The 3rd graders will begin a reading unit on the Iditarod this week. We will be reading the short story The Bravest Dog Ever, The True Story of Balto. We will have a spelling test this week with words from the story. We will not have a pretest, and there are only 15 words again this week. We will focus on them more as vocabulary words as well. I will also have them do a written test at the end of the week about the story.
We will also do a couple other projects throughout the week that have to do with the Iditarod. We will be heading to the computer lab a lot over the next few weeks. Today each student will research and choose a musher (racer) in the actual Iditarod race that begins Saturday March, 2nd. They will research the date of birth, why the musher got into racing, what accomplishments the musher has made and why they chose this musher.
After the race begins, we will head to computer lab daily or every other day to monitor the progress of our mushers. We will keep track of their times, number of dogs they have when they get to each checkpoint and how many dogs leave each checkpoint. We will also monitor each mushers' place in the race.
The website we will be using is iditarod.com There are a lot of really neat free features on the site. Your child can watch the beginning of the race for their musher over the weekend if you would like.
We will also be learning a lot about Alaska and its history.
*Please remember that the Ecosystem project is due next Monday, March 4 with presentations beginning March 5th. Let me know if you have any questions. We will be going over food webs and food chains today and tomorrow in science class.
*Parent-teacher conferences are March 5th and March 7th.
*There is no school on March 8th (conference trade day).
Monday, February 25, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Ecosystem Projects
Today we began a chapter on ecosystems. We discussed the definition and what makes up an ecosystem (living and non-living things). Our ecosystem chapter leads us to our BIG third grade project on ecosystems. Your child will be bringing home a packet of information about the project today. We discussed all of the guidelines and they asked some great questions. If you find they, or you, have other questions as you are working on it, please do not hesitate to call or send an e-mail.
You will see a sheet of paper about food chains and food webs attached to the guidelines. We have not learned about those in class yet, so I asked the class to work on that part of the project a little later.
Your child will choose one of the listed ecosystems and create any type of poster board that illustrates the animals, plants and landscapes of that ecosystem. I asked them to do most of the work on their own (drawing, coloring, writing), but feel free to help where needed (internet, spelling).
They will also have to write a paper about their ecosystem including the weather that is found there. On the packet website page I attached, you will find a website for average yearly temperature for each ecosystem. It is a NASA website, but I found that it may be under construction or temporarily deleted in the next few days. You may have to do some other research for the weather and precipitation. Let me know if you are having a hard time with that part. Otherwise all the other websites should be working sites. Just be careful typing them into the search bar.
Take a look at the guidelines and expectations. If you have any questions please let me know. Your child should have a pretty good idea about what to do, but sometimes information gets lost between school and home!
Have fun with the project, and please let your child do most of the work!
You will see a sheet of paper about food chains and food webs attached to the guidelines. We have not learned about those in class yet, so I asked the class to work on that part of the project a little later.
Your child will choose one of the listed ecosystems and create any type of poster board that illustrates the animals, plants and landscapes of that ecosystem. I asked them to do most of the work on their own (drawing, coloring, writing), but feel free to help where needed (internet, spelling).
They will also have to write a paper about their ecosystem including the weather that is found there. On the packet website page I attached, you will find a website for average yearly temperature for each ecosystem. It is a NASA website, but I found that it may be under construction or temporarily deleted in the next few days. You may have to do some other research for the weather and precipitation. Let me know if you are having a hard time with that part. Otherwise all the other websites should be working sites. Just be careful typing them into the search bar.
Take a look at the guidelines and expectations. If you have any questions please let me know. Your child should have a pretty good idea about what to do, but sometimes information gets lost between school and home!
Have fun with the project, and please let your child do most of the work!
PROJECTS ARE DUE MONDAY MARCH 4th! We will present them to other classes beginning on MARCH 5th!
This is the cover page of the information that was sent home. If your child misplaces any parts of the packet, please let me know and we will get another one sent home.
Ecosystem
Project
3rd
grade
Here
are the guidelines for your ecosystem project
1. You may
choose one ecosystem listed on the next page.
2. You need to design that ecosystem on a poster
board or tag board.
3.
Include the
animals, plants and landscapes that would be found in that ecosystem.
4.
You will also
need to write a short report (3 or 4 paragraphs) about your ecosystem. When you
write the paper, please include your favorite animals and plants from the ecosystem
and what type of weather (temperature and precipitation) would be found there
as well. Make sure to do your writing in your own words and use what you have
learned in writer’s workshop about how to write a paragraph.
5.
Your poster and
report are due on March 4th. All work should be completed at home. We will have
other classrooms come to visit our classroom, so be prepared to answer
questions about your ecosystem.
6. You may use any resources you would like, but
the websites included would be very helpful. Some websites will take you
directly to the animals, weather, plants or land description. Some websites
will take you to a homepage and you will have to look around for your
information.
7.
Have fun and I
can’t wait to see your projects!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Happy Valentine's Day!
Thank you to all of the family members who came to our class Ash Wednesday Mass. We didn't get a lot of time to practice with a snow day on Monday and a funeral in the church on Tuesday, but the kids did an amazing job! I was very impressed with how well they kept it together when we practiced in a somewhat loud and crazy environment in the church after the funeral. Awesome job 3rd graders!
We enjoyed a small Valentine party this afternoon in the classroom. We had 3 stations. The first one was Punny Valentines. You will see it come home. It has 6 pictures and silly puns written under each valentine picture. The 2nd station was a Bible verse written out with the letters VALENTINE. Our 3rd activity was an ending project to our life cycle/living things chapter in science. They had to make a life cycle of a butterfly using shapes of pasta. They did a great job on all stations, and it was fun to hear them doing science review without even thinking about it at the butterfly station.
A few reminders and upcoming dates:
Friday February 15th-Stations of the Cross in the Church 8:45am, Science test in class as well
Friday February 22nd-No School, teacher in-service day, end of 2nd trimester
March 5, 7- Parent/Teacher conferences You will get a notice from the office as this date approaches.
Friday March 8th-No School (Conference Trade Day)
I will hand out report cards during conferences, and I will also be discussing your child's scores on the ND State test we took in October. We are mapping the results and will have them ready for distribution during conference week.
We enjoyed a small Valentine party this afternoon in the classroom. We had 3 stations. The first one was Punny Valentines. You will see it come home. It has 6 pictures and silly puns written under each valentine picture. The 2nd station was a Bible verse written out with the letters VALENTINE. Our 3rd activity was an ending project to our life cycle/living things chapter in science. They had to make a life cycle of a butterfly using shapes of pasta. They did a great job on all stations, and it was fun to hear them doing science review without even thinking about it at the butterfly station.
A few reminders and upcoming dates:
Friday February 15th-Stations of the Cross in the Church 8:45am, Science test in class as well
Friday February 22nd-No School, teacher in-service day, end of 2nd trimester
March 5, 7- Parent/Teacher conferences You will get a notice from the office as this date approaches.
Friday March 8th-No School (Conference Trade Day)
I will hand out report cards during conferences, and I will also be discussing your child's scores on the ND State test we took in October. We are mapping the results and will have them ready for distribution during conference week.
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