Martin Luther King

We have enjoyed learning about Martin Luther King Jr. this week. We have listened to part of his I Have A Dream Speech. We have read a biography about him and come up with our own dreams for a better world. Ask your child to show you what their dream was. We've also read a biography about James Naismith, the man who invented basketball. We are getting excited to see everyone's biography posters next week!

Lunch with the Teacher!

Wednesday we did lunch with the teacher for all those students who improved their test scores in Subtraction. We are getting ready to take our second test on Multiplication Meanings in our Math Differentiation Groups. A big Yahoo to those who improved their scores or stayed at 100%. We celebrate ANY improvement!!

Biography Book Reports

Biography Book Reports

 

The next several weeks will be full of biographies as we study in class about Americans, famous American women, and many other people who made a difference for good in the world.  Students should choose book report books on their reading levels about people they are not already familiar with.  Above is a picture of biography book reports completed by past third grade students.  Below is a list of things that should be included on each child's poster.  Biography book reports are due Thursday, January 31st.  Happy Reading!

Requirements: 

• On a poster board, draw a large picture/caricature of the individual whose biography you read. 
• The illustrations must be done by hand, by the students, and neatly colored. 
• Outline everything with a darker color or a black fine tip marker.
• Along the sides of the character, write or type sentences and draw a line to each of the following body parts:

Forehead (Mind):    Write something the person thought.  
Eyes:                       Write something the person saw.  
Ears:                        Write something the person heard.  
Heart:                      Write something the person felt or believed.  
Hands and/or Feet:  Write something the person did.

Posted by Ms. Mallett at 22:49

We are thankful!

We have a lot of gratitude. We have written five things we are thankful for.  The Pilgrims had a tradition of putting five kernels of corn next to their plate on Thanksgiving to represent a blessing: autumn beauty, love for each other, God's love, friendship, and freedom. The first winter the Pilgrims sometimes only had 5 kernels of corn to eat a day. They found the corn buried in a basket in the sand that the Native Americans had left stored there. The corn helped them to survive that first long cold winter.

We have a very kind class this year. I am very grateful for how well they work together and support each other. They are really "filling each others buckets". Ask you child how they fill each others buckets!!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy working on those book report cubes.

November Informational Book Report

November Informational Book Report

The students have been preparing just over a month to be able to complete this particular book report.  They learned about sequence words (first, next, then, after, finally, second, third, fourth, last, etc.) and completed a writing project giving detailed instructions about something they were already experts on.  The informational book report takes things to the next level, by having the students read about something they aren't familiar with and create an information cube.  Below is a brief overview of the instructions, as well as a photo of a sample book report.

1.  Students choose an appropriate informational book on their reading level related to history/social studies, science, or the arts.  They should not choose topics they're already familiar with or that are too complex for a third grader to clearly outline in four steps.

2.  The topic they choose should include some type of process or sequence they can explain to others.  Here are a few simple examples:

History – "Ruby Bridges goes to the William Frantz Public School" or "The First Flight of the Wright Brothers" or "Man Lands on the Moon"

Science – "The Life Cycle of a Butterfly" or "How a Tornado Forms" or "Mining for Copper"

The Arts – "The Beginning Positions of Ballet" or "What to Prepare When You Audition for a Play" or "How to Draw Charlie Brown Cartoons like Charles Schulz"

3. Students then complete the cube according to the rubric in their homework folder and prepare to present it to the class.  Students are encouraged to practice their keyboarding skills by typing the sequence or process on the computer and gluing it onto the cube, as shown below:

Part of a sample cube book report before the cube has been folded.

October News

The last couple of weeks we've had some fun events! To begin with, we had our first math celebration lunch. Every student who earned at least one percent higher on their Place Value posttest or kept their score at 100% (sometimes harder to do than anything!) got to eat lunch with the teacher and enjoy a special treat.  We will continue doing the same thing for each math unit.  Second, the students completed their first Art Through the Ages project. Thank you to our parent volunteers!  Finally, we had a windy, but wonderful field trip, where we worked on math, science, and writing in the wetlands environment. Thank you to our volunteers who came with us!

Jog - A - Thon Assembly

We met our goal for raising money for our school! Thank you for supporting our school. We have outstanding parents who support us! We all received Altara T-shirts!  We also won 5 out of the 7 prizes given away for bringing in Jog-a-thon money. Oh, and did I mention if we met our goal we got to slime Mr. Jameson! He is such a good sport!