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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