Dance Africa, Post Office, Poetry, Math Night!
Writing
In writing, the third grade is currently drafting our Animal Adaptation Essays. It has been a long journey to get to drafting! We immersed ourselves in new vocabulary, especially the words adapt, survive, characteristics and environment. We played with these ideas in our notebooks and by playing games like Vocabulary Celebrity. Then we learned how to organize our ideas in outlines. We talked a lot about how to transition the key words and phrases into sentences that connect to each other, either using linking words an phrases, or by connecting the ideas. Finally, this week, we are drafting our essays. Writing is a process indeed. (The bulletin board in the photo is almost done… I’m looking for two more outlines to hang in that lower-right corner to balance it out!)
Trips!
This week we will have a visiting artist from Dance Africa come to BSI to teach us about African drumming. Next week, we will attend the performance at Brooklyn Academy of Music. I can’t wait to post pictures! I can take three parent chaperones on the trip. However, I decided that since it is our first subway trip, if you would like to join us for the travel part, then go get a coffee while we watch the show, then travel back with us, I’d be happy to have as many chaperones as we can get. We just only have three extra adult tickets to the performance. Rest easy– for my first eleven years of teaching, my school was right next door to a subway station. We took many, many train trips. I have never lost a child on a subway trip. I have it down to an art. If you have not heard from me, I hope you can join us for our next trip to Floyd Bennett Field to plant the pollinator garden. We’ll need all the parents we can get on that one. The dates for the trips are May 24 for BAM and June 2 for Floyd Bennett Field.
Word Study
We have done a lot of explorations into prefixes and suffixes this year. This week we are looking closely at what happens to words when they become plural, particularly when the plural version of the word ends in the letter “s.” (We’ve already done a bunch of work with irregular plural words.)
Poetry Recitations
We have had a blast with the individual poetry shares that started on Friday. Students are working on using their voices to show that they know the meaning of each poem. They are also working on speaking clearly and loud enough for everyone to understand the poem. I’m hoping to have a parent volunteer help me type up the poems that children have chosen, so we can all have our own copies of them in our poetry notebooks. Let me know if you are interested in the position. It helps if you are a Shel Silverstein fan!
Post Office and Family Math
The second grade post office will open this week. I have signed us up for a slot on Thursday. Please send a quarter or two, so your child can send a letter. Stamps will also be for sale on Family Math Night — TONIGHT! Please Come.