3rd Grade Update

Hi Friends & Families,

Even though the year is slowly wrapping up, your 3rd graders continue to work hard.

The students completed their unit on data collection & analysis in math.  As a final project they broke into groups & thought about information that they would want to know.  They then polled their classmates on topics such; as favorite candy bar, color, or pet. Each group then took this data and created tally charts, line plots, and bar graphs.  They used these graphs & charts to analyze the data & draw conclusions like a research marketer might.

In writing the students have each chosen a favorite story & working on editing, revising, & publishing.  We will have a publishing party/end of the year on the last day of school.  It would be great if you could all come to read their work & celebrate a great year with us!

This social studies unit has been really fun.  Learning the history of our city has been great for the students and the field trip to Old Town was a great success.  Each student made a book about Spanish exploration that included vocabulary words, a timeline, and a map from Spain to America. We will now be moving on to our science unit all about matter.

The inside of an explorer book with a map, timeline, vocabulary pocket, & explorer booklet

The cover of Broc's explorer book

In reading the class is working on figurative language & poetry.  The students are learning how to use language in order to paint pictures for the reader.  You will be able to see their poetry during the publishing party.

The Sierra Club at America's Finest

Hi All,
Check out this article from Speak City Heights.  They came with us on our last camping trip to Joshua Tree and made an amazing video that shows what the Sierra Club really does for inner city schools.  The students & I are so grateful to have had these opportunities this year.

Here is a link to the video and the rest of the article as well:
http://www.speakcityheights.org/2012/07/for-inner-city-kids-time-outdoors-cultivates-confidence-and-leadership/

Guest Teacher

Dear Friends & Families,

We have been so lucky for the past few weeks to have a guest teacher from Japan!  Mihoko is visiting the United States from Tokyo and comes into our class for an hour every Monday & Wednesday.  She has introduced the students to Japanese folk tales, origami, Japanese calligraphy, and Haiku poetry.  The students are also learning about Japanese customs and how to count and say colors in Japanese.

Origami tulips

Learning about the history of Japanese calligraphy before we try it ourselves.

 New Laptops!
AFCS was so lucky to get laptops for each classroom.  Third grade now has 3 laptops that the students are using to publish their writing.  Our goal is for each student to have a published piece by the end of the year & we will celebrate with a publishing party in July!

Ethan & Philip working to publish their favorite story from the year.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

 CST - Monday June 11 - Thursday June 14
We will be starting at 9:30am sharp.  If your student is not here by then, they will have to make up the test at a later time.
We have worked so hard this year & the kiddos can't wait to show off what they have learned.  Please help them do their best by getting them to bed early next week.  I think 8:00 or 8:30 is a great bed time!  Also, have a healthy dinner and a complete & healthy breakfast each day.
The students may bring snacks such as goldfish or popcorn to share with the class.  I have found that snacking through the test helps the kiddos.

No School - June 18 & June 19

Old Town Field Trip

A BIG thank you to all of our chaperones from Wednesday's field trip!!!  I am so grateful for your help & so are the students...as trips would not be possible without you.

On Wednesday the class traveled back to the 1860's with the help of some great actors in San Diego's Old Town Historic Park.  We were led by the First Lady of San Diego, Mrs. Robinson, on a tour through an old fashioned school, to the blacksmith, and we even had a chance to trade with a shopkeeper in order to make a cake.  This field trip goes along nicely with our social studies unit on San Diego's history.

Mrs. Robinson, the governor's wife and our wonderful tour guide

The blacksmith showed us what a little heat can do.  We learned that a town could not function without a blacksmith

Philip was the printer's apprentice.

Weighing out the flour & deciding what to trade for it.

3rd grade at Old Town

The captain taught us how to use a compass

Mrs. Walker set her students straight.

Petting Daisy

Persuasive Students

Dear Readers,
  
    We all have wants.  In 3rd grade we are talking about how to get our wants fulfilled.  Some students wish for houses with pools, one student wants a pet pig, another student wants a laptop.  After discussing what we want I asked the students how they get what they want.  They responded, "We ask."  We talked about times they had asked for things & received them as well as times they had asked for things and been disappointed.  Questions like, "did the way you ask affect the decision" or "was it a realistic want" came up and led to some thoughtful insights.  Then I read two of my favorite books...

 These great gems are about a little boy named Alex who writes persuasive letters to his parents.  After reading the students were assigned to write a persuasive letter.  They chose one realistic item they wanted from their brainstorm list.  Then they completed a thinking map to organize their ideas; what I want, why I want it, why will it benefit me/our family, and how will I take care of it.  Then using the thinking map each student drafted a persuasive letter.  After reading some of them I'm glad no one was writing to me...we have some very persuasive students in this class!  These letters are hanging up on our writing bulletin board but expect them home at the end of the month. 

Make sure to read her closing & signature!

Kyi's letter part 1

Kyi's letter part 2

The class even helped me compose a letter to Josh, persuading him to get me a puppy!  We'll see if it works.

Philip's reason had us all laughing: "It will also help teach me responsibility for when I have a baby."

May Flowers

Dear Families & Friends,

     The students were so excited when they saw the huge manilla folder on my desk this week because they knew exactly what that meant....pen pal letters!  It has been so fun having 4th graders from San Francisco as our pen pals.  This month we wrote back to them about the exciting events in our lives & decorated the letters with flowers to represent spring.

 

     We were also really excited this week because now not only do we have tadpoles...we have SNAKES!   Mr. Bill came on Wednesday and brought us 2 garter snakes to keep as class pets. He also brought in a gopher snake, California king snake and a rattle snake (but we aren't keeping those thank goodness).  The students learned about the eating and sleeping habits of snakes and also got to hold the gopher and California king.  We kept the rattle snake in its tub.

Holding a gopher snake.

Mr. Bill teaching us about snakes.

 

 

Our two new friends! 

     In math this week we were focusing on measurement.  The students reviewed tools and units of length & capacity.  We reviewed perimeter and area and then were introduced to volume.  At first this concept of space being taken up by a 3 dimensional figure was a little mystifying to the students but as the week went on I believe the light bulb went on.  We also discussed units of weight & the tools used to weigh objects.  The class really loved learning about the platform scale.  This is the scale used to measure objects over 1 ton, like semi-trucks.  Broc shared with us that his dad, who is a truck driver, has to weigh his truck on scales like these too keep safe on the road.

finding the volume of 3-D shapes

     We finished our how-to book this week.  Each student chose one activity in which they excel and created a page for the book.  It will be in our class library if you would like to see it.

Giovanni's page: how to make a Caesar salad

We are also continuously adding new words to our synonym & antonym chart.  The students are trying to refrain from using words like "happy" or "sad" in their writing.  Instead of happy they can use elated & instead of bad they can choose detrimental.  Or maybe they can use loathe instead of dislike.  I am excited to watch them become excited when they learn new vocabulary!  Something else that is helping us with our vocab. is the new book we started last week called The Phantom Tollbooth.  Please ask your students about this book as they love talking about it in class and probably have a lot to say to you about it.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

May 23rd we are trying to organize a field trip to Old Town.  This trip will go along with our social studies unit on San Diego's history.  Please keep this date in mind because we will need chaperones!

Welcome Back!

Dear Friends & Families,
   I hope you had a wonderful vacation.  I was so excited to have the kiddos back this week.  I didn't realize how much I missed them until they walked in the door on Tuesday morning.  As many of you know, I fractured my foot over the break & your students have been so patient & sympathetic.  They help me walk down the stairs & are constantly asking me if I am healing quickly.  It warms my heart!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Tuesday, May 8th is PICTURE DAY!  Students must wear uniforms.

Thursday, May 10th is the pizza party for the students who completed the reading challenge.

   This week we were reviewing the math concepts we had covered before vacation.  Please ask your students to tell you about: area, perimeter, 2/3 digit x 1 digit multiplication, place value from the hundreths to the millions, and rounding.  Next week we will begin a unit on measurement; length, volume, capacity, & weight.  This is a really easy unit to supplement at home.  Have students practice measuring things around the house, finding perimeters of objects, have them weigh themselves and their siblings, or measure how much water it takes to fill up different sized containers in your kitchen.
    In language arts we are beginning a "Testing as a Genre" unit.  CST testing is quickly approaching & although it is no one's favorite time of the year I want to ensure that your students are not taken by surprise.  We spent time this week discussing the difference between "real reading" & "test reading."  The students are learning that during the test you must:
1. know what to look for in the passage so they read the questions first
2. know that the test makers choose the answers & there is only 1 correct answer
3. know the questions & directions are like little puzzles & we have to figure out what the test makers want us to figure out
4.  know the teacher cannot help
5.  know that all of the passages do not relate to each other
     We were practicing answering questions about "how-to" passages so the class thought it would be great to make a  3rd Grade How-To Book.  Each student decided on a skill that they believe themselves an expert in and are creating pages to share their skill or expertise.  We will have it in our classroom library when we are finished, so come check it out!
     We are finishing our solar system unit.  We read a great book called Postcards from Pluto.  Then the students pretended to travel to a different planet & write postcards back home telling about their trip.

   Another exciting event in our classroom...we have class pets!  Bill & his father went hiking over the weekend and brought us tadpoles.  We are having so much fun watching them grow.  A few have even sprouted their hind legs.  Check back soon to see if we have any that transform into frogs.

Joshua Tree National Park

Dear Friends,
    Over the long vacation a few students and I had the opportunity to go camping in Joshua Tree National Park with volunteers from the Sierra Club.  We had an incredible campsite that backed up to a large mountain of boulders.  The students were able to explore, climb, and build their confidence in the process. After learning how to set up a campsite we spent 2 days exploring many great hikes throughout the park.  The Sierra Club volunteers even took us on a night hike, where the kiddos saw geckos, snakes, tarantulas, and owls.  We talked about the desert biome & the students were able to use what they learned in our science unit and apply it to this experience. 
     We are so grateful to the Sierra Club & the great volunteers for making this experience possible. 
     The online news site, Speak City Heights, came out to join us for a day & will be publishing a piece on our trip.  I will post a link to the site when the story has been posted.  The story & our class might also make it onto PBS again!

Setting up our campsite.

Exploring the rock scrambles around our campsite.

Kyi & Sam inside the hollow rock.

Broc & Javhi in the hollow rock.

Out of This World

The 3rd graders have been exploring the solar system for the past few weeks.  We have been exploring our solar system.  The class has been reading non-fiction and fiction text about the solar system.  They are learning about the sun and the 8 planets, the Earth's moon and its phases, and how everything in the  sky follows a pattern.

A great book to teach about the phases of the moon

     We went on a great field trip to the Reuben H Fleet Science Center where we watched an IMAX on the Hubble Telescope.  The kids and I were mesmerized by the film and the incredible photos the telescope was able to take.  Thank you to all of the fabulous chaperones who made this trip possible!  And a big thank you to Mary O'Brien, who works at the science center, for helping to organize the trip!

Byron exploring the great exhibit on Black Holes!

getting ready to watch the IMAX!

fun with colors

The class with all of my wonderful chaperones!

   This week the students presented their planet reports.  The students got in groups of 3 and each group was responsible for researching one of the 8 planets.  They organized the information into a summary of expository text and presented their reports to the class.  The class took notes on each presentation and used the information to create planet books.

I also want to thank Helia, Priscilla's mom, for printing us that great image of the solar system.  The kids LOVE it!