Friday was the last day of the first trimester, and boy did it go by quickly. But at the same time, those young 2nd graders that entered our classroom on the first day, are now very much seasoned third graders. They all are so eager to pitch in and help the teachers and each other. It has been fun to see them grow during these last few months.
Since I already did a post about the Halloween party, I won’t talk about that here. But it was a great time for all of the kids.
We had a Green Assembly this week and our own Bhoomi was selected to share some information with the school. She did a great job!
PE was a blast as the kids played scooter soccer. If I didn’t think that it might end badly, I would grab a scooter and get in the game myself!
On a rainy Wednesday morning, we all took in Jason and the Argonauts at CLC. This was most everyones (including the teachers) first taste of opera. It was really pretty neat to see and hear how the performers told the story. We had went over the story in class prior to our trip, so I think that really helped the kids understand what was happening.
In social studies, 3rd graders have been learning about Illinois. A big part of that is to understand how to read a map and to get a feel for the types of bodies of water, hills, and cities/towns make up the state. On Friday, Ms. Hahn showed the kids how to use the location grid to find cities that are not printed on the map in their book. They could not wait to run up to the board and find the missing city or town. If you have any actual maps at home, you might want to practice with them. They also did phenology this week. It has been so nice to not have to completely bundle up to get outside.
The students continue to work on becoming better writers. A big part of the program we are using is sharing with a buddy. Everyone really enjoys talking with their buddy about their writing assignments.
Math continues to deal with perimeter and area. We are gradually inching our way to multiplication, and the arrays they create for dealing with area are a stepping stone.
On Friday, Mr. Thomas, the art teacher was in a training session, so I had to fill in for art class. I went to YouTube and found an art video. They are called Art for Kids Hub and it has a dad who sits side by side one of his kids and they both make a piece of art. So the dad draws first and the child follows along. Our kids love these, so click on the link to let them do it at home. For this session I chose Po from Kung Fu Panda. It was absolutely amazing to see how they all turned out. Nearly each child had time to add a little background and nearly everyone was willing to share theirs with the class. 
I think that is it for this week. The new trimester starts next week and then we only have 2/3 of a school year remaining!
Have a great week!
~ Mrs. Steinbeck
P.S. I just wanted to share a personal picture because I’m so proud. My oldest son, Ben, is a senior at GCHS (and PCCS alumnus) and he runs on the cross country team. They went to state this past weekend and took 2nd place. Last year they took 1st, so they’ve been doing a fantastic job during his time in high school. Ben’s the one holding the trophy!
