One Word

Each year at The Cooper School students take time to refocus and set intentions for the New Year by choosing our One Word to carry us into another year of learning and living. We do this by discussing ways that we want to move forward in our scholarly and personal lives. Students choose a word, which is meaningful to them, explain why they chose the word and how it will help them in their daily lives. Our words are posted in the classroom to help students self-monitor and reference them throughout the remainder of the 2017 school year! Ask your Third Grader what they chose as their One Word and how it will help usher them through 2017!

Comparing Folktales Across Cultures

Third Grade readers continued to build on their knowledge of Asian tales during Reading Workshop this week. Students started to read a novel by Lawrence Yep, an Asian American author who weaves his own cultural background into his stories. This novel provided readers with a great opportunity to identify characters and track the relationships between characters as they read, to notice how relationships change over time while examining some aspects of Asian culture. Brave readers will work to develop strategies to identify the theme in a story using inferencing skills. Ask your Third Grader what they are enjoying most about reading The Magic Paintbrush!

Geography

This week, Third Graders were eager to build on their geography knowledge during Social Studies. Scholars compared and contrasted the key points of the grassland and mountain biomes of Asia. Third Graders examined the flora, fauna, soil, water, air and energy in each of these two biomes. Students participated in a shared reading to discover how mountains are formed. We discussed the slow movement of plates and modeled these movements to show how mountains are formed. Third Graders continued to practice identifying the continents and oceans on a world map. We examined the countries that make up Asia and are working to name 5 of these countries!

Important Dates

Monday, Jan. 16                                MLK Day, No School

Thursday, Jan. 12                              Parent Forum, 5:45 – 6:45 pm

Friday, Jan. 27                                   Art Walk, 8 am