Week 33: April 30 - May 4

Reminders:
5/9 - Bike to School Day
5/10 - Gallery Night @ 5:00
5/14 - Math STAAR
5/15 - Reading STAAR
5/21 - Publishers' Picnic @ 11:00 - 11:30
5/24 - Chariot Races @ 8:30
5/25 - Winds of Time Parade
5/28 - Memorial Day (No School)

Winds of Time is just around the corner. In third grade we study Ancient Rome and take part in our own version of the chariot races that entertained Romans all over the empire. We need wagons to transform into chariots. Please lend us your wagon and ask your neighbors to help us out, too! The following SignUp Genius will help us keep track of what is coming. Thanks for your help!  Chariot Wagon SignUp

Please note that Publishers' Picnic has been changed to Monday, May 21. We hope to see you there to share what your child has accomplished this year. Bring a picnic lunch and a blanket and enjoy!

For the rest of the year, third grade will be piloting a new schedule that will add a few interesting segments to our day. Students will participate in Morning Meetings that build community, valuing the thoughts, feelings and accomplishments of all students and helping students feel included in our community. We aim to develop students as empathetic collaborators who work successfully in teams. During Office Hours, students will further develop executive functioning skills such as organization, planning, study skills, self-regulation and flexible thinking. In Unit Time, we will begin our study of Ancient Rome as an interdisciplinary unit of discovery with students' questions guiding their learning and collaborative problem solving.

Math:  This week in Math is devoted to a targeted review of all skills covered this year. We have spiraled reviews all year and for these weeks before STAAR we will challenge our students to focus and work more carefully than ever before... remembering to use strategies we have taught, know when you need to figure out a multiplication fact you are not sure about and NOT GUESS!  Our daily warm-ups will target relationships between numbers in a chart, two step word problems, expanded notation and comparing 4 and 5 digit numbers. Friday's warm-up will be a grade in our grade book. We will also have our usual FFF quiz.

Science:  This week in Science we will continue adding to our Weather Logs and will transition to our focus on Personal Financial Literacy. We will discuss human capital and how a person can make themselves more valuable as an employee. We will cover scarcity and supply and demand. Students will review the value of saving and budgeting and the convenience and responsibility of credit cards, debit cards and cash. We will view interest in the context of both borrowing and saving.

Reading: Our students have completed listening and interacting with our grade level read aloud, Wish Tree by Katherine Applegate. It was an amazing experience, to say the least! The story is based on the point of view of Red, a red oak tree who doubles as the town's wishing tree each May 1st. This Tuesday, May Day, will give our third graders an opportunity to wish on our very own HCE wish tree. 
Our lessons this week will be taught in small groups that address the individual needs of our readers based on recent assessments. 

Writing: It is hard to believe, but the HCE annual Publishers' Picnic, which takes place on May 21st, is just around the corner, and our third grade writers are excited! This week's explorations are taking on a creative tone. Students will be completing a piece inspired by the book Not a Box, exploring descriptive language by creating nature-inspired poetry, and using a poem about monsters and aliens to compose a piece of writing that focuses on character development. It will be a great opportunity for students to peer conference, revise, and refine their work.

Social Studies: When in Rome, live as the Romans do; when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere. -Saint Ambrose
Social studies skills will be incorporated into student exploration of Ancient Roman culture. Ask your third grader which questions they have become interested in researching in more depth during class time.