Amazing Artists

This week we did an art lesson that coupled with a wonderful story about Vincent Van Gogh.  The book is called Camille's Sunflowers.  The book describes Vincent Van Gogh's time in a French village where he becomes friends with a family that lives next door to him.  It was during this period of his life that Van Gogh painted his famous sunflowers. We used the text to analyze narratives. After reading, we not only sequenced the plot events, we also sorted the events by important and less important.  We also read a book in RAZ kids about the famous artist's time in France.  We learned so much!

Then, the students' favorite part!  They drew and painted their own sunflowers.  The students used oil pastels and a watercolor wash to create these amazing works of art.  They are so proud of their creations.

                          

Stormy Skies

Our first third grade science unit explores weather and climate in a unit called "Stormy Skies."  We started the unit by studying clouds.  We explored how clouds form.  We even used hot water and lidded cups to make a gas trap.  Then, we made a book about the different types of clouds and how to spot a storm cloud. We had several scenario cards with where the students studied the clouds and wind and had to decide if a storm was on the way.  The science discussions were rich.

For the next part of the unit, we studied geography, climate, and global weather patterns.  First, the students made a climate decoder that had the average winter and summer temperature from different cities around the word.  They transferred the information from the climate decoder to a map of the world.  At the end, the students could see the different climate zones: tropical, polar, temperate, mild, and desert.  We discussed what animals and plant live in the different zones and how they adapt to the climate.

The very last section of the stormy skies unit was a STEM challenge (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).  The challenge was to build a house that could withstand a wind storm.  Students experienced the design process.  They did a great job at coming up with an idea, testing it, and making adjustments. 

Around the World Inquiry

Our first inquiry project this year combined reading, social studies, and science with an “Around the World” theme. We used our research skills to explore and write facts about all seven continents. Before getting stamps in our passports, we had to stamp out our inquiry ideas.  As a class, we brainstormed questions to research about the continents. The students had awesome questions.  They asked things like:

What land forms and landmarks are on the continent?

How many countries are in the continent?

What animal and plant life are on the continent? 

What languages are spoken there?

We categorized their questions into location/size, attractions, plant and animal life, and culture.  In order to find the information we needed in nonfiction books, we had to know how to navigate the features of nonfiction text.  We learned about features like the table of contents, diagrams, captions, glossary, and index.  We even went on a nonfiction text features hunt.  The students below are playing headbands to explain and guess the text feature on their forehead.  So fun!

Our first continent was Europe. We read several different nonfiction books and articles on Europe.  We charted the answers to our inquiry questions.  Later, students used our notes to write their own facts about Europe.  Over the next couple weeks, we continued this process with each of the seven continents.  The students started to get really good at jotting notes and then creating their own sentences from the notes.

We are also learning many important geography objectives. For instance, we learned about hemispheres and the oceans.  Science and social studies crossed objectives when we studied the equator and how that effects the climate.  We even made a climate map based on average temperatures of major world cities.

The students are very proud of their world inquiry books.  On the last page, the researchers wrote about which continent they'd like to visit and why.  I sure wish I could take them on a field trip around the world.  Instead we watched many YouTube videos, National Geographic Kids has a great continent series.  The students also loved to look up and "visit" certain landmarks using Google Earth. I just love their curiosity and spirit for learning!

    

Place Value Perfection

Place value and estimation is where we start our third grade math standards.  We have studying numbers and the place value patterns under 1 million for the last month.  If you are following us on SeeSaw I'm sure you have seen all the place value posts. We explored reading and writing numbers in standard form, base ten models, written form, and expanded form. We also learned important vocabulary like place, digit, value, and estimate. Exploring place value and developing number sense is foundational to all math concepts.  We practiced these concepts through games, paper pencil activities, iPad apps, whiteboard practice, and rich math discussions.

If you want some extra activities to play at home, check out Math Slides.  There is a great place value version and one called numbers >1000.  Another great app is called Mystery Number.  It is similar to this the number riddle games we have been playing in class.  The app contains four different games that give students lots of opportunities to explore concepts of number and place value. The games can be played with one player or two.  Check out Mystery Number ($1.99) on the app store. 

Here is a list of interactive web based games.  Each game works on place value concepts. Your child can click on the links for extra at home practice.

Build a Hundreds Chart
Skip Counting, 10, 5, 2
Base Ten Fun

Shark Pool

Scooter Quest. Play until level 3.

Fruit Splat.  Play the hard level.
Hockey Play level 2.

As you probably know, we are a standards based school.  This means, students don't receive letter grades based on an average or their classwork and assessments.  Instead, we are looking for mastery of specific content standards.  In order to be considered proficient in the area of place value and estimation, by the end of third grade, students must demonstrate that they can do the following:

Pirate Day 2020

 

Arrrr We Learning?!

Talk Like a Pirate Day 2020 was Epic!  ARRRRR!  In fact, we were having so much fun learning pirate style that we could have kept the theme going a few more days!  Here are just a few of the highlights.  Our classroom was transformed....complete with the Jolly Roger hanging high.  The students' faces when they walked in was priceless.

We started the day with a naming ceremony.  To be a pirate, you need a strong pirate name.  Students chose names out of a skull goblet generate the silly names.  The students had new names like Big Buckle Charlie and Fearsome Pegleg Patsy.  Some students even put their pirate names on all their papers.  Ha!  It sure made correcting their work interesting.

We found a mysterious note.  The note said that we were captured by pirates that wanted our ship and treasure.  If we could follow the clues and answer a series of math problems, we could escape capture. The students had 60 minutes to "escape the room."  The students worked so hard!  Their cooperation, perseverance, and problem solving sure made this captain proud!

The students escaped with  minutes to spare.  They even found a chocolate treasure with pirate jokes attached.  The students enjoyed sharing their jokes with each other and eating chocolate treats.  They also had some time to read pirate stories.

During our pirate day, we also did some writing.  Students stayed with the pirate theme to answer the five w's.  We brainstormed who, what, when, where, why that would have to do with pirates.  Then, the students wrote a poem.  The students did some amazing work.  Check out their pirate drawings and poems in SeeSaw.