Art Day Students rotated to different stations to create art during our first Artist Live Day. Classroom Art for Art Day Students used various materials to create an endangered animal they plan to use for our Littlebits project. Endangered Animals meet Littlebits Once our animals were complete, students used Littlebits to make their animal move or light up. Students will be writing scripts from the point of view of their animal about habitat loss and then they will present to the class. Pumpkin Matter We had a great time observing the physical properties of pumpkins, measuring pumpkins, and testing them to see if they sink or float. We planned to measure their mass too, but we ran out of time. We'll have to squeeze in some time for that next week. Reading Poetry with Our Reading Partners!!
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Highlights from Week of October 19-23The biggest highlight of our week was exploring Littlebits, electonic building blocks. Students worked with partners to discover ways to connect the Littlebits to turn on lights, dim lights, create movement, etc. We will be using these this week for a mini-project related to habitat loss. Check out the class blog for photos! Using Littlebits Electronic Blocks Friday Enrichment On Friday for enrichment, students went to their interest group to participate in coding, animal research/presentations, magic, coding, Lego Robotics, and Littlebits exploration, and making clay. Be sure to ask your child about their group. We have one more week before switching to a new group. What We are Learning Week of October 26-30Writing: This week, students will be immersed in poetry during reading and writing! This is one of my favorite units and usually the kiddos love it as well, even reluctant poets! At the beginning of the week I'll provide time for students to find poems they love, read poems with partners, and find "self portrait" poems so that students will make a personal connection and see themselves in poetry. That's what makes poetry reading fun. While reading poems, well notice poetry features and writers craft. Students will begin writing free verse poems in their writing notebooks.
Reading: We will share many poems together as a class this week in addition to reading independently. Students will respond to several poems by drawing a visualization, writing their thoughts & questions, and making inferences. Throughout the week, I'll introduce narrative, free verse, and humorous poetry. I can't wait to get started! Math: Our focus this week will be on reviewing time to the minute, ways to read time, and time intervals. Students will learn how to use a number line and a chart to calculate time intervals. We will also begin applying addition to perimeter. Science: This week, much of our science time will consist of working on our project using Littlebits. Students will be choosing an endangered animal to create using scrap materials and art supplies. The challenge will be to attach the Littlebits blocks to the animal to create a type of animation. We may need to tweak things as we go-this is definitely a learning challenge for me too! Also, I have a special pumpkin matter activity planned too, but I want that to be a surprise so keep it a secret. Thanks to those of you who have donated to the Leopard Leap Challenge. Our class is in the lead, but only by a little. We are all hoping to silly string the coaches, so if you want to donate please remember the deadline is Friday. Every little bit counts. Your donations are greatly appreciated and help fund activities, guest speakers, and even learning tools like the cart of 32 ipads PTA purchased. Thanks again for your support! Upcoming Events This week...National Bullying Prevention Month/Red Ribbon Week Monday (10/26) Wear Red Day--Drug free starts with Me. Tuesday (10/27) Wear Crazy Socks Day--Sock it to drugs & bullying.
Wild Hair Day--I’m wild about being drug & bully free.
Wear a Moustache Day--I moustache you not to do drugs or bully.
Wear a Team Shirt Day--I’m teaming up against drugs & bullying.
Highlights from Week of Oct. 12-16Guest Speakers for PBL We had two guest speakers this week for our Wildlife Warriors PBL. Our expert guests provided a wealth of information about three animal species right here in central Texas that are endangered due to habitat loss-the prarie chicken, monarch butterfly, and the golden cheeked warbler. These presentations helped students gain a better understanding of the impact human development has on wildlife. Practicing Multiplication with Arrays and Equal Groups Go Temp! A digital thermometer lesson! States of Matter We investigated the states of matter by popping three balloons-one filled with liquid, one filled with a gas, and one filled with a solid! It was so much fun feeling the frozen water, air coming out of a tiny hole, and watching water spout out from a tiny hole! I think everyone will remember the three states of matter after this! Classroom News Week of October 12-16
Writing: Students will finish revising and editing their personal narrative. We'll work on adding some "wow" words, writing an effective ending, and adding sensory details/images. I'll conference with each student to help them with revisions. We are also starting spelling this week! Reading: This week we'll focus more on characterization. As students read their character study book, they will work with their reading partner to determine character traits, character change, and character interactions. Math: We are wrapping up our unit on multiplication of the 5s, 10s, 2s, and 4s facts. Students will continue to use strip diagrams, number lines, equal groups, arrrays, and area models to solve multiplication problems. On Thursday or Friday we'll take the unit assessment which we will review for in class. Science: We'll continue learning about matter, however our focus will shift from properties and states of matter to changing matter and combining materials, (mixtures). Social Studies: Since October is National Bullying Prevention Week, we'll learn about bullying and how to handle a situation involving a bully. Highlights Week of September 27-October 2Sink & Float Investigation One of our favorite activities this week was a matter investigation on sink and float. Students predicted if various objects would sink or float before testing them out. We were surprised with some of our discoveries. To further investigate sink and float, students began creating foil boats for a boat challenge. They are so excited! Making Inferences with Photos On Monday, we joined Mrs. Lipe's class to make inferences using photos that relate to habitat loss. I was impressed with their inferences and that most students provided evidence to support their inference. You can see lots of photos of this on our class website. Making Boats for a Boat Challenge-to be completed next week What We are Learning this Week Oct. 5-9Writing: Students will choose one of their personal narratives to write a revised draft. As they work on their draft, we'll continue to learn about qualities of writing. We will notice good leads and endings in books and try out some of the techniques in our own writing. Also, we'll learn how to "show" not "tell" to help the reader create mental images. Reading: We'll wrap up using comprehension strategies this week and then move on to characterization in fiction stories. Math: Monday we will take the unit assessment on addition and subtraction. Students have been working hard using various strategies to add and subtract as well as to solve multi-step problems. We'll start a new unit on multiplication. During this unit we will work on 5s and 10s facts and then move on to 2s and 4s facts. Science: Last week we started our unit on matter. Friday students began a boat challenge which we will continue this week. We'll also investigate other properties of matter such as texture, magnetism, and mass. Social studies: We'll continue learning about good citizenship. Also, we'll gain an understanding of human changes to the environment through our PBL. Jazz Band
Friday morning we had our first spirit assembly and a little later we watched a jazz band performance. There were opportunities for audience participation, so everyone seemed to enjoy the band. |
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November 2019
Mrs. Swyers3rd Grade Teacher |