I love loop years so much! Everyone comes back already knowing exactly what to do and how to do it. Coming out of our COVID year, this year is obviously a little different. But all-in-all the kid have done a truly fabulous job these first five days of transitioning back into school. For my part, I've tried to ease them back in with lots of games, books, and art-based projects to give everyone plenty of time to reconnect with friends and establish some expectations for the classroom that will make our year successful.
One of the first things we did was to revisit all we learned about chess at the end of last year. Chess will become one of many choices the kids can select from during our Explorations time each morning. Explorations, as many of you know, is a part of the day where the kids choose from a variety of options such as: reading books, writing stories, scanning the news for things to share, drawing, playing logic-based games, exploring with the microscope and so on. Among these, chess is always a popular choice. Our Explorations time is from 8:00 - 8:30.
As we've navigated the first week of Explorations time, I've instituted lots of parameters to help keep the kids socially distanced. We have dividers on our tables and Velcro dots on the carpet that are 3-feet apart. When possible, I also take the kids out to the Gathering Room so we have more space to spread out. To be honest, this is hard for them. They are used to leaning in, rolling around, hugging, etc. I give lots of reminders. LOTS of reminders. Our primary goal is to make sure no one gets sick. Our secondary goal is to limit quarantines as much as possible if someone does test positive. There are lots of quarantines across the district already and I know we'd all love to avoid that mess.
We've also been playing a number of math games to revisit key skills we learned last year - such as place value, addition and basic concepts of multiplication. The kids LOVE playing games together. In the pics below they are rolling dice and working to build the largest number they can.
Next week we will begin an inquiry into electricity. This is always one of the kids' favorite studies in third grade. To get us ready I've started putting the Snap Circuit sets out in the mornings for kids to explore. It's a great way to begin learning about closed circuits through trial and error.
In writing the kids are starting the year off by writing small books teaching us about a topic they love and already know well. They are writing about favorite games, sports, places they've been, hobbies, etc. Right now we are learning to make pre-writing notes that plan out our subtopics to best organize our writing in a way that is easy for readers to follow.
Finally, in reading everyone is sharing their favorite book of the summer with us through a short presentation. We're learning about so many great books! A few of the kids mentioned they didn't read anything at all over the summer because they "were on vacation from school." I sure hope they're pulling my leg because consistent reading at home is incredibly important to continuing their growth as readers. Be sure to ask your child what book they chose as their favorite.
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