End of Year Sillies

Forgot to post our end of year family photo! 

Miss these crazy kids!!! See you all in 35 days! Woah! Summer flew by :)

Weather RAN Sheet

Our class has been using the website www.padlet.com to help us record our thinking. One of the tools we have been using to record that thinking is called a RAN sheet. RAN stands for Reading and Analyzing Nonfiction. It is an updated version of a KWL chart (Know/Want to Know/Learned). The RAN sheet is more specific to our thinking processes over time because it asks students to categorize what they think they know first. Think is the key word because then students are asked to sort what they thought they knew into two categories- "Yes We Were Right" and "We Don't Think This Anymore". Two additional categories are "New Facts" and "What We Still Want to Know". The RAN sheet helps third graders to see how their thinking changes when learning new things. This strategy is called synthesizing information and teaches students to internalize new learning and mix it with what is already known. It teaches them that their knowledge is valuable and can be added to new information to develop their own points of view and understandings of the world around them. Anywho! This was a very teachery post explaining the reasons why we are learning the way we are... if you would like to see student thinking and the RAN sheet check the link below! 

Weather RAN Padlet

Measuring Weather

For the past week and a half our class has been investigating the process of measuring weather. We learned about four tools that are used to help scientists measure weather. An anemometer is used to measure the speed of the wind, a rain gauge is used to measure the amount of rain that falls over the course of a day, a wind/weather vane tells the direction the wind is blowing, and a thermometer tells you the temperature. 

Our class made our own version of three of the tools. From left to right, we have an anemometer with Jared, our rain gauge with Damario, and our weather vane with Thierry. For a week we went outside and used these tools to measure the weather in the back of Montello. Then we would come inside and use weather websites to help us check our data. The following is what we have learned:

1. Rain evaporates over time so sometimes we measure less rain than www.weather.com does.
2. When you are gone for a three day weekend and it rains the whole time, you do not have an accurate measurement of how much rain has fallen in the past 24 hours.
3. Using a tack to create a spinner on our anemometer was virtually useless, so we never once saw it spin and luckily we were right everyday that we guessed the wind was going 0 mph. 
4. Because we also used a tack to make the spinner on our wind vane, it was easier to just lick our finger and hold it in the air/look at the trees to help us find the direction the wind was blowing.

In the end, our class had a great time working with weather measurement tools. We looked forward to that part of our day for the entire week. Recording data we were able to check our accuracy against real weather measurements we found online. We also spent time graphing our data and analyzing results. We definitely learned weather is a tricky thing to measure!

Strings Performers Visit Third Grade

Each year Mr. Booardman and a few of his strings players come to show our class what it is like to be a strings musician at Montello. Starting in 4th grade, families can sign up for their children to be a part of the strings ensemble. You will learn more about this next year but there are instruments up for grabs in a lottery based system and there are also opportunities to rent and buy your own instruments. This year to girls from the Spruce pod, Erin and Taylor came by to play us some tunes. 

My third graders were very excited about the presentation and wanted very much to start playing their own violins right away! We got to listen to "Pepperoni Pizza", "Twinkle, Twinkle" and even "We Will Rock You"! These two girls were very talented musicians and it was a pleasure to watch them perform. I can't wait until next year to see if some of my third graders come back to play for my new class!

Check out this short video of part of their performance!

Class Poetry

Our class has been publishing poetry on the Little Bird Tales website. The reason we used this website is that it not only allows us to type our writing but also to illustrate it with drawings and/or photographs, and add our voice to it. The class has really enjoyed the process and they have created some beautiful poetry. Here are some of our completed works:

Sharks by Abdimalik
Sharks by Abdulahi
Rose by Anna
Dogs by Damario
Sharks by Elijah
Ninjas by Jameson
Feet by Kamil
Flowers by Suguy
Cats by Tyler

Plant Update

Newsflash! Mrs. Derouche is not an awesome plant owner. She tries very hard to remember to water the plants and sometimes they live a little dry for a while but luckily the sun and soil seem to be working wonders. Our class plants are growing in quite nicely if I do say so myself. Our best growing bin is definitely the mixed batch and the slowest are the African Daisies. I don't know much about flowers growing but we've had these since the end of March and there are no buds. I didn't expect there to be but I have a lot of anxious third graders... does anyone know how long it takes flowers to bud? Hopefully before June 19!

Character Traits: Good or Bad? Both?

Our class is learning to analyze characters using character traits. We know that based on their actions and words in a story we can tell what kind of people they are... or animals in some cases. After brainstorming a list of character traits we know, like honest, brave, heroic, selfish, bratty, kind, friendly, and many, many more we categorized the words into a list of good and bad traits. 

Since this activity, other things we have done using our understanding of character traits are:

• defined ourselves using character traits
• written character trait books using the iPad app, Storybook Maker
• read different stories and analyzed the characters within them
• defined a character's traits and supported our thinking using evidence from the text
• had class discussions about character traits we find in a text

We will keep you posted on our character trait study, so listen for more updates. And if you're interested in testing our knowledge, feel free to ask a third grader what kind of character they think you are!

Gifts from Aunt Cyndi

My aunt Cyndi and uncle Rich travel around the country and work in different national parks as park rangers. My aunt was living on Assateague Island where the wild horses live earlier this year.

 They always send us maps, pamphlets, books and other gifts from wherever they are. Recently they went to a rocks and mineral show and they sent us a bag full of gems. The kids LOVED it. We spent all morning exploring our new gem book and trying to find the names of all of them. We recently read Agate: What Good is a Moose? by Joy Morgan Dey and had learned about all the gems so we used that as a resource as well. We immediately wrote a letter to aunt Cyndi and Uncle Rich thanking them for our gifts and asking them questions about our new things. 

So here are some pictures of us exploring:

Country Research

Check out our awesome wall map! Remember those country research projects we did? Well a lot of them are posted on the wall outside our classroom. The large posters have holes in them so you can literally put your face into a scene from another country. The paper bag vests are covered with facts about countries and the typed reports above our country's flags teach you about something we researched more closely. Below you can read some of our research reports and check out the wall more closely. Enjoy!

Indian Jewelry 

by Suguy H.

Indian women wear lots of jewelry. They wear a nath. Nath means nose ring. Bangles or chudi are bracelets. A shringar patti is jewelry they wear on their head. It’s gold and it’s shaped like a necklace. Bichhua means toe ring. Toe ring is something they wear on their feet. A waist band or kamarband is some kind of jewelry that holds the dress. The jewelry is about their culture. It is not about Henna. They wear it for their wedding days. The jewelry is the most important part.

 

 Jamaican Blue Coffee 

by Jameson C.

Blue Coffee is famous in Jamaica because it grows on Blue Mountain and because it has mild flavor. In Jamaica they brew their coffee with a pot and a measuring spoon. Blue Coffee is one of the most expensive and famous coffees in the world. Japan buys 80% of the Blue Mountain Coffee. There is other mountains in Jamaica that make coffee. Some people are calling it Blue Coffee but it is not good as Blue Mountain Coffee. A pound of Blue Coffee can cost up to $13.95 to $399. If you buy Blue Coffee for $15.95 it is not real Blue Coffee. I think Blue Coffee will be gross because I can’t even drink my mom’s coffee.

Egypt Mummies 

by Damario C.

You should go to Egypt to see mummies. For a long time Egypt mummified their kings called pharaohs. To mummify they put them in canopic jars. A canopic jar protects or guards the organs.  Each jar was named after a god.  Hapi protected the lungs.  Duamutef guards the stomach.  Qebebsenuef held the intestines. Imseti protected the liver. Boats are buried in the tombs to take the pharoahs to Osaris, which we call heaven. I would like to go to Egypt to see mummies.

Springtime Garden

This time of year is still cold and our class is aching to get outside. One of the ways to remedy this problem is by taking the outside inside! Last Thursday our class planted four envelopes of different kinds of seeds into four dishpans for our own classroom garden. 

We planted marigolds, African daisies, an assorted mix, and zinnias in small groups on the purple mat. When we were done, we labeled the dishpans with the flower envelope that matched what was planted, and then we watered them with a homemade watering can. We put the flowers by the window and planned to water them every other day. Most of the packets told us we had to wait 7-14 days for the flowers to germinate. So we planted them, and then we waited. 

Except it didn't even take 7 days!!! When we came back to school on Monday there was already green sprouts in the pans. Can you believe it? I can't wait to see those flower petals blooming!

Country Research Presentations

Yesterday our class started presenting our research on the country we chose to study. Each student is expected to present for 10 minutes to their classmates and I. They start by describing their research project and all the information they chose to include. The goal was to describe at least three physical characteristics and three cultural characteristics of the country. Kamil went above and beyond that yesterday when teaching our class about Pakistan. He told us about the largest cities, rivers, mountains, the symbol of colors and shapes in his flag, languages, and many other interesting details. I was even more impressed when he answered a students question about a building in Pakistan. They asked Kamil if the building they saw was in India because it looked familiar to them and he was able to say that the building they were thinking of was actually the Taj Mahal and that the Taj Mahal was built by a husband for his sick wife. AMAZING!!! No one was surprised with Kamil's vast knowledge however because not only is his family from Pakistan, he has also told our class that his favorite thing to do at home is research. What a great hobby!

Other countries we learned about yesterday were Tanzania and China. Did you know that in Tanzania the tallest mountain is Mount Kilimanjaro? Did you know there is a blue bear living in the Himalayas in China that has fur that is black with a tinge of blue??? There is some very impressive research going on in this room, let me tell you!

Distributive Doctor Math Center

Each morning from 8:30-9, students work in small group math centers. One of our most recent centers was called Distributive Doctor. In this center, students practiced multiplying large numbers by splitting them into smaller more manageable groups. An example of this would be 7x12. Multiples of 12 are hard for third graders, but we have known how to make groups of 10 and 2 for a long time. By distributing or decomposing the factor we are able to solve the problem much more easily. We know that 7x10=70 and 7x2=14 so we add 70+14 to find the answer 84. Now we know that 7x12=84. Strategies like decomposing  are helpful when students don't have all of their multiplication facts memorized. They give us a way to solve the problem when we don't have the fact memory to help us. 

Don't know what decomposing means? Ask your third grader! It's one of our new favorite vocabulary words that we can use not only when talking about multiplying but the coral reef food chain as well. 

Reading in Interesting Positions

Some of our third graders read in the strangest places! As long as they are reading I'm happy though. My good friend Thierry K. here has been reading up a storm! He has met both reading goals for the past two months of Scoop Up Those Books and really loves reading series books. When asked if he reads for the ice cream reward, he said no... he just really loves to read! How cool is that?!

Coral Reef Food Chain Performance

Our class performed our coral reef food chain play on February 10, 2014. We performed twice that day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The morning performance was for Pre-K, two third grade classes, a kindergarten class, and a fourth grade class. There were also parents in the room. That means we performed for over 100 people. The class was very nervous but they did a great job. Our visitors said that they learned a lot and we had some great listeners as well.Our afternoon performance wasn't as packed. There was a sixth grade class, the afternoon Pre-K, and some more parents and teachers. Mr. Martel, a supervisor at Montello, said that we reminded him of a lot of science he had forgotten when he taught sixth grade a few years ago. Sadly, Mr. Cliffe and Mrs. Gish couldn't make it. They were very busy in the school that day. Mr. Cliffe did ask if he could watch a special encore performance later on though. We are still waiting on his visit! 

Finding Time Intervals

 

Our class has been practicing telling time since the beginning of the year during our calendar math block of the day. We use an analog clock and we have even explored telling military time. During the last week or so however,we have incorporated time telling lessons into our math workshop and are having a little bit of trouble. Instead of only telling time, students are now also finding time intervals/elapsed time. They need to know the difference between a start and end time of a particular activity. A problem with the math curriculum we're using right now is that it requires students to find the elapsed time in only minutes. As far as I'm concerned, this seems a little extreme when talking about something that lasted for over an hour or two. It is perfectly acceptable for students to label elapsed time in hours and minutes as far as I'm concerned.

In order to continue practicing these skills, you could work with your child at home. Talk about the length of time it takes to make dinner, go to the grocery store, or clean their bedroom. The more practice they get the stronger this skill will be for them. Thank you!

Intro to Expository Writing

Students started new writing pieces this past week. They will be working on expository writing. We will be writing two pieces under this category. The first will be an informational article about something we know a lot about and our second piece will be a research paper that coincides with research on a country for the third grade district Common Core unit. Our first day being exposed to the expository format, students read a nonfiction text with me about Life in a Tide Pool and a third grade sample piece about the ballet. We noted that expository writing is meant to teach you something and that it is full of facts. After working as a whole class, we went to practice finding expository writing/informational articles independently by looking through magazines. Students were very excited to be reading a new resource and asked to keep the magazines for their independent reading later. When we were finished exploring, students came back together to share their findings. They answered two questions: How do you know this was an informational article? What did it teach you while you read it?