Shadow puppets and lung capacity

We had another exciting week of learning. We have continued work on our non- fiction books, practiced large number subtraction strategies, made lung models, tested the capacity of our own lungs, watched beautiful shadow puppet plays, and so much more.

As we are approaching the end of the year, we are working hard on mastering the skills of subtraction. We are practicing different strategies for completing multi-digit subtraction, and well as, working on automaticity with common subtraction facts.

Students are working on creating non-fiction books and the work they are putting onto these is amazing. The are adding different text features, as well as, interesting facts about the human body. These books should be coming home late in the week. It is important to know that many of the sentences students are using in these books are "borrowed" from some non fiction source books, so be ready for some complex reading! Also this "borrowing" skill will allow us to work on crafting our own information from source books early next year.

Speaking of next year, I am very excited about looping with this class. The loop model will allow us to pick up right where we left off, as well as, allow students to feel comfortable from day one. Over this year we have really created a kind and caring community in our class, and while we will allow benefit from a refreshing summer, the community we have will afford a quick start in the fall. If you have any specific questions about this looping model, please contact me so we can chat on the phone, or, preferably, meet in person to discuss it.

On Friday we tested the capacity of our lungs. We did this by displacing water out of containers. This is such an interesting experiment for third graders, and they are always amazed at the capacity of their lungs. Below are some "happy-snaps" of the action:

Man, so interesting, fun, and messy...there was lots of learning, and LOTS of water sloshing.

We also had the opportunity to go see some shadow puppets in Mrs. Knoedler's literacy classes. These show used well know tales, and brought them to life with shadow puppets. They are fantastic and difficult to describe, so I will default to some photos.

These stories featured expert narration from students, as well as masterful puppeteering!

Thanks so much for checking our blog, and, as always if you have any questions,or would just like to chat drop me a line so we can set up a time. -Dave

 

Important news from the kitchen!

        This was forwarded to me this morning, to pass on to you!

       

1.       Please keep your students’ meal accounts current with a positive balance as we will not allow students to charge meals. If your student has a positive balance remaining on the last day of school it will be rolled over to the fall 2013-2014 school year. If your student is graduating we can have a check sent to you with a refund unless they have a sibling at EMES and then we can roll their positive balance onto their account.

2.       We will be having hot dogs and hamburgers on Tuesday 6/18/13 for Field Day (and not baked potato bar). 

Thanks,  Susan

Another busy week, and important information!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION! In your student's Friday folder this week are two very important pieces of information. One is a placement form fir next year...this form has information about who the fourth grade teachers will be, and what things will look like next year. Also there is a form from Arlyn about summer book bags, if you would like to participate in this program, please fill out the form and return as soon as possible.

Throughout the week we have worked on lots of things. We have self-assessed our writing, worked on creating non-fiction books, practiced multiplication facts, created Benham's disks and so much more.

We have been working on many pieces of writing this year, and we have also been working on self-assessing this writing. The skills of self-assessment are so important as students can identify areas they are successful in, as well as see areas they can grow in. The skill of self-assessment also helps students reflect about their work and time in school.

For these self-assessments we are using checklists to compare our writing with current common core standards.

We are also working on creating non-fiction books. The topic of these books is the Human Body. Ask your student which system they find the most interesting! The following photos are if students at work creating these books.

Students are working on the tricky skill of highlighting important information and creating sentences from this information.

Another fabulous week has gone by and it is getting warmer. Please remind your student to grab a water bottle to bring to school, as it does get quite warm, and water is so important fir learning. Have a great weekend!

 

Tech night, authors tea...

Last week was a busy one in third grade. We had tech. night on Thursday, and the author's tea on Friday. At this time of the year students have produced so much work, it is always enjoyable to share some of it with all of you. We had fantastic attendance for technology night, and at the author's tea, as well.

The shots above are from technology night, and the ones following are from the author's tea!

In the coming week, we will be working on our nonfiction books, mastering some multiplication in math, performing experiments our eyes, and collaboratively writing stories. We also have a fine arts celebration night on Thursday which starts at 6, there will be a third grade recorder performance during this program.

 

Biology field trip, Lego stories, and book clubs.

Just as the title suggests this post will have three foci, they will be the items listed above, and I will address them in the same order.

Last Thursday we went to U-32 to see some presentations by students in a biology class there. These presentations are interactive, and informative. We use this trip as a kick off to our unit on human body systems. In the coming weeks we will be learning about different systems in our bodies, and will be working on creating some nonfiction books to show our knowledge.

Lego stories is an extension of the story mountain work we have been doing. We will be working with Arlyn to create stories, match them with still photographs, and publish them as ebooks! This work will happen over the next few weeks. In our photographs we will be using Lego people as our characters. These shots show two of our groups and the Lego characters they are using.

Book clubs are cruising along, we are working with some of the fascinating facts we have found in our books. We have been sequencing them based on their appearance in the books, and will be finding the correlation between the table of contents, and the appearance of facts in books!

Finally, as I am sure you heard, we had a surprise guest speaker last week. We were lucky to be visited by Olympian skier Liz Stephen. She was inspirational to all the students and teachers alike.

 

So much has happened, and it's only Tuesday.

Man, what a start to the week. We have already been on a trip to Barre, chosen new nonfiction book-club books, written story mountains....and it is only Tuesday.

On Monday we went to the Barre Opera House to see Charlotte's Web. What a fantastic opportunity. We had read the book as a class, and really enjoyed seeing the actor's interpretations of the characters. We have also parlayed thus experience into another opportunity to do some opinion writing. We are writing about which we preferred, the play or the book. It is amazing to see the transformation in the writing of so many students.

The scene at the opera house.

Working on opinion writing.

Ivy making it happen.

Billy hard at work.

Jackson, organizing his ideas.

Today we also chose new book-club books. We are working ob some new nonfiction books, and students were very excited to make their choices. The topics range from honey bees, to maple syrup, and from comic books the The Plastiki. Below are some photos from the scene while students were previewing books to make their choices.

Last for this post are the story mountains. We have been learning to use a writing organizational technique called story mountains. This technique has student create the major event in a story at the beginning, and place it at the top of the mountain. They then create events leading up to it that form the beginning, and events leading down from it that form the end.

In this glared photo Elizabeth is showing her mountain on the right.

Mia is showing her mountain on the left, and story on the right.

I hope all is well for all of you!