The theme of this year’s music program was December Around the World. Apart from two performances, students also had time to partition wholes into equal parts, learn about Loki’s punishment from the Viking Gods, and study compound sentences. We even played a little XBox at recess.
Today we completed an Hour of Code and joined millions of other students in promoting Computer Science outcomes. This was certainly not our first work with coding. In fact, we have taken our understanding of block coding and applied it to our Kanos and Spheros. This was unique because it allowed us to part of something bigger. It was a chance to share an experience with millions of students across the country and the world.
To start, thank you to my Room Parents who organized a great experience for the students. The children competed in a pumpkin relay race, finished a craft, braided rope/tug toys for dogs, that will be donated, and did an event involving marshmallows and vampire teeth!
Thank you parents for bringing in so much food and donating items and time to our 2018 Halloween Celebration.
Great day for a field trip and a chance to learn more about arthropods in our neighborhood and habitat. Educators from the Truckee Meadows Parks led the effort and had students use aspirators, beating sheets, and a great deal of persistence to locate and draw insects into a tube. In turn, students ran a tally of what they found to learn what is most common in our area.
As always, thank you parents for all of your help.
Our first Pro Se Court was a success. A Pro Se Court has students acting as plaintiffs, defendants and judges. In this case, a third of the class had to argue about the cons of zoos, the plaintiffs. A third of the class outlined the pros, the defendants; and the rest of the students acted as judges.
We spent part of the week reading about the pros and cons of zoos from four different perspectives. We annotated text and highlighted the most relevant evidence from each text. This is what allowed all students to be prepared for our Pro Se Court.
We had seven different judges and they ruled 5 to 2 in favor of the defendants.
Students completed an engineer design challenge over two days. In day one, they created a cart that could move from “here to there.” On day two, students added a ramp to see how gravity and start position affected the distance traveled. A lot of successes over the two days including several creations that traveled over three meters.
We had a nice day at the Oxbow Nature Study Area. The focus was on habitat and students investigated the area through four of their five senses. (Eating things was forbidden.)
We have spent several hours this week looking at patterns in motion. Students are learning that motion exhibits regular patterns and future motions can be predicted. They are learning about wheel-and-axel systems and how the sizes of the wheels can lead to curved paths of motion.
Investigation 1
Investigation 2
Today the kids completed a fishbowl. We have been reading “The Wind and the Willows” and discussing several themes including the value of friendship and loyalty. This led to thinking about the character that best exemplified these qualities.
Students brainstormed evidence to support one character or another before beginning our first Fishbowl. In a Fishbowl, students sit in a circle with several students in the middle. Participants share ideas around a topic and if someone in the middle needs help or has run out of ideas, they will replace themselves with someone from the outside.
The students completed their first week of 3rd grade and I also completed my first week of 3rd grade. It’s been great!
We established important routines and procedures, engaged in a few icebreakers, and reserved a great deal of time to get started with our content. We read from the Wind and the Willows, built number bonds and arrays, studied magnetism, did some word study, and learned our first annotation symbols.
It’s been an amazing start.
Room 360 