Room 303 News 05-13-19

Weekly Updates and Reminders

• All costumes (Native American or Pioneer) are due to school by Monday, May 20.  Please let us know if you are not able to get a costume. 
   
• The M-Step testing has ended!  We are so proud of all of our students for working so hard to prepare for this state assessment in class and at home.  Thank you parents for your support with the 3 week practice at home as well!  Here are a few pictures of students working in class together.  
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•  Thank you, thank you, thank you for ALL your M-Step snack donations!  The students were very happy to enjoy a classroom snack during their breaks from testing.  
•  Please return the Spring Picture packet if you are not purchasing.  Thank you! 
• The third graders will be going to Greenfield Village on Monday, May 20.  Watch for a reminder and a "final details" note to come home later this week. 
• Wixom Field Day AND Volunteer Breakfast will be on Friday, May 24th.  It is also a half-day of school.  
• Mark your calendars for Third Grade Pioneer Day!  It is on Thursday, May 30th.  This will be a very fun day celebrating all of our Social Studies learning. We will also be sending out a sign-up genius with some needed materials and food for the day.  
  

MATH

We are still working within Unit 7 and learning how to place fractions on a number line!  

SOCIAL STUDIES

Below are a few pictures of students working together on a shared Google document.  Their learning included specific technology instruction coupled with a cumulative social studies' task.  Students learned that their Google account is an account that will follow them all through their education with Walled Lake Schools.  I taught them the value of Google Docs and how they can work collaboratively with several classmates from different computers as well as different locations.  Students learned how to create a document and then invite classmates to work within the document with them.  They also learned how to insert images, change font styles, and create an overall pleasing document.  The Social Studies task went along with our last assessment, wherein students had to design an advertisement for a business.  The document had to contain images, information such as natural resources, business information, and incentives.  They did a fantastic job!  If you are interested in seeing your child's work...simply have your child log into their Google account! 

        

What an incredible learning opportunity we recently had when our PTA so generously funded The Metro Park Mobile Learning to visit our school!  The two programs presented were The French Fur Trade and The Three Fires.  This was a perfect way to introduce our last Social Studies Unit/The History of Michigan. Thank you PTA!😍

 

 SCIENCE:
Again, THANK YOU families for sending in your fruits and vegetable for us to conduct a seed hunt or "dissect" fruits and vegetables as the students would say!  Students opened fruit to locate the seeds and were surprised to learn that vegetables that contain seeds are actually fruits. Next, they described and compared seed properties. 

This week students examined and sorted a selection of seeds: bean, pea, sunflower, and corn that they will observe over the next week.  They also set up seed sprouters and will record changes over the next week. 

Lastly, students participated in an experiment to find out how much water a Lima bean soaked up in a day.  We compared the mass of the seeds that have been soaked in water overnight to the mass of the dry seeds to determine how much water the seeds soaked up.



 Oh YES!!!!  I know you have probably heard about the crayfish!  As part of the life science unit, we are learning about living things...plants & animals!  Therefore, we have real, live, crayfish!  Crayfish that the students can handle and observe every day! To learn about the crayfish structures and each structure's function, it is important for students to have direct interaction!

  


CABBAGE PLANTS!

I hope your child's cabbage plant is growing well!  This really is a great way to start building your child's college fund in a fun and easy way! Below is the web link if you misplaced the information sheet that came home with your child a few weeks ago.  Basically, have your child take care of the plant, take a picture with your child and their plant in September and send it to me via email or have your child bring in a picture the first week of school in the fall!  I will then submit all pictures/entries to Bonnie Plants in the fall.  For specific information, click below!

https://bonniecabbageprogram.com/

Word Study/Grammar:

This week for grammar we are on Week Thirty-three.  The students are learning all about Compound Words and Comparative Adjectives.

Writing:   

We have been wrapping up our unit on Opinion Writing.  Their last piece they are now publishing is an Opinion Piece about whether they think it would have been more fun to be a Pioneer or a Native American child.   This writing piece will be on display for our Pioneer Day.  They are also writing an Opinion Speech that they will perform on camera in their costume.  This will also be a part of our presentation for Pioneer Day.  

Next for writing, we will be writing an Adaptive Fairy Tale.  This is such a fun and exciting unit.  The students will be working to compare and contrast two different Fairy Tales to see how an adaptive Fairy Tale is written.  For example, we will start by comparing Goldilocks and the Three Bears with Goldilocks and the Three Hares.  After we learn about a variety of different Fairy Tales, we will then begin to brainstorm for writing our own.  The students have a lot of fun with this unit!!!

Reading:

In reading, we are almost done with our read aloud Wish.  Ask your child to tell you all about this great chapter book.  Next we will be moving into our Informational Text Research Clubs.  The students will be learning what it means to research a topic and determine what is the most important information.  Each research club will also be working on a Poster Project where they will highlight the five different text structures relating to their topics.