ReligionLanguage ArtsIn language arts, we presented our published books at a writing celebration on Halloween! The kids have been enjoying checking out each others' books from the classroom library! We are now moving onto our next published piece which the students decided to write about Michigan! Each of the students chose two topics that interested them and will be in charge of researching, writing, editing, and decorating a page in the book for each of their topics. When finished, we'll have the book professionally printed for our library! The kids are all super excited and are having a lot of fun learning about their topics!
Social Studies
Looking Ahead
Housekeeping
The Candy Caper
As with anything new, I was pretty nervous that this was going to crash and burn, that the kids would get stuck/frustrated/bored and this would have been a huge waste of time and money. Thankfully, it was not, but there are some things I learned pretty quickly.
A Peek into the gameWhat's Next?Before starting this Breakout, I had already been planning a Halloween themed breakout, so that will be our next try. It is based on the book called Vunce Upon a Time, so I'm calling the breakout "Vunce Upon a Treasure Hunt". The breakout begins when a letter falls from the book as we are reading it. It explains to the kids that there Dagmar (the main character from the story) has hidden his stash of candy in our room and that they can share it if they can find all 5 missing keys. To find the keys, the students break up into 5 groups and follow a series of clues that lead them to their final key. For the most part, my original plans should work, but having completed our first breakout, there are a few small tweaks that I'll make. We're also going to try to beat the timer too, so that should add a new element as well. Overall this intro into the world of breakouts was immensely helpful for me and should help frame my thinking as I plan our future activities. It was also an amazing adventure in cooperation, critical thinking, and active learning for my students! I can't wait to breakout again!
So, it was a bit of a crazy week and weekend, which means I didn't get a chance to do an update. Instead, I'm going to post a gallery with some pictures from last week. It's kind of lame, but the time change has been really hard for us in the Erickson household, but I'll be sure to post a good update next weekend. If you want to know more about last week, I'll be making another post shortly. I've also been asked to write a blog post about our Breakout Edu games, so I'll be posting that in a little bit (if I can stay awake, that is!) ** Also! We're doing Mass this week! It is Thursday at 9 if you would like to join us! ** Did you see our bulletin news last week?
Map TestingA good chunk of our language arts time this week was spent completing our MAP tests. Not fun or glamorous, but the kids worked hard and did their best! Next week, we are back to our genre study in reading and we will be having our first writing celebration as well! We're also starting Spelling Tic-Tac-Toe next week, which will have the students choosing 3 ways to practice their words throughout the week. I gave them a preview on Friday and they seemed excited about it!
ScienceIn science, we continued to look at how animals are classified. One activity we did included watching a Discovery Channel video and categorizing the animals as either mammal, fish, bird, reptile, or amphibian. It was a lot of fun and the video was so cool! We also did a little crossover work with math this week! We worked on measuring, and also talked a bit about how plants grow when we were looking at our pumpkin in math. Math
Housekeeping
Looking Ahead
Language Arts
MathIn math, we continued working on our equal grouping lessons and also started looking at our math facts. We're going to be hitting the multiplication facts pretty hard in the next few weeks, so flashcards would be great practice for the math logs in the coming weeks. Some of the students are still struggling with addition facts, so if that is the case for your child, I would start there (multiplication facts are much easier once the addition facts are mastered). I also started working with leveled groups this week, which went pretty well! It was an admittedly boring week for math, so next week I'm hoping to mix it up a little! (It might get a little messy!) Science
Social StudiesWe continued working on Michigan's geography this week and focused on the mountains and resources of our state. The students are making some AMAZING maps that I can't wait to show off. Most of the groups are finished, or closed to being finished, so next week we will just need to add a map key! Maker Space
Looking Ahead
Housekeeping
Social Studies
We started our study of Michigan this week! Super exciting! The students specifically focused on the geography of Michigan and are in the process of creating some pretty amazing maps! They've already located a number of important cities, added rivers, labeled our bordering lakes and states/countries, and some have even added mountains. We'll be finishing these up next week by adding some of the important natural resources of our state!
We also took part in our 2nd Mystery Skype, and our first international Mystery Skype! The students did a great job figuring out the continent, country, county, and even the city where the mystery class was located! We found out that they were in Newhaven in Sussex County, England! The students couldn't wrap their brains around the fact that the kids in England had to go because their school day was almost over even though ours was just starting! We'll have to spend some time talking about time zones! Keep up to date on our Skype adventures on our Mystery Skype page! Math
We continued splitting numbers into equal groups this week. One of the things we did this week was creating spiders with our multiplication and division fact families! They used googly eyes to make arrays on their spiders and wrote the math problems to go with the arrays on the spiders' legs. They turned out so cute! They will be in the hallway outside of our room for about the next week or so if you want to stop by and see them! I can't believe I forgot to take pictures, but if I go in this weekend, I'll try to get a few pictures to post.
Science
Cardboard Challenge
Without a doubt, the best part of this week (for the students AND for me) was the Cardboard Challenge! The challenge started a few years ago and aims to get kids playing and using their imaginations, both of which I also think are super important for learning! Since we are a class of Makers, I thought this would be something that the kids would really enjoy; boy, was I right!
We started by watching a video about the little boy who was the inspiration for the Cardboard Challenge. It is really a great video and it really got the kids excited!
Pumpkin Fluff Recipe
I also made the kids a special treat for fun Friday! Pumpkin Fluff! All of the kids that tried it, loved it! It's not super unhealthy and is a yummy fall treat!
Looking Ahead
Housekeeping
Hi! I haven’t received this month’s fliers yet, but wanted to let you know about the book order so we can be sure to get our books before the end of the month (there are lots of great Halloween choices!) The fliers should be here early next week, but in the meantime, you can order or browse online at Scholastic.com. Use the code L49RZ to join our class.
Paper orders will be due Friday, October 16 and online orders will be due Sunday, October 18. If our camouflage stumped you on Facebook, check below to find the hidden animals! Still can't find them? Here's a close-up!
|
AuthorHi! I'm Mrs. Erickson and I am the 3rd grade teacher at St. Francis de Sales. To learn more about me, click here. Archive
February 2017
Tags
All
|