Circulatory System Investigations

For our first human body study, students researched the heart and its circulatory system. We started by picking partners and tracing one another. Then we drew the heart, the lungs, and the brain. Next came the arteries, and last the veins. All parts needed to be color coded. We used the Smart Board to help us with these first steps. After we drew out all of the circulatory intricate pieces students looked through classroom books and magazines for heart, blood, and circulatory facts. Once our life size posters were complete, we posted them all over the hallways. They're huge and they're wonderful! We learned so much!

Encyclopedias Are Awesome!

Our class has recently discovered encyclopedias. We like to open them and lay them all out at the same time. We look at maps. We look at dinosaurs. We look at the human body and the different plastic see through sheets that make up its layer of organs. We are working on using the alphabet key in the top corner. 

Letter from Hawaii

In case you did not know, our class has adopted a park ranger pen pal! His name is Richard Godin. He is my uncle and he is a park ranger in Hawaii! He and my Aunt Cyndi sent our class a care package from the parks they are staying at in Hawaii. We watched a video postcard of all the beautiful scenery and saw lava rolling down the mountains. Did you know it looks like cement as it cools down?! Aunt Cyndi and Uncle Rich also gave us two new books about Hawaii and volcanoes! They were awesome resources. 

We were so grateful for our new gifts that we wrote back to our park ranger pen pals immediately. We asked them questions we had from watching the videos and reading the books, drew them pictures of volcanoes, and sent them pictures we took of ourselves enjoying these new things. We will be sure to keep you updated on those new things we learn from our park ranger pen pals in Hawaii! 

The Human Body! Woo!!!

This past week marked the beginning of our second trimester unit. Third graders jumped right into a human body organ study! A few weeks ago we decided on a set of seven organs for group study. The end of trimester goals include edible organ models, an organ museum for all of our Spruce pod members, and letters from the organ to human talking about keeping your body healthy and what an organ is used for. During the unit we will be having guest speakers, watching videos, researching, drawing models, and participating in organ specific weeks. Last week the classroom was filled with new human body books to read. The minute students walked in they started climbing on furniture (literally) to get to the new resources. They took notes, shared information, and asked questions as quickly as they could think of them. They ended the day by coming up with their top three organs they wished to study most and were split into groups accordingly. The organs they chose to research are the brain, heart, kidneys, intestines, stomach, bladder, and lungs. They look forward to sharing their learning with you in the near future!

Biographies Completed!!!

As you all know, our third graders recently finished a trimester long unit on biography study. We finished the unit off with an Authors' Tea Party. Sadly, one of our classmates was sick and could not be there. Luckily, her classmates understood how important presenting her biography would be and offered to watch her present her biography alone the following week. We even took pictures and made a PowerPoint movie of Madysen's story to send to her uncle who sadly couldn't make it because he lives so far away.

Madysen's biography was special because it was about her Uncle Troy. Her uncle works in the air force and has been on duty in Iraq three times! Madysen is very proud of him and wrote an amazing story of his life so far. In addition to her biography Madysen created a poster with lots of photographs of her uncle along with her own illustrations.  Our class loved Madysen's biography. 

We clapped after she finished every chapter and had many comments of praise for her when she was done. Devon even told her that he knew her biography was better than his! Madysen was beaming with pride when her own personal Authors' Tea was done and so was her mom who came to watch her. Great job Madysen! 

Authors' Tea

The time has come! Students are finishing up their biographies and are ready to share them with family and friends. Students worked hard this first trimester interviewing special people in their lives. They wrote letters to their biography subjects asking questions the class had brainstormed together. With the answers they found, students organized the information they found into five categories: personal, family/friends, school, work, and favorites. After organizing the first answers, students went back for more. They asked clarifying questions, and questions about two specific things that really interested them about their interview subject. When they received their second letter the third graders organized that information and then began writing. Each biography is made up of seven chapters, one for each of the five categories and one for each of the specific things they found most interesting about their subject. Students worked hard to write these biographies, going through many edit and revision sessions with peers and teachers. They then typed up their work as a final draft. When the copies were printed students illustrated them. Now that the biographies are being put together, our class is excited to share our work with the people that matter most. We are inviting our friends and family to come and celebrate our biographies with us on Friday afternoon. We hope to see you there!

Honor Roll Students, First Trimester

Congratulations to our first trimester Honor Roll students:


Maha A.
Safa A.
Kaitlyn D.
Emily M.
Madysen D.
Noah M.
Ana S.
Kaelynn G.
Amira S. 


Keep up the good work!! 

Discovering Big Books

Recently students have started picking up the nonfiction big books during silent reading. Interestingly enough, our classroom now operates at a much noisier level during reading workshop time when this happens. These books promote a sense of community among young readers that small chapter books like Junie B. Jones and the Magic Tree House series do not. There have been up to five students circled around one big book at a time pointing out various things in the books. They like to use the pointing finger wand when they do this to show each other new findings or favorite pictures.Favorite books often include maps, especially of other continents such as Africa. Because the books have been such a big hit these past few weeks, we will hopefully be spending a lot more time reading them in the future. I'm also considering opening up a DonorsChoose project fundraising for big books and other nonfiction picture books about the human body. Based on student interest, that is going to be our next big unit of study after the Authors' Tea for our biography writing.