Weekly Wrap-Up

The big news this week was that we had to reschedule our Warrior Walk for Water, but better late than never, right? So we have that to look forward to on Monday morning at 10:30am, we hope you can join us!

We spent most of Tuesday finishing up the Ecosystem Google presentations, and if you came to Spotlight Night, you got a chance to see those. We will be sharing them in class this week, and I hope to find a way to get them on the blog too so that everyone can see what they have learned. 

I was out for PBL (project-based learning) training on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. The kids were in great hands with Mrs. Satori, and when I spoke to her Thursday evening, she had only wonderful things to say about our class!

As I was posting the pictures above, I had a sentimental thought...this is the last group project this class will work on. With only 9 days left of school, we will be tying up loose ends and doing a quick unit on capacity in math. Between the Walk for Water, field day, and other end of year housekeeping, it will be a busy and fast-paced two weeks. 

I hope everyone is out enjoying this beautiful weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up

Only three weeks left of school, so hard to believe!! We have been super busy this week, preparing for next week's walk and this Friday's assembly. The third grade Water Warriors presented to the entire school during our last spirit assembly of the year. We shared a Google presentation created by the students themselves, each class shared 4 water conservation tips, we encouraged students to donate $1 to our H2O for Life fund with our water droplet program, and we ended with a fun and catchy song.

On Wednesday, we enjoyed a visit with our kindergarten buddies. That is always a fun way to fill up an early release day. Our third graders helped the little ones write and illustrate books about spring.

In science, students are working in small groups to research and share a presentation about an ecosystem of their choice. We will have those presentations for you to view on Spotlight Night, although they may still be works in progress!

In math, we began studying elapsed time. Students learned two strategies to calculate elapsed time, drawing a timeline and making a T-chart. They do very well with this skill, when they take the time to use the strategies!

As most of you know, this week was Teacher Appreciation Week, and let me tell you...I feel APPRECIATED for sure!! I was spoiled this week with candy, gift cards, and sweet cards. Those notes just made my day, every day this week. Our room mom, Mrs. Deatherage, made the most adorable banner which is now hanging outside our classroom windows, please be sure to check it out on Spotlight Night. It has a picture of each student holding a chalkboard on which they completed the sentence, "We appreciate Mrs. Lipe because she...." This was such a special gift that I will keep always!!

And last, but certainly not least, we spent a lot of time creating some special gifts for the mothers in our lives in honor of Mother's Day this Sunday. Each of you moms have a special surprise coming your way on Sunday. In fact, my guess is that by the time many of you read this, you will already have your gift in hand...I don't know if they can wait until Sunday.

Next week is another busy one! Our class will preview the Book Fair on Monday morning for students to make their wish lists. If you wish to purchase books for your child, you can send money on Wednesday or Thursday for them to shop. Tuesday May 13 is our Walk for Water field trip. Remember to send a sack lunch unless you ordered one from the cafeteria. Please put sunscreen on your child and send a filled water bottle. I will be out for training on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and Mrs. Satori will be our fabulous substitute! She is a regular on this campus, the kids know her, and they will be in great hands! It will be business as usual even when I am gone. I will of course come up Thursday evening for Spotlight Night. I  hope you can all join us from 6pm-7:30pm on Thursday May 15. We will have student work on display, including lots of Water Warrior work. I will also have conference forms available for each student, so that you can get a good feel for where your child stands academically as we finish out this school year. If you wish to schedule a one-on-one conference, please just email me.

Weekly Wrap-Up

In math, we have continued our exploration of equivalent fractions. We tried a new way of learning this week....writing on our desks! Students traced two small paper plates to get perfect circles on their desks, and then we divided each circle into different fractions. For example, one circle was divided into twelfths, while the other circle was divided into fourths, so they could easily see that one-fourth is the same as three-twelfths. For whatever reason, they got such a kick out of writing on their desks! And with dry-erase markers and some Expo cleaner, it was an easy way to practice fractions, AND to get our desks clean at the end of the day.

In science, we began studying different ecosystems, and the interdependence between plants and animals in various ecosystems. Students have been assigned to a small group and will be researching an ecosystem of their choice and creating an informational Google Presentation to share their knowledge with the rest of us.

In language arts, we typed up our persuasive letters and mailed them off. In your child's Thursday folder, you may have seen 3 letters. These were written by six students in our class who chose our friends and family as their audience. Other letters were mailed to President Obama and Dr. Flores, the RRISD Superintendent.

We are also continuing to prepare for our Warrior Walk for Water. This will be held on Tuesday May 13 from 10:30am-1:30pm at the Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex on Parmer Lane. All families are invited to attend!

 I hope everyone has a great weekend! Only 4 weeks of school left!

Weekly Wrap-Up

Not a lot to report for this week! Monday was a relaxing day with our flashlight read-in and a fun math Jeopardy review game.

Congratulations to the boys who beat the girls by 30 points! Then of course, Monday and Tuesday were taken up with testing.

In math, we jumped right back into fractions and spent Thursday and Friday using fraction circles, fraction bars, and paper strips to explore equivalent fractions.

We have finished revising and editing our persuasive letters and will get those typed up when we have our laptop day on Tuesday next week. On Friday, I gave all of the students a lengthy spelling pre-test from a list of words that a typical third grader should be able to spell. Based on those results, I will determine each student's spelling lists for the last few weeks of school. Speaking of that....can you believe there are only 5 weeks of school left?!?

We also spent some time preparing for our Warrior Walk for Water. Some students designed invitations, others made posters, and two small groups began working on informational displays that we will share at the walk.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up

Let me apologize in advance that there are no pictures this week. It just seemed like a super short week. I was out on Monday, home with a sick kiddo! And then of course, there is no school on Friday, so I only had three days with my students.

In language arts, we continued working on our persuasive letters and hope to have those mailed off by next week. For reading, I flipped things around and instead of reading a passage and answering questions...they had to WRITE the test questions. Students formed partners or small groups and chose a picture book to read. They then worked with their partners to develop 5 "test questions". They covered summary, sequencing, context clues, purpose of a picture, and theme or lesson. I think it was challenging for them to think backwards, and the greatest part is...they didn't even realize how much they were reinforcing their skills in these areas. The tests are all found on our Websites Page.

For social studies, we delved into researching Kenya. We studied the important landforms there and practiced some mapping skills. Students got to explore two greatly informative websites about life in Kenya.

This was our last week in math to review for the STAAR test so I tried to mix it up with a variety of activities: laptop games, I Have / Who Has games, problem solving with a partner, and lots of other hands on review.

On Monday, we are going to have a relaxing day with a flashlight read in during our morning language arts block. (Please send a flashlight with your child and ask him / her what they plan to read!) The afternoon will be spent learning more about Kenya and planning for our upcoming Walk for Water.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up

In language arts, we are continuing persuasive writing, but this time students are paired up and writing to convince someone to conserve water or to become involved with H2O for Life. They chose their audience and it ranges from our district superintendent, to our friends and family, to our nation's President.

For reading, we are practicing more with cause and effect and took a practice STAAR test broken up over two days to give me one last look at the skills I need to reteach in the next week. Overall, they did great!

Tuesday was exciting as we finally got to "erupt" our volcanoes! The kids had a great time, but more importantly, they were able to make some scientific observations about the changes to their volcano's structure after the eruption.

Next, we are moving on to landforms in science, and will spend some time looking at landforms in Kenya, to tie in with our Water Warrior project. The primary school we are raising money for is located in Kenya.

In math, we are continuing to review skills learned this year, focusing on money, rounding, addition and subtraction, and reviewing geometry terms this week. Students took a practice STAAR test on Monday and did really well! I think the actual test will be a piece of cake for them...as long as they take their time, use their strategies, and check their work! My 5th grade daughter, Emily, joined us on Friday during math time. She led the students in checking their warm-ups, then we split the class into two groups for some geometry review, and she managed one group. The kids enjoyed having her in class, and she enjoyed getting to know the kids that she hears me talking about so much!

On Friday after school, to celebrate Global Youth Service Day, many of our students joined up with other third grade Water Warriors to prepare for our May 13 Walk for Water. Each class painted a unique banner, our banner says, "Do your part, be water smart!" Some students partnered up and created posters to carry during the walk, while other worked on writing songs, chants and poems. We ended the afternoon by watching a couple of videos made by other schools partnering with H2O for Life to see the kind of work they are doing.

Remember that next week is a short week...no school on Friday for Good Friday. Have a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up

This week in language arts, we began talking about persuasive writing. Fair warning parents...letters came home on Friday from your child trying to persuade you of something! :) We focused on context clues in reading, another important skill for the STAAR test.

In math, we wrapped up probability which was super easy for the kids. Now we have begun a general review of all skills learned this year, beginning with place value and money this week. We will continue this review until the STAAR test in later April.

Students really enjoyed the soil shakes experiment. They added water to their soil samples, gave it a good shake, and then let it settle into layers. Most samples clearly showed three distinctive layer like we had learned about from our textbook. They wrote reflections about all they have learned throughout this unit on soil and those went home in Thursday folders. On Thursday and Friday, we focused on volcanoes again, and are building models of volcanoes that we will have "erupt" on Monday. They are looking forward to that for sure!

I sent home a pretty big Scholastic book order...5 different order forms. With the book fair being in May, I most likely will not send home another order, so this is our last one for the year. Please consider placing an order for your child by Thursday April 10. Each order that we get as a class allows me to earn free books for our growing classroom library. Thanks in advance for your support, and have a great weekend!