- This Friday we are visiting Circle in the Square to see the students' written plays performed! All parents are invited to meet us at the theater to see student plays. If I receive a list showing the order of performances I will share it with you to help you plan accordingly. After randomly selecting parents to join us on the trip, I'm please to share that Jennifer Weiss, Alfina Chanti, and Alex Levi will join us as chaperones to accompany us on our subway ride. Please let me know if you are unavailable or if your schedules have changed. We will depart at 9:00 sharp by the main front security guard, and will be back by lunch at 12:24.
- Next Friday is Family Friday, and the entire third grade is hosting a wax museum. After reading about a range of biography subjects, students selected one subject on Friday that they would like to research and create a poster on, and next Friday they will come to school dressed to resemble their subject to be part of an exhibit. Students will have time to work on this all week in class, and posters will be provided. If students want to continue working at home as a HOP option they may, as long as the work is completed by Wednesday 1/25. I have attached a rubric. The way the museum will work:
- Teachers will hang posters the night before.
- In the morning, students will come to school dressed for their exhibit. They will find their poster on the 5th floor and remain by the exhibit.
- They will select a pose to hold until a parent presses their "button" (a sticker) which turns the exhibit on.
- Students will recite a blurb about their subject, then go back to holding their pose.
- I will email again before the weekend with a more formal invitation and last directions.
- It has come to my attention that Google Classroom logins haven't been working for many students. Mr. Fier and I are looking into this, and hope to fix technical issues as soon as possible.
- I found out that students will be given new, separate Google Classroom Accounts that are tied directly to the Empatico pilot project we are part of. I asked if we could merge these so students have only one account, but alas the accounts need to be separate. More information to come.
- I have attached the African Dance song students are learning. Please encourage students to practice their song once a day. The final African Dance performance will take place on 2/17, February's Family Friday event.
- Because of Friday's trip, we need to reschedule the 1/20 Mystery Reader date. I am trying to find a new time with the library.
- Last week for Shared Reading we read an excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Ms. Rosevear put some AMAZING resources up on the PS 11 Showme page for further enrichment. Check it out! https://ps11showme.com/
CURRICULUM
Reading: This week we are exploring jot structures to best hold research, such as parallel timelines, boxes and bullets, and cause and effect structures. We will use some of these for our poster projects!
Writing: After creating categories for evidence for our big bold persuasive claims, students are working to elaborate within a category using examples, descriptions, statistics, and anecdotes. We will also try to create paragraphs for different categories, and use transition words to connect our ideas to examples. Toward the end of the week we will revisit introductions, conclusions, and counterarguments.
Math: After reviewing attributes of shapes we the next two days we will wrap up out Geometry mini unit and take the post assessment this Thursday. Our next unit will be Multiplication, Area, and Perimeter.
Social Studies: For the next 3 months our participation in the Empatico pilot program will take place during the Social Studies block. This past week we did a gallery walk learning about different weather events around the world that deeply impact life. This week students will start to learn more about specific events.
