Pam Brissee, 3rd Grade Teacher

Shaping Up in 3rd Grade

The year is “shaping up” for 3^rd graders!  Partners have been playing games and practicing math skills at workstations while small groups meet with teachers to focus on specific concepts.  One of the first topics of the year was sorting two-dimensional shapes by using attributes.  In this photo, two students are sorting quadrilaterals from other polygons and 2-D shapes.  Having shapes to examine makes it easier to understand more abstract definitions, like a parallelogram has 2 sets of parallel sides.  Having a partner makes the job easier and more fun, and it allows students to communicate their thinking.  

Emily said:  We were sorting them by quadrilaterals/not  quadrilaterals.  I like working in a small group because if you get something wrong, your partner can help you.

Maci said:  It helps to have the shapes because when you are sorting you can see the shapes.  I liked working in a small group because you can learn from your mistakes.

Elizabeth Kratz-Counselor

No Bullying Allowed!

A group of students formed a committee called No Place for Hate. Our students come up with activates that help teach acceptance of others and how to put a stop to bullying. October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Like any other months, we teach that bullying is not allowed and that there is no place for bullying in our lives. During the month of October we show case the importance of being kind to others. We ask that people treat others the way we want to be treated. Some children have even shared that “it” is the golden rule.

 

We share with the students video clips that they are able to relate to their lives. The videos are called The Tough Kid – Bully Blockers Shorts, and The Green Kid. We will continue to show these videos during our school year to remind students of our expectations on bullying.

The No Place for Hate website gives good information to parents to help their children in the event that Bullying may occur. Please follow this link to find out more about bullying and what you can do to help us promote a better environment.

http://houston.adl.org/noplaceforhate/

Mayte Dilla, 4th Grade Teacher

4th Grade Writing Celebration

Students were thrilled to publish their first piece of writing. They truly enjoyed reading each other’s stories and discovered they had many things in common.  

For the last 4 weeks, they worked hard generating ideas, collecting entries, and finally selecting that “one” seed they wanted to write longer and better.  As they took their  piece through the writing process,  one important fact they learned was that a writers job is never done.