It looks like I didn’t take a ton of pictures this week, but that doesn’t mean we were not busy. Just that I was busy doing other things besides classroom photography!
In PE this week, the kids continued the basketball unit. They practiced a bit more with dribbling and passing. By the end of the week they were working on shooting, both straight on jump shots and layups. It was really fun for everyone. We even got to play outside on Tuesday at the park across the street. Not used to playing basketball outside in February.
Desi gave us a wonderful presentation about her hearing loss and the technology she uses to hear better. It was so brave of her to share her story with the class. The students were very interested and asked a lot of great questions.
In an interesting coincidence, we’ve been reading a book called El Deafo at lunchtime. It is a graphic novel about a girl who has hearing loss and the problems and triumphs she has along the way through her school days. It was a wonderful book. El Deafo was the last Bluestem Award Nominee book that we read. Throughout the year we read about eight of the nominated books. We voted as a class for our favorite book and El Deafo was the winner! Each of the 3/4 classes voted and each voted a different book as their favorites. But the overall winner for 3/4 at PCCS was El Deafo! I submitted our votes to the Bluestem awards and we will find out later this month on which books have earned the Bluestem Award distinction. Regardless of what books get the award, we enjoyed each and every one that we read.
We started reading groups again this week. This time there are three different books being read in the class. All of them are about life on the prairie by pioneers moving westward. So far the kids seem to be really enjoying their books. Many have already finished their books – even though we will take a few weeks to get through all of the them.
Speaking of westward expansion, we continue to play the wagon trail game in social studies. The kids are very much enjoying the game. Everyday is a new adventure when you find out that you have run out of water, your wagon is stuck in mud and will take days to get free, or your oxen gets washed down a raging river that you shouldn’t have crossed. With only a few days left in the game it will be fun to see who makes it to Oregon and who doesn’t.
Math has seen us continue to work on fractions. Seems like everyone was pretty good with fractions smaller than 1 whole, but it became a lot more confusing once we got larger than 1. So that will be the focus next week.
This week the Multi-Cultural Parent Group shared with us the Bulgarian holiday of Baba Marta. This is a celebration of the upcoming spring. The kids made a bracelet called a Martenitsi and then they walked around campus with Naomi looking for signs of spring. When they found one they would leave their bracelet on a branch. As they were made of thread, the birds should be taking them soon and using them in their nests. I really think it is great that they learn about so many different customs at PCCS.
It was colder this week, but we still went outside for Quiet Spots. We didn’t stay out quite as long as normal, but we don’t like to miss a week of seeing what is happening outside. Especially this time of year when things are changing like crazy. And I can tell you from personal experience that while it may not look like spring, there is pollen everywhere! So it is definitely coming.
Next week when you come into the classroom for student-led conferences it will look like your child has a nicely organized folder of work to share with you. And make no doubt, they will have organized it nicely. But please understand how much work went into those folders. Not only the work that your student put into the actual assignment they are sharing, but the time that it took them to go through all of their papers to chose which to share with you. We will continue to work on these next week too. I didn’t take any pictures of this activity, but I should have because there were papers and children spread out everywhere.
And finally, I’m getting through the list of kids who get to use my desk for winning the trash-free lunch contest. This week Noel made himself comfortable!
Next week is a shorter week with two early release days due to conferences, but I’m sure it will be full of fun learning experiences for our third graders. Have a great week!
~ Mrs. Steinbeck