Our photo this week is from the Art room…enjoy the Jim Dine “Hearts” artwork:
Students’ Highlights 1/8/2024 – 1/12/2024
- Library Visit for a historical fiction book
- PE- class combined with older kids; King Pin
- Music- learning to play the keyboard
- Language Arts- Small Group readers about working together like a team to accomplish something, story elements
- Math- linear measurements
- Science- comparing volume using standard and metric measurements with real world problems
- Spanish- reading Spanish words, playing loteria (bingo) with singular and plural words
- Art- Jim Dine Hearts
A recent Love and Logic article resonated with us as educators. It shares a process for a healthy foundation of problem solving that starts early in children’s lives. We thought we would share it with you.
“Mentally strong children who know how to solve their own problems and who will grow up to be the most competent adults they can be is our goal. Love and Logic provides a healthy foundation that allows kids to practice solving as many problems as possible early in their lives. The following process is an example of how Love and Logic can get kids thinking more about their problems than we do.
Step 1: Provide a strong and sincere dose of empathy. Empathy allows the child to stay calm enough to solve the problem—and learn from it. Experiment with saying something like: Oh no. This is a problem. I bet that’s really upsetting.
Step 2: Hand the problem back. After you have proven that you care, ask: What do you think you might do to solve this problem? Don’t be shocked if the child mumbles, “I don’t know.”
Step 3: Ask permission to share what “some kids” have tried. Avoid giving suggestions until you have asked: Would you like to hear what some other kids have tried?
Step 4: Provide two or three alternatives for solving the problem. Remember to avoid resistance by saying: Some kids decide to ________. How would that work for you?
Step 5: Allow the child to solve or not to solve the problem. Resist the urge to tell the child which alternative to pick. End the session by showing your faith in the child and say: Good luck! Let me know how this turns out.”
Language Arts main reading selection, “A Better Way” by Juan Quintana, is a persuasive article. The author describes the work of two Explorers who teach farmers. The article is about saving trees and helping farmers develop more sustainable methods of agriculture. We will work on the reading comprehension strategies of identifying opinion and evidence, analyze text features, and determine importance. We will write summaries and about the author’s viewpoint. Grammar builds knowledge of helping verbs and forms of “do”
The next Math unit, Perimeter, Area, and Polygons, began with a study of linear measurement. Students developed the ability to use measurement tools to measure objects. They learned that perimeter is the distance around a 2-dimensional figure and measured the perimeter of various 2-D shapes. Next week, students will find all possible arrangements of four squares, called tetronimoes, and use flips and turns to prove whether or not one shape is the same as another. They will use tetronimoes to cover the area of a 10 by 8 grid.
Tucson Presidio 1848
In Social Studies, students are reading about Tucson’s history. As they learn about people and events, they are building a timeline. When the timeline is complete students will determine the most important events and people. The culminating timeline project includes all third graders who will present all they have learned to an audience of family and peers.
Reminders
- January 15th No School MLK, Jr. Day of Service
- January 17th Half Day, 11:50 dismissal
- January 19th Relaxed Dress
- February 2nd-4th Aladdin
- February 5th-16th Parent Teacher conferences
- February 16th Second Trimester Ends
- February 19th-23rd No School, Rodeo Break
Spelling Lesson 18 Words with /j/ Sound
- joke
- gym
- large
- page
- stage
- giant
- range
- magic
- jacket
- judge