It was a fabulous start to what is sure to be a wonderful third grade year! Throughout the week, we played several getting to know you games such as Classroom Jenga, the name game, This or That, and sticky dot surveys.
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How do you do your best work: on your own, with a partner, or in a small group?
With a partner was the most popular choice! |
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| What is your favorite subject? |
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| What is your favorite reading genre? |
We did some team-building activities including the Marshmallow Challenge and Save Fred. It wasn't all fun and games...we also went over a lot of routines and procedures, discussing everything from how to line up and walk in the hallway, to what we do when we first come in, to the importance of our classroom jobs. I tried to break these business items up over the week so as not to overwhelm them with too much information at one time!
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| With just these supplies, and with only 18 minutes, which group can build the tallest structure that will support a marshmallow? |
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| For the Save Fred challenge, Fred the gummy worm was stranded on top of his overturned boat (a plastic cup) and his life preserver was trapped under the boat. |
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| Each group had 4 paper clips they could use to rescue Fred and get his life preserver safely on him. |
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| It was a great opportunity to focus on teamwork, and lots of trial and error! |
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| The first proud group to save Fred! |
It took us all week, but we finally completed our classroom social contract. Each and every student contributed to this and signed it so we can proudly display it in our room. This contract will serve as a reminder for how we want to treat each other and how we deserve and expect to be treated.
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| A lot of discussion and brainstorming went into creating our classroom social contract. |
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| We talked about how we want to be treated, and how we should handle any conflicts that come up. |
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| Our final social contract, signed by everyone in our class! |
For reading this week, I just loved seeing so many students share their book boxes...each box was as unique as the student who made it. I can't wait to see the rest of them next week. Please make sure your child has his/her book box done by Tuesday! We read two picture books,
First Day Jitters so we could share how we all have nervous jitters on the first day of school, and
Have You Filled a Bucket Today? so we could talk about the importance of being kind. I also started reading aloud the novel
The Tiger Rising and they are LOVING it...begging me to read "just one more chapter" every day when I say it's time to move on.
Most of our writing this week was done with morning work. We did spend some time on Friday decorating their Writer's Notebooks after we discussed what our future Writing Workshop will look like. That will be in full swing by next week!
In math, we spent some time in small groups exploring the different manipulatives we will be using this year. I challenged the students to think about all of the ways we might use these math tools.
We dove right into reviewing multiplication and arrays on Friday and will continue with that for the next 2 weeks, with our focus being on mastering the 10s and 5s multiplication facts. We also spend a few minutes each day building fluency in our addition and subtraction facts. Math is so much easier for students when they have quick recall of the basic facts.
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Pairs of students modeled arrays to learn about turnaround facts.
And yes...they got to write on their desks! :) |
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| Students teaching students! |
I am enjoying getting to know these boys and girls so much. I feel like we are bonding as a classroom community and will only get more connected as the weeks go by! I hope you are all able to enjoy some family time over this three day weekend, and I will look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday morning!
