Celebrating our Authors

At the end of November, students completed their personal narratives and shared them with each other in small listen groups.  Each student was given a chance to share their stories and receive feedback from their peer group.

Families have a chance to celebrate our student writers this coming Thursday at our Poetry Tea.  The month of December has been Poetry Month.  Student poets have been reading poetry as a whole class during our shared reading time as well as reading poems in small reading groups.  We have studied some of the literary elements used by poets such as metaphors, similes, personification, onomatopeoia,  alliteration, imagery, stanzas, tones and voice.

During Writer's Workshop, students have learned about and created several different styles of poetry.  We created I Am From poems, Color poems, Sound poems, Riddles, Haikus, to name a few.  Students will be selecting a few of their favorite poems from their personal anthology to share at Thursdays Tea.  We hope to see many of you there!

Geometry and Multiplication

During our math block, students have been focusing on two areas of study: geometry and multiplication.

Our main focus in geometry has been 2-D shapes.  Students have used various regular and irregular polygons and non-polygons to sort, discuss and categorize. We are practicing mathematical language and finding shapes that are similar, different and congruent.

Geometry at this level involves the use of hands-on activities to develop spatial awareness.  We use manipulatives such as pattern blocks, tangrams, attribute blocks, power polygons, geoboards, etc.

We are infusing our study of geometry into our multiplication and division unit.  Students are working on story problems, arrays, fact families, as well as learning about multiplication properties like the commutative property, the associative property, the identity property and the zero property.  These units should last through January.

  The Ho-Chunk

Students have been reading about the Hochungra people during social studies.  Student groups were assigned a topic to research and then find a creative and interesting way to present the information to the rest of the class.

Students came up with a variety of creative ways to present their information ranging from making a poster to creating a newscast to small skits.    

Upcoming Events

• December 19 - Third Grade Poetry Tea (12:15 in the Lily Pad)
• December 21 - Jan 5 - No school
• January 6 - School Resumes
• January 20 - No School (MLK, Jr. Day)
• January 24 - End of 1st Semester - Early Release 10:45
• January 28 - 6:00 Choral Concert