Dear Grade 2/3 Families,
Welcome back--we hope you had a stellar Spring Break! Everyone returned this week looking and feeling well-rested and ready to learn! We will have to say goodbye to Tom this week. He will be finishing up his student teaching with us, and it will be tough to see him go. Make sure to stop in this week and wish him good luck before his last day on Thursday.
Here’s what we were up to this week:
In Grade 2
Math Workshop: This week the second graders will study measurement. We have been working on measuring length, and this week we will explore perimeter and area. We will use both metric and conventional units to measure. We will also continue to work on fact fluency, and we will get a couple of chances to show what we know by taking some timed tests.
Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop: Poetry will be the focus this week. We will continue to participate in some of the fun activities around the school in honor of National Poetry Month. We will read, discuss, and even write poetry this week.
In Grade 3
Math Workshop: We have been in the thick of our Geometry Unit! Examining attributes of various polygons and classifying them into groups has been the name of our game! Playing games like Guess My Rule, we’ve been able to identify a variety of regular and irregular polygons. We can now comfortably identify quadrilaterals that are also parallelograms (like rectangles-- including squares, because squares are a special kind of rectangle!) from those that are not (like trapezoids!) We also learned the names of multi-sided figures all the way up to a 10-sided decagon. While we have talked about acute, right, and obtuse angles, we will take a closer look at a variety of triangles in order to best identify them using conventional mathematical language.
In Readers’ Workshop, in honor of National Poetry Month we have begun exploring the new Poetry Basket in our classroom! Readers read and responded to some favorite poems! We also found went on a Poetry Hunt around the school (indoors and out!)
In Writers’ Workshop: we have created Heart Maps showing all the things we feel strongly about. We used our maps as a tool to write persuasively about a topic. We have also begun looking at poetry! We examined some two voice poems, and made some pointed discoveries that make them unique! We look forward to write some two-voice poems of our own next week. Hopefully, we will contribute some of our own poems to the Poetry Hunt.
In our 2/3 learning community
IB Unit Inquiry: Our Marketplaces unit is in full swing! Our young consumers and earners have been learning a lot about money and money management. We’ve watched videos about the history of money and it’s purpose. We discussed reasons for trading and bartering, as well as various economics concepts. Learners are beginning to wrap their minds around concepts such as supply and demand, capital, cost, revenue, and profit. This week, they took on the role of young entrepreneurs as they formed business partnerships to start a business.
Today we finally broke out into a work session where we worked on our business plans! Special thanks to Lee Kushner and Mark Vovsi who visited our class to work as business consultants! Mark and Lee briefly shared their experience working in different types of businesses, then circulated around the room to have personalized consultations with our aspiring entrepreneurs. Here is some feedback that was given for each business:
Larry/Gaby, thanks for letting us spend time with this motley crew!
Just thought on some themes / topics that stood out that students should continue to think about, as related to their business ideas:
- Brody - suppliers who provide the parts for the electronic pets, distributors to ship the pets and associated costs
- Maddie/Zaya/Kat - cross-selling to a captive audience - selling plants and gardening advice to people who are getting a manicure. Important for them to think through the final plant product
- McKenzie/Gabriella - segmentation and pricing - selling different types of jewelry to different groups of people. And idea of perhaps charging more for the same product to different audiences
- Kai - intellectual property protection - selling products that look like iPhones will bring on a big lawsuit :). Know your customer - different culture, preferences, expectations in Japan. Selling in Europe or US may be more advantageous if you charge a higher price and grow profits.
- the Lemonade stand girls - throughout / service time- idea is great and simple, but making each lemonade by hand and squeezing the fork will take time. Don't want to keep your customers waiting for too long!
Ask your child more about the business ideas that are taking flight in the class!
Important Dates and Reminders:
April 10, Monday - ASG Open Mic
April 11, Tuesday - PJSPA Meeting @ 7:00pm
April 14, Good Friday - NO SCHOOL
April 17, Monday - ASG: K/1 Presenters
April 22, Saturday - PJSPA Movie Night
April 24, Monday - Poetry Jam
Welcome back--we hope you had a stellar Spring Break! Everyone returned this week looking and feeling well-rested and ready to learn! We will have to say goodbye to Tom this week. He will be finishing up his student teaching with us, and it will be tough to see him go. Make sure to stop in this week and wish him good luck before his last day on Thursday.
Here’s what we were up to this week:
In Grade 2
Math Workshop: This week the second graders will study measurement. We have been working on measuring length, and this week we will explore perimeter and area. We will use both metric and conventional units to measure. We will also continue to work on fact fluency, and we will get a couple of chances to show what we know by taking some timed tests.
Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop: Poetry will be the focus this week. We will continue to participate in some of the fun activities around the school in honor of National Poetry Month. We will read, discuss, and even write poetry this week.
In Grade 3
Math Workshop: We have been in the thick of our Geometry Unit! Examining attributes of various polygons and classifying them into groups has been the name of our game! Playing games like Guess My Rule, we’ve been able to identify a variety of regular and irregular polygons. We can now comfortably identify quadrilaterals that are also parallelograms (like rectangles-- including squares, because squares are a special kind of rectangle!) from those that are not (like trapezoids!) We also learned the names of multi-sided figures all the way up to a 10-sided decagon. While we have talked about acute, right, and obtuse angles, we will take a closer look at a variety of triangles in order to best identify them using conventional mathematical language.
In Readers’ Workshop, in honor of National Poetry Month we have begun exploring the new Poetry Basket in our classroom! Readers read and responded to some favorite poems! We also found went on a Poetry Hunt around the school (indoors and out!)
In Writers’ Workshop: we have created Heart Maps showing all the things we feel strongly about. We used our maps as a tool to write persuasively about a topic. We have also begun looking at poetry! We examined some two voice poems, and made some pointed discoveries that make them unique! We look forward to write some two-voice poems of our own next week. Hopefully, we will contribute some of our own poems to the Poetry Hunt.
In our 2/3 learning community
IB Unit Inquiry: Our Marketplaces unit is in full swing! Our young consumers and earners have been learning a lot about money and money management. We’ve watched videos about the history of money and it’s purpose. We discussed reasons for trading and bartering, as well as various economics concepts. Learners are beginning to wrap their minds around concepts such as supply and demand, capital, cost, revenue, and profit. This week, they took on the role of young entrepreneurs as they formed business partnerships to start a business.
Today we finally broke out into a work session where we worked on our business plans! Special thanks to Lee Kushner and Mark Vovsi who visited our class to work as business consultants! Mark and Lee briefly shared their experience working in different types of businesses, then circulated around the room to have personalized consultations with our aspiring entrepreneurs. Here is some feedback that was given for each business:
Larry/Gaby, thanks for letting us spend time with this motley crew!
Just thought on some themes / topics that stood out that students should continue to think about, as related to their business ideas:
- Brody - suppliers who provide the parts for the electronic pets, distributors to ship the pets and associated costs
- Maddie/Zaya/Kat - cross-selling to a captive audience - selling plants and gardening advice to people who are getting a manicure. Important for them to think through the final plant product
- McKenzie/Gabriella - segmentation and pricing - selling different types of jewelry to different groups of people. And idea of perhaps charging more for the same product to different audiences
- Kai - intellectual property protection - selling products that look like iPhones will bring on a big lawsuit :). Know your customer - different culture, preferences, expectations in Japan. Selling in Europe or US may be more advantageous if you charge a higher price and grow profits.
- the Lemonade stand girls - throughout / service time- idea is great and simple, but making each lemonade by hand and squeezing the fork will take time. Don't want to keep your customers waiting for too long!
Ask your child more about the business ideas that are taking flight in the class!
Important Dates and Reminders:
April 10, Monday - ASG Open Mic
April 11, Tuesday - PJSPA Meeting @ 7:00pm
April 14, Good Friday - NO SCHOOL
April 17, Monday - ASG: K/1 Presenters
April 22, Saturday - PJSPA Movie Night
April 24, Monday - Poetry Jam