This week was full of pumpkins, seed observations, and Halloween festivities!
We started the week continuing our work with things that come in groups as a way to introduce multiplication as repeated addition. Having done work with things that usually come in groups, we built on that and worked on word problems that involved things that come in groups. Strategies that 3rd graders often use are drawing it out, writing a repeated addition number sentence, or a multiplication sentence to show their work. Temescalians also worked to skip count by 2s, 3s, 4s, etc. to begin to see patterns within the same fact family.
In literacy, we conferenced with individuals and we focused on spelling patterns in small groups. During reading, we also give Temescalians the option of using the iPad to supplement their reading time using apps like One Minute Reader, Spelling City, and Core 5 Lexia. The emphasis during Reading Workshop, however, is still on reading chapter books to build stamina and practice reading skills such as questioning, predictions, making connections between books that they’ve read or events in the world. We also worked on editing skills. We often include bloopers in the morning message for the Temescalians to correct. Thus far, we have been focusing on punctuation and using proper capitalization. We also laid to rest commonly used words such as “said”, “good”, “bad”, “big”, “small” in efforts to come up with synonyms and infuse our writing with varied vocabulary. We use Words Their Way and Signs of Sounds to teach spelling patterns.
Our study of parts of the plants during Super Science and Art led us through an exercise of making botanic print type sketches of sunflowers. We noted the different parts of the plant in our sketches.
We also discussed the different parts of a seed. We had harvested Scarlett Runner Beans from the plant in our backyard. We soaked beans overnight and the size difference and color variance from that change in environment was drastic. “The soaked one is huge!” “The one in the water is a lighter brown.” “There is a crack in the wet one.” When we dissected the beans, we found that there was what looked like a sprout inside of the bean. We also noted that the entire bean was mostly food for the sprout. “It’s all a beige color.” “The sprout isn’t green.” “It’s probably not green because it hasn’t been in the sun yet.” “You can separate the sprout from the bean!” “The bean has a belly button!”
Our dictionary detective work continued in Information Literacy. Kids were challenged to find the guide words for specific words. They have learned to compare the word letter by letter with guide words to narrow down where the word they are looking for could be in the dictionary.
Kate Klaire came in to illustrate an Inner Coach vs. Inner Critic by having us all try to do a plank. The self talk that we have as we struggle and learn into discomfort is important. After trying to hold a plank for 1 minute, we shared the inner coaching we gave ourselves: “That’s okay.” “I can do this!” “This is fun! I can do this! I can break through this wall! I can do this!” “Just a little longer!” “I am awesome! I am smart!” “I am great at this!” “This is a lovely thing to do.” “I can’t do it yet.” “I am positive that I can do this.” “This is awesome. ” “If you try it, you might get good at it.” “This is hard but I can do it.” “Don’t let dreams be dreams.” “Don’t give up on yourself.” “Don’t let your fears interrupt your dreams.” We have such a trove of wisdom and great inner critics in our midst!
We took this Halloween season to incorporate Buddy time with Zones of Regulation. As the kids designed the faces for their pumpkins, they also were challenged to think about what zone(s) it might be in.
Halloween Parade and festivities. Thank you to those who were able to bring something to the potluck and a big thank you to Katy and Brian for staying and overseeing the picture frame and Q-Tip skeleton projects. The kids had a blast with both of these projects. We also invited Temescalians to decorate tangerines like pumpkins and we started calling these creations “tumpkins”!
We hope you had a safe and happy Halloween, despite the rain!
We have a field trip on Tuesday so please come prepared to walk around outside in possibly muddy or wet paths and bring a packed lunch and water bottle.
