Sunday, September 16, 2018



 Happy Second Week of 3rd Grade: 

Focusing on Cooperation, Team Building, and Routines!


It's hard to believe that only two weeks ago I was nervously waiting to meet your third graders! 

We spent the start of this week studying our brains! Do you know what happens in your brain when you make a mistake? A spark happens with we make the mistake, and one also happens when we realize why it was a mistake! Do you know what happens when we get something correct? No spark! To help us with the idea of mistakes, we also read the book, The Girl Who Never Made Mistakesby Gary Rubinstein and Mark Pett, and The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires!
In Ashley Spires book, we discussed how the main character definitely had a growth mindset, but that she wasn't prepared for just how many tries something may take! She also needed to listen to her body and take a moment to step back and be outside the process. We thought about how that frustration feels, almost like a tornado in the brain! When this happens our emotions are hard to decipher and the frustration takes over! As teams, we thought about what to do when such emotions happen, and how we can support our classmates.

We continued to learn and practice routines, and were "tricked" by Mrs. G. when we were given "The Very Important Third Grade Activity!" Maybe your third grader asked you to complete it as well. If so, I hope that you passed! It was fun to see the kids completing silly steps, and then when the spark when they realized they made a mistake, and the spark when they realized WHY it was a mistake!


We enjoyed talking about cooperation, and were challenged to cooperate! Students were quick to take on this task, yet when asked to cooperate towards a common goal, they found themselves frustrated! Students soon realized that working in groups can be tricky! Not getting our way or our team not wanting to go in a direction we feel will be successful is hard.
Putting our team's needs before our own wants is incredibly tricky and takes a lot of self-control. We were quick to realize this when we tried the "cup" challenge with ALL of our class!


A Peek into Next Week: 

  • Thank you for participating in homework with us. I know finding time can be tricky. Please help your third grader return the MATH INTERVIEW (White Sheet) by Monday!
  • Author Study schedules with authors went home Friday. We will be learning about author study presentations next week and the weeks to come!
  • We will take our Math NWEA MAP Test on Tuesday!
  • We will continue to work on our reading stamina, visualizing, and IDR (Individualized Daily Reading)!
  • Learning about the first "trait" of kindness: cooperation! What does it look like and how does it show kind behavior?

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