Things have been super busy around RBES over the past few weeks! There is always so much going on...so many opportunities!
LITERACY
We are almost finished writing our first stuck story and the students are really enjoying the process! Most of the students were overwhelmed by working independently so we decided to continue to write the story as a team. We discuss our story plan as a group and students take turns coming up with sentences, specific verbs, dialogue, etc. They are loving our story and can't wait to share it with you! Once we finish writing the last paragraph and a half, students will receive a typed copy including their own setting introduction to illustrate into a real picture book.
Here's a sneak peek into our story (our character and motive introduction):
Jacob and his family gathered up the dishes from their picnic lunch on the beach. Shaking off the sand, Jacob stood facing his parents. “I want to go for a walk down the beach. Can I go?” asked Jacob.
“Sure! Have fun!” chirped his Mom.
Slowly Jacob strolled down the beach. After a few minutes he started to feel thirsty. Up a tall tree trunk Jacob gazed. “Coconuts! Awesome! I can climb up and grab one so that I can drink the milk inside!” yelled the thirsty boy.
Isn't it awesome!?!?!
In reading, students continue to enjoy Wonder. The discussions that we have during and after reading are insightful. We have been discussing things like friendship, empathy, standing up for what's right, making choices that feel good to you and character traits that they want to possess versus those that they want to avoid. They are able to critically look at the characters in the book and discuss what they like about them and what they don't like about them. I hear things like, "I would never want to be like Julian! I want to be a kind person like Summer!"
NUMERACY
We are wrapping up our unit on multiplication and heading into division. Students are responsible for knowing their basic facts up to 5x5 in grade three. I will be sending home a challenge with the students on Monday that pushes them to learn their basic facts to 5x10. Stay tuned for the Yogurt Parfait Challenge!
Being just introduced to multiplication, students are focusing on the concrete idea of multiplication. Multiplication is a short cut to repeated addition. When there are equal groups of objects that need to be added up, you can use multiplication to find out the total or product. Students can use skip counting, drawing a picture, drawing an array or doing repeated addition to come up with the answer to any multiplication question.
SOCIAL STUDIES
The students LOVED learning about Tunisia! We finished up our unit with our Tunisia Day celebration on Friday. Due to the busy nature of the afternoon, as Mrs. Gross and Miss Strawson can attest to, I didn't have the chance to take a single picture! I apologize for that! It was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed the Mancala game, weaving project, bean mosaic project and food! You can add couscous, baklava and flatbread with olive oil to your meal plans! Dates...not so much!
MISS STRAWSON
Saying goodbye to Miss Strawson was hard for the students. We all enjoyed sharing our days with her so much! It was my first experience having a student teacher and I really enjoyed it. It really made me stop and think about why I do things the way I do...I had to explain it all to her...justify my choices. That professional reflection was really valuable. We often get so caught up in the day to day busy nature of the classroom that you kick into auto pilot. It was such a great mutual learning situation and I really appreciated the opportunity. Miss Strawson will be popping by a couple more times before the end of the year.
EDUCATION WEEK
What a great week celebrating our learning community at RBES! Our pancake breakfast and pj day was a great way to kick off the week! We were given a book by the Lion's Club on Monday too! The students enjoyed the celtic fiddle presentation on Thursday and the author visit on Friday!
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