Environmental Engineers At Work

I apologize for my tardy blog post this week. I have been without the comforts of electricity and internet since the storm last week. Christmas lights have never looked so lovely since yesterday when it was all restored!

We had a busy week as our engineers were busy with their water filtration task. First they asked questions about the criteria that we would use to determine if our water filters were successful. We decided as a team that we would be testing to see how well the filter was able to remove color and particles all while working in a short amount of time. We tested three different materials (paper filters, sand/gravel, and screens) and then the engineers worked to imagine different design possibilities for their filters. They met with their team to plan and design a final design to test. After "buying" their materials and giving themselves a score for their budget, they created their filter and put it to the test. We kept our water a constant and all of the groups had the same "mystery water" that had the same level of contamination. The results that we got were quite varied and students took the opportunity to get back together and learn from their mistakes and from each other designs as they worked to improve and test again. Take a look at their hard work in this slide show.

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This week is quite busy with events leading up to the holiday break. Wednesday we will head to the 7th and 8th grade concert which is always a crowd pleasing event, especially for the third graders who are new to the amazing arts program at WCS.

Thursday we will have our RAD Day. The students are encouraged to bring in books that they would be willing to exchange during our annual book swap. So far we've only had a few come in, so if you could help your kiddos to remember that would be great. The more books we have the more books students get to take home with them at the end of the day. We will also have opportunities for independent reading, buddy reading, mystery readers, teacher read alouds, and online reading. All while being cozied up in our jammies with stuffed animals! Sounds great, right?!

 Friday will start off with our Craft Morning from 10:20-11:20 in the morning. Thanks to all of the parents who have volunteered to come and help and to those that will be providing us with healthy snacks to enjoy as we create and socialize as a team of Marvelous Mosaics.

At the end of the day we will have an awesome Cell-a-bration that we have earned by filling up our brain with SMART cells. We will turn WCS into a movie theater for Cinema Day. Each student will get a ticket to a different movie in a "theater" around the school (Swift Kiva, gym, auditorium, etc.)They will get to enjoy a film of their choosing. We have a room set up with arts and crafts here in Mosaic for any student who chooses not to watch films.

We hope that you enjoy a peaceful holiday season and wish you and your children a New Year in 2015!

 Jess and Liz

Wonderful Writers

This week we took all of the inspiring words from our amazing visit with Jeff Kinney and used them to launch our own true stories. The students learned about how to start a story with a strong lead and tried out several of the strategies that we introduced until they found the one that fit their narrative best. Then we moved on to working with a partner to locate the heart of our stories. This is the part that makes a reader sit up and read closer to find out the big idea or problem. Then we used our storyteller's voices to make that part even stronger using dialogue, sensory details, and action. To end the week we practiced closing our stories with a strong ending. Now we are working on editing, especially using what we have learned about punctuating dialogue. We will finish publishing our stories using Google Docs next week. Then we will share our stories with you. This is the first time this year that the students have gone through the whole publication process, so keep in mind that this is a true reflection of what they can do independently. It is perfectly acceptable for there to be some mistakes. Their goal is to use a storyteller's voice to organize and structure a story with a clear structure and elaboration.

We finished up our introductory unit on Multiplication last week. Next week we will be starting a new unit in Math. During Unit 3 the mathematicians will use estimation and rounding strategies to solve two  and three digit addition and subtraction problems. They will revisit some old strategies and practice the standard algorithm for addition and subtraction. (This is the way that we learned way back when!). Some students are hungry to get to this spot and others will be challenged with the abstract nature of the procedure. Third graders are not expected to master this concept, but they will be introduced in a hands-on way that supports them conceptually wherever they are developmentally. Please see the links below for more information on this unit and on the support materials that align with the concepts that we will be teaching. These are great things for students to practice with at home on nights when  they do not have a math sheet to do. (Though it is not a "have-to")

Bridges Unit 3 
Unit 3 Support Resources 

Please help you student remember to come to school prepared for the winter weather. At this point they needs to have boots, hats, gloves and snow pants daily. They should also have a pair of warm, dry shoes to change into. The salt is rough on our carpets, so we ask for them to leave boots in the hallway.

Information about our Winter Craft Morning will head home in Yellow Homework folders tomorrow. We are looking for volunteers to run a small craft workshop on the morning of December 18th from 10:00-11:30. You would have three rotations of approximately 8 children at a time. We could provide you with ideas or you could come up with your own craft. Please return the sheet if you can make it. If not, perhaps you could provide a healthy drink or snack for the children to enjoy that morning.

Thanks for your support! 

Jess and Liz 

Winter Is Coming

Seeing the first flakes of the season prompted us to remind families that once we have snow on a regular basis kids are required to bring all of their winter gear out to recess. They should have hats, gloves, snow pants, and boots to change into.

This week we did a group writing activity to reflect on our visit from Tom Messner and we hope to be published in the next edition of the WCS Blue and Gold! Then we used our journalistic skills to prepare for a visit from Noah's mom, Sarah Healy. Sarah chose to pursue her dream of being an author and has now published two books! The students had some amazing questions for her about what it is like to live a writing life. Then they put their new understanding to work as they began to brainstorm ideas for  writing their own true stories. Next week we will continue writing narratives as we think about ways that writers get ideas, how to move from a summary to a story, and ways to write an engaging lead.

In math we continue to develop and share different strategies for multiplication that are efficient and accurate. Some of the ways that students like to show their understanding of multiplicative reasoning are  ration tables, using the doubling strategy, and breaking up facts into smaller facts. Students need to be able to understand this relationship between numbers before they are able to use quick procedural strategies. That way, when they move on to higher level math (algebra)  they have a solid foundational understanding of the way that numbers work.

We are SO excited for this Wednesday when we will welcome the incomparable Jeff Kinney to our school. Mr. Kinney has written the bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series that have become a staple on the bookshelves our our young readers. We can't wait to hear what this "accidental author" has to share with us. Stay tuned!

We hope that you all have a restful and relaxing holiday break with your family. It's hard to believe that it will be December when we return!

Tom Messner Brings A Little Sunshine To Mosaic!

This week we finished up our Weather Home projects using Google Presentation/Drawing tools. The students self reflected and scored themselves using a rubric and prepared the final touches to present to the fourth grade engineers on Friday. They were so proud of their work and you could tell that the fourth graders were really impressed with their engineering ideas and teamwork. Click on the links below to see the presentations.
Eaton Weather Homes 
Parker Weather Homes 

 

We then got to be the audience as the fourth graders shared  comic strips that they had created as they were learning about cause and effect relationships this week. We had done some work with identifying these types of relationships in nonfiction texts and we learned a lot from the fourth graders as well. Their illustrations and story lines were so creative and well prepared!

The highlight of our week was certainly getting to meet Tom Messner! I don't know if he planned it, but as soon as he arrived, the sun came out! He showed us a lot of interesting behind the scenes information and shared his knowledge of extreme weather phenomena. We were thrilled that he included us in the broadcast of the evening news, too!

Next week we will head to the book fair on Tuesday, but the fair is open all week long. We will also have a guest teacher on Wednesday. Mrs. Parks will be doing an engineering read aloud and lesson. I think that she will be impressed with all that we already know about how to think like engineers.

We are also lucky enough to hear from Noah's mom, Sarah Healy, about what it is like to be a professional author. This will be the perfect guest to help us launch our writing unit around personal narratives and true stories. She will join our class on Thursday.

Digging in the Garden

This week we learned how to use Google Draw and Google Presentations, two more tools that will help us  present what we have learned about weather and engineering in our final project. The teams have been creating "Dream Houses" that have been engineered specifically to withstand the elements of their particular type of extreme weather. The ideas that they have come up with have been outstanding, from heated driveways to rubber roofs, they have truly been thinking outside the box and using phenomenal teamwork. We will be finishing these next week and will present our Google Slides to the fourth graders on Friday! Then the students will self reflect using a rubric and we will share on the in the next week or so.

Next week we are also excited to have Tom Messner, News Channel Five's meteorologist, joining us to discuss all of our weather and climate questions. To prepare for his visit we will be developing strong, thoughtful interview questions in Literacy over the next few days. Pictures of our celebrity guest to follow!

This week we celebrated the arrival of fall with our annual Craft Morning and the Garden Harvest Celebration on Friday. Thanks to all of the families who donated their time or refreshments. It was a hit as always! Here are a few photos and video from the fun morning.

It looks like we will be getting some cold winter temperatures and perhaps some
snow this week. Please remember to send your kiddos to school with hats, gloves, and warm jackets. Once the snow if officially here they will need boots and snow pants everyday at recess.
 

We Huffed and We Puffed...

Once upon a time in the village of Williston there was a group of third grade engineers. They used what they knew about the Engineering Design Process and weather to design a house that would keep the little pigs safe from the big bad wolf and his storm of wind and rain. The students worked in teams of four to ask, imagine, plan, and create a home that could withstand rain and winds. We tested outside with the help of a watering can (rain) and a powerful leaf blower (wolf winds!)  All of the houses withstood the test, although a few pigs were dryer than others. The students then used google classroom to do a written response about how they used the EDP as a team and what steps they would take to improve their design. Next week they will use this activity to design a home that could withstand the type of extreme weather that they are each studying. Many thanks to the amazing Julie Rogers for supporting this type of awesome learning and collaboration!

We are still looking for some more volunteers for our Harvest Craft Morning that will take place on Friday, October 31st from 9:30-10:30. If you are available to run a craft station please let us know. We would love to have your join in the celebration. 

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Hiking for Hunger

We were very lucky with the lovely weather on Wednesday for our annual Hike For Hunger. We donned our awesome new t-shirts and headed to Catamount to walk for a good cause while spending time together as a team. We are still calculating donations, but we anticipate that we will have over $1,000 to send to Hunger Free Vermont. Thank you all for helping to support this great cause.

 This week we also finished Unit 1 in Bridges Mathematics and we will be starting to think about multiplication in Unit 2 next week. Students will have plenty of opportunities to think flexibly and cooperatively about solving problems that involve groups of items. See here to read more about these concepts and how to support your students with them.

It has been wonderful chatting with all of you during our conferences this past week. We appreciate having this time to set goals for the next two years. We look forward to learning and growing together with all of you.

Growing Writers

This week in literacy we learned about the three main parts of a paragraph and how writers use them to organize their thoughts. We practiced thinking like writers using sensory details while enjoying some yummy apples. Now we will be writing strong paragraphs using the strong detail words that we brainstormed.

Writing strong paragraphs will be a focus in third grade across the content areas. The students will get more practice as they begin to research a location on the globe that is faced with extreme weather. This week they have been  tracking the weather in their location and inputting the data into a Google Spreadsheet. Then they will be working in pairs to conduct research about different weather phenomena (i.e. tornadoes, blizzards, floods, and droughts). Then they will be displaying their findings in a Google Presentation. Part of this activity will also involve an engineering task. The groups will have to use the Engineering Design Process to develop a plan to help their town deal with this extreme weather.

In math we have been working on using efficient strategies for solving addition and subtraction story problems. We have also been discussing angles and liquid volume measurement in Number Corner. Next week we will show what we understand about addition and subtraction strategies in the Unit 1 Post Assessment.

Next week is a short week. Students are in school Monday-Wednesday. We will be having conferences on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you have not signed up yet, please see the link on the side bar of the blog. It is located under "Important Dates." We look forward to seeing you and discussing goals for the next two years.

We hope to see you on Wednesday at our Hike For Hunger. We will be getting to Catamount at 10:00 and hiking until about 11:00. 

Happy Fall!

Energetic Engineers

It was so nice seeing and chatting with many of you on Thursday night at the Mosaic Dessert Social. We hope that your kiddos went to bed alright after the initial sugar rush! I know that Mr. Eaton and Mr. Parker were very thankful for their cookie delivery!

This week the kids learned all about the Engineering Design Process through several different activities. We learned many new things about what technology is. Understandably, many of the students thought technology meant that something is electronic and plugs in. They were shocked when we held up items like a pencil or a paperclip and said that these were also examples of technology because they were created by engineers to meet a need or solve a problem.

They learned about the word prototype while viewing an everyday engineer at work as he tried to develop a new way of feeding his neighbor's cat. Throughout this video, the narrator followed the steps of the process to create a piece of technology that could help meet this need.

The young engineers got to put their new knowledge to the test on Thursday and Friday when they used the EDP to solve their own problem. They were given a task to create a tower  at least 10 inches high that could hold an animal (beenie baby) for at least ten seconds. The groups worked together to imagine ideas, plan using discussion and sketches, create using the materials available to them, and then improve after initial testing. As you'll see from the video and photos, they were very excited and engaged and everyone was successful!

Next week we will continue to think like scientists and engineers during our weather and climate unit. The scientists will be learning about climate and weather forecasting. They will then chart the weather of a location of their choice using digital tools and Google spreadsheets.

The location that they choose is also one that is inclined to severe weather of some sort. (i.e. blizzards, hurricanes, ice storms, tornados, or floods). In pairs, they will research and become "experts" on this type of extreme weather and how it affects their location. They will then use the EDP to design an idea for how to minimize the impact of the extreme weather. We will use other Google tools to present our findings. We can't wait to see what these amazing thinkers come up with!

Fall Conferences Coming Up

We  look forward to our dessert social this Thursday night. An email should have come home last week. The third grade parents are being asked to contribute desserts. We will meet and greet in the dining room from 6:30-7:15.  Hope to see you there.

This week we finished working on our Someday projects and started learning about different genres of books. The students will be encouraged to read books in several different genres throughout the year and we will set up challenges on Biblionasium to help them stay focused on that goal.

We also began to collect Words We Love. This is a year long activity that aims to expose students to new vocabulary words in a way that is fun and meaningful. Research shows that in order to add a new word to your vocabulary you must hear and use it at least 40 times! We collect words that we love during read aloud time as well as in our other subjects. This week we collected the words drab, wilted, tedious, and efficient. We post the words in the classroom and practice using them in a sentences that show the meaning. Then whenever someone hears someone else using the word correctly they say, "ding, ding" and a tally mark goes up on the Words We Love chart! You should have heard how many times efficient was thrown around during math yesterday!

In math we went on a measurement hunt around the room to practice measuring accurately in centimeters. The students also held a math forum where students shared their strategies and other mathematicians asked questions and clarifying comments about the strategies and thinking. We are beginning to move towards more efficient strategies for combining double and triple digit numbers as well as adding multiple numbers at a time. Some of these include combining numbers by place value and finding friendly numbers to "jump" to on a number line. Some students might be ready for the standard algorithm or "carrying" method, but what we usually find is that most make careless errors and when asked to explain their thinking they are not sure why the carrying happened. We want to make sure that they have a solid conceptual understanding before moving on to quick strategies.

We look forward to starting our new Weather and Climate unit next week as well as a punctuation study in literacy.

Our fall conferences are coming up and this is a great time to talk about academic and social goals for you students this year. You can sign up on the sidebar under 'Important Dates'. Please let me know if you have any trouble and we  can help you to navigate the wiki or put you in a time slot ourselves. We can  also can be available some mornings at 7:15 if that works better with your schedule.

If you would like to sign up to volunteer to do a Friday Workshop at some point. The sign up is under Important Dates also. This is a time to work with a small group on a craft, game, sport, or other activity. The workshops run from 2:00-2:40 most Fridays throughout the year.

Dreaming of Someday

This week the third graders were busy planning their hopes and dreams project. We read the book Someday by Eileen Spinelli and used the story and lovely artwork to begin thinking about our own dreams for what we will be "someday" and what things we can work on this year that will help us to achieve our dreams. We have future scientists, authors, and engineers who are all taking small steps towards their goals by working as teammates, reading books about topics that interest them, and developing their math problem solving skills. These projects will hang in our room as a reminder of our goals for the whole year.

We have also been busy with word study. Students have learned about the different types of sorts and last week they got together with their small groups to learn about their first list of words. They have been working together to sort their words and reflect on what they notice and how understanding patterns in words can help us as spellers and readers.

The Green Group collaborates on a writing sort to practice long a and short a words

In math we have been thinking about what it means to solve problems efficiently. The mathematicians have a variety of different strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems and now we are working on showing our thinking in a way that is clear. Finding the difference has been a focus this week and many of our work place games have provided the kids with  fun, interactive, hands-on practice to develop their strategies and fact fluency. Next week we will be focusing on measuring to the nearest centimeter accurately.

These mathematicians practice subtraction with Blast Off To Space workplace

We ended the week learning about insects during our first Four Winds lesson. The kids (and adults) took away a lot of new learning about insects anatomy, vision, diet, and how they do not like to be labeled as "bugs!" Thanks so much to our amazing volunteers. If you would like to join them let us know.

There was a mistake about our dessert social in the Bell last week. We will be having a dessert social on Thursday, October 2nd from 6:30-7:15pm. We invite you to join us in the courtyard (or dining room for a rain location) to enjoy dessert and get to know the families, students, and teachers that make up the Mosaic Team. We are asking for third grade parents to bring desserts to share. The fourth grade families will take care of other supplies. Please be mindful of allergies and provide a label for treats that may contain nuts. 
We hope to see you all there!

Happy Fall!

S.M.A.R.T. Students!

The year is off to a fantastic start already. We are happy to see that many of our Mosaic kiddos have already connected with old friends from ABS and we've already seen new connections start to happen. Much of the first six weeks of school is devoted to making these kinds of connections as we implement techniques from the Responsive Classroom curriculum and discuss and model what it looks like to be S.M.A.R.T. (Safe, Mindful, Accepting, Respectful, and Truthful) in our school.

We have been learning about each other, the new building, and the expectations that make up our learning community through interactive team building games and activities over the past few days. We have also started to make observations about how we learn math and will begin to review strategies for addition and subtraction next week. In literacy, we have been sharing our favorite books as a way to learn about who we are as readers. Living a literate life makes strong, thoughtful readers and writers!

Many of our read aloud selections have themes that are focused around being Safe, Mindful, Accepting, Respectful, and Truthful. Our students have been making connections between the characters and themselves as members of Mosaic and WCS.

We have received several questions around who to contact in the event of a schedule change for your child. If you have a change that you know about in advance please email Sally Dattilio at sdattilio@cssu.org and cc your child's teacher on the message. You can also send in a note and we will be sure that the change gets communicated.

If for some reason you need to make a last minute change please call Amy Benoit in the front office. She will communicate the change to us. Please do not leave a voicemail message on our phone extensions. We can't guarantee that we will listen to those before the end of the school day.

We will answer more questions about communication, homework, themes, and volunteer opportunities at our Curriculum Night on September 11th at 6:00. We hope that you will be able to join us. If you are not able to come, the presentation will be posted on the blog for you to access.

Digging In The Garden

Playing in the garden is something that my family loves to do together. At the end of a steamy summer day we always seem to find ourselves there chatting, weeding, and snacking on whatever yummy prize we can find. Lately it has been the sugar snap peas! My son Marcus, is carefully watching over his pumpkins that he hopes will be prize winners this fall. While my daughter, Lucille is watching as the once tiny sunflowers are now taller than she is. Gardening is one of my favorite things about summer and I look forward to that time with my family each day. What are some things that you like to do as a family?

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Hopes and Dreams Drop In Times

It was lovely to meet your children in the spring and I can't believe that it is already time to think about heading back to school. You should all receive a summer information letter from the Mosaic team during the first week in August. 

If you feel like you would like to have the opportunity for a brief meeting before school begins, they will be offered on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 26th. Please visit this wiki to sign up for a time slot. I completely understand if you cannot make it on that day, please know that I am always available to chat  and you are welcome to stop by anytime! 

Enjoy the rest of your summer and I look forward to meeting all of you in the fall. 

Fondly, 
Jess Eaton 

Summer Adventures

We have lots of things planned for our summer vacation and one of the things that is at the top of our list is reading! We both LOVE to read and we hope that you do too. We look forward to hearing more about the great books that you are reading and the adventures that you are having this summer, so don't forget to send us your postcards. Mrs. Parker and I will be in school planning for the upcoming year next week and we can't wait to share our ideas with you!

Here is a photo of Mrs. Eaton's kids, Marcus and Lucille, doing a little summer reading!

Future bookworms!