Happy Winter Break!

This week the Esprit Team participated in Differences Awareness Day.  We listened to a panel of three people share with us about their disabilities.  Heidi, our first panelist, shared about her experiences being visually impaired.  Abby, our second panelist, shared about her experiences living with Autism and ADHD.  Our third panelist, our own Mr. D., shared about living with Cerebral Palsy.  When they were finished sharing we had an opportunity to ask them each some questions.  Later that morning we participated in disability simulations.  Be sure to ask your child about these simulations.  It was a wonderful experience for everyone.

Esprit has worked hard all week to finish our book projects and our non-fiction writing pieces. This morning Miss Deb's class shared their projects and writing pieces with Vasanthi's class and received many compliments about them.  This afternoon the Esprit Team enjoyed a Publishing Party to celebrate all the hard work we have done.  Miss Deb and Miss Niles' classes got together and shared their writing pieces with each other.  The celebration continued with popcorn and a short movie afterward.  Please be sure to have your child share their writing with you.  We have some excellent writers on the Esprit team!

We will begin new units in Math and Literacy after the Winter Break.  Our math unit will focus on multiplication, division and area.  Our writing unit will focus on adapted fairy tales and we are very fortunate to be working with the Flynn for this unit.  We will have four mornings with a Flynn artist who will help us retell fairy tales through acting and story boarding.  This will help us get to know the fairy tales very well so we can adapt them with our own writing.  In reading, we will be doing character studies using the book Because of Winn Dixie.
Have a terrific winter break!
Deb and Jenn

February Fun!

We had another very busy week in school!  We had a fantastic Valentine's Day celebration!  It was so fun to watch everyone deliver and exchange valentines and we certainly enjoyed our delicious snack. Thanks to all the families for contributing to our festive snack!  Also on Valentine's Day, we had our second Mix-It-Up Day.  During Mix-It-Up, our classes meet with another class of students and do an activity together.  This month's activity was a butterfly venn diagram.  Each third grader partnered up with a student from the other class and they talked about differences and commonalities between them.  They wrote this on a butterfly drawing and decorated their butterfly. These butterflies will eventually be used in a whole school art project that will decorate the front hallway!

We also had a special visit from the Vernon Tornadoes, an all-kid jump rope team from Southern Vermont. These children were amazing!! They did a 45- minute jump roping demonstration and then Miss Niles' class had the opportunity to do a workshop with the jump ropers during their P.E. class.  I think we might have some future jump ropers!!!!

We have been working very hard in our measurement unit in Math.  This week we spent a lot of time learning about fractions.  There was, and still is, a lot of disequilibrium about fractions.  We have been working hard to make connections with fractions using a variety of models.  This has included partitioning fractions and showing unit fractions on a number line.  It has also included comparing fractions and explaining why one fraction must be greater than, less than, or equal to another fraction.

A huge thank you to our Hands On Nature parents for teaching us about galls this week.  We enjoyed a terrific puppet show and then had opportunities to observe and dissect galls to see what was inside of them.  Ask your child what they found inside their gall!

We are currently finishing up our non-fiction unit in Reader's Workshop with a book project about biographies.  Students have been given a variety of book report projects to choose from to show their learning about a biography they have read.  These include, movie posters, cereal box reports, paper bag reports, and book jackets.  We plan to have these projects completed before our winter break.

On Tuesday, we will be celebrating Disability Awareness Day.  We will be attending a presentation by a community panel of people who have disabilities.  We will then spend some time experiencing disability simulations so we can better understand what it is like to have a disability.

Have a great weekend!
Deb and Jenn

Hurricane Houses and the 100th Day!

We started our week in a literal whirlwind....testing our hurricane houses!  After designing and creating the houses, we tested their strength with hurricane winds.  Each pair faced off with our hurricane (a leaf blower) to see if could withstand stronger and stronger winds as the leaf blower moved closer.  We were amazed at how many structures actually stayed together!  We have some great engineers on Team Esprit!  How did your child's structure fair?  What would he or she change?

 
Our next excitement for the week was celebrating the 100th day of school!  It's amazing that we have already reached this milestone!  Of course, we had a visit from Zero the Hero who talked about the importance of the number zero and how it brings value to numbers.  We also made a special trail mix with hundreds of fun treats!  What did your child think of the Hiyaku (Japanese for 100)?  We also had a special 100th day challenge in math; we had to write 100 words; and we even drew what we would look like at 100 years old?!?!  It was definitely a great day!

 If that wasn't enough, on Friday we celebrated Vermont Writes Day.  The children could choose from five topics and were excited to know that children all over Vermont were writing about the same topics today. Click HERE to read about the prompts for this year.  We were so impressed with their creativity!  What did your child write about today?

In math, we solved more measurement story problems; however, we also learned a card game called Target 1,000. The goal is to make two three-digit numbers that, when added, get closest to 1,000. Next week, we will be working with fractions and making fair shares.

 Lastly, in Reader's Workshop we are continuing with our nonfiction unit, but we have turned our attention to biographies.  For the next couple of weeks, the children will be reading biographies and completing book projects to share their learning about the subjects of their books.  Miss Niles' class learned how to complete a book project using the app Puppet Edu.  The children had a good time exploring this app and were able to make a presentation easily taking pictures and recording their voices.

Have a wonderful weekend!  Just a reminder that we will be celebrating Valentine's Day on Tuesday. Please make sure if your child is making Valentines, that he or she has one for every child in the class.  Thank you!

Fantastic February!

February is an exciting and busy month in third grade!  We will be celebrating the 100th day, Valentine's Day, Differences Awareness Day, Vermont Writes Day, and visiting the Scholastic Book Fair!  Please check the upcoming events section of this blog to know the dates of these events.  We have also sent out specific notices regarding some of these events:  Valentine's Day, 100th day, and the Book Fair. Please let us know if you did not receive this information.

This week in theme we continued with our weather unit by discussing and learning about natural disasters, specifically hurricanes.  We read some books and watched some videos that showed how hurricanes form and the destruction that the winds and rain can cause.  Then the children were given an engineering task. With a partner, they had to create a structure (with four walls, 2 windows, a door, and a roof) that could withstand "hurricane winds" (wind from a leaf blower!).  They could use paper, index cards, tape, pattern blocks, string, and plastic wrap to build the structure.  Be sure to ask your child about his or her structure! We will be testing these structures on Monday!  Whose structure will withstand the winds???

In writer's workshop, we talked about writing conclusions for our nonfiction books.  A good conclusion tells the reader why the topic matters and encourages the reader to take interest in the topic.  We have now learned about all of the components of a strong nonfiction book:  table of contents, introduction, chapters with details, text features, and a conclusion. The children will spend the rest of the month drafting their nonfiction books, revising, and editing.  We look forward to seeing their end results!

In reader's workshop, we discussed that readers of nonfiction read to learn and that it is important to stop and think while reading nonfiction.  We used thinkmarks (bookmarks with spaces for writing) as a place to jot our thinking about a nonfiction book.  On a thinkmark, there is space to jot down new information, draw a picture that go with the topic, write down new words that are learned, the main idea and details, and any wonderings.  Ask your child what nonfiction books he or she has read this week and ask what he or she wrote on a thinkmark.  Did your child have any new learning?

In math, we continued measuring this week!  We first measured liquid volume and made estimations as to how much liquid certain containers can hold.  We were surprised that some of our estimations were so close to the actual measurement!  We then did a measurement scavenger hunt for items of a certain length or a certain mass. The children had to search through the room to find objects that were less than 20 cm long and objects that are greater than 75cm.  They also had to find objects that have a mass that is less than 50 grams and objects that have a mass between 100-200 grams.  Be sure to ask your child about his scavenger hunt!

Have a great weekend!