Wow - what a week. The flu has really
done a number on Sunnyside in recent weeks. It’s hard to make progress with our
curriculum (particularly math), but hopefully we’re getting it out of our
system. The real test is going to be whether we can stay healthy around
the time of the musical! Make sure your kids are getting lots of rest,
eating plenty of vitamins, drinking LOTS of water, and washing hands
frequently.
Math
This week, we worked on finding the area of a
quadrilateral. It’s important for the kids to at least understand the
conceptual difference between area and perimeter. These concepts can be
reinforced at home by talking to your kids about measuring perimeter and area
for home and yard projects. We’ll begin our next unit on multiplication
and division next week. Our challenge on Friday was to estimate and measure the
area of our gray carpet in square units (4” squares, but the students know them
only as square units). Then, a student wondered how many square units the area
would be if we used our base ten unit pieces (one square inch!) With everyone’s
brain spinning and on fire, Stella made the connection that if we could measure
how many units fit on one side of the big square unit, we could multiply that
area by that number. We did, and figured out that the area in base ten square
units of our grey rug is 12,___ (I can’t remember the exact number, but maybe
your student will). THAT is math in action!
Writer’s Workshop
We’re continuing our study of poetry, learning
about personification and imagery. We are working hard to “think like poets”,
to expand our ideas about place and use our senses and descriptive words in
very specific ways. It’s been a bit of a
struggle to get them out of the “paragraph” mindset once they learned and
practiced paragraphs with their personal narrative.
Reader’s Workshop
This week we have continued with our read
aloud, Zorgamazoo. The students are really enjoying the inventive
wordplay and rhyme of this story. We also have a rotating student assigned
out as our dictionary person to look up new and unusual words (such as
cantankerous, insidious, and tedium) as we’re reading. We are also continuing with
“Non Fiction Fridays”, using highlighters to highlight important parts of the
text, and rereading and circling the answer in the text when answering
questions, and making sure to read EVERY multiple choice answer before you make
your final decision.
Science
This week, we continued researching project
ideas and creating testable questions. There are 6 groups, including a “What’s
the moon’s orbit around the sun?”, “Will Gloop spit out a marble?”, and “Which
color M&M will lose its color the fastest when put in water?” The students
are vey excited about their inquiry and are working hard to nail down a good
question, hypothesis (based on their background knowledge of the topic), and
write a procedure in specific but also easy to understand terms.
Portland - A Musical
Our weekly musical rehearsals (Thursdays
10:30-11:30) are now including narrating, acting, and dancing parts. It is absolutely vital that each child
practice his/her parts as much as possible in coming weeks. All kids
(except narrators) are expected to have their parts fully memorized by the end
of January. Narrators should have their parts mostly memorized so that
they can maintain eye contact with the audience. Make sure that your
calendars are marked for Friday, Feb. 22nd at 6:30 pm for the big performance.
Expect e-mails from Rhonda Baker (Josie’s mom) regarding costumes and
other musical related things in the coming weeks.
Columbia Children’s Arboretum
Despite not actually going to the arboretum
this week, the students had a knot-tying workshop with Jack Morby. This
continues our theme of outdoor living and survival. Jack taught the
students several different knots that can be used in a variety of situations.
We hope to use these knot-tying skills in the field at the arboretum.
I’ll let you know when that will happen as soon as possible. We also took
a look at the third Leave No Trace Principle, which is Trash your Trash. The
students discussed, drew, and wrote about what that principle looks like to
them, and they also reflected on Ginny’s food caching lesson (they were all
squirrels, look for the photos to come on the blog soon).
Ask Your Third Grader...
What is the difference between perimeter and
area?
What sort of knots did you learn from Jack?
How can these knots be used?
What is “food caching”? Where are some
places that animals cache food?
How did you participate in problem solving in
the classroom this weekend? Were you an active listener?
Important Things Coming Up...
Feb. 1st - Teacher Planning Day (no school)
Feb. 8th - No School (SES only)
Feb. 18th - President's Day (no school)
Feb. 20th - Late Opening (school starts at
10:40 am)
Feb. 22nd - Portland - A Musical (9:30 am
performance for school and 6:30 pm performance for families)
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