Geography: Student Research

  Students printed out information on their topic.  Students highlighted important information and wrote a paragraph using the information.  Students are expected to put the information into their own words. Students conference with Mrs. Guenther to edit the piece. The students have a criteria to guide their writing. They then shared their information with the class.
Pacific Ocean
  The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the world's five oceans.  The next biggest ocean is the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean and Artic Ocean.  It covers an area of about 60 square miles.  It is 15 times the size of the United States.
By David

Baja Peninsula
  The Baja Peninsula has beaches and rugged mountains and deserts.  The peninsula is approximately 760 miles in length.  It has a 2,038 miles coastline.  The peninsular mountains ranges run the length of the peninsula.
By Sophie

Yucatan Peninsula
  The Yucatan Peninsula is surrounded by lakes and swamps. Merida is the capital.  The Yucatan Peninsula is located in the northwest part of the state.  The Yucatan Peninsula is surrounded by short and tall jungles.  However the forests are being cut down.
By Leah

Sierra Madres
  The Sierra Madres is 3 mountain ranges.  The top is very snowy to hot tropical valleys.  The Sierra Madres start from the U.S. border to Guatemala.  Then back to the U.S. border. The Sierra Madres is 1,500 miles long.
By Emma

Belize
 Belize is a small nation in central America.  Belize borders the Carribean Sea on the east.  Its size is 22,960 km.  The temperatures are higher inland.  There are low mountains in the south.
By Zoe

Mesa Central
  They grow crops such as beans, wheat, and sugar cane.  They also make textiles, cement, and chemicals.  The mesa central is located between the mountains. Due to the blocked streams and rivers they form shallow lakes and swamps on the mesa.
By Jada

Guatemala
  If you visit Guatemala in December to February, it will be very cool both night and day.  The rains start in May or June. July to September it is muggy and buggy.
By Milo and Jack

Rio Grande
  The Rio Grande river flows out the snow capped mountains in Colorado and journeys 1.900 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.  The Rio Grande is a river east from Colorado.  The Rio Grande flows from its headwaters in San Juan Mountains.  The Rio Grande is about 1, 760 miles.  The Ro Grande is located by Tijuana.
By Abby

Sonora Desert
  The Sonora Desert is in the south western part of North America.  The Sonora Desert is located in North America and covers the southwestern parts of Arizona, California in the United States and the state of Sonora Mexico.
By Alyssa

Gulf of Mexico
  Gulf of Mexico covers the area of 579,153.  The depth is over 13, 123 feet.  The Gulf of Mexico is located to the southeastern part of the United States.  The Gulf of Mexico is one of the largest bodies of water.
By Alexis


  

Amaryllis Sizzles for the Holidays

Here is information on how to take care of the flower from an article in the Waterloo Courier.  When the blooms appear, move the pot away from direct sunlight and cold or warm air registers to make the flowers last.  Preservation:  1. When blooms are spent, cut back flower stems but leave strappy green foliage in place. 2. Keep it in bright light -even outdoors in summer months-and watered so soil is moist, not wet. 3. Continue feeding until August. 4. Bring it indoors before frost and place it in a cool place with indirect but bright light.5. Leaves will naturally yellow and drop. freshen the potting soil and water well. Water sparingly until new growth appears, then begin feeding and watering as needed. Place the pot in bright, sunny and warm place.

Practice Practice Practice

Practicing flash cards with your child on a nightly basis can help your child be successful in math.  This nightly ritual will help your child memorize his/her facts quickly and easily. Here is a website for flash cards: multiplication.com  Thanks so much for your help.

Hopefully, the students are reading 15 to 20 minutes at home for pleasure.  This will also help the students to improve comprehension and fluency.    When discussing the book with your child, you could ask him/her two reasons he/she liked it.  Also ask your child to make a connection, when he/she read the book.

Cultural Heritage Powerpoint Presentation

Nika Silkin shared her third grade cultural heritage powerpoint presentation with the class.  Her information helped the students to learn what information to include in their presentation. It also helped the students to learn about Russia that is located on the continent of Asia.  The students took notes during the presentation and wrote a paragraph using their notes.  Here are two examples of the paragraphs the students wrote:
Emma wrote:
Russia is located in Eurasia. A Russian Christmas is on January 7th.  Bliney is like a pancake. A famous place in Russia is Red Square.

Treyvon wrote:
The Russian people speak Russian.  Russia Day is on June 12th.  Russia is the biggest country covering 11 time zones. The Russian food bliney is like a pancake.

Mean,Mode,Range,Median! Oh My!

The students gathered data for the following questions:
Abby: Analyzed  bags of M and M's
Sophie:  How much sleep do you need to get per night?
Emma and Zoe: What is your favorite animal?
Jack: What is your favorite holiday?
Treyvon : What is your favorite color?
Milo:  How many people live in your house?
Jada: How many brothers and sisters do you have?
Leah: What is your favorite season?
Matthew: What is your favorite sport?
Alexis: What is your favorite flavor for Skittles?
David: How tall are you?



Students organized the data by creating many different types of graphs.  They made line graphs, bar graphs, line plots, pictographs and pie charts. They then analyzed it to find the mean, mode, median and range.
The following students defined the above vocabulary in their journal entries:
Jack:
Range: Range means there are two numbers, and you subtract the the smallest number from the largest number.
Mean: Average
Median:  List numbers from the smallest to biggest. Then find the middle number.
Mode: The number that you use the most.

Zoe:
Mean: Add all the numbers together and then divide by the amount of numbers.
Mode: The number that occurs the most.

Emma:
Mode: The mode is the number that shows up the most.

Ask your children to explain their graphs to you.  I will be sending them home this week. The lessons used the inquiry approach and were student centered.

Spirit Day

Tomorrow is Spirit Day.  Dress in Price Lab's colors.  Yeah Price Lab School!!

Homework

Read for 15 minutes.  Blog or bring in your written journal entry for your book.  Your journal entry should be at least 6 sentences.  Enjoy your book.

Our Service-Learning Project, Student Activists

On Friday the class  discussed the question, How can the students make the world and community a better place? How can they make a positive difference? First we began with the students discussing the projects their families are working on for the holiday season:
Leah, Jada : Sending supplies to Africa and Haiti
Zoe: Sending Christmas presents around the world
Alyssa:  Recycling materials at church
Sophie: Donating food to the food bank
Treyvon: Giving money to the Salvation Army
Alexis: Purchasing toys for Operation Christmas Child
Abby: Delivering Thanksgiving baskets

Next students listed social justice issues they are interested in.  They were helping the homeless, helping the food bank, giving toys for children, keeping the community clean from litter and recycling.  The students voted on their issue for their service learning project.  It was helping the homeless.  They believed this was an important issue to make the comunity a better place and to help children in need.  The service learning project is meant to help the students have a voice in their community.  It also encourages empathy.

Presently, the students are seeking out a variety of sources with multiple perspectives as they study this issue they have chosen. After gathering this information, the students will discuss how to carry  out their service learning project.  Any ideas from the families are welcomed.

Mexico Research

The students continued to read information about Mexico.  This week the students worked on geography.  Each student was assigned a topic such as Pacific Ocean, Yucatan Peninsula, Baja Peninsula, Mexico City, Belize, Guatemala, Sierra Madres, plateau and Gulf of  Mexico to find information on the internet.  Students highlighted the important information and then they wrote a paragraph to present to the class to help them learn about the geography of Mexico and  the countries by Mexico. The students labeled these areas on a map as their final test.

Math Update

Games
This week the students have been practicing their multiplication facts by playing the Multiplication Baseball game.  I am sending home a copy of the rules. So that your child could play it at home with someone.  It is a game the students enjoyed.  They realized many of them need to practice the higher multiplication facts for quick recall.

Dr. Nelson's Math Class
The Dr. Nelson's college students have been working with the students on the following; collecting data, determining the mean, determining the range, representing results with a bar graph. and making predictions based on the data.  The students met this Tuesday and Thursday.  They will return next Tuesday and Thursday.

Have you read?

Dear students,
I enjoyed reading about your favorite book, and why it was your favorite.  I enjoy reading and discussing books with my friends.   One of my favorite books is My Name is Maria Isabel.  I enjoyed learning about her wish for the new year.

Dear families,
Thanks for helping your child post his/her comments on our blog.  I greatly appreciate it.

Have you read?

Students,
Here is a chance to blog about your favorite book that you have read.  Write a comment about why you enjoyed the book so much. Include the title and the author.  Just post a comment about it on our blog.  I look forward to reading your comments about your favorite book. This is a chance to read what your classmates had to say about their favorite books.
Mrs. Guenther

The Doorbell Rang

Literature was integrated into the math problem solving lesson. The book, the Doorbell Rang, was used to help the students better understand division and its use in the real world.  In the story two children have 12 cookies to share between them.  Then two more friends come.  Now there are four children to share the  12 cookies. Then two more friends come to share the 12 cookies. Now there are six children to share the 12 cookies.  At the end, there are 12 children to share 12 cookies.  As I read the story, I gave the students time to draw a strategy to show how to divide the cookies between the ever changing number of children.  The students also wrote the division number model sentence to go with their picture.  Students shared their strategies and pictures with the class.

What is division?

The students wrote down their definitions for division.  They are as follows:
Sophie:  It is where you split the number and share equal groups.
Alexis:   It is like 16 divided by 2.
David:  It is taking something and splitting it into groups.
Alyssa:  It is like 16 divided by 2=8.
Treyvon: It is dividing into groups.
Emma:  It is 16 divided by 2. So you figure out to split it in to two groups like this:
00000000 1 group
00000000 Another group
How many in each group? It's 8.
Jack:  It is taking a number and dividing it into a certain amount of groups.
Jada;  It is 16 divided  by 2=8.  It would be 8 because you have 16 chips and divide them into 2 groups.

Multiplication Strategies for Nines

Multiples of Nines
Look for patterns.
A.  For every multiple of 9, the digit in the tens column increases by one ten, while the digit in the ones column decreases by one:
9x2=18
9x3=27
9x4=36
9x5=45
9x6=54
9x7=63
9x8=72
9x9=81

B.  No matter what you are multiplying by 9, as long as it is between 1 and 9, the two digits of your answer will always add up to 9.

C.  Last pattern:
All the possible answers have reverse answers.
1x9    9x10
2x9    9x9
3x9    9x8
4x9    9x7
5x9    9x6

Happy Thanksgiving

It is rewarding to teach the students at Price Lab School, to nurture their ownership of learning and to have their special talents shine in the classroom.  Price Lab School is a place where I feel a part of a supportive, innovative and  successful community. Our students and parents and faculty are caring and enthusiastic. Thank you.  I send my wishes to all of your families for a safe and happy holiday break.

Celebrate! Celebrate!

On Tuesday, I planned a surprise celebration for the students.  It was to celebrate how well they did on the end of the Tall Tales Unit Projects.  I brought in popcorn and M and M's to eat while watching the animated movie on the tall tale legends.  The students also watched the movie with Mrs. Griswold's class.  It is important to celebrate accomplishments of goals set.

Multiple Intelligences Multiplication Strategies

We have math every day from 9:30 to 10:30.  We have been learning multiplication strategies. 
1. The students have multiplication charts on their desks.
2. Students have learned the algebra equations:
 zero x number=  zero.
1 x number = number
3. Know the commutative principle: a x b = b x a
4.Know how to skip count for multiples of 2.
5. Know how to skip count for multiples of 5.
6. Easy facts to know because of the rhythm in the equation
5,6,7,8 is what you remember for 56= 7x8
1,2,3,4 is what you remember for 12=3x4
7.  Use humorous sayings.
You have to be sixteen to drive a 4x4.
8.Multiples of 4 are easy if you double the twos.
3x2   3x4
4x2   4x4
5x2   5x4
6x2   6x4
7x2   7x4
8x2   8x4
9x2   9x4
9.  Go online and listen to Schoolhouse Multiplication Rock
10.  Sing the Conga song for doubles.
11. Practice on IXL
There will be more strategies to come in the future.

Mexican Pyramids

Vocabulary

Students discussed the definitions and are learning to read fluently the following vocabulary words:
pyramid
Mexico
Maya
Yucatan
temple
commercial
political
serpent
equinox
sacred
Aztec
civilization
religious
warriors

Poster
Students studied a poster of the Mayan Pyramids and created  a category of words. These categories  were geography:  Yucatan, palm trees, ocean and mountains:  Pyramids: many steps, markings and designs, writing; People: emperor, artists, stone workers, sculptors and potters.

Video
Students watched  a video on the Mayan ruins.

Text
Students read an informational text on the pyramids and wrote a paragraph about the Mexican pyramids.

Challenge Question:
How were the Mexican pyramids and Egyptian pyramids different?
  

Going Home

On Thursday, the college class, Advanced Literature, taught by Dr. Cai observed and participated in our multicultural literature lesson.  The college students were interested in learning ways to integrate multicultural literature into the curriculum. The book, Going Home, was read aloud by Mrs. Guenther.  There were two main themes.  One was the concept of home.  The other was the reasons family move to new locations or countries.  My students and the college students shared what home means to them.  They are as follows:  (Alexis)  A place where I can snuggle with my dog.  (Leah)  A place where you can relax and be with your family.  (Milo)  It is a warm and sunny place.  (Alyssa)  It is a place where you can relax and have fun and eat. (Emma)  It is a safe place.  You feel comfortable there. There is family and things you love there.  (Zoe)  A place where you and your family can spend time together.  (Sophia)  A place where you sleep.  A place where your brothers and sisters are. (David)  I can go to my room and be by myself.  I can read my chapter books.  (Abby) A place where you can be with your family.  Sometimes I get homesick, when I leave it.  These ideas were all demonstrated in the book Going Home by Eve Bunting. 

Book Summary
This is a touching story about a Mexican-American family who returns to Mexico for a visit for Christmas.  The story is written from the perspective of one of the children who observes how hard his parents work in the fields and how much their parents love Mexico.  He finally understands the reason for and the magnitude of his parents sacrifice in order to give their children opportunities in the United States.

Student Reactions
The students enjoyed the book.  The students selected favorite quotes from the book that they found meaningful and shared their personal reaction to the quotes.  One quote was, "Mama was excited to be going home to Mexico, but home was also here.  The students understood  the character having a feeling of home for more than one place. Others liked the quote, "the walls were bulging with rememberings".  The students understood that families enjoy sharing past memories at family celebrations.The students also discussed the opportuities the children in the book experienced from living in the United States.  They were a better education, learning English and  more oppportunities in the future due to their education.

Tall Tales Reader's Theater

Reader's Theater helps students improve their reading fluency. Students work on intonation, volume and expression.  The students completed reader's theater for the tall tales, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan and The Headless Horseman.  The students graded themselves on reading with expression and accuracy, ability to keep the reading moving smoothly, using loud voices and speaking clearly.  The students received two evaluations.  One for the group performance and their own self-evaluation. The rubric was 1(Needs Improvement) 3(Good) and 5(Excellent). On Friday the students preformed for Mrs. Bromwich's class.  The groups performances were excellent.  The performances were recorded.

Descriptive Paragraphs of the Legendary Heroes of the American Tall Tales

After reading the tall tales of their choice, the students listed the character traits and examples from the book.  The students shared them with the class so that they could compare the different traits of the heroes.  Using the T-Chart of the traits and examples, the students wrote descriptive paragraphs.  They worked in cooperative groups.  Here are the following paragraphs:

Mike Fink was a legendary hero of the American tall tales.  Mike Fink was independent.  He ran away from home when he was two.  Mike Fink was powerful.  He raised the prow of the monstrous opponent.  He was hard working.  He handled the chores and cleared the land.
By David and Jack

Sally Ann Whirlwind was a legendary hero of American tall tales.  She is highly skilled.  She could swim under water for an hour without a breath.  She is inventive.  She screamed so loud the bird's feathers blasted off to create the bald eagle.  She was brave.  She played King of the Mountain with the alligators. She is fast.  She ran as fast as a cheetah to win the race with her brother.
By Alexis and Leah and Jada

Pecos Bill was a legendary hero of the American tall tales.  Pecos Bill was eccentric.  He lived with the coyotes.  Pecos Bill was creative.  He used a rattle snake as a lasso.  Pecos Bill was larger than life.  He chased Lightning all around the globe.  Pecos Bill was a problem solver.  He lassoed a tornado to catch his bouncing bride.  Pecos Bill was strong.  He sqeezed out all all of the venom out of a snake.
By Zoe and Emma and Abby

Swamp Angel was a legendary hero of the American tall tales.  Swamp Angel was larger than life.  She hunted Tarnation who was bigger than Tennessee.  Swamp Angel fought Tarnation for more than 4 days.  Swamp Angel ws very courageous.  She hunted the bear even though the men made fun of her.
Sophia

Swamp Angel was a legendary hero of the American tall tales.  She was strong.  She ws so strong that she could throw a log and it would fall right into place.  She was very brave.  She ws so brave that she could fight the biggest bear ever, Thundering Tarnation.  He was so big and mean.  And the people needed someone to kill Tarnation to save the people.  They sent several different men to defeat Tarnation, but they ended up broken and useless.
By Alyssa

Bloom Amaryllis, Bright and Beautiful

The students have potted their Amaryllis bulbs.  There are a few different kind  such as White Christmas, Cinderella, Apple Blossom and Red Lion.  The students met in small groups with Mrs. Guenther according to their flower type to read the planting and watering directions.  The students also compared the directions for each of the different types of flowers.  They discovered the planting and watering directions were the same.  The students are keeping a journal about the growth of their flowers.  For the first entry, the students wrote down the planting and watering directions.  We also researched how long it will take them to bloom.  It should be between 6 to 8 weeks.  The students also drew pictures of their plants and measured the length of the leaves in order to track the growth of their plants. Thank you so much for purchasing the bulbs for our final project for the flowering plant unit.  Our room should be ablazed with beautiful, colorful flowers in December.

Tall Tales Interest Project

End of Unit Project:
Students selected a tall tale of their choice.  The students are working on these activities for this week.
Vocabulary
Select 10 words of interest from the story.
Select 5 words from the 10 words to create sentences for them.

Comprehension
Write the definition for a tall tale.
Identify 3 exaggerations from the book.
Draw an illustration for one of the exaggerations.
List 4 to 6 traits of the main character and give examples from the book to support them.
Write a paragraph using these traits.

Performance
Do a reader's theater for the book.

What Great Form!

The students continue to learn and practice writing a paragraph with a topic sentence and detail sentences.  The other  most important skill was to indent only the first sentence of a paragraph. The students identified character traits for Paul Bunyan and examples from the book to support it.  The students used a T-chart.  Using their T-chart, I modeled for the students how to write a paragraph. The topic sentence was Paul Bunyan was a legendary hero for American tall tales.  The detail sentences were as follows:  He was strong. As a baby, he collected trees by pulling them out by the roots.  Paul was creative.  He made a colossal griddle to make enough pancakes for all the lumberjacks.  He was highly skilled.  He leveled all the trees to make the Great Plains.  He was powerful.  With his ax, he gouged out the Grand Canyon.

Suggested Authors to Read for Third Graders

Adler, David
Bunting, Eve
Brown, Marc
Christopher, Matt
Cleary, Beverly
Cole, Joanna
Danziger, Paula
Di Terlizzi, Tony
Dixon, Franklin
Gibbons, Gail
Giff, Patricia
Goble, Paul
Howe, Deborah
Keene, Carolyn
Mora, Pat
Munoz Ryan, Pam
Osborne, Mary
Park, Barabra
Pollacco, Patricia
Prelutsky, Jack
Ringgold, Faith
Sharmat, Majorie Weinman

Welcome Home Flat Stanley

As part of our integrated reading, writing, social studies and mathematics program, the students are participating in the Flat Stanley project.  The students have read the book called "Flat Stanley" by Jeff Brown.  In the book, Stanley is accidentally squished " as flat as a pancake" when the bulletin board falls on him.  He becomes very flat, but he is fine.  He discovers the advantage of being flat enough to fit into an envelope and being able to travel through the mail.  The students sent out Flat Stanleys to various places to help us learn about other places in the United States and the world.

Flat Stanley has returned from Illinois and California with fun tales of adventures and pictures of the sights he has seen.  Another Flat Stanley has also returned from the country of Malaysia  with pictures of the exotic places he visited there.  Another Flat Stanley is on his way to South America and Texas for the holidays.  If you have relatives or friends in the continents of Africa, Europe or Australia who would be willing to host Flat Stanley, please let me know.

Student Leaders

The students are learning how to set goals, make better decisions, problem solve and self-monitor their progress.  These skills will help them to be leaders throughout life.  The students have identified writing goals to improve their writing.  The  students are also learning to be proactive.  This means an individual  takes responsibility for his/her choices and actions.  The students have identified the following traits of student leaders: star performer, creative, hard working, highly skilled, independent, resourceful, persevering, problem solver and inventive.

Introduction to Mexico Unit

Objectives
Students are learning about our nearest neighbor to the south.  They will be developing critical thinking skills as they compare life in Mexico to life in the United States.  They will develop an awareness of how culture affects people's lives.

Students developed their prior knowledge by compiling information they knew about Mexico.  The following information was listed:  They speak Spanish.  They eat empanadas.  The Spaniards conquered the Aztecs.  The Aztecs, Mayans, and Olmecs were very important indian tribes in Mexican history.  The United States was once part of Mexico.  The Day of the Dead is a holiday to remember loved ones who have died.  Mexico was under the rule of Spain for many years.

The students then created categories of study and listed questions to research about Mexico under each category.  The following categories and questions were compiled:   Government:  What kind of government does Mexico have?  Plants:  What kind of exotic plants does Mexico have?  Holidays:  What are some more holidays they celebrate?  Language:  Do they speak more than one language?  History:  What were the important contributions made by the indian tribes?  What were some important events in Mexico's history?  Food:  What kind of foods and drinks do they have  for the special holidays?  What are some famous restaurants?  What are some famous cooks?  Stories:  What kind of books do they read?  Geography:  What is the geography of Mexico like?  Clothes:  What kind of clothes do they wear?  Schools:  Do they have schools as big as ours?  Each student selected two questions they would like to do further research on.

Next the students discussed how they might learn the answers to these questions.  These are the activities suggested:  Look up answers on the computer.  Read books.  Use Spanish and English dictionaries to learn about new words.  Look at movies or videos on u-tube.  Send Flat Stanley o Mexico.  Do e-mail with someone from Mexico.  Ask speakers to present on Mexico to the class. Look at posters.  Go to Mexican restaurants.  Make Mexican recipes at school. Go to Mexican stores.  Make Mexican art such as God's eyes.

All of this will guide our study of Mexico.  Any suggestions from parents and friends are invited.  Books and artifacts about Mexico are welcomed.

Developing Leaders in the Third Grade

The students created a bullentin board that featured a photo of each student. Each student recorded adjectives that explained his/her  best qualities which contribute to being a good leader.

Character education is an important part of our curriculum.  My mission is to create a classroom environment where kindness, respect and thoughtfulness prevail. Students are encouraged to do kind acts for others.  The book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, gives many colorful examples of how to fill a bucket that kids can relate to.  Each time someone does a good deed the students comment on it.  Student certificates are given for being a bucket filler. 

Welcome

Welcome! Third grade is an important grade for students.  You will be amazed at your child's growth this year on many levels. This blog is designed so that we can share what's happening in our classroom with our family and friends. Join us on our third grade journey.

I would like to thank you for such a great conference week.  I enjoyed sharing with you the student's academic progress and forming new goals.