Well that week flew by! We began the week by documenting and collating our summative assessments from our previous UOI, as well as and other learning such as our Mental Math into our google folders. While we have busy weeks, we also take the time to take stock about our learning. Parents have access to these folders at any time, but expect an email from your child soon, inviting you to take a look at their learning again. As much as students are sharing their learning with you, they are also learning important organizational skills by sorting and maintaining their learning in an organized structure.
This week in language they continued their work with their historical writing projects for the book we will self publish by the end of the year. It will be a project that will require a great deal of rewriting, editing, and revision before it meets the standard for published work. The students are excited to use the language of publishing writers. It will be an ongoing process until May.
This week, they were exposed to poetry. We have lofty goals for this as well. The children will be performing during our "poetry slam". We will have more information about this later. This week we introduced the basic features of rhyme, rhythm and form of basic poetry. Next week they will write their first poem, an acrostic poem.
In Math this week, we continued our routine activities. One game the students often play is Yahtzie, which helps them build on their basic addition/multiplication/division facts. They learn how to make decisions based on chance and probability, and use the above mentioned skills to keep score. It is a great game for math. This week the students also constructed greater understanding of the relationship among fractions, both for sets and units. For example, knowing that they would prefer 1/4 of a pizza versus 1/5 is not an easy concept for grade 3 students. As well, understanding that two quarters is the same as a hal, or 2/6 is the same as 1/3 are other difficult understanding, which we are building on. In math, it is critical to have the conceptual understanding that underpins the facts. Students understand some fractions already, such as one student who knows that she uses fractions when baking, by measuring how much sugar to pour into a bowl. Learning is best when it is authentic.
This week we had the pleasure to meet David Greenberg through a Skype conversation. He is coming to our campus in a few weeks, and the students were able to ask him some very pertinent questions prior to his visit. Friday was World Read Aloud Day. TIS was but one of thousands of students taking part in literacy activities.
Finally, this week we really sunk our teeth into our new Unit of Inquiry (UOI), How We Express Ourselves. We did a great deal of "big idea" building and thinking. What is Art? Are we all artistic? How is emotion and art connected? What kind of skills are required. What is interpretation and perspective, and how are these terms related? This week we revisited the elements of art, which is something the students are well versed in, thanks to their art teacher, Ms. Åsa Lind. Ask your child about their music/line art they produced in our classroom this week. Be sure to ask how they incorporated music, emotion and line to produce their artwork.
It was a great week of learning.
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