Happy Sunday...and Happy Day Before MSA's!!

So...let's start with the most important notes of this post...please help your child succeed on the MSA's by making sure they get GREAT SLEEP this week and have a GOOD BREAKFAST each morning. I appreciate you teaming up with me to help your child have a great testing experience! Your kids are very well prepared and I want you to know that they will come home more tired than usual...expect exhausted kids...they will need time to just chill in the evenings. I have activities planned for the afternoons that are meaningful, but "lighter" than usual. We will be working with probability, observing soils, and other hands-on activities. They will have extra recess and no homework...so its actually a fun, great week...we just need to make sure that the kids arrive at school ready to "show what they know!" We want them to take their time, read carefully, and do their best work.

OK...enough about that...this past week was a great one...once again it was a different type of week with a two hour day on Thursday and a two and a half hour day on Friday...but we still manage to get a lot done!

Language Arts
We are reading the novel, 21 balloons, and working on finding the deeper meaning. The kids are using inferring while reading and looking to find examples and details in the book to support their thinking. We read Chapters 1-4 and sat in groups discussing questions. This week we also went to the computer lab to work on our Taking Math Tests power point presentations.

Science
We broke into groups and became experts in one of the three different types of rocks. The kids read from non-fiction text, took notes, and then they tackled the task of sharing that information in whatever way the group chose to teach the class. In their presentation, they had to name their rock type, describe its formation, give examples of this type of rock, and explain how it fits into the Rock Cycle. We had groups that wrote a short report, we had a group that made a poster and gave a great oral presentation, we had a group perform a "musical", and we had a couple of skits...each expert group gave us information about the different rock types...it was a fun way to learn!!

Math
We finished up our division unit and took a test, we also worked on double bar graphs...the kids each made a survey, collected information, organized it, and displayed it in a double bar graph. We discussed the differences between a double line graph and a double bar graph...we will be working on line graphs and circle graphs later this Spring.

On Friday we had a wonderful visit from Mrs. Brennan's kindergarten class. Each student in her class wrote a letter to each student in my class...their letters wished the third graders "good luck" on the MSA tests and told them they will "rock the test!" They illustrated their letters and hand delivered them to our class. They also made a huge banner that is hanging in our classroom to remind us that "we rock!" It was a fun visit that both the third graders and kindergarteners enjoyed (as did their teachers!) Mrs. Brennan and I decided that later this Spring my class will visit her class to read to the kids, and then towards the end of the year the kindergarteners will visit our room and read to us! What a fun partnership that will be!

We earned another celebration this week...36 more "Soaring with Pride" stickers...we will be headed outside one afternoon this week for an elongated playtime...class basketball games and a class football game....and other fun outdoor activities for all! These kids are super and I'm always happy to celebrate their hard work!

I hope you and your family are not floating away as we speak...there's a lot of water out there!! Enjoy your Sunday and tell your lovelies I look forward to seeing them tomorrow!