Author's Share

It was wonderful to see so many of you here yesterday for our Author's Share!  The children were very proud to share their Fairy Tale Adaptations with you! For the rest of the year, we will be reading, writing, and sharing poetry.  Miss Niles' class learned two different styles of poems this week: haiku and lantern. Both poetry styles focus on the number of syllables in each line of the poem.  See if your child can tell you more about haiku and lantern poems!

In math, we worked with arrays for one digit multiplied by two digit numbers. The students were put into partnerships and had to create a multiplication poster for a specific 1-by-2 digit multiplication combination. Each poster had to include a labeled array made from paper base then area pieces and equations showing at least two ways to find the product. The partnerships then shared their posters with the class, looking for constructive feedback about their mathematical representations and thinking.

We finished our Economics Social Studies unit this week.  We watched a Reading Rainbow episode about businesses and entrepreneurs.  The the children created business plans for a business they might like to have some day. They had to come up with a business idea; give it a name; decide if they were selling a good or a service; and where the business would be located.  After creating a plan, each child made a business poster with important information about their business. Their posters and ideas were great! Be sure to ask your child about his or her business!

Both of our classes met with our Book Buddies this week!  We have really enjoyed our time getting to know our Kindergarten friends.  We hope you have a great weekend.  Remember there is no school on Monday.  Please check our blog and talk to your children as we have many upcoming activities to end the year!

Spirit Week June 6-10th

The Esprit Team will be having a spirit week during the last week of school!  Below is the schedule of events for the week:

Monday, June 6th:  Favorite Book and stuffed animal
    We will spend part of the day sharing our favorite books and reading to our favorite stuffed animals!

Tuesday, June 7th:  Board Game Day
     Bring in your favorite board game to play with your classmates! Please label the game with your child's name on it.

Wednesday, June 8th:  Wacky Wednesday
      Dress in wacky, mismatched clothes or wear a wacky, crazy hairstyle to school!

Thursday, June 9th:  Hat and Shades Day
      Wear your favorite hat and sunglasses to school that day!

Friday, June 10th (Last Day of School):  Esprit Talent Show
     We will end this great year by sharing our talents!  Can your child sing, jump rope, hula hoop, or do a magic trick?  Have him or her share this talent with us.  This is a talent show just for our students. Sorry, but families are not invited.

SBAC and Jog-a-thon

Esprit Third Grade spent two mornings this week taking SBAC tests.  Everyone worked very hard to complete some very difficult Math and Literacy tasks.  Next week we will have two more mornings of SBAC testing.  One will be Math and one will be Literacy.  Any students who miss school during the tests will be given time to make them up.

What a terrific day it was for the Jog-a-thon...blue skies and warm weather!  We have some very strong runners in third grade! We ran a 1/2 mile loop for 45 minutes.  Be sure to ask your child how many laps he or she ran! We spent our day running, eating our lunch outdoors and playing and dancing to music! There was giant jenga, water ballons, face painting, side chalk, and more to keep us occupied.  This afternoon we had our final "Mix-It-Up" with our partner class.  Miss Deb's class made origami with their Middle School friends.  Miss Niles' class joined Mr. Brunvand's middle schoolers to play a game of Capture Flag.  What a fantastic day of fun!

Although Friday was all fun, we did do a bit of work this week (outside of SBAC testing!).  In math, we continued to work on multiplying one digit numbers by two digit numbers.  We solved many multiplication story problems and shared our various strategies: repeated addition, drawing a model, or using an array. In our social studies unit, we continued to learn more about economics.  This week we learned about producers and consumers and supply and demand.  Can your child explain either of these concepts to you?

Have a great weekend!  Only 14 days of school left!

Bread Baking

We had a fantastic day on Tuesday Baking Bread with Shelburne Farms! With the help of our wonderful parent volunteers, the children participated in all steps of the Bread Baking process: mixing the ingredients, kneading the dough, making butter, and enjoying the final product!  We also learned about wheat and how farmers turn wheat into flour.  What was your child's favorite part of the day!  Thanks to Shelburne Farms, the FEED program at SCS, and Shelburne Farms!  It was a wonderful day....enjoy the pictures!

We also had the chance to spend more time outside with Hands on Nature this month.  This month's theme was orienteering. We watched a puppet show about how animals find there way around outside; we practiced making mental maps in our head; and we learned how to use a compass.  We took the compasses outside and had to navigate through our schoolyard based on certain clues.  Thank you so much to our Hands on Nature volunteers this year:  Zynnia, Roxanne, Sean, Lynn, Sherry, and Lorri.  We have appreciated your enthusiasm for this program and for fostering a love of nature in us all!

This week in math we began a new unit:  Extending Multiplication and Fractions.  This unit provides a review of some of learning from the earlier year, but extends it.  We will be building, sketching, and solving 1-digit by 2-digit multiplication combinations.  This week we practiced multiplying by elevens, twelves, and multiples of ten.

Lastly, we began an Economics unit in social studies.  We began the unit by reading a book called The Go Around Dollar and brainstormed all that we know about money.  After watching a video about Economics on Discovery Education, we talked about the difference between needs and wants.  We learned that everyone has basic needs: food, clothing, and shelter.  Everything else is considered a want and we have to make choices how to spend our money.  We also learned about the difference between goods and services and brainstormed goods and services that we can find in Shelburne.  Be sure to ask your child about his or her learning from this unit!  They do love to talk about money!

Have a good weekend!

Happy Weekend!

We had another great week on Team Esprit!

Please continue to check our blog and your child's Friday Folder, as there seems to be something new to add to our end-year-activities each week!  During the weeks of May 16th and May 23rd, your child will be taking the SBAC test. This is a standardized test that assesses the third grade Common Core standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics.  Ms. Deb's class will be testing on May 16, 18, 23, and 25 in the morning and Miss Niles' class will be testing on May 17, 19, 24, and 26 in the morning.  We have completed several training tests and practice tests so that the children could become familiar with the format and have stressed we just want the children to do their best.  We know that it is a lot of testing for third graders oand we are trying to make this the least stressful situation we can.  If you have any questions, please let us know.

We finished our Ecosystem/Ecology unit this week in science.  We learned about the concept of succession. Succession refers to the changes that occur in an ecosystem that impacts the animals and plants.  Through reading several articles we learned that when there is destruction (wild fire, cutting down trees, flooding)  in an ecosystem the plants and animals come back in a pattern:  grasses, flowers, weeds; shrubs; and then trees.  We also completed an activity in which we sorted pictures of plants and animals into their specific succession stages.  Next week, we will begin a social studies unit about Shelburne and the topic of economy.

In math, we continued to explore finding the perimeter and area of rectangular shapes.  We discovered that it is possible to build different rectangles with a perimeter of 20 units, but each with a different area.  Similarly, we found that is is possible to build different arrays with an area of 24 units, but each one has a different perimeter.  Through our explorations this week, we worked toward finding more efficient strategies for finding the area of rectangle.  This included using the area formula of Area= Length X Width.  We also started an investigation of shapes and fractions using the geoboards.  Next week, we will begin our last math unit for the year: Extending Multiplication and Fractions.

We hope that you can attend our Author's Share on May 26th!  We continue to work hard to finish our fairy tales.  Our focus this week was on adding descriptive language, adding magic to the fairy tale, and revising our work.  We cannot wait to share these stories with you!

Lastly, we did a little Mother's Day crafting!  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!