Week of October 22nd, 2017 -18

Reminders for the Week
Halloween Party and Parade - Thursday, October 26th

CAC Exchange With Buckingham, Browne and Nichols(B.B. &N)

We have an amazing opportunity to make life connections to support our current Social Studies unit. Through the Global Voices Initiative, we are partnering with a school in the United States. We will work on helping each other figure out how where you live affects how you live. Students and teachers will be in touch exchanging information about daily life in the two places involved (Cairo, Egypt and Cambridge, Massachusetts) based on real, authentic observations.

For the success of this project, we will need your help and support. Whenever you are out and about in the city with your children and notice something that is representative of current life in Cairo, please take photographs or short videos for students to share with the partner school. Our focus is around food, clothes, and shelter in relation to where we are geographically. You can send the information to your child’s homeroom teacher’s email with the subject line Global Voices Initiative.

Halloween Costume Guidelines

All students come dressed to school as long as their costume will not interfere with their learning. Students in PreK put their finishing touches on between 10:00 - 10:30AM before the photo booth class photo & other classes after 10:30 AM depending on their photo booth time.  Room parents will arrange for a couple of parents to help with this and support the Halloween booth photo during the grade/class times if asked.

Costume Guidelines

In order for CAC to have a safe and fun Halloween everyone should check is my costume safe? We appreciate the variety of costumes and/or original designs.

• Remember come to school wearing your costume. Put make up, hairspray, etc… on at home.
• Prop headwear (hats, caps, masks, etc.) may be worn, but not during class time
• Leave valuable items at home
• No dangerous props ( knives, swords, toy guns, etc.) or high heeled shoes
• Practice some of our core values
• Respect - commenting positively on other’s costumes
• Responsibility - for wearing costumes according to our guidelines
• Creativity - for creating and planning your costume

READING

This week, mystery readers in the third grade will continue to deepen their understanding of the genre by making connections, monitoring for sense and predicting using background knowledge. As they begin a new book in a series, third grade readers will realize that many mysteries in a series follow a familiar pattern. They often begin in the same place, and they have characters who repeat so that after a while, these characters start to feel almost like old friends. When we read a third and fourth book in a series, we come to know the main detective’s habits and strengths, and we can sometimes predict how this character will think or behave or the steps that this main character will take to solve a mystery.

WRITING

As Third grade writers, will learn a few more techniques to improve their poetry. Poetry writers will learn to use repetition as a way to emphasize a part that is special and that they really want to stick in the reader’s mind. They will also learn that poets use white space when a line is important and they do not what the reader to miss it. The white space before and after a line signals to the reader to take notice.


MATH

This week, third grade mathematicians will continue to gain practice in rounding to the nearest tens and hundreds place, and apply these skills to estimating sums in word problems.

For example, a student may encounter a word problem in which they have to find the sum of 362 + 159. Students will learn that they can estimate the sum by rounding to the nearest hundreds (400 + 200 = 600), the nearest tens (360 + 160 =  520), and then evaluate the reasonableness of these estimates to help them find and assess the actual solution of 362+159=521.

Students will also apply their prior knowledge of regrouping to decompose tens and hundreds to solve subtraction word problems involving units of measurement.


SOCIAL STUDIES AND SCIENCE

This week Social Scientist will use their map reading skills to compare two countries. Students will read a variety of maps (precipitation, temperature, population, and land use) and then use the information they gained, to compare the life styles of people living in the two countries. They will again use the photos of Families Around the World to check their findings to determine if they are on the right path. 

Students will also continue to monitor their soil pots and record data. 

Guidance Update – How to Be Assertive

“Don’t be a monster. Don’t be a mouse. Be assertive. Be YOURSELF!” – Dr. Pat Palmer

This week students will practice assertiveness skills.  Assertiveness means standing up for personal rights in direct, honest and respectful ways.

Students will learn the 3 ways people tend to act in order to get their needs met. Passive behavior (like a mouse) includes ignoring the problem or being unclear with personal rights, needs or wants. Passive behavior is disrespectful of personal rights and needs. Aggressive behavior (like a monster) includes yelling or demanding behavior. Aggressive behavior is disrespectful towards others. Assertiveness is the balance between passive and aggressive behavior. With assertive communication there is respect for others and for personal rights and needs. 

Assertive behavior includes:

1.     Facing the person you are talking to

2.     Keep your head up and shoulders back

3.     Use a calm, firm voice

4.     Use respectful words that start with an “I” statement. Such as, “I am having a hard time concentrating. Please stop talking while the teacher is talking.”