Happy Friday! I can't believe it is already February vacation. The time will tick by so quickly after we get back -- I'd like time to slow down a little!

The big news today was our auction. Thank you all SO much for sending in items. We had 70 fabulous items for bidding. We set it up like a real auction. The kids got to look at the items ahead of time, and they all had sticks with numbers on them. They had bidding sheets where they got to keep track of what items they had bid on. It was so much fun! We talked ahead of time  A LOT about how they would feel if they were outbid by a friend so that I could prepare them for that disappointment. There were a few sad kids, but mostly they were SO kind to each other, and some even bid on items to give to their less "rich" friends. In the end, I think everyone had fun and learned a lot of life skills through this entire project. They were my guinea pigs, and I will use their suggestions to make the checkbook/job/auction project more successful next year. Ask them to show you their checkbooks! They are cute, thanks to my husband who made them all for us. I wish I could have taken some photos of the auction in action, but I was too busy being the auctioneer! My throat is parched from all that auctioneering!

Aside from the auction, we had regular school this week as well. We continued working on finding equivalent fractions, and we even started learning about decimals. I think the decimal work actually created a lot of "aha" moments! We are learning a lot of math!  This unit will continue after vacation.

We are still reading our social issues books and thinking about power versus powerlessness, fairness, identity, and how social issues affect our lives. I love the conversations I am hearing in the book group discussions. These kids rock, and they are clearly interested in the world around them! 

Our opinion pieces are coming along. We are learning how to add mini-stories to each paragraph to really explain our opinions. I love the organization I am seeing -- the students are learning to use paragraphs! We will finish up these pieces shortly after vacation and then we will move into writing persuasive pieces. I can't wait to see what they come up with. They are a dedicated and passionate group of students! Have I told you I love this class?

Our new vocabulary words this week were fluctuate, deplete, and dilemma. I hope you can throw those words into your family conversations!

Enjoy the vacation! I hope you get to spend some quality time with your wonderful children. I will certainly miss them!

Happy Friday, Happy Chinese New Year, and Happy almost-Valentine's Day!  Despite all of those exciting things to celebrate, we have had a terrific week here in the classroom. Here's the rundown:

Math

We started off the week reviewing what a fraction is, how to recognize a few basic fractions, and how to put them on a number line. Then we moved into more complicated work, looking at fractional parts of a rectangle, and finding equivalent fractions. This is hard work, and I plan to move slowly so no one feels left behind. Here is the family letter explaining what I hope we will all learn during this unit.

Reading

The class has been reading books in their "Social Issues Book Clubs." They have learned how to identify the social issues based on when the character is struggling, when they, as readers, feel uncomfortable, and when the character feels powerless. They are reading, taking notes, and having conversations with each other on chat, in person, and on a shared slide presentation. Talking about books is so powerful, and I can tell how much they are enjoying this!

Writing

We have spent the week planning our opinion writing pieces. The planning involved coming up with an opinion and 3 ways to defend it (or 3 pieces of evidence.) Today the students started drafting. This is basically a 5 paragraph essay (or will be, once it is done.) It will have an introduction which ends with their thesis statement, 3 body paragraphs (1 for each of their 3 reasons), and then a conclusion. I love this writing unit because it helps so much with organizational skills and teaching young writers to use paragraphs. I can't wait to see the finished products! I will be sure to share them with you so you can enjoy them too.

Social Studies

We are finishing up our Civics and Government unit, and so many of the students want it to continue! I don't think I've ever had a class beg me to keep discussing government before! They are just so very committed to justice and they LOVE discussing controversial issues. Today we started our final project, which is all about finding a way to be an activist. Most students are making posters to hang around the school. Some are thinking about other ways, such as creating a public service announcement, starting a petition, etc.  I love seeing their passion. I hope they stay passionately involved in their communities forever!

Thank you to those of you who have sent in some items for our auction. There is still time if you would like to donate a few things. We will have our auction next Friday, right before vacation. This week, we learned about charitable giving and how it can give people a tax break, and a few generous students who have extra "money" in their accounts decided to donate so that I could level the playing field a little. I love our little classroom economy and will be sad to see it end.

Finally, our new vocabulary words this week are commotion, mediocre, eradicate, and competent. Enjoy using these words over the weekend!

 

 It was a fun Beach Day in the classroom today! The morning was pretty exciting, but we settled down and got a smooth groove going for our academic time this afternoon.  The sun is shining, it's Friday, and it feels good to have another week  under our belts.

We finished up our math unit this week. I am impressed by the students and their ability to use the US algorithm to add and subtract really large numbers! Making the 10,000 chart, while tedious, really  helps us understand how the number system works. We are ready to move on! Next week we will start our fraction unit. Since the students really didn't get much time to learn about fractions in third grade, we will start slowly with a lot of review so that we build a solid foundation. I will send home a digital copy of the family letter so you have more information about what our goals will be for the unit.

In reading, we have started our "Social Issues Book Clubs" unit. I am so proud of these students for having such a good grasp of the most important issues of our time! They are so filled with compassion and a desire for fairness and equity. So far, we have discussed what a book club looks like, we have read a number of picture books with social issues, and we have discovered that we need to pay attention to the parts of books that make us uncomfortable in order to find the most important issues. The students seem really stoked about their new books, and they are begging for reading time! That makes me smile from ear to ear.

Our new writing unit has also started. We are doing opinion writing. I started with a pre-assessment. Then I gave the students the checklist and a mentor text so they could set some goals for themselves. Then we began a class essay about why Vermont is a great place to live. Our opinion pieces will have a claim (or thesis) and 3 reasons, followed by 3 paragraphs (one for each reason.) Our Vermont essay starts with the claim "Vermont is a great place to live because it is beautiful, it has lots of yummy foods, and it has a variety of weather." We then wrote one paragraph about the beauty, one about the foods, and one about the weather. Ask your kids to tell you more about this process!

Today in Social Studies, we learned about Vermont's government and who runs it. Next week we will learn about how a bill becomes a law. We will look at one or two actual bills and have a healthy debate, just like our General Assembly does! I'm amazed, once again, at how much these kids have soaked up, and how much they care about what could be a dry topic!

Quick reminders about Valentine's Day: Bringing Valentines is totally optional, but they need to be brought for everyone if they are brought for anyone. No food or candy is allowed. We won't be having any sort of party, but the class will have a chance to pass out Valentines next Friday. It will be an otherwise normal day.

New words this week: cogitate, replenish, exasperate. Enjoy!

Have a restful, replenishing weekend!