Spring Break Is On The Way!

  It is hard to believe that we are moving into the middle of March already!!  The students have been working hard and exploring so many new ideas.  Below you will see a short breakdown of what we are doing throughout our day as we move into Spring Break on Friday at noon.  :)


Reading:
  The students continue to escape into amazing worlds throughout our reading blocks. We have made our second rotation in book clubs and have several new stories underway.  
  This group of students is always eager to read independently too!  I am so happy to see how many enthusiastic readers we have this year.  They are always excited to share their ideas and connections as their stories unfold.
  We just finished Tiger Rising for our Read Aloud book together. I think we all shared a few tears together as we saw Rob and Sistine grow in so many ways. We are currently reading one of my favorite books, Tuck Everlasting. I know the students will quickly be captured and drawn into the everlasting journey of the Tuck family.  
  Our students are still working hard on peeling away the layers of the stories they are reading. Their reading notebooks continue to be filled with thoughts, connections, ideas, feelings, visualizations, and questions that help them bring their stories to life.


Writing/History:  
  We are integrating our writing and history blocks so that the students have an opportunity to think a little deeper about what we are learning in our history units.  The students are using what they have discovered about the Native Americans to create lap books filled with journals, mini books, and a variety of other writing projects.  
  Now that the computer lab is open with our new iMacs, we will continue our Monday Poetry Day in the lab every Monday morning.  Our students are in the midst of writing a birthday acrostic poem for a special someone in third grade. :)   


Art:
  We have so many wonderful art projects that are hanging in the art gallery right now. The students have studied Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keefe, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse over the past few weeks.  Our students created beautiful masterpieces inspired by each artist. We hope you will be able to take a walk through the gallery to enjoy our work. :)


  Spelling/Grammar:  
  The students are almost done with their spelling books.  We have been focusing a great deal on proofreading over the past few weeks because we noticed that our students needed extra practice in this area.  Many of our grammar concepts fall in line with our remaining spelling lessons, and we hope to see our students become more confident and comfortable with using these skills in their everyday writing.   


 Vocabulary:
  We are on Unit 12 in vocab, and our test is on Thursday.  As the year comes to a close, the students will have nightly study assignments to insure they are using the entire two week period to become familiar with the words and their synonyms/antonyms.  Please make sure that your child is taking their time to truly learn the words so that they can use them in sentences and understand them in their reading. 
   Our students are vocabulary detectives during our reading blocks and often locate their words within the text.  This book is building their foundation in vocabulary and helping them to become stronger readers and writers. :)