This week was another great one. As I say to the kids often, it must be hard to be this good, but you do it well.
Curriculum
In reading, students worked through a unit on recounting stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures. Students will be assessed on that unit and complete their monthly cold comprehension this week. I will check for understanding and overall class mastery on that standard on Tuesday. If all goes well, we will start a unit on describing characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. This standard builds from the standard we just covered. This is really helpful because students go into this next standard with some confidence from what they learned in the past week or so.
In writing, we started our personal narrative unit and students wrote about something they’ve done with their family. We will continue with quick writes throughout this unit and then students will choose one piece to take to publication.
In math, we finished up some math strategies and students took their first assessment on Quizziz. They really enjoy this platform as they can compete with each other. They’ll often go in on the weekend to see if they can beat a friend’s score.
We reviewed the commutative property of multiplication, and next week we’ll jump into the associative property and the distributive property. If anyone in the medical field would like to donate some masks for an upcoming distributive doctor mask, we have 24 students now. Students will dissect math problems as doctors. If your student would like to bring a lab coat on that day, they can, but it isn’t required. They’ll wear masks and gloves (I still have a bunch from last year) and break apart harder math problems to better understand the distributive property. This is a really tough concept for 3rd graders, so I will likely not start it in earnest until next week. We may dip our toe in this week, but we will do the majority of the work next week. We will probably do the distributive doctor exercise more towards midweek next week.
This week’s homework: 2019-09-23 Homework
Community
We had the privilege of adding five great kids to our classroom this week. The students who have been in our room really enjoyed getting to know our new students. Thanks for raising such awesomely kind and welcoming kids. We’re so happy to have all of the new students with us as well. They add so much to our community.
The Fun Run
Our Fun Run is on Friday. The students have raised $2,500. If they raise $3,500, I have to dye my hair. We’ve been in the lead all week, but Mrs. Reardon’s class just bumped us out of first place. Students have earned a free recess, a movie day, and are pushing toward a tech day.
Thunder Boelter Capes
Thanks to all of the parents who have offered to help with the Thunder Boelter capes. I have a parent making Thunder Boelter patches and another parent checking on material for the capes. I may need your help to put them together, and if so I’ll reach out to you by Wednesday.
Field Trips
You should have all the information for two field trips in October, one to the Writer’s Block and one to Springs Preserve. I’ll reach out to those of you who offered to volunteer this week as well.
Hispanic Heritage Month
Last year, for Hispanic Heritage Month, I started a cultural learning process which culminated in a Hispanic Heritage feast. I am going to do that again this year. Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15, 2019 through October 15, 2019. I will tentatively schedule that feast in the afternoon during the week of October 15. I ask parents to contribute a dish pr a snack. I will have a table with crock pots if it needs to be kept warm. Last year I made Pitbull’s favorite and it turned out really great. It’s a staple in our meal rotations at my house now. It is Cuban steak, rice, and onions.
Important Upcoming Dates
- 9/27 – Fun Run
- 9/27 – Free Dress (Thunder Boelters Fun Run Garb, too)
- 10/15 – Writer’s Block Field Trip
- 10/29 – Spring’s Preserve Field Trip
Ms. B. in Class 