What's the Weather?

We certainly haven't had typical December weather recently!  However, please make sure your child comes to school each day with appropriate clothing to wear outside during our outdoor recess.  Speaking of weather, WPTZ News Channel 5's Chief Meteorologist visited the third graders at SCS on Tuesday.  He talked to us about how he decided to become a meteorologist and gave us inside tips on how he forecasts the weather each day.  We even got to see a video about how the "green screen" works!  Be sure to ask your child about his weather forecasting secret with the green screen!  We also had a chance to ask him several questions and most of questions focused around when it might snow.  He said it won't be any time soon!  Did you happen to see us on the news Tuesday night?  Here's a link to a video Tom Messner posted on Twitter...  Tom Messner Visit



We continued with our weather study with a project related to climate. Last week we studied five different climates: mountain highlands, polar, temperate, tropical, and continental.  In a group of four, the children read articles about each of these climates and recorded some important facts about and characteristics of each of the climates.  This week they used their background knowledge of to create a paper doll with clothes and items that would fit in a suitcase for a trip to this climate.  Be sure to ask your child which climate he or she was "sending" the paper doll to!  What did your child pack?

This week our school participated in the Hour of Code.   The Hour of Code is an introduction to computer science and an opportunity for the children to try coding through various online activities. Computer science helps to nurture problem solving skills, creativity, and logic.  Check out Hour of Code to learn more and try out coding yourself!

Our nonfiction books are almost done!  So we have decided to have a Publishing Party on December 22nd at 2:15pm in our classrooms.  You are invited to join us and read your child's (and other children's) books!  Please let us know if you are able to attend our Publishing Party! The children are very excited to share their work with you!

SCS Weather Station Link

Due to a grant from the PTO, our school was able to purchase a Weather Station for our school. It is hooked up on the roof and we can go to the library to check the weather. This is perfect for our current weather study!  Here is the link if you would like to access it at home:   SCS Weather Station

See you at the Craft Fair tomorrow!

Esprit Third Grade had a quiet week back from the Thanksgiving Break, with no extra activities happening.  It was a good chance for the children to get back into the routine of school and of our classroom and school expectations. We spent the week working hard and learning many new things.

We are still working hard writing our non-fiction teaching books during Writer's Workshop.  This week we spent some time peer editing and finalizing our rough drafts.  During peer editing, the children read through each other's work and filled out a rubric, commenting on the organization of the piece and making suggestions on how to enhance the writing by adding more details and facts. It was fun to watch them have these conversations with each other.  They were like little editors!  We are now beginning to publish our work and hope to have our final copies completed in time for the Holiday Break.

This week, our Reader's Workshop focused on comprehensions strategies strong readers use when reading information text.  We are practicing these strategies using Scholastic News and other non-fiction texts.  We are working hard to become better at finding the main idea and paraphrasing it, as well as finding evidence to support it.

Our Math learning focused on three-digit subtraction strategies this week.  We practiced using the difference and removal strategies, and compared them to determine when it is most efficient to use each of these strategies.  We also learned about "constant difference".  Constant difference is a strategy mathematicians can use when subtracting numbers.  This strategy is used to make combinations easier to solve by adding or subtracting the same number to or from both the smaller number and the bigger number. For example, 63-39 has the same difference as 64-40; however, 64-40 might be a friendlier equation to solve.  We will continue learning about constant difference next week.

In Science, we worked in groups to learn about the five different climates.  We read articles and shared important learning about those climates.  We will use our knowledge of climates when making a travel suitcase project next week.  Tom Messner, Channel 5 Chief Meteorologist, will be joining us this Tuesday to teach us more about weather and answer questions we have.  Be sure to tune into the news on WPTZ that night and look for Shelburne Third Grade!

This week's Friday Folder will include a School Spelling Bee Study List.  Third graders are invited to participate in the Scripps Spelling Bee, which will take place in January.  This is an optional activity. If your child is not interested in participating, you can disregard the list that is coming home.  If your child would like to participate, please use the list to help him/her prepare for this event.  There is an informational meeting in Christine Hertz's room after school on Wednesday, December 16th, that will give details about the Scripps Spelling Bee.

In two weeks, Susannah, from the Flynn Theater, will be visiting our team with some more Words Come Alive activities for us to participate in.  This week's activities will be connected to this year's Red Clover books.  We look forward to this coming week's activities.



We hope to see everyone at the Holiday Craft Fair tomorrow.  Our soap dishes, soap, and lavender sachets will be displayed and ready to be sold at the Esprit table.  Your children created some beautiful clay pieces that would be a terrific addition to any home.  Stop by and see how talented your children are!
Have a great weekend!

More Words Come Alive!

Esprit Third Grade started off our week with another fun filled visit from our Flynn Visiting Artist,
Susannah!   This week we used our learning about elements of natural disasters to make connections to Fairy Tale characters and their traits.  We moved around the classroom like a tornado and hurricane in character as the Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.  We also became Red Riding Hood's Grandmother and moved with characteristics of a drought and a typical sunny day.  We also explored several other characters and made connections to a variety of weather events.  Can your child act out for you how Red Riding Hood's Grandmother if she possessed the same character traits as a drought?  Susannah will be back again in December to do more acting and movement with us!

 In Science, we spent some time graphing the data we collected during October. Although we collected data for humidity, precipitation, and temperature, we only graphed October's temperature.  We graphed our temperature data on a Line Plot, then made observations about trends in temperatures. We noticed that we had quite a few days in the 50s in October! We will be using this data in the future to compare and contrast temperatures in Shelburne with other areas of the country and the world.

During Writer's Workshop, we have been finishing up our non-fiction pieces and are now editing them.  We will be working toward publishing these pieces during the month of December.  Everyone has been working hard to include strong introductions and conclusions to their teaching pieces.  Next week, we will continue with the editing and revising process and work on adding nonfiction features to our writing, such as diagrams, labels, maps, and charts.





We have been practicing finding the main idea and details in non-fiction texts during Reader's Workshop.  As we are reading, we stop and think about what the section is mostly about or what the big idea is in each section.  We are really working hard to identify the main idea and then talk about it in our own words...not the author's words! This is something you could practice with your child as well at home when you are reading nonfiction.





In math, our focus has been on rounding two and three digit numbers to the nearest ten and rounding numbers to the nearest hundred.  Three new Work Places, Round Ball Tens, Round & Add Tens, and Round Ball Hundreds provided opportunities to practice this rounding skill.  We also discovered how rounding can help mathematicians determine the reasonableness of their answers when adding.  Ask your child about these new Work Places.

Our soap dishes have been fired and are looking beautiful.  Sherry Senior is now getting little bags for our team to fill with lavender.  So we will have those to sell at the Craft Fair in addition to the soap dishes and soap.  We are still looking for families to cover our booth from 12:00-1:00 and 1:00-2:00. Please visit our google doc and sign up if you are able to help our team out.

Lastly, if you are interested in happenings in our SCS Art Department, please visit their Facebook Page at:  https://www.facebook.com/ShelburneArt

Have a great weekend! Happy Thanksgiving!

Words Come Alive With Weather

This week we collaborated with the Flynn Theater to provide a "Words Come Alive" experience for our third graders.  The theme for this hour of dramatic activities was weather, and this was a wonderful way to "kick off" our Weather Unit.  We discussed various natural disasters that are related to weather.  Some of these included tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, droughts and blizzards.  We brainstormed adjectives that we could use to describe each of these and ideas to keep ourselves safe during these kinds of events.  We then took on the role of each of these natural disasters and used our bodies to move the way each of these disasters would move.  Next week we will enjoy another opportunity to participate in "Words Come Alive" and will continue our learning about weather by making connections between weather and fairy tale characters.  Ask your child to share how he/she would use his/her body to show a natural disaster.

We also enjoyed another wonderful Hands On Nature lesson this week.  This month's focus was rocks.  We enjoyed a play, and explored igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks and learned about the characteristics of each kind of rock.  We also pressed shells into clay to explore the ways fossils are formed.  Finally, we worked in groups to create rock sculptures or go on a rock search in our school yard.  A big thank you to our Hands On Nature parents for providing this terrific learning opportunity for Esprit students.

This week we finished our second unit of study in math and we will begin our third unit on Monday.  This unit will focus on multi-digit addition and subtraction.  Students will have opportunities to review and extend their thinking about place value, practice multi-digit addition and subtraction, and will be solving 2-step story problems and equations.  They will be rounding to the nearest ten and hundred, and will be working with a wide variety of invented algorithms as well as the standard algorithm for adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers.

Our non-fiction units in both Reader's and Writer's Workshops will continue through the month of December.  We are currently learning about writing introductions and conclusions in Writer's Workshop and will be using that learning to write our own introductions and conclusions in our own pieces of writing.  Ask your child what makes a good "hook" in an introduction.  During Reader's Workshop, we continue to learn about and practice strategies good readers use to understand non-fiction text.  This week we practiced determining the main idea and finding topic sentences when reading.  We are connecting and using many of the strategies we are learning in Reader's Workshop to our writing during Writer's Workshop.
We finished reading The Year of Billy Miller this week, and will begin a new read aloud next week. We have enjoyed connecting with another class and sharing our ideas and thoughts about this book online in a variety of ways.

 Lastly, we are still in need of volunteers to help at our table for the SCS Holiday Craft Fair.  An email went out to all families this week to share a google doc sign-up.  If you are available to help out at this event, please visit the google doc and sign up for a time that works well for you.  We will be selling our soap balls and soap dishes we created at the Shelburne Craft School, and look forward to this fun community event.

Happy weekend!

Winter Clothes Drive

Dear Members of the SCS Community,

As we all realized this morning, the cold Vermont weather is on its way.  In preparation, the SCS staff together with the PTO, would like to begin our winter clothing drive.  We want to ensure every child (and their family members) can embrace our wonderful winter season, regardless of economic status.  

A large donation box will be placed in front of the main office.  We are seeking the following items:

• Winter coats and fleece jackets
• Snow pants
• Boots
• Hats, scarves, mittens, and scarves

We are accepting all sizes from infant to adult.  As the clothing is collected, school staff will make sure the items are disseminated to those in need.   

If you or your child is in need of winter clothing, please contact Katie Tyler via email atktyler@cssu.org, Rachel Petraska at rpetraska@cssu.org or Sue Schaefer at sschaefer@cssu.org.

Thank you on behalf of the Shelburne Community School and the PTO!

More Crafting!

We had another great week on Team Esprit!  We continue to work very hard, but we also had some time to get creative this week.  Sara Ahrens, a teacher at the Craft School and Ella's mom, came back to visit our classrooms.  We worked on a special clay project that will be coming home next month as a family gift. It was so nice to have an opportunity to be creative, work with different materials, and learn new art concepts. We think you will love the final product!  

This week in math, our focus has been on gaining experience with different types of graphs and using them as a way to organize and represent data.  We participated in two different surveys: an ice cream survey and a book genre survey. We then took the data and created picture graphs in partnerships. We transferred the information from the picture into a bar graph as well and analyzed the data.  Which type of graph does your child prefer: a picture graph or a bar graph?  Ask him or her why!

During our word study time, your children have been working very hard to notice spelling patterns in their words.  Each week they receive a list of words and sort them to find what is the same about the words in the group.  This becomes the spelling rule for the week!  During the rest of the week, the children do speed sorts, blind sorts, and closed sorts with a partner to practice the spelling the words and learning the spelling patterns.  Be sure to ask your child about his or her words for the week.  What's this week's spelling pattern?  Often the children bring home their words on Friday so they could demonstrate some of our different sorts for you!

In Writer's Workshop, we are up to our elbows in informational writing!  This week our focus on was on elaborating with details.  We looked at several mentor texts by nonfiction authors to see how they add more detail in their writing.  We noticed that authors elaborate using facts and imagery, providing examples and descriptions, and even telling small stories to teach about the topic.  We practiced using these strategies to tell more in our books.  How's your child's nonfiction book coming along?  Ask them about the different chapters they are writing and how their books are organized!

Reader's Workshop also has us immersed in nonfiction text.  We really love reading informational books and are amazed at the interesting facts we are learning!  This week we talked about reading and thinking about new information. To better understand and remember what we are reading, it is important to merge our thinking with new information we encounter.  We spent a lot of time reading informational text this week and looking for facts or ideas that were new learning.  We like to call these "WOW" facts. They are facts that might cause you to say "I never knew..., I learned...., I was surprised..., Wow..., I didn't know..." as you read. We jotted our new learning on sticky notes and had a great time sharing amazing facts!  Then we moved on to talking about our background knowledge (what we already know) and how that helps us to understand new information.  As we read, we filled out a t-chart with information we already knew and new learning.  Be sure to ask your child about his or her new learning this week.  What book was he or she reading at Reader's Workshop? What "WOW" fact did he or she learn?

Have a great weekend!