Tag: 3rd Grade

Pro Se Court: Zoos

With five days left in the year, we participated in a discussion strategy we really like, a Pro Se Court. Over the last two weeks, we read and annotated four articles about zoos, their benefits and their challenges.  Students were then divided into three groups. A third were the plaintiffs, a third as defendants, and a third as our judges.

Students didn’t know which role they would be assigned which is important insofar as understanding perspective taking. That said, our seven judges ruled 6-1 in favor of our plaintiffs who argued zoos are bad.

PS4

Engineering Air Drop Packages

Today we started our newest engineering design challenge. This was the introduction and we worked with different materials to determine what would best protect a fragile package (farfalle pasta). We’ll experiment with different strategies based on a scenario in which students have to engineer “air drop packages” that can be dropped from an aircraft that protects contents and be easy to find, once they hit the ground.

The engineering kit we are working with came from a DonorsChoose project.

Philosophical Chairs Discussion

Can too much screen time get in the way of friendships? Or does playing games and being online create friendships? This was the focus of our Philosophical Chairs Discussion (PCD).

We spent two days reading and annotating a text around the topic. We then used the PCD protocol. Specifically, students divided themselves into groups who believed screen time got in the way of friendships, students who disagreed with this, and classmates who were neutral. As students presented their arguments, they could move from one group to another based on how persuaded they were.

 

 

 

Composing an Enchanted Land

Students finished their Enchanted Lands following several days making careful observation of art by Albert Bierstadt, Erik Johansson, and Salvador Dali; learning about foreground, mid-ground, and background; studying setting and magical elements; and how to use paint and collage to build out their piece of art.

 

 

 

Holiday Celebration, 2018

We had a great time with our 2018 holiday celebration. Our classroom Room Parents created an experience that kept the kids engaged for well over an hour with a Christmas themed relay race, an elf ornament, spiced orange pomander balls creation station, and a snowman wrap race. This was followed by lunch.

Thanks to all the parents, and grandparents, who helped with this by volunteering hours and food.

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Field Trip to Learn about Arthropods

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.