February Fun!

Thank you to our Room Parents and volunteers for another fun party. 

• Bags were decorated.
• Valentines were exchanged!
• We played B-I-N-G-O!
• We limboed!
• We ate!  
• And fun was had by all. 

Limbo at its best! 

Cupcakes, strawberries, and pretzels!
The perfect blend of salty and sweet!

Bingo players had bragging rights for a few seconds! 

Thank you also for the lovely flowers!  They totally made my day. 

We are working away learning about Olympic symbols, including the rings, flag, and mascot. Tomorrow we will all research a Winter Sport of choice to include in our AMAZING Olympic Folders!  

Continuing our learning about READING and WRITING non-fiction this week we learned about cactus. We used an encyclopedia and divided the research into sections and each group learned about one aspect (such as life cycle or parts of a cactus) and then we filled in our own section of a JIGSAW puzzle. Tomorrow all groups will present what they learned and others will fill in the empty jigsaw pieces so we have a completed puzzle.

the saguaro (sa-wah-ro) cactus

Tomorrow students will complete their CACTI FACTI where they create a cactus with a paragraph outline to share their learning. 

Olympic Fever in Room 102

Do you know the motto of the Olympics? Do you know the colors of the Olympic rings? How about what the 5 rings represent? Don't know.... ask your 3rd grader!  

The Winter Games, which occur every 4 years, have their Opening Ceremony tonight! The games are being held or hosted this year in Pyeongchang, South Korea!  

We have been reading and learning about the Olympics in class. Pierre de Coubertin is known as the Father of the Modern Olympics. We have learned of his contributions to the symbols of the Olympics, including the flag and motto. 

Today, we had a very special guest in our class. Sidney's mom, Kristine Lilly (Heavey), is a three time Olympiad for the United Stated Women's Soccer Team!  She brought in pictures, clothing, gold and silver medals, and a true Olympic spirit to our class today! 

Kristine spoke the great things about being on a team, working hard, and the importance of school! She is a World Record holder for the most games played for a country - 352! She is also a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame! 

She compared winning the gold medal to a snow day times 200!  

Talking about TEAMWORK!

Telling the class about stepping
on to the podium! 

Anna takes a look at a gold medal! 

How cool is this? 

Here is what your child might look like if he/she wins for Team U.S.A.! 

Scientists at Work!

Scientists Hard at Work!

When you add up: 

• syringes
• graduated cylinders
• 2 pan balances        
  
• gram stackers
• solids & liquids

=  FUN!

Students have moved from building and designing carts that move to measuring and predicting the outcome of mixing solids and liquids. Was it messy? (a little) Was it noisy? (Yup!) Was it fun?  (It really was!) 

Expanded Sentences 

It started with a snowman. Then we wondered what a snowman could do? Run? Ski? Sled? Skate? Snowboard?  Sure! 

Subject and predicate = sentence    The snowman skated. 

But a third grade sentence? Not quite! 

But if we e-x-p-a-n-d-e-d our sentences and answered questions about not just who?and what?, but also why? when? where? and how? then MAYBE, they would turn into great third grade sentences. 

Your students brought home their drafts today, BUT the final drafts outlined their snowmen and they are proudly standing the hallway for others to read. Check these out!

Here is Charlie's! 

The big, young snowman always skis quickly down the white, snowy mountain on the day after Christmas with his friends.

Check out David's Patriots themed mittens!

The fast snowman was skiing down the hill and when 
he got to the bottom he happily ran back up again!

Design a Sports Complex

Here is the sports complex I designed. What will yours look like?  Make sure you meet all the criteria! 

Typing Pal

We logged on to Typing Pal today and got started with our lessons. Students were excited about learning to type. Mrs. Singer showed them how to put their fingers on the home row of keys. The key to learning how to type is PRACTICE! 

Students can practice at home. They can log on right here on the blog. Click on Typing Pal on the right side of the blog, under Quick Links. Students know their user name and password. Then is it just a few minutes of practice at a time to teach those fingers where to go!  

Happy Holidays to All!

Happy holidays to all!  

We had a busy week this week with finishing up many things before the break.  

We finished our read aloud Seven Wonders of Sassafrass Springs. 

We also finished up some math activities involving money, perimeter and addition of 3 digits.

We read a story called The Patchwork Quilt and spent time discussing vocabulary from the story. We dictionaries and context clues to determine the meaning of words. 

I shared my own patchwork quilt that was given to me almost 40 years ago by a neighbor when I moved away from the neighborhood. 


In Science we designed carts this week. We used words like design, engineer, problem/solution, improve, and constraints as we worked to find a design that met the challenge given. This is the padlet the groups made to share their first creations. We will continue with this engineering challenge after vacation. Click to see the designs!

Pajama Day and fireside reading! When we finished our padlet today, we listened to the high school band and chorus play holiday music in the hallway. Then we sat by the "fire" and read our books. 

Many thanks to our parents who came in and helped us out at our Holiday Party today!  (Mr. Sinis, Mrs. Shaughnessy, Mrs. Gorham, Mrs. Guindon, and Mr. Tirrell)  We had fun playing Pin the Nose on the Snowman, eating waffles, and making our tree ornaments. Everyone enjoyed it!