Puppets In Education

Esprit Third Grade dove into our non-fiction writing unit during Writer's Workshop this week! Even before we wrote about our ideas for a table of contents, we acted as teachers and taught each other about our topics orally.  We found out that writers are like teachers and can borrow ideas that teachers or experts use: staying on a topic, giving details and information, breaking topics into smaller bits, and using descriptive words.   Then we chose topics, created a table of contents for our writing pieces, and learned about different structures writers use.  We tried out various structures (boxes and bullets, pros and cons, cause and effect, same and different, problem and solution) to decide which structure works best with our topics.  Ask your child about his or her topic and the way he or she tried to organize the table of contents.


We continued our learning about patterns of motion during our Science Inquiry Block this week.  We  worked in groups doing an investigation using cups and ramps to see how cups roll down ramps.  Our focus question was, "What rules help predict where a rolling cup will end up?"  and we used our observations during our investigation to answer this question.  Ask your child what he/she discovered about what determines the direction a cup will roll and how weight affects it.

This week we continued to focus on a variety of comprehension strategies during Reader's Workshop.  We listened to several stories and practiced asking questions, visualizing and synthesizing together, then practiced using these comprehension strategies when reading independently.  It's important for children to ask questions as they read because it encourages them to continue to read and want to find out more information.  We like to call them wonders.  When readers visualize they make mental images and create a movie in their minds.  This helps us to better picture and understand the story.  We also worked on synthesizing.  This means that as you read your thinking changes.  You gather more information to help better understand the story. As you read with your children at home, ask them to tell you about what they are visualizing as they read; encourage them to ask questions or generate wonders; and encourage them to tell you about how their thinking changes as they read and gather more information.

Our current Math Unit is an introduction to multiplication.  We have been learning about real life situations when people use multiplication and learning how to multiply using arrays and number lines. As we worked on multiplication problems, we generated strategies that could be helpful when multiplying.  Drawing a picture, using facts you already know, repeated addition (ex. 3+3+3=9) or skip counting (ex. 3, 6, 9) are three strategies we explored.  We will begin using ratio tables and multiplication tables next week and will practice solving story problems using graphs and multiple operations.  This unit is a nice introduction to multiplicative reasoning.

Next week the Esprit team will be walking to the Shelburne Craft School to create a craft to sell at the SCS Holiday Fair.  Miss Niles' class will be walking over on Monday, October 26th and Deb's class will be walking on Wednesday, October 28th.  Both classes will be gone from 9:30-11:30am.  In November the Craft School will join us in our classrooms to help us create another special project.  Many thanks to Sarah Ahrens for making this wonderful experience possible for the Esprit Team.

Lastly, Puppets in Education visited our school this week to share programs about various topics with our K-5 students.  Third graders enjoyed two performances.  The first performance addressed learning disabilities and differences and the second performance was about bullying.  Students had an opportunity to ask questions and share ideas during and after each performance.  Ask your child what he/she learned about bullying and learning differences.  Thanks to Dan Bokan and Shearer Chevrolet for sponsoring these performances.
Have a terrific weekend,
Deb and Jenn