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We hope you are enjoying this lovely autumn day. We were quite busy this week between our performance at the assembly on Monday, our studies (including publishing our writing!), and our Thanksgiving festivities on Friday.
In writing this week, students focused on completing, editing, and publishing their favorite writing piece. For third grade, this involved the publishing of their historical fiction stories. From a tale of Paul McCartney accidentally breaking instruments before the Beatles became famous, to the untold story of how Elvis Presley wrote Jail House Rock, and even how Louis Armstrong was inspired to write What a Wonderful World, students utilized research and imagination to craft fantastic tales. On top of this, they typed, bound, illustrated, and dedicated their books.
Second grade finished writing about small moments in their lives. This includes writing about interesting events they have experienced, with a focus on crafting a beginning, middle, and end. Stories included trips to Boston, a birthday at laser tag park, and Chinese language lessons before a trip to China.
We hope you will stop by soon to read their writing!
In reading this week, students continued to build their fluency and comprehension. Students are reading a range of literature, from historical fiction texts to books that emphasize onomatopoeia and others. Students are also reading their writing to their peers. This has enabled them to not only build their reading skills, but to analyze their own writing as they present it to others. This has helped students to consider their beginning, middle, and ends of their stories, and to consider the overall plot of their piece.
In mathematics, students were able to take a bite out of Thanksgiving! Students practiced their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and number sense to plan a Thanksgiving feast. This activity asked students to think critically about serving amounts, pounds of food needed, which included serving size, and overall logistics for planning a large feast. Students also practiced their math skills through various group activities, including number games and designing their own math fill-in-the-color sheets.
With our IB Unit, we were able to present our play to the school on Monday. Students had been writing, composing, and practicing for their presentation since early October. With the help of Mrs. Swartley, students took their increasing knowledge of types of sound, sound waves, and sound as a tool for communication and expression to present poems to the school. Students determined what instruments to use and how to best coordinate sound to communicate the idea of the poem. The students did fantastic work with this!
Lastly, our students were able to work with Perry Milou this past Wednesday. Perry helped students create a large piggy bank for the PJSPA fundraiser. This was an exciting learning experience and they are excited to continue working on our piggy bank after the break. Thank you Perry!
We also want to extend a big thank you to the Soup Dads and everyone who donated to our Thanksgiving box. We are so grateful and thankful to have such wonderful support from our PJS families!
One of our OK Corral students remarked on Friday,
"This feels like a family dinner! I'm so happy we can share soup and bread together, and that we gave food to others. Now they can be happy too."
Have a wonderful holiday and a happy Thanksgiving!
Kindly,
Britt and Anne