Thank you for coming to the Spring Sing to support and enjoy all of the hard work by our K-5 musicians as they wove together instruments, voices, movement, and poetry. The Temescalians were really excited and proud, and loved watching performances by the other grades on the large screen in The Depot. Kudos to Owen for this thoughtful and touching evening!
In math we continued our exploration of 2-D and 3-D shapes and other geometric concepts. We built our own prisms and pyramids, which helped us to count faces, edges, and vertices. As we continued to work and play with tangrams, we listened to Lisa share Grandfather Tang’s Story, which draws on a Chinese form of storytelling and encourages children to take a creative approach to tangram puzzles. We will continue our Geometry work as we circle back to addition and subtraction with regrouping in the weeks to come.
In writing we started our Family Stories inspired by Patricia Pollacco, as well as our own memories of a time when we changed and grew inside. We outlined our ideas onto a story mountain graphic organizer and are using it as a map to guide our writing and keep us on track. Stories are being written with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and students are introducing setting, character, and rising action as they build to a climax/turning point.
In reading we continue our read aloud of Pigs Might Fly and students are eagerly volunteering to predict, visualize, summarize, and make connections. In reading workshop we continue to read “just right” chapter books and conferencing one-on-one with teachers. Students really enjoy talking about their reading and making recommendations to one another, some for a challenge, and some just for fun.
Many students have taken to coil basket weaving with natural fibers like the Ohlone people and it will continue to be an option during choice time, at recess, and during read aloud. Students also got to try their hand at spear throwing throw a hoop like Ohlone children learning to hunt, and needed to think through choosing the best “spear” based on size, weight, and shape. We are wrapping up our Ohlone work in Cultural Studies and said goodbye to the artifacts we borrowed from Coyote Hills. We are moving onto learning about modern-day Berkeley.The Berkeley of the past with the present will be compared and contrasted, and we will be creating local and personal timelines. If you know anyone who has ties and/or expertise to Berkeley history, government, neighborhoods, landmarks, etc. please let us know.
We are also continuing our relationship with the Ohlone Herbal Center. Mariah, the teacher who hosted us there last time and served us tea, will be coming to our classroom next week to teach us more about relationship with local plants. We plan to be digging and planting in our garden beds very soon. In science we also started our studies of the layers of the atmospheres and students are bringing home a mnemonic device on a slip of paper to help them to remember the order of all of the layers and their names. Julianne led us in constructing flip flap books that they will continue next week in art studio. Experiments about the greenhouse effect and how satellites orbit are in the works.
The class took a gallery walk to view and appreciate each others shelter models made from natural materials. We also shared them with our 7th grade buddies. Please help your child bring home their shelter, along with the written and drawn plans. Talk to your child about their process and if they think the final product is or is not like their plan and why.
Birthdays are a special time to learn more about our friends and celebrate them being born!
In third grade we end the day with a class Peace Circle when we pass the “peace rock” and share what it on our minds and in our hearts either silently or out loud. We also read what has been written into our Good Things Journal where we document some of the many good things we see happening throughout the day. The journal is filling up! Come by to read from it or add your own observations . . .
Happy May!
Thank you Sweet Briar Creekers for the May Day gift!
