Spring Conferences

We are looking forward to talking with you about your child's progress in third grade during the upcoming week. 

We are also looking forward to jumping into our new engineer design challenge where students will be using what they know about force and motion and the EDP (Engineer Design Process) by acting as green engineers to design a car made of recycled materials that can travel down a ramp and meet our distance criteria. The students will imagine ideas, design a prototype, test their cars, write conclusions using their data as evidence, and work together collaboratively to problem solve. Stay tuned for more information and follow us on Instagram @wcsmosaicmoments for updates and pictures. 

We sent an email last week to request supplies for this project. If you have any materials that you are looking to donate please send them in with your child as soon as possible. 

Measuring Mavericks

Thank you all so much for joining us at our annual Passion Project Breakfast event. It was an amazing turn out and the students were all very obviously proud to share their hard work with a large interested and supportive audience.

 To see pictures of the event follow us on our new Instagram account @wcsmosaicmoments We have set up the account as private so you'll just need to click on the blue "follow" button to see images and leave your comments. We hope this tool will allow us to easily update you on the happenings in our classrooms in a way that seems accessible with  busy lifestyles. My daughter's teacher has been doing this and I love getting the quick, easy glimpse at her day. We hope you enjoy it as well and we welcome your feedback.

This past week students have begun a new science investigation where they will conduct investigations around phenomena of how gravity, friction, and force affect movement. Students will use science data to make claims and support their evidence in writing. Then they will use the Engineering Design Task to design a car ramp using their new understandings. Stay tuned for their discoveries.

We are finishing up our math unit on measurement and fractions and the students are now moving into Unit 5 where they will learn more about multiplication and division using models for area and perimeter. Look here to see more about the concepts included in this unit.

Enjoy that extra hour of sunlight. Spring's got to be just right around the corner, right?!

Fondly,
Liz and Jess

Passionate People

We hope that you all enjoyed the winter break despite the frigid temps! This week the students are hard at work finishing up their research reports on their passion project topics. We have had students studying everything from Helen Keller to spicy peppers and they can't wait to share their learning with you.

Students learned about informational text through studying Steve Jenkins last month and you will see how they thoughtfully incorporated many of the styles and features that are part this genre. Students chose to use formats like Question/Answer or Compare/Contrast, and added features like timelines, diagrams, maps, labels, and captions to teach their readers new information about their topic.

Join us on Thursday morning from 8:00-8:45 to celebrate their hard work and learn all about these interesting topics. If you are able to bring a healthy breakfast treat or beverage it would be greatly appreciated. We'll provide the coffee!

Things to ask you students:
What nonfiction text features or access features did you include? Why?
What text structure did you choose to use? Why?

Thanks so much for supporting our amazing students and their hard work. See you Thursday morning!