Asian Banquet

Wow! It's difficult to believe that we are heading off on our March vacation! In some ways it feels as though the school year just began. Today we say goodbye to our beloved teacher and friend, Mrs. Tukman, who will soon be having her baby and moving to California with her family. Best of luck, Mrs Tukman! You will be missed! At the same time we welcome Ms. Scholl, who has worked alongside Mrs. Tukman for the past two weeks. She will be a wonderful addition to our community. Welcome Ms. Scholl!

Thank you for your help and support throughout our study of Japan. The Asian Banquet on Wednesday proved to be a wonderful culmination of all the children's learning and work. I was so proud of them! It was a joy to share their excitement as they showcased their research with their iMovies and papers. I hope you enjoyed learning from them.

This week we also finished reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. This is a beautiful, yet haunting, story of a young girl who develops leukemia in the aftermath of the atom bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. We have had some wonderful conversations about war, life and death, and peace. I want you to be aware that your child may continue to have questions and need to process these topics with you in the weeks to come. Please let me know it anything surfaces that you would like me to address further.

I hope you enjoy these photos from the Asian Banquet. Have a WONDERFUL March vacation!

Be well,

Lee

Japan

From Mrs. MacGregor:

The past two weeks, third graders have been heavily involved in their Japan research projects. This week, students began writing the rough drafts of their research papers. This has involved learning how to write organized paragraphs. They are doing a wonderful job!

We are looking forward to our Asian Banquet on Wednesday, March 9th @ 11AM. Today I am sending home an invitation to this event. Please RSVP as soon as possible with the number of people attending so that we can plan for the amount of food that we will need. Thank you in advance for this!

DRESS for the Asian Banquet: We have kimonos in our school dress up supply that children are welcome to wear for the banquet. If your child has some clothes that are asian-inspired, they are welcome to wear them. Please DO NOT feel obligated to purchase any clothing for this event!

Kokeshi Dolls: Next week we will be making Kokeshi Dolls in class. For this project each child will need an empty paper towel roll. Please send them in ASAP. And if you happen to have an extra, we could certainly use it! Thank you.

Have a great weekend!

Lee

This is from Sascha:

Dear parents,

I am working on Japan in Social Studies. I am studying the Japanese Bobtail Cat and the Japanese Macaque. It is fun doing the work for it. My favorite part is nothing! I like every bit of it! Did you know that a Japanese Bobtail can eat a deer? Or did you know that a Macaque can throw a snowball at people? To learn more come to the Asian Banquet.

Love, Sascha

Poetry

This week in Third Grade we:

*Enjoyed a wonderful workshop with poet Lyn Hoopes. We learned about our "poet's voice", how to string words like beads and make patterns with sounds, and how to honor our imagination with words.

*Got our SmartBoard installed! We had fun using it for our morning message, and playing math games on it. Ask your child how it works!

*Had a fabulous trip to the Boston Children's Museum. We visited a traditional Japanese home and found things that were the same as and different from our own homes. We learned the art of suminagashi, ancient Japanese paper marbling.

* Learned about "remote control reading." Ask your child what this is all about!

*Continued to research our topics about Japan.

Coming up:

Friday, 2/11: Pasta Supper @ 5:30

Friday, 2/18: Parent/Teacher Conferences (No School for kids)

Monday, 2/21: Presidents' Day (No School)

Monday, 3/14: Spring Break begins (Classes resume on 3/28)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Time Capsule

I got a replacement computer just in time to have the kids post this video they made for All School Meeting this week! Enjoy learning about what the third graders think they'll be doing in 25 years. This work was done for the school's time capsule which will be opened in 25 years.

Enjoy!

Learning, stretching, growing

We have been working hard this week!

In reading, we continue to read and analyze the classic novel, Anne of Green Gables. We have been looking carefully at what the characters say, do, and think in order to learn more about their personalities.

In writing, students have worked diligently to publish their fiction stories! This week, this involved finishing their rough drafts, sharing their stories with a friend and getting feedback, and completing a self-assessment rubric and reflecting on their work. Students were asked to think about what they liked about their story, what they learned about writing, what they could add or change about their story in order to make it better, and how they can improve as a writer.

In math, we continue to learn about multiplication and practice our facts. Students now are working on committing the 2's and 3's facts to memory. Each night, they will bring home their self-made flashcards to practice. Please help your child with this! It is important to internalize these facts for more efficient computational work. We also spent a lot of time focusing on "model drawing" as a way to solve math word problems. Each child has the model drawing steps in their math folder and should use them from now on when completing word problems.

In social studies, we continue to learn about Japan. In integrated groups, children have been exploring the asian continent and making maps of Japan. In addition, we have been working with Mr. Felix and Mrs. Donahue to learn about iMovie, which we will use for our culminating research projects. News Flash: On Wednesday, February 9th, the third grade will take a field trip to the Boston Children's Museum. There, we will visit a traditional Japanese home and practice a traditional Japanese art.

In SBS news, we have begun working during our Buddy time on ROBOTICS! This is a lego-computer programming program. The kids are really excited! Ask your child about it.

Upcoming Dates and Events

Wednesday, 2/9: Field Trip to The Boston Children's Museum

Friday, 2/11: Pasta Supper @ 5:30

Friday, 2/18: Parent/Teacher Conferences (No School for kids)

Monday, 2/21: Presidents' Day (No School)

Monday, 3/14: Spring Break begins (Classes resume on 3/28)

Be well!

Writing Fiction

This week SBS 3rd graders have been immersed in the planning of their fiction stories. Each student developed a main character, thinking carefully about the character's physical characteristics, personality traits, wish, and problem. Once this character development was complete, children mapped their story using a "story mountain" board. This was comprised of five scenes, including the problem, turning point, and resolution. It is inspiring to see the investment each child has in their story and the excitement with which they are greeting this work. At the end of the week, children met with writing partners to share their work. In these partnerships, they were asked to share one compliment, one question, and one suggestion they had about their partner's story. This collaboration helped to strengthen each students' ideas before we move on to the next stage of the writing process.

Another exciting aspect of our work this week has been the exploration of multiplication facts.

We have begun with the 2's table. Students made the connection that you can count by 2's in order to use the 2's facts. We made fact cards and students worked together to begin committing them to memory.

In technology this week, we continued learning about, and experimenting with, iMovie. This tool will be used to create movies about our Japanese research next month.

Upcoming Dates and Events

Monday, 1/17: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (No School)

Tuesday, 1/18: Sub Day!

Friday, 2/11: Pasta Supper @ 5:30

Friday, 2/18: Parent/Teacher Conferences (No School for kids)

Monday, 2/21: Presidents' Day (No School)

Monday, 3/14: Spring Break begins (Classes resume on 3/28)

Have a wonderful, long weekend!

Welcome Back

After a lovely two weeks off for winter break, it was nice to see everyone in the classroom again. Children shared fantastic stories about their adventures during the break; it sounds like a good time was had by all! My family and I enjoyed both relaxation (it was so nice to stay in our pajamas for a good part of the morning!) and adventure. We got our first ski/snowboarding trip of the season in and I am so excited by the fact that we are all now able to ski and ride down the mountain together as a family!

This week we got back in to the swing of our routines and started some new curricular pieces. The kids are VERY pleased to begin learning about multiplication and division. We have started by exploring the concept of both, and their relationship to each other. Early work with multiplication and division involves much work with manipulatives. Distinguishing between the operational signs (+, -, x, etc.) is also an important first step. This week, students learned how to represent multiplication problems in various ways, including the drawing of arrays. We utilized simulated real life events, such as sharing cookies for snack, to understand the idea that division is really making equal groups out of a larger number.

In both reading and writing workshops, we are exploring fiction. We read The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch and analyzed the main character, Princess Elizabeth. Students learned that when they read a story we can make inferences about a character by paying attention to what that character does and says. Similarly, when we are writing, we must plan our characters mindfully, giving our readers clues about our character's traits by writing about their actions and planning dialogue carefully. Students began to develop a fictional character to give them practice with this.

This week we started a more targeted sight work spelling program. Each week, students will receive a personalized list of sight words that they need to memorize. Each day for morning work, children will do an activity involving these words. On Friday, they will be quizzed on their words. Any "passed" words will be highlighted in a personal dictionary and will be expected to be spelled correctly in their writing. Any words that have not been "passed" will remain on a child's spelling list for the following week.

Upcoming Dates

Monday, 1/17: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (No School)

Friday, 2/11: Pasta Supper @ 5:30

Friday, 2/18: Parent/Teacher Conferences (No School for kids)

Monday, 2/21: Presidents' Day (No School)

Monday, 3/14: Spring Break begins (Classes resume on 3/28)

Have a wonderful weekend!