We had a lot to celebrate this past week. The students have been working so hard on responsibility within the classroom that they leveled up our scoreboard! We have been spending time setting goals and revisiting third grade expectations (keeping our room tidy, working collaboratively, attending to our work, etc.) and the group is doing so well! I am excited at all that we will be able to accomplish this year. Genius Hour This past week we launched our first Genius Hour. Genius Hour is a time (once every week or two), when the students are given time to work on a "passion project" of their choosing. I have spent a lot of time in the last two years researching this school of thought, and have learned that productivity greatly increases when students (and adults, too!) are given back time to be creative and explore. This idea is something that Google has used (called 20% time or 80/20) with employees and it has picked up steam in the education world! The kids know that they have to work hard to get through the expected work for the week before this time is given to them. This week we spent our time learning of projects students completed in the past, and splitting off to come up with ideas of our own. I found it interesting (and heart warming) how many kids immediately wanted to go the route of helping others. I heard plans of creating kits for kids facing cancer, one sweet group of boys is convinced they will earn $100,000 to build a house for a homeless person (I gently tried to sway them to think smaller, but they were too cute!), another group heard of a project for refugee children from last year and wanted to try to work on one similar, a little girl would like to figure out how to help dolphins that become entangled in fishing net, another child is thinking on solving our water pollution problem. Hearing all of these ideas (and more) just shows how much power is within our small classroom. These sweet kids have the power to help others and make great changes. What a very cool thing to witness! They likely came home with a planning sheet. Use this as a conversation starter to figure out what it is they wish to accomplish. We will not have Genius Hour this week due to our field trip, but we will the following week! Field Trip to Art Prize A form came home on Friday for chaperones attending our field trip. We will be sending home a map early this week as well. Please plan to send your child with a throw away lunch on October 5th for our field trip. If you are a chaperone, please plan to bring a backpack to carry lunches in. We will be leaving from the school at 9am and plan to be back by 2:00. If you are a chaperone and wish to take your child after the field trip, please plan to meet us back at school and sign them out in the office. Focus Questions (for an extra buck!) How is addition related to multiplication? Is there a book that you are really wanting to read this year? How many Great Lakes can you name?
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Overview of Last Week
Last week was a big week in math for us. We started our mad minute tests and took our first quiz. The mad minute tests consist of 20 questions and the kids have about 70seconds to compete them. When they pass a multiplication fact, they will move to the division cards of the same family. Please cut the cards out at home and start practicing the new set as soon as you receive them! We will be taking one mad minute a week. Reading homework has changed just a little bit in the last week. Please be sure that your child is reading the same book at home and school and that they are filling our their reading log. I review this log routinely and collect old logs to keep as a record. Thank you for coming out and supporting the color run! It was so much fun to "color the park" with you all! I left looking a bit green due to my green station! :) Reminders & Calendar
Questions Please ask your child these questions and write a note in their agenda! They will get an extra buck!
What a great week of launching and learning we had! This week we really worked on getting our curriculum up and running. I have been so impressed by how hard this group will work, even when the temps are above 90 in our classroom! This week we began morning bins. Students are given 10 minutes to play at the very start of the day. This helps to get them settled and motivated to start the day. I am always collecting donations for our morning bins! I am looking for pipe cleaners, beads, stamps, logic puzzles, legos, etc. If you have any of these items laying around, or would like to pick some up, I would greatly appreciate it! The kids are really loving this new routine! We have launched into our first unit of math which is multiplication. We have just begun to explore that multiplication is "groups of" and are starting to look at arrays. Please continue to sign your child's agenda each night. Homework may change, and this is where that will be recorded. Remember to only sign if your child completed their homework. If they did not complete their homework you can jot me a quick note. Thank you for keeping up with the agenda! WRITING: We have begun our narrative unit of writing. Students are in the brainstorming process and will begin to develop our ideas further next week. MATH: We will continue to explore multiplication and division this week. READING: We are in the process of building our reading life and developing good reading habits. We are beginning to explore different books and track our progress. REMINDERS: Monday - GYM September 21 - Color the Park I always love seeing the excitement the first day brings. Kids shuffle in with their hair neatly done, sun kissed faces, just brimming with stories of summer adventures. Week two, however, is always more fun! This is when we begin to feel "at home" in our classroom and when our learning really takes off!
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