Week 36

A WONDERFUL WEEK OF FIELD TRIPS

Historical Society

VINS

TOUR OF HARTFORD

HIKING THE QUECHEE GORGE

Week 35

Despite our crazy weather week, our 3rd grade otters persevered through our last full, normal week of school!  SBAC testing is complete.  After many rehearsals students rocked their spring concert with confidence and joy!  We continue to work diligently in the classroom on our Cinderella around the world unit, geometry and animal research projects.  In science we explored the different properties of magnets.  Students experimented and made locks for doors that could be opened with magnets. We are looking forward to a week full of field trips!

Week 34

It was a busy, different kind of a week!  On Monday we traveled to the Hopkins Center to enjoy a fabulous show about young Jane Goodall.  In the afternoon a DBS parent came in to speak with us about magnetism.  Students were thrilled with their magnet exploration time.   Our Otters spent 3 mornings taking the SBAC test.  One of the tests was a written assessment and the other 2 days were spent on the math assessment.   Students continue to work on their, "All About Me" project, along with their animal research project.  We had two fun-filled days in the forest.

Week 33

Despite the dreary weather, our third grade otters continue to shine!  We started a new project that includes multiple forms of media.  These projects will be an illustration of each student.  The platform that is being used is called, "We Video."  In math our focus on geometry continues.  We reviewed different types of angles and attributes of polygons.  We made shapes with our bodies, tangrams and toothpicks!  The enthusiasm for our Cinderella unit is growing! We read the version from China and continue to admire the similarities and differences.  Our writing prompt from the week was to write the story from the step sisters' point of view.  Our mystery science lesson focused on exploring the questions, "What can magnets do?" Finally our third graders ROCKED their SBAC testing day.  Their focus and work ethic was exemplary!

Week 32

This week was all about collaboration!  Our final reading unit was launched on Monday.  Students were split up into small research groups.  Readers got themselves ready for the research work by first looking over easier texts to get an over view of their topics and to search for subtopics.  In math we began our last unit of the year on, geometry.  Students worked together to learn cooperatively about shapes and then shared their learning with the class.  During writing workshop students wrote 5 paragraph persuasive essays about their spring vacations.  We began a new unit, "Cinderella around the world."  We will be investigating the question, "Why has Cinderella captured the hearts of people all around the world?"  Finally, this class ROCKED their first SBAC test session on Thursday.

Week 31

Happy Spring Vacation!!

Week 30

We launched our week off with a pancake party!  Each drop of our syrup was thoroughly enjoyed and relished!  We continued our work on persuasive writing.  We are crafting five paragraph essays and using lots of details and evidence to support our thesis.  In reading workshop we talked about how all main characters travel along a "story mountain."  Readers expect that a character will face a problem that gets bigger and bigger, reaches a turning point, then is resolved.  Students worked through their fiction books to locate all of the problems that their characters resolved.  In math our focus of the week was finding the area of objects.  We measured all sorts of things around the classroom.  In our mystery science lesson we learned about different types of bridges.  Next week students will get the opportunity to build their own, while testing its integrity with pennies!