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Red Ribbon Week

The third graders planted two more tulip bulbs to be a reminder of Red Ribbon Week in the spring.

Healthy State Initiative

Our students walked earlier this month as part of the healthy state initiative. We incorporated spelling into our walk. The students have spelling lists on their clipboards, and they are searching for letters to build the words. We were  able to combine physical activity and spelling practice!

Crayfish babies?

We have finished our structures of life science unit, but we continue to observe the organisms in our classroom. Our crayfish have fertilized eggs.

Now we have a female crayfish with eggs on her tail. We are hoping to see some young crayfish in 2-3 weeks. The young crayfish will stay on the tail of the female. They are called instars. They will outgrow their exoskeletons and then leave the mother's tail.

Structures of Life in Science

We have been busy learning about all sorts of living things. The students began with an investigation of the fruits of plants. The discovered some fruits have only one seed and others have hundreds and even thousands of seeds. After we investigated seeds, the students sprouted seeds using only water. They were impressed to see how much water the seeds could absorb. We then "planted" bush bean seeds in containers of water to see if they will grow and develop.

This week we introduced a new organism to our classroom. The students are investigating crayfish. There has been a whole lot of excitement going on! The past few days we've studied the structures of the crayfish and the needs of the their habitat. Next week we'll start observing their behaviors.

2012-2013 School Year

Wow! We have already made it through 7 days of school. I have a wonderful class of 15 3rd graders this year. I'm excited to learn and grow with them this year.

Collaboration

The 3rd graders wrote "fairly" fairy tales, which are fairy tales with a twist. Here, Jett works with his 7th grade partner to design some illustrations and create animation using DoInk. You can see how well the students are working together on this collaborative project!

Dads' Night 2012

I thought I'd share some pictures from the activites the 3rd graders completed with their dads and guests on our annual Dads' Night.

Science Investigation

Check out these shots of the 3rd graders learning about science!

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Parts of Speech Scavenger Hunt

The third graders dug into some guided reading books with a language goal this time. They are searching for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. They worked with partners to identify the various parts of speech. When they finish the scavenger hunt they will use some of the words in sentences.

Austin and Priscilla chose a non fiction book about snakes and lizards to hunt through.

Ethan and Camryn are searching for parts of speech in a book about towers.

Jett and Natalie are having a discussion about adverbs as they read through a non-fiction text about animal herds.

Differentiated Math

A typical day in our classroom will involve a variety of math centers. The activities are frequently tiered to meet the needs of each student. The students will visit centers to practice skills and work on new skills as well.

Seussical Fish Problem Solving

Crystal and Paige work hard to solve the problem.

Savannah and Skylar put their heads together to try the challenge.

Camryn and Ethan concentrate on their work.

Sometimes there is more than one way to solve a problem.

Snap It Up Multiplication

One way we practice math in 3rd grade is by playing games. Here the students are practicing their multiplication facts. They flip over a card with a product and then attempt to be the first to call out their factor cards that equal that product.

A Glimpse of Daily 5 and CAFE Reading

During reading the students are working on 5 skills: Read to Self, Read with Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work, and Work on Writing. They must do read to self and work on writing each day. They may choose between the other 3 for their third rotation. This is an excellent way to structure reading time while I pull Guided Reading groups and confer with individual students. As you can see, they are all engaged in meaningful literacy activities. During this same time the students are practicing reading strategies from our CAFE board. The C is for comprehension, the A is for accuracy, the F is for fluency, and the E is for expanded vocabulary. Between Daily 5 rotations, the students gather for a short lesson on the strategies. Then we practice them together, and they practice independently. We spent time at the beginning of the school year developing stamina to work independently during this time. Here's a glimpse of what it looks like!

Natalie and Camryn take AR tests during Read to Self.

Cierra and Katie are using the laptops to Listen to Reading.

Savannah is creating word pyramids with her spelling words for Word Work.

Kailee and Crystal are both doing Work on Writing in their notebooks.

Kat is using an iPad to practice her spelling words during Word Work.

Keegan is also completing Word Work. He is writing his spelling words as rainbow words.

Ethan and Braeden are working on writing as Abby is in the corner Listening to Reading.

The students give themselves space around the room as they choose where to work.

This is our CAFE board with strategies to practice in our reading.

Wolves in the Classroom!

Kelly from the Nature Center brought us another wonderful lesson. She shared information about wolves including a great story, the sound of their calls, a pelt, and plaster wolves to paint and take home! Needless to say, the students learned a lot while having a great time! Thank you Kelly!

3rd Graders are Blogging!

In addition to our classroom blog that I update each week, the students have also started blogging. We have an account at kidblog.org. This is a private site where the students can publish to a blog where they can read the posts of their classmates. We will be able to use this site for work on writing during the daily 5 in reading. The students will be able to share their work. The students will also be able to create posts that will be just visible by them and myself. We will be able to use this for reading responses or other questioning activities. There was a huge amount of excitement to write our first blog posts!

Martin Luther King Jr.

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, we learned who he was and what he stood for. We focused on the important changes he helped to bring about and how life would be different. The students listened to clips from his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, and then they wrote about their dreams to make their community, country, or world a better place. The students also created a construction paper portrait, and we hung their speeches with their portraits.