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!