Crew News 9.1.11

Launching Headfirst into our Bent’s Fort Expedition! Mark Your Calendars for Bent’s Fort Fieldwork: We will be traveling to Bent’s Fort on September 15th. Since it is a bit of a drive, students will need to be dropped off at 8:15am and picked up at 7pm. Please mark your calendars to make arrangements now. Calling for Volunteers: We need about 6 volunteers to come with us that day. This is a very fun day, where you get to experience Bent’s Fort alongside the students. Email me if you are interested and I will let you know next week. Permission Slip: Look for a permission slip to come home early next week.

Crew Learning Expedition: This week we dived into our first expedition. We began with a mystery piece, where students began forming ideas of our topic after looking at pictures and reading an article. The expedition topic was revealed today when we watched a video about Bent’s Fort, and we began forming questions to guide our study. HINTS AT HOME: What questions to you hope to find out when studying Bent’s Fort?

Writing/Language Workshop: In writer's workshop, we debriefed our time on voyage, first in conversation and then in writing. Students worked through all the stages of writing to publish their reflection: drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. In language workshop, students have been working to publish their Robert Munsch story. Using the rubric as a guide, students have worked very hard to revise, edit, and publish these stories. HINTS AT HOME: What is revising? What is editing? Give examples from your reflection or story.

Math: This week we finished our unit that included patterns and solving time problems. We will take our first unit test tomorrow. HINTS AT HOME: Practice time problems. Ex. If you wake up at 7:15 and you eat lunch at 11:50, how many hours/minutes until you eat lunch?

Reading Workshop: We finished our reading unit on community. Students read various selections about all kinds of examples and ways we show community. Students deepened their understanding of making connections and how it helps them better understand what they are reading. HINTS AT HOME: Set a routine for 3rd graders to be reading every night. Ask them what connections they are making.

Boot Camp on September 9th: Thanks for all your support with fund-raising and getting the kids pumped about it!I heard we raised over $18,000! AWESOME!

Voyage Pictures: Check out a slideshow of our pictures from Camp Id Ra Ha Je located under the Adventure Eduction tab. :)

CogAt testing: Third graders will be taking the CogAt test on Tuesday, September 5th. 

Bookorders: Tomorrow is the last day to submit book orders. Please do this online! Thanks!