Packed and Ready

All our bags are packed, we're ready to go! 

The girls came up with a way to organize their backpacks!

We are ready to leave Pompeii and head to Paris! 

Math: Organizing and Analyzing Data

In third grade we are working with data!  There are lots of different ways to organize data to make it easy to use.  Today we learned about creating Pictographs, graphs that use pictures or symbols to show information.  Then we created a human pictograph.

In this example, each "picture" (student) actually represents 5 students, but the girls learned that the picture or symbol used in a pictograph can be worth whatever amount it is assigned in the key.

Go Team!

We're cheering for the team and not just the O's!  Watch our teamwork and see how enthusiasm starts bright and early every morning.  With help from our parents, 17 conference forms were happily returned the next day. The smiles of working together carry on!  

Social Studies: Mosaics Inspired by Pompeii

After reading about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that buried Pompeii and looking at mosaics, frescoes, and other artifacts recovered by archaeologists, the girls made their very own mosaics. The girls worked enthusiastically on this activity and many of them made more than one mosaic. Enjoy looking at this collection of mosaics and ask your daughter to identify hers.

Reading: Metacognition

In 3rd grade reading class this year, we will be talking a lot about reading strategies.  The work we do is based on Tanny McGregor's book Comprehension Connections.  Several weeks ago we introduced metacognition - thinking about our thinking.  We talked about "fake reading," when you can read the words, but you don't actually really understand what you're reading. Many of the girls admitted to fake reading, too! Then I took out my salad bowl (yes, you read that right) and we "tossed"together our reading and our thinking.

Last week I used a two feet wide thought bubble to show how proficient readers think while they are reading.  Many of the girls had a chance to demonstrate thinking with the giant thought bubble.

Today the girls worked in pairs to practice their metacognitive knowledge using wordless picture books.  Metacognition is a critical foundational strategy and we will refer to it frequently.  Ask your daughters to tell you all about this strategy.

French: Trip to Paris

In French class, the girls are busy preparing for their trip to Paris.  They have bought their tickets and gotten their passports.  They are currently working on getting all of their suitcases packed.  Remember that suitcases need to be checked in by October 8th so that they will be all ready for our flight on the 14th.  Our pilot arrives nice and early that morning so please make sure that the girls come well rested and ready for take-off.  We will enjoy two lovely months in Paris and be back on December 7th.

Also, I am in search of one or two parents that could help as flight attendants during our trip on Tuesday the 14th.  If you are available, please contact me at graye@brynmawrschool.org.

From the Library

Third graders started off the year figuring out what constitutes a series of books as opposed to random assorted titles by the same author. They decided that books in a series tend to have the same characters. Often the books look alike in size and design, but not always. The girls have been challenged with reading either a whole series or all the books in our collection by one author. These vary from two book series (Tricia Springstubb's What Happened on Fox Street and the sequel Mo Wren, Lost and Found) to the 56 volume Nancy Drew series. We have 14 books, easy to not-so-easy, by Jaqueline Woodson. We have 13 by Grace Lin. If girls are interested in taking this author study challenge, I will help them find a just right author. A terrific series for reading aloud at home is Sara Pennypacker's Clementine series.