Weekly Update

All-Star of the Week: Jason

Jason was our amazing all-star this week.  He shared many neat photos of his parents and siblings.  He also brought in a guitar that his brother had made...many of the students wanted to hold it and try it out.  Lastly, he had a special lunch with his mom and shared his favorite book Harry the Dirty Dog.  Thanks for being an awesome all-star Jason!

December Holiday Party:

We started off the week with a VERY fun holiday party. 

Mrs. Bourkoulas and Mrs. Frisen planned a very fun afternoon.  The students broke into 4 different teams and played a lot of games.  Below you'll see them flexing their muscles in preparation for the competitiveness that ensued minutes after...

Each team broke into 2 smaller teams for the Snowman bean bag toss game.

After the bean bag toss, the students went out in the LGI to have a snowball fight.  Unfortunately I couldn't quite capture the action in this game because the students were running so fast that every photo turned out blurry! Here you can see them listening to the rules of the games and hiding behind their post!  

For a little "cool down" activity, the students made a popcorn snowman craft.

 

 

 

Next...they raced against each other to build a snowman out of toilet paper.

 

The party ended with a snowman potato-sack race and a candy buffet.  The students had to estimate how many candy canes were in this snowman and the winner got to take it home.  Sean estimated 32 candy canes and the exact amount was 32 candy canes! He then decided to share his winnings with his classmates!

Thank you to ALL of the parents for donating items for the party, for donating your time by coming in and helping to run each station and to Audrey and Dimitri's moms for planning/organizing/running such a FUN celebration! We know how much time and effort goes into these parties and we can't thank you enough!!!!

After the party, it was back to business (the 3rd graders were SO excited!!!!).

Writing Workshop:

Last week in writing, the main focus was on finishing our nonfiction draft booklets.  The students were taught how to write a conclusion to their informational book as well as how to write an "About the Author" page.  The rest of the time was spent finishing up previous chapters and then editing and revising their work so that it is ready for publication when we return in January.

Reading Workshop:

Last week in reading, the students were exposed to biographies.  This was a sneak-peek of what's ahead in reading in the new year!  Make sure to have your child read 20 minutes a day over break to help maintain their skills.  Remember to log-into Raz-Kids and use that resource when you're traveling from destination to destination and don't have your home libraries available to you because you're on the go!

Math:

Last week in math, we were learning about horizontal and vertical bar graphs, line plots and how to interpret data using various graphs/tally charts and frequency tables.  We also spent a few days reviewing for the Unit 3 math test.  When we return from break, we will be starting our unit on place value.

Social Studies:

In social studies last week, we traveled to Plymouth Plantation and learned about the pilgrims and the Mayflower.  The students were surprised to hear how tight the living quarters were on the ship as well as how seasick many of those on board became.  Our third graders then recorded important facts learned in their Regions Tour binder and added souvenirs to their Northeast Region scrapbook page.  The next stop in our journey was Boston.  Here the students learned that this was the starting point of the Freedom Trail and that Boston Common is the oldest park in the country.  When we return from our December break, we will continue to travel the Northeast with a very fun stop in Hershey, Pennsylvania..."the sweetest place on Earth!"

Happy Holidays:

We hope you have a wonderful holiday break with your families.  We are so lucky to work with such amazing kids and parents.  Looking forward to a great 2016!