In Math we continued our work on third grade number sense concepts. After  a pre-assessment to “Show What You Know,” the Temescal mathematicians are working in smaller groups. One group reviewed all the ways to make 10, which we call “Friends to 10,” and played King 10. Two other groups added two-digit and three-digit numbers with and without regrouping, and played tic-tac-toe with a partner. The whole class worked on reading and writing numbers, and played a skip counting game called Sparkle. White boards are a favorite tool to show and share our thinking in math.

Third graders are integrating their writing, art, and science skills into a piece that will be revealed this Thursday at Back to School Night starting at 6 pm. So far the process has involved collecting and observing leaves on campus, and using them to create leaf rubbing backgrounds for watercoloring. Then students wrote “I am” poems and got their photo taken . . .

Temescal did more exploring after looking architectural model of our campus with a “birds-eye view.” They set off with map outlines on clipboards and labeled classrooms and other spaces at TBS. Our Super Science exploration of magnets and making our own compass left us with a lot of wonderings and a better sense of direction, which we documented in our STEAM journals. We will continue to wonder, explore, and learn together.

We love reading! Reading workshop continues to be a time to foster a connection with reading and with each other through books. We have been learning about everyone’s favorite titles and genres, and especially enjoy reading to our grown ups. We are working on building our reading stamina and engagement with storyline. We started our first interactive read aloud, The Wainscott Weasel, by Tor Seidler. The children are excited about this story but please don’t read this book at home, since we are enjoying it together and incorporating reading skills as we go, like summarizing and making predictions.

There are a bunch of birthdays happening at the beginning of the year, and we got to celebrate three Temescalians last week! We so enjoy seeing each child grow up (so far) in photos, learning about their stories, and spending time with the whole family. The treats are also a big hit!

In other Temescal News, we have begun spelling assessments, as well as one-on-one reading assessments, as we continue to work on classroom routines, procedures, and agreements. Just getting to know each other is big work and important for a community of learners to feel seen and supported.

We look forward to seeing you Thursday night!