Rainy Days

Rainy Days

This week we have been enjoying some tremendous weather!

Have you ever wondered what causes lightning and thunder? 

Watch this Brainpop video to find out. 

Rainy days keep us inside for most of the day, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun!

Today we brought in blankets and pillows and cuddled up with our books. 

We laid out blankets, uncurled sleeping bags and even made forts from sheets.

Once we were all settled we pulled out our chapter books and plunged in. 

We even sipped on some hot chocolate as we enjoyed our books!

What is your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?

Do you prefer the rain or the snow?

Write a 3 -5 sentence comment. Make sure you use adjectives  to describe your activity or setting.

Holiday Traditions

Winter Holidays 

One of the most exciting things winter are all of the holidays people celebrate with their friends and families. There are many different holidays that fall during the winter season. 

Watch the BrainpopJr. video on Winter Holidays. 

No matter what holiday you celebrate, you and your family have special traditions. 

A tradition is something that family, friends, or another group of people has done for many years and continues to do on a regular basis. 

Learning about other people's traditions is an excellent way to learn  about other cultures, beliefs and more about your friend!

Each student in Third Grade has had the privilege of participating in a 1 to 1 program. This means that each student gets their own Acer to work on in class. Having our own Acers lets us practice many skills including blogging. Since we have access to our own computers we thought it would be fun to invite another classroom to work with us.

We got together with a Mrs. Levy's 2nd grade class who will get this opportunity to work on their own Acers next year.  But that doesn't mean they don't know how to blog! In fact, Mrs. Levy has a wonderful blog where students can leave insightful comments. Here is her link! Mrs. Levy's Class Blog

After completing your interview, leave a comment with your "Blogging Buddy"about the winter holiday traditions you celebrate.

What are some traditions you and your family practice over the winter holidays? Which is your favorite tradition? Why is it special?  

Don't forget, excellent comments include:

- complete sentences

- high vocabulary

- questions that can spark a conversation

 

Turkey vs. Eagle 

Can you imagine Thanksgiving without turkey?  

Well, if Benjamin Franklin had it his way we may not be eating turkey for Thanksgiving at all! According to a letter Benjamin Franklin wrote to his daughter in 1784 he wanted to make the wild turkey, not the bald eagle, the national bird of the United States!

What did Ben Franklin see in the plump wild turkey besides a delectable dinner? According to his letter he clearly did not think the bald eagle was an appropriate candidate to represent the Unites States. He claimed the eagle was a lazy thief, and a coward.

Do you agree with Ben Franklin? 

Use World Book online to research a few facts about eagles or wild turkeys. 

What facts support your opinion? 

Write a 3-5 sentence paragraph stating your opinion. Be sure to explain your facts in your own words. 

 

Many Magnificient Multiplication Strategies

Many Magnificent Multiplication Strategies

Over the last few weeks we have been working on multiplication. We have been learning many different strategies to help us solve multiplication problems. 

We started with repeated addition. If Sophia has 3 packs of popsicle. Each pack has 4 popsicles in it. Sophia could either use addition or multiplication to find how many she has in all.

Another strategy is creating equal groups and counting the total number. So, Sophia could draw 3 packs with  4 popsicles in each. 

We practiced making equal groups with items in our classroom. Can you identify the multiplication sentence for these groups?

We also learned how create helpful arrays. An array is a great visual way to organize numbers into neat rows and columns. 

In honor of Halloween we used slimy pumpkin seeds to make arrays. Check out the addition sentences and multiplication sentences!

  I bet you don't realize how frequently you use multiplication to solve day to day problems.

For example, Angelisse was preparing for her birthday and needed to buy goodies for her party. She invited 26 friends to join in her celebration. When she went to Target she found the most precious notepads she was certain her friends would treasure. They came in packs of 6. How many packs does Angelisse need to purchase to have enough for all of her friends? 

Multiplication is a skill you will be grateful to have perfected!

Can you create some word problems that require multiplication for a friend to solve? 

For an extra challenge, create a two step problem for your friends to solve. 

Your word problem must include at least 3 sentences. Practice your writing and vocabulary skills by writing strong sentences! 

Bar Graphs

There are many different ways to share data with other people. Our favorite way is by graphing it! There are different types of graphs like a picture graph or line plot, but our favorite is the bar graph.

Here are some extremely creative and informative bar graphs we created our selves. 

 Every bar graph must have the following three things: 

1. Title (three labels)

2. Categories

3. Scale

In the bar graph below the title is Favorite Video Games. This tells us that the graph will give us information about the classes favorite video games.  

by Kaden and Tyler

We can use bar graphs to compare data. In this bar graph we can see that 2 more students voted for puppies than for
bunnies.

by Kate and Miss P

We can also use bar graphs to find how many students voted in all by adding all of the data together. How many students voted for their favorite video game in this graph?

By Noah and Alexa

Here are two more bar graphs we created. What information can you learn?  

By Hunter and Ella

By Leo Carillo

Use the sentence frames we made in class to ask the class a question about one of the graphs. 

1. Name the graph and the creators of the graph.

2. Fill out the spaces in our sentence frame with categories and numbers from the graph. Be sure it makes sense! So check your numbers carefully!

3. Ask the class to solve your question. 
4. Answer someone's question. Be sure no one else has already answered it. 

Bones! Bones! Bones!

Bones

In honor of the horrifying holiday of Halloween we have started

 learning all about the incredible skeleton system. Have you ever thought about what our bodies would be like without bones? 
Click here to watch an informative video on BrainpopJr about bones!

This diagram shows some of the most common bones in our bodies and their names. When you comment, please be sure to use the correct name and spelling for the bone you are discussing.

This is a great song to help learn all of the names of the bones in our bodies! 

  Creating skeletons, reading various non fiction books, and making our own diagrams has taught us a lot of important facts about bones. 

What is your favorite fact about our bones so far? In your opinion, which bone do you think is most important and why? Have you ever broken any bones?   

 

When you are done posting a comment practice naming the bones by playing this game. 

Name that Bone!

FABLES 

Over the last few weeks we have been exploring the world of folktales. This week we began reading various fables. Fables are a type of folktale that have the following elements. 

1. The characters in these short stories are usually animals. 

 The Tortoise and The Hare 

2. The animals will often have human characteristics, which is called personification. 

For example, The Fox and The Stork tell a story of a fox and a stork having dinner together and eating out of a plate.

3. Most importantly, fables have morals or lessons to be learned. 

We have been reading many fables that are claimed to have been told many years ago by a man named Aesop. 

Click here to watch a few Aesop's fables videos.

For this week's post, please comment on:

What is your favorite Aesop fable?  

What is the moral you learned? 

What fable gives you the best lesson for your life? 

------------------------------------- OR --------------------------------------

Who is Aesop? 

Use World Book Online Kids to read some interesting facts about Aesop and Ancient Greece. (login information can be found on the home page of my website)

Share what you learned with us! Remember you must write what you learned in your own words!