Weekly Wrap Up

I got another great report from our substitute when I was out Monday morning for staff development, so that is good news! Besides the craziness of Tuesday, this was a pretty typical week. (See picture below for my special lunch bunch on Tuesday!) Students wrote several poems including a color poem, an "I Am" poem, and a seven sentence poem. It will be hard for them to choose their favorite poem in a couple of weeks when we begin to work on our poetry anthology to be published.

We continued our unit on Objects in the Sky by reviewing important vocabulary terms and building a model that represents the position of the sun, earth and moon.

In math, we are continuing to learn about fractions. We tried a new learning strategy on Wednesday in which the students rotated through three stations. One station was fraction review games on the laptops, the second station was finishing up some partner work we had begun on Monday, and the third station was a new lesson with me. The general consensus was they love this new format! They liked the variety of activities, and they felt that they learned more in a small group. We will certainly continue to do this as often as we can. We wrapped up the week with practicing understanding fraction sets by using color counters and white boards (apparently much more fun than writing in our math notebooks!)

A few announcements for next week:

• Monday morning, all third grade students will take the district reading benchmark assessment.
• On Tuesday, I will be out of the classroom for a team planning day, so please remind your child at home that I have the same expectations of behavior even when I am not there!
• Wednesday is an early release day for students at 12:45pm.
• Scholastic book orders are due on Thursday.
• Next week is counselor appreciation week, and we are encouraging students to wear a Superhero shirt on Friday in honor of our SUPER counselor Mrs. Robinson. We will also have a test over fractions on Friday, and a review will go home on Monday as homework.

Whew, I think that is it! I can hardly believe January is behind us...it will be spring break before you know it. Enjoy your weekend, and I will see the students on Monday.

Weekly Wrap Up

Another week is behind us, and it was a short one! With no school on Monday, and then a bad weather day on Friday, it went by super fast!

We focused on narrative poetry this week (poetry that tells a story). We read several examples, and then each student wrote one of their own. We have some talented writers in this group, I have really enjoyed reading their "Wait" poems from last week and this week's narrative poems. At the end of our poetry unit, each student will choose their favorite poem they wrote and we will have them bound into a hardback book each family can purchase. More details later in February!

We wrapped up our study of the three branches of government with an open-note test. Tests and their Constitution mini-book and branches of government charts should have come home in Thursday folders so you can get a peek at what they learned.

On Thursday, we started a new science unit on Objects in the Sky. We will be focusing primarily on the sun, moon and earth, but will briefly touch on the other planets in our solar system as well.

In math we are continuing fractions, with lots of hand on manipulative work with fraction circles, as you can see in the photos below.

Two things to know about next week...I will be out Monday morning for district required training, and we will have the same substitute that they had two weeks ago. She will run things just the way I like, and I will be back after lunch! :)  On Wednesday, all of third grade is taking the district-wide reading assessment.  It is a test similar to the STAAR test they will take in April, so it will be great practice, and give me important data about any gaps in their learning. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful three day weekend...try to stay warm safe! Oh...I almost forgot...last week, I challenged the kids with some tangram activities. They could not get enough of it, so I put a few links up on my "Websites" page where they can print out their own set of tangrams and solve various puzzles. So if you hear, "I'm bored..." Friday or this weekend, that might be something to keep their mind engaged!

Weekly Wrap Up

It was another great week in third grade! As you know from my email on Monday, I was out in the morning for some staff development, so the kids had a substitute. She left a glowing note about what a wonderful class they were, and I could not have been more proud!

On Tuesday we had some challenges with our laptop day (dying batteries, computers not working, trouble accessing my blog, etc.) You name it, and it happened to us that day! But the students were such troopers, and so patient, and we just found ways to work around all of the technical glitches. We were able to use the laptops to create a class Water Warriors newsletter, with each of the four groups adding their own article. We did an online review of the water cycle and the kids took a short multiple choice quiz through Stemscopes. And in math, each individual student did an online lesson on symmetry and completed the geometry scavenger hunt that we started last week. We reviewed how to save their work to a shared drive, so instead of printing page after page, I was able to log on yesterday and view their scavenger hunt webs to grade them. Everyone did an excellent job! We just got started on our fractions unit in math, so that will be the focus for the next two weeks most likely.

We shifted our science focus to social studies mid-week and began learning about the three branches of government. Mrs. Stowe popped in for a visit on Friday and they impressed her with their knowledge. We will wrap up our government study on Tuesday or Wednesday, and then transition back to science with "Objects in the Sky".

We finally finished our "One Little Word" bulletin board and I love how it looks! I took a picture of each student holding their word they drew and posted those with their well-written paragraphs. I hope it will inspire them throughout the year to make positive changes in their lives based on their word choice.

Just a reminder, there is no school on Monday January 20, and I hope you all enjoy your three day weekend. I am going to brave the roller skating rink on Monday with both kids, so it will be interesting to see how John (my 4 year old) does on skates for the first time! I'm just hoping there are no broken bones! :)

Weekly Wrap-Up

This short week went by way too fast! Our "One Little Word" activity went really well. I was impressed with the thought that they put into choosing their word and writing their paragraphs about how their word can make changes in their life. On Monday, each student will create a large representation of their word. I will take pictures of each of them with their word to add to our bulletin board. I'll be sure to email a picture of the final results!

In science, we reviewed weather and the water cycle and then began a discussion of groundwater. We built a model of an aquifer and we were able to see firsthand how rainwater turns into groundwater. We even "polluted" our aquifer so we could see the effects of pollution.

We began our unit in poetry by discussing the common features found in poetry such as rhyme (sometimes, but not always), sensory details, rhythm, and mood / tone. We will be learning about four types of poems: lyrical, narrative, humorous, and free verse in the weeks to come.

In math, we reviewed 2D and 3D shapes on our first day back with some fun computer games.

On Wednesday, we built 3D shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks.

Then we took digital cameras around the school and went on a geometry scavenger hunt.

We ended the week by learning about congruent figures and symmetry, and practicing with geoboards. We will move onto fractions by the middle of next week.

On Friday, our entire school was encouraged by the fourth grade Hunger Warriors to participate in the Souper Bowl of Caring over the next 3 weeks, by donating non-perishable food items. If you are able to do so, please send in canned or boxed food items to donate! Their goal is for every student to donate at least 3 items, and I would be so proud if our class could exceed that goal.

One final reminder, you can still submit an online book order through Scholastic, by clicking on the link at the top left of this blog page. If you haven't ordered online before, you will need to set up a parent account. Our class code is MVP2G..be sure to enter that so that your purchases help our class earn points for free books!

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend, and I look forward to seeing my third graders on Monday morning!

Happy New Year !

Happy New Year! I am so thrilled to be back in the classroom with your wonderful children.  They came in this morning and got right to work!

We are starting 2014 off on a positive note with each student (and myself) by choosing "One Little Word" to be our focus for the year. Today we reflected back on 2013 and thought about goals for 2014 and then each of us chose one word that represents the change we want to see in ourselves over the next year. I was really impressed with how much though they put into this and loved the choices they came up with. Some of our words include: love, encourage, focus, create, challenge, kindness, and balance, just to name a few. We will be doing some other writing activities with these words throughout the year.

In language arts, we will begin a unit on reading and writing poetry. Science this week is a quick review of weather and the water cycle, and then spending some time learning about groundwater and surface water. I've got a fun experiment lined up for later in the week! In math, we are reviewing 2D and 3D shapes, and then learning about symmetry and congruent shapes.

Homework starts up again this week! Their homework folders will go home on Tuesday and need to be returned on Friday. This week there are 2 math word problems to solve, along with their daily reading of at least 20 minutes. There is no spelling list / word work this week. I am still trying to determine how I want to handle homework in class, so for at least the next few weeks, I am sticking with the Star Homework that the other third grade teachers use. You should be familiar with it from earlier in the year. Please let me know if you have any questions.

I'll update again over the upcoming weekend with some pictures from our first week of 2014. Have a great week!

Weekly Wrap Up

I just love this first photo of our entire class! Thanks to our wonderful room mom, Mrs. Deatherage for taking this picture for us on Friday.

This past week, students continued to work in their Water Warriors groups and each group completed a rough draft of their informational magazine article. We will work on revising and editing these articles when we are back in January.

For science, we did a quick review of the water cycle, and then spent the rest of the week on weather. Students began the unit by completing an online virtual investigation through Stemscopes on the laptops. We also recorded weather observation for three days, including reading temperatures, determining the direction of wind and observing the level of cloud cover. We made our own anemometer (an instrument used to calculate wind speed), but sadly (and ironically) it met its demise on day two when it was literally blown away by strong winds.

In math we studied 2D shapes with lots of hands on exploration and discovery. Students worked in groups to sort 2D shapes, tested polygons for parallel lines with dry spaghetti, and used geoboards to create a variety of shapes. To conclude our study of 2D shapes, the students worked with their table groups to solve the "Four Triangle Problem." I was so proud when, as a class, they ended up creating all 14 possible shapes from the guidelines I set. Be sure to ask your student about this activity! It was an awesome way for them to learn about congruent shapes. 

Next, we moved onto 3D shapes and terms such as faces, edges, and vertices. I just love the teamwork and collaboration you see in the following pictures!

Friday was a fun day spent visiting our kindergarten buddies (sorry, no pictures of that online as I do not have permission from the buddies' parents) and of course ending the day with the 3rd grade holiday party. Thanks to all of you who helped make the party a success by donating supplies or volunteering your time.

I hope everyone enjoys this holiday season, and I look forward to seeing everyone in the new year!

First Week in Review and Looking Ahead

I can hardly believe how fast my first week in the classroom flew by! We were busy every moment of every day, and I was so proud of how hard my third graders worked.

In my last post, I discussed our "Slingshot Sedan" experiment in science, and after we completed that, we did a study of gravity. I did several demonstrations for the class to clear up any misconceptions they may have had about how fast an object will fall. (Ask them to show you our coffee filter and rock demonstration...that elicited quite a few gasps in class!) :) Then we got down to work and in groups of three, the students assembled parachutes using a variety of materials (tissue paper, plastic, and fabric).Our question: which material would make the best parachute?

Below are pictures of the class showing off their completed parachutes, but unfortunately, I was not able to take any photos during the actual dropping of the parachute. This was because I was directing traffic on the first floor to make sure no one was injured by parachuting teddy bears!

Thursday morning, three guest speakers from the Water Development Board joined our team to speak to the kids about our local watershed region, WUGs (Water Usage Groups), and water conservation. Did you know that agriculture is the largest user of water in our area, using double the amount of water that our municipal (the people in the city) uses? The speakers were engaging, and between relay races, videos, and interactive demonstrations, all of our students stayed focused and on task, and most certainly gained new knowledge.

Friday, we wrapped up the week with tests in spelling, multiplication and science. Those grades will come home in Thursday folders.

Looking ahead to December 16-20, for language arts, we will continue to work in our Water Warriors groups. My students are done researching, and have decided as a class to create magazine articles in each of their groups to share their new knowledge with others. We will be using Google Drawing to collaborate on these informational articles, so that students within the same group can "share" their document and make changes that the others can see instantly. We begin two new units this week, geometry in math (specifically 2D and 3D shapes) and weather in science. And of course...we all know what is happening on Friday...the grade level winter party! Please join us from 1:30-2:30 if you are able to. Otherwise, I will be sure to post lots of pictures.

I hope everyone has a great week! I know we will in third grade!