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?

100th Post! Happy Holidays!

On the last day of school before our holiday vacation, our class had music. When I picked them up from Mrs. Tripp's class they sang me the most amazing song called We Will Jingle to the tune of We Will Rock You". My favorite part was when Thierry played the air guitar and slid across the floor towards me. My third graders are rocking and they have so much personality. Enjoy the holidays and we will try to post much more frequently this coming half of the school year!

Happy Holidays! 
See you January 2, 2014
Mrs. Derouche