First Week Recap!

Week of 8/29-9/1

Hello Families,

The third graders are off to an amazing start! It has been such a pleasure to get to know your children this week. They truly are all shining stars! Our major focus this week has been team building. We have been working on communication, cooperation, and taking risks within our classroom.

Here are some examples of our team building exercises! The students worked in pairs to “Save Fred.” Their goal was to get a life jacket (gummy lifesaver) around Fred (a gummy worm) only using paperclips. Ask your child how they made this happen! They also completed the Cup Challenge in groups of three and four. Students had to move a pyramid of cups from one desk to another only using four strings and a rubber band. They could not touch the actual structure with their hands! Students also had to build the tallest Spaghetti Tower and put a marshmallow on the top. Some friends did not realize how heavy a marshmallow would be with spaghetti! There were amazing conversations happening during these team challenges.

We have also launched two of our Daily 5 choices. Students are practicing building their reading and writing stamina. We discussed how to pick good fit books, and now each student has three good fit books in their book bags!

The third grade team feels strongly that the best ways to support our learners is to be sure they get plenty of rest and exercise. We hope to helps students understand the importance of an early bedtime and an evening routine that includes a healthy dinner, time with family, and taking care of oneself. To that end, the third grade team will not be assigning homework this year. However, we do hope that students will read independently or with their families each night.

If you have not filled out your forms please complete them over the weekend! I will be posting a classroom blog with pictures and classroom letters. You will be able to access the classroom website through the Academy Website.

I look forward to working as a team with all of you this year. Thank you!

Miss Plympton

nplympton@wsesu.org