We came in this morning to 3 baby chicks! They hatched overnight. We also have one other egg that has pipped, so hopefully we will add to out count through the weekend. The kids have been absolutely amazed -- I've loved watching them observe and notice things I hadn't even seen myself. Jordan (above) has been camped out by the incubator every chance he had!
The students made "baby announcements" this morning and watched a Reading Rainbow about eggs.
0 Comments
Tomorrow is Meet the Teacher for the rising third graders. Once again I'm faced with bittersweet feelings. I'm excited to get things ready for a new class, but sad to see this awesome group of kids off to fourth grade. Ms. Mitchell and I made an "All about us" bulletin board to display our awesome Meet the Teacher flyers and info. AND...we've got these AWESOME favors to give out to all our new kiddos!
Good morning! We have had a very exciting day so far! This morning, we had our Kiwanis Medallion Award Ceremony with General Ed Hall. After receiving our medals, we loaded up the buses and took a tour of the Spartanburg Country Public Library. We learned about their summer programs and enjoyed a read aloud. This week, we are finishing up with Dolphin Tale 2. We will then begin a unit that goes along with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. We will study different weather phenomenon and different cloud types. (These are actually 4th grade standards!) Tomorrow, we will read the book and the students will do a writing activity, where they became the author. The prompt is “I don’t want it to rain meatballs, but I wish it would rain __________, because…” They will also be allowed to illustrate their writing. Wednesday, we will focus on cloud types. This is an excellent tutorial on the different types of clouds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMagDRCpJ14. We will also read about them in the attached article. On Wednesday, we will review some things Ms. Mitchell has taught them about figurative language by completing a fun activity on weather related idioms. Thursday and Friday, we will complete a weather scavenger hunt and watch clips from the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. In math, we will review through several math topics that go along with our weather unit. We will practice reading thermometers, complete a favorite weather survey and make bar graphs, and solve weather word problems. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I have attached the third grade newsletter. If anyone is interested in sending snacks/drinks for our class the day of the Carowinds field trip, please let me know as soon as possible. We will also need waters for Field Day. Thanks so much for your continued support!
Apologies for not sending out correspondence yesterday, as I was out taking Sadie to the doctor. The new cast she had put on last Thursday was pinching a radial nerve and causing her pain and burning sensations. They removed the cast and put her in a new one. She's feeling much better now! I am extremely excited about our plans for the week! We will be fully integrating Math and Science as we complete a week long unit on Dolphins – specifically the story behind Winter. Below is the introduction of Winter's Story: On the calm waters of Mosquito Lagoon one December morning, a crab trap buoy floated gently on the surface of the water. Beneath the buoy was a long rope and tied to the long rope was a crab trap. To a young dolphin calf, it looked like the perfect toy! The dolphin calf grabbed the rope in her mouth and began to play. She swam back and forth, up and down, twisting and turning around the rope. Suddenly, she realized that the rope was tangled all around her body. It was twisted around her fin on top, called a dorsal fin. It was twisted around her fins on the side, called pectoral fins. Most tightly, it was twisted around her tail, called her flukes. The young dolphin needed help and quick! Luckily, a fisherman nearby saw the crab trap buoy bouncing around on the top of the water. He directed his boat closer and saw the little dolphin all wrapped up in the line of the crab trap. He called for help and waited until a rescue team arrived. The rescue team saw that the little dolphin would need the care of an animal doctor, called a veterinarian, and took her all the way across the state of Florida to Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Once she was at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, the young dolphin was named Winter after the season in which she was found. The veterinarian and the animal care team at the aquarium realized that Winter’s tail was very damaged from her experience with the crab trap – so damaged that she would never be able to use it again. Sure enough, her tail slowly began to fall off until it was completely gone. Winter didn’t let her missing tail slow her down. She learned how to swim side-to-side, like a fish swims. But the animal care team at CMA knew that swimming like that could hurt Winter’s back – a dolphin’s tail is supposed to move up and down! They worked with a group of people from Hanger Prosthetics, a company that makes artificial legs and arms for people. The doctors at Hanger designed a new tail for Winter. When Winter wears it, she can swim like a normal dolphin does – up and down! Yesterday, students learned facts about bottle nose dolphins and watched a Brain Pop video. (https://www.brainpop.com/science/diversityoflife/dolphins/preview.weml) Today we have learned about the different parts of a dolphin, matched them with their function, and labeled a picture of Winter. Students LOVED watching Hope and Winter live as they worked on their diagrams. Here are the links to access the different web cams at Clearwater Marine Aquarium: http://www.ozolio.com/explore/QYKO000001CD http://www.ozolio.com/explore/JCEL000001B4 http://www.ozolio.com/explore/MVYN000001B9 We will be reading several non-fiction articles about dolphins, learning about their sonar (echo-location), and their different parts that have helped them adapt to their environment. http://www.highlightskids.com/audio-story/noisy-world-dolphins http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/animal-planet-presents/videos/the-ultimate-guide-to-dolphins-secrets-of-dolphin-sonar.htm http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/mmp/bottlenose.html http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/nature/secret-language-of-dolphins/ As we integrate all of this into math, we will do several “labs” where we have to measure a dolphin replica, assemble the pieces of her prosthetic tale and take measurements, and also track progress of when she attempted to use her tail on a bar graph. We even have a simulated experienced planned where students will explore writing with their non-dominate hand and tracking their attempts/mistakes. On Friday, we will watch clips from the movie Dolphin Tale and discuss the differences between the movie and the facts that we have learned about in class through our experiences and research. We will also watch Dolphin Tale 2 to learn more about Hope's story. This week will be packed full of learning and fun learning experiences! I have attached the newsletter for the week. There is no homework. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns!
I just received email notification that my 3 current Donor's Choose projects were funded...all by the same donor! A grand total of $7,712 worth of technology! This was the notification I received from Donor's Choose: "Stephen Colbert, Share Fair Nation (created by the Morgridge Family Foundation) and Greenville-based ScanSource are thrilled to team up and fully fund every project in South Carolina in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. Thank you for all that you do for your students every day!" I had 3 projects on Donor's Choose and as stated above, they were all funded today. Each project was for 6 iPad minis and protective cases for each. So with the 6 iPad minis I received previously through Donor's Choose, I now have a class set of 24! For my past 2 graduate courses in educational technology, we were to write a reflection at the end of the course and set goals. One of my goals was to create a classroom with a 1:1 ratio of students and electronic devices. Now thanks to this generous donation, my dreams and goals are a reality! Thank you #Stephen Colbert, #Share Fair Nation, and #ScanSource for making me feel appreciated when I needed it most and for enhancing my classroom in ways I never thought imaginable!
For more information on this donation view the following article: http://www.wfla.com/story/29005284/stephen-colbert-announces-funding-for-nearly-1000-south-carolina-classroom-projects-on-donorschooseorg http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2015/05/07/stephen-colbert-funding-grant-requests-south-carolina-public-school-teachers-donorschoose-crowdfunding-site/70938100/ We received a package today… The kids immediately wanted to know what was inside! I made them make observations about the box and the “LIVE” sticker made them get really excited! J All I would tell them was that it was eggs…the students then made predictions of what could hatch from the eggs. It was very entertaining to read their predictions… I thought Kelsei and Kearstyn did a great job with their predictions: We also read an article about hatching eggs in incubators. We learned that incubators: · keep eggs warm and moist · the temperature must be monitored · eggs must be rotated (I have an automatic egg turner) · chicken eggs take 21 days to hatch · and although incubators are mostly used for birds, they can also be used to hatch reptile eggs. Tomorrow we place the eggs in the incubator and I will reveal to them that these are, in fact, chicken eggs. We will monitor the eggs, the incubator temperature, and the water level for the next 21 days and anticipate their hatching around May 27th. I’m also very excited to share my life cycle kit and the QR Reader display for the stages of development in the chicken life cycle. I have also put out my class set of chicken books that I will allow them to read if they finish classwork early. Students will get to use the iPads to scan the QR codes and see actual photos of chicken development according to the day of incubation. You wouldn’t believe how much they LOVE scanning codes!
Good morning. Graded papers and newsletters will be sent home today. No Dojo reports this week – students did an amazing job with testing last week! As in the last few weeks, there will be no homework from me. In math and science, we will continue working on different activities that review all of third grade content and also challenge their minds and creativity. Several of these activities will be for a grade. We are also continuing to test multiplication facts daily. Our date for the Kiwanis Medalist has been set, so students will have until Friday, May 15 to achieve this goal and add their name to the list for receiving a medal. I have attached the test so that students can practice at home if they wish. Also – please remember that the Math Extra Credit project is due THIS FRIDAY. I will not accept any late projects. I have attached the file in the event you need an additional copy. Please let me know if you have any further questions or comments! Have a great day!
Can you predict which boat won from the picture of all the boats? The kids absolutely blew me away with this challenge! We decided to combine classes for this challenge and I was amazed at how well behaved they were. They did an awesome job and I was so impressed with the outcome. The winning boat today held 300+ paperclips. We finally had to stop counting due to time restraints. I am so proud of the kids this week with their creativity and teamwork. I can definitely seem some prospective engineers and cooperate leaders.
Enjoy the other photos from today's activity... (apologies for the large number of photos - Ta'tyana was my fill in photographer as I added paperclips and she got a little carried away.) |
My dream is to create a 21st Century classroom that encourages collaboration, integrates technology, and promotes thinking deeply.
Archives
August 2018
|