Gr3 302- January Updates

Dear Families,

I hope that you are well. We are in the midst of a very busy and fun week here in 302. Yesterday we celebrated Lunar New Year with a wonderful art activity led by Milan and Derek’s moms. Thank you to Sharon and Tina, as well as Rebecca, Mike, and Marina, who were on hand to assist! Today we have our recorder enrichment. The kids sound great already. They are working on memorizing “Hot Cross Buns”. Ms. Sarah, their recorder instructor, asks that they practice for a few minutes each night. Tomorrow we will have our December/January/February birthday celebration. 

We are finishing up our nonfiction books and plan to have them published before February break. Students are working on elaborating by adding description, relevant vocabulary words and definitions, comparisons, and advice for their readers. Our writers are also choosing nonfiction features to support their information. We plan to have a celebration of our areas of expertise when we are done!

In reading, we are also finishing our investigation of nonfiction. We have read many different types of nonfiction books, including biographies and other literary nonfiction texts. Throughout, we are working to figure out how readers understand the main idea of a text. 

In math, we are beginning to develop an understanding of division, and the close connection between multiplication and division. Students are seeing that division has an inverse relationship with multiplication, and that division represents an “equal groups” problem where the total is known, but one factor is unknown. Some initial strategies kids are using to solve division word problems include using multiplication as a strategy for division, skip counting, and using ten times facts as landmarks. Students are modeling their thinking in different ways, including with a picture and by using a ratio table.

In Social Studies, we are traveling from Egypt across to South America, where we will focus on the cultures of Peru and Brazil. We will begin learning about Peru next week. Here are some websites and videos to explore together:

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/countries/peru/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB0EMtupPsc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9hzTcR2RUo

https://www.dkfindout.com/us/history/incas/inca-empire/

Please note that I will be submitting this month’s Scholastic order this Thursday, January 30th. If you would like to order anything, please do so before then. 

Lastly, we have our field trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens next Wednesday (2/5). Please make sure your child wears clothing appropriate for the weather and brings a bag lunch. School lunches will be provided for those who requested them. 

Have a wonderful week!

Ms. Anne