...

Reading
In Reading Workshop we began a new inquiry into biographies today. Over the coming weeks we'll read a wide variety of biographies together as we chart important information (pausing to discuss what constitutes "important"), consider how authors come to choose the subjects for such books (what stories are worth reading and why), and identify the lingering questions we still have about each of the people we read about. While this study will allow us to not only learn about some really interesting and important people from history but also learn more about reading non-fiction texts, we will also be working to scaffold ourselves in the work of a biographer - both in terms of the research involved and the writing itself. In a few weeks the kids will begin thinking of people they would like to research and write a biography about. These will constitute our most significant "expert project" of the year.

Writing
In writing this week we are working to prepare for Friday's Gathering. The kids are creating slides, writing and revising scripts,and rehearsing for our learning celebration at the end of the week.

Math
In math we are revisiting our work with perimeter from before the break and then exploring area. Each of these are part of our ongoing study of measurement. Today the class worked to create as many quadrilaterals as they could for a number of different perimeter values. For instance, provided a perimeter of 16, they worked to make as many different rectangles and squares as they could that would equal a perimeter of 16. Part of this work was to generate a strategy for organizing their attempts so they could be certain to find them all. It was tricky, but fun.

Social Studies
In social studies we are continuing our study of Colonial America as we build toward the American Revolution. Our goal for this work will be to look at the American Revolution from many different perspectives - loyalist, Tory, British, slave, wealthy elite, merchant, etc. We will attempt to uncover the diversity of thought and opinion that exists around any historical, or current, event.

That's it for this week. We hope you can make it out on Friday for our Gathering. It will begin at 2:20. If not, no worries. Just be sure to check the class blog each week to be keep up with all we are doing in the classroom!

Chris