WOW...last week got away from me!

Sorry for the incredibly late post...no excuses, just apologies! We had a very busy week...and how about all that snow Friday am!?!? (I know...crazy, right?) Here is how our week went down:

Language Arts
For the next couple months we will be focusing more on root words and their meanings. The kids will have word study packets to complete and they will be assessed on the root meanings as well as the spelling of the words. I am continually impressed with the kids' vocabulary and just want to continue to build on it.

We have started our poetry unit...I love this unit (I feel like I say that a lot...but I just love third grade and all we study!) During this unit we will be learning many different elements of poetry and studying figurative language...We read many different poems this week to experience all of the elements of poetry: rhyme, stanzas, lines, repetition...we also discussed the setting, tone, and mood of these poems...then on Friday we read a Readers Theater that demonstrated forms of figurative language in a very humorous way...the kids were introduced to characters such as "King Pun, Queen Simile, Prince Paradox, Earl of Idiom," and many more we had a lot of fun with that activity! We will continue this unit this week and begin writing some poems ourselves!

Social Studies
We have started another new unit...economy. This week the kids enjoyed a video series titled, "Econ and Me" that is put together to teach the kids all about economic problems, opportunity cost, choices, consumers, production, and interdependence. We talked about resources, limited resources, and scarcity of resources. We have great discussions after each segment and then add words to our economy vocabulary. We are headed into an Entrepreneur Unit where the children will get to apply all of these concepts personally...more info to come on this!

Math
Last week we spent time in geometry...comparing prisms and pyramids, cones and cylinders, their "nets" and discussing faces, bases and vertices...just to clarify...a prism has two bases and a pyramid has only one...the bases are included when counting faces...so...a rectangular pyramid has FIVE faces (one base) and a rectangular prism has SIX faces (two bases)...
We also worked with the perimeter and area of complex shapes. This was a hard concept to visualize initially, but as the week ended, most kids had it! We are headed into measuring angles this week...its so fun to teach how to use a protractor!!

Extra Info
Some of you may have noticed small changes to your child's checklist this week...many of the kids had a hard time transitioning back to school after the break...very chatty...as I explained to them last week and reminded them this week...THEY are in control of what is put on the checklist...its just my job to put it there...so THEY are the only ones who can change it! Reminders from home would be helpful, too...thank you!

Who knows what the forecasters are saying for tues,wed...but if we miss a day of school, just have your kids continue the work on the word study packets and read the book they will be coming home with tomorrow. We are headed into a biography unit in a couple weeks and they will have a reading assignment over this week and next.

Thanks and as always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me. Stay warm!