Getting started

Eleven days into the school year, our scientists are in complete working mode. In the lab we have learned how to work with the "scientist safety checklist", and collaborate with our team of scientists to keep our working area organized and safe from dangerous viruses (a.k.a chaos). In math we completed the week of inspirational math, like we did last year, to remind us of how real mathematicians work through problems and what real math looks like. We reviewed the topics of thinking deeply, looking for patterns, using images and manipulatives, and making tons of mistakes in order to make our brains build new pathways between our neurons. We have also started our number talks, and math routines, as well as the math chapter on properties of addition. This year we have started our "diario trasto" or junk journal, to create a space every day for free, creative writing in Spanish, where our ideas and sentences are not judged, but rather serve as a way of practicing our written Spanish while we talk about our favorite things, events in our lives, and other topics, and we also get creative decorating the journal with pockets, tags, pop-ups and tons of washi tape! In reading we have started our reading challenges: for every 10 books the scientists read and write about in their reading passport, they get a prize! The enthusiasm for reading and writing is skyrocketing! We have also started with reading mini lessons to talk about informational and non fiction narrative, and have reviewed the strategies "asking questions", and "sequence". And finally, during Social Studies, we have learned about the Massachusetts symbols, and have started a collaborative work with the rest of the third graders, and the scientists have had a chance to get grouped and work with other teachers on different activities related to the symbols, like creating a song, cooking, making a 3D model, and creating a digital book. What an amazing start, isn't it?