I have a confession to make: I. Love. Grammar. I loved learning it as a kid, I love teaching it, and I love discussing and debating the nuances of it. Today I'll share with you a fun grammar activity we did! We began the school year reviewing the most basic part of speech: nouns. This week, we moved to the next logical part of speech: adjectives. Why are adjectives the next logical step? Because they describe nouns! It is easy to find the adjectives once you've found the nouns. You simply go to a noun and ask, "What kind? Which one? How many?" But we're not there yet. I began today's activity by putting some simple adjectives on the board. I told the class that these are describing words, and that we were going to use them during our greeting (the first part of morning meeting). "Adjectives describe nouns. What is a noun?" "A person, place, or thing!" "Right! Did you know that you are a noun? I want you to think of an adjective to describe YOU! You can choose one from the board or think of your own. We will then use your adjective in our greeting. For example, "Good morning, fancy Mrs. Skillman" Once everyone wrote their adjectives on their post-it notes, we went around the circle and greeted each other with our adjective and name. It was a great way to spice up our greeting! Hover over the photos below to read what each student's adjective was (the writing in the picture is hard to see.) At the end of all this, Smokey hopped by the rug. "We should do one for Smokey!" they shouted. So I snapped a pic. "What adjectives could we use for Smokey?"
The students had lots of thoughts about this: soft, curious, hungry, and adorable were some of my favorites.
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Our first conceptual humanities unit is called "Building a Community." During this unit, social studies and language arts standards combine to form a study of civics and government. We began last week by learning about "rights," the protection of which is the foundation of any civilized community.
This week our unit has lead us to think about how rights are in play in the classroom. In partner groups, the students brainstormed what rights we have in the classroom. Then, partner groups combined to form small groups who refined their lists to make them even better. As a class, we shared and consolidated our lists of rights and brainstormed what rules we could put in place to protect them. The students pointed out that some rights are protected by me and some are protected by them. Conversations like these bring out such interesting comments and connections from the students. One student pointed out that Smokey has all the same rights we do, and so some of our rules should be to protect her! Finally, we used our list of rights and rules to create our class constitution. By creating our own constitution, the students gained a sense of power and ownership over the culture of the classroom along with an intrinsic understanding of the nature of rights and laws. One challenge that educators face is what to do when some students are finished while others are still working. In my class the students have a few different options to choose from whenever they say, "I'm finished!" Fittingly, we call them "I'm Finished Choices." These choices change depending on what's been going on in class. "Independent Study" is always a choice, but it has a couple of different meanings. One meaning is to finish any unfinished work or work that needs correcting. This work is kept in their "independent study folders." The other meaning is that we have an independent study table, with materials and activities for the students to explore on their own. As we get into our conceptual units, the independent study table will have materials that expand or go deeper into our concept. At this point in the year, the table has books about rabbits (Can you guess why?). Students can go here to learn about rabbits and post their new knowledge for others to share. We also have a collaborative puzzle table, where two students at a time can work together to make some progress. Currently, they are working on a vibrant 1000 piece puzzle of a candy shop! Once the puzzle is complete, I frame it and save it to sell at our class market later in the year. It's interesting for me to observe which students gravitate towards which type of choice. This year, many students asked if I could add "Geoboards" to the I'm Finished list -- so I did! This popular choice may seem frivolous, but exploring the geoboard builds conceptual understanding of polygon relationships! As you can see, there is never a dull moment in 3rd grade!
We are off to a fabulous start in 3rd grade! This first week has been all about getting to know the classroom and making it our own. The students began by walking around the room and writing down 3 things they noticed and 1 question they have. Then we came to the rug to share. This activity helped familiarize the students with the locations of important materials in the room, and also opened up conversation about certain procedures. For example, "Why is there a mailbox in your room?" led to an explanation of my system for communicating privately with individuals when they need it. "You have a lot of books!" led to an explanation about my classroom library and the procedures for checking out books. Next week, your child will write to you about our classroom and what they think makes it special. The next order of business was allowing the students to put their own special touch on their surroundings. They created labels for various areas in the room, as well as a class birthday chart! This activity allowed the students to have ownership of their physical space, while at the same time giving them a chance to practice appropriate use of classroom materials and seating.
Taking our time to set things up right, be it our environment or our procedures, will have a lasting effect on the culture of our classroom. If these first 2 days are any indication, it's going to be a great year. Wednesday was the day of our much-anticipated SUPER market! This market was the peak of our classroom economy. If you need a refresher on the ins and outs of our classroom economy, I highly recommend scrolling through the previous blog entries before continuing.
What sets the SUPER market apart is that it is the final market of the year, so many people have looots of money to spend. All year I've been reminding them to keep some money saved away for this special event. To make it worth their while, I made sure to get plenty of valuable items for them to purchase, such as snacks, board games, nail polish, and stuffed animals. To add another layer of economic intrigue, the most valuable items were part of a silent auction. The students learned about bidding, and had to keep track of the money they would be spending if they were to win the items they bid on. The small businesses were also in full swing during the Super Market. Students were selling jewelry, hand-made pillows, posters, collages, and even slime! I know the students would agree that the Super Market was an awesome way to end our economics unit. Thank you to all who donated throughout the year to make this event possible. Enjoy the pictures below! After weeks of exploration and study, the 3rd graders know a lot about area and perimeter. To put their knowledge into practice, they are currently working to build a tiny house! Not seeing the correlation? Keep reading! Architecture and construction are two fields in which area and perimeter are crucial. This is especially true in the tiny house industry, where designers spend much of their time negotiating how to fit all of life's necessities into such a small space. This negotiation created a natural problem-solving opportunity for the students: Imagine you are an architect. A client gives you a list of furniture requirements that they would like to fit into a 17 x 8 tiny house. Can you make this work? After watching a few videos about the construction and functionality of tiny homes, the 3rd graders were so excited to get started! Built (pun intended) into this project are many iterations. The students first had to design the base and the walls of their house, keeping in mind the given length and width of each piece of furniture. When making a blueprint, designers draw their base from the perspective of a bird's-eye view. Imagining their house from this perspective was challenging for the students at first, but they got the hang of it. To complicate things even further, the walls are drawn from a front-view. This means that if an oven is up against a wall, the base would show the stove top, while the wall adjacent to it shows the front of the oven. This spacial-awareness practice was an unforeseen benefit of the project. The next step was to draw the final draft of the blueprint. This allowed the students to work through any issues they had on the 1st draft and perfect the design of their house. Many students are on the 3rd step, which is designing and creating 3D furniture. While the length and width of the furniture has been given to them, they get to choose the height. The height of each piece of furniture that touches a wall has to match what they drew on the final draft of their wall. To create 3D furniture, the students start with a bird's-eye view of the piece of furniture, then they draw a "net" along each side (imagine a lowercase "t" with the drawing in the middle and a long strip coming off of each side). Once cut out, the net is folded down and taped to create a 3D box-like piece of furniture. The students must plan carefully, as the net is what determines the height of the object. Creating and placing the 3D furniture is helping the students make sense of their blueprints and see the purpose of designing from different perspectives. In the end, the students will have a 3-dimensional model tiny home with a fully-designed interior and exterior. They will then find the area and perimeter of each part and answer interview questions from the point of view of themselves as architects. Be sure to stop by the 3rd grade cubbies to see the display!
Last week, we had our second market. To refresh your memory, the market is an in-class event we have each month, where the students run their own small businesses selling goods and services to each other using our class currency. You can read about our first market of the year here. One of the most important aspects of the second market is the opportunity for the students to build upon what happened the first time. As you saw in the previous entry, the students all filled out reflections after the first market. This was a chance for them to process what they bought and why, and what they sold and why. We shared our reflections as a group, which gave business owners an opportunity to make improvements for the next market. What I noticed at the 2nd market was much more thoughtfulness in the way of organization and planning. Our entrepreneurs realized that in order for their businesses to operate more efficiently, they needed to create a more productive, streamlined approach. Below you will see pictures of the organizational tactics I noticed. Hover over them to read a description! And just because it's fun to see them in action, here's a video: We will have one more market this year, giving the students one more opportunity to refine their businesses. I'm hoping to see them make changes to the types of goods they choose to sell, basing it on market demand as seen at the previous two markets. Stay tuned!
Did you know we learn math in 3rd grade? You wouldn't know from reading my blog! I get so excited about our humanities activities that I forget to share all the fun we have in math! This week we began exploring fractions. We started at the most basic level - identifying and conceptualizing fractional parts. Yesterday the students folded equal-sized paper strips into various amounts (halves, thirds, sixths, etc) and labeled the parts (1/2, 1/3, 1/6). The big idea here was that no matter how we split up each strip, the total amount, or whole, was the same. They also discovered how many of each part it took to make a whole. For example, it takes 3 thirds to make a whole. Today, partners got together to answer some questions about fractions using the work we made yesterday. Some questions were pretty straightforward, while others really made them think. The video below shows the students working through the problems. After attempting to answer the questions, we came together as a class to discuss. Our conversation moved to noticing that some lines on the various strips matched up. For example, the 1/2 line matches up exactly with the 2nd 1/4th line. So 1/2 is equal to 2/4 as long as we are talking about the same whole! This discussion of equivalencies became very rich, as the students noticed a few other fractions that lined up with 1/2. A couple of students even noticed patterns! For example, looking at the equation 1/2 = 3/6, one student noticed that if you multiply the numerator and the denominator by 3, you get the second fraction. So we tried applying that strategy to our other equivalencies and guess what, it worked!
Tonight's homework reinforces their budding understanding of equivalent fractions. As we move deeper into this unit, I will be sure to catch you up on what we discover! One of the major takeaways in 3rd grade is learning how to write an essay. The students move from expressing their ideas in a paragraph with a topic sentence, details, and a conclusion, to expanding their ideas into multiple paragraphs, with an introduction, body, and conclusion. Last trimester the students wrote their first ever essay - an informational essay about communities. This trimester, they are venturing into the passionate world of persuasive essays. Our topic is this: Is Casa Tua Bakery a well-run bakery? Given the 3rd graders' now-expansive knowledge of economics, and their eye-opening trip to the bakery, they should have all the information they need to form a strong opinion in regards to this question. The challenge is for them to not just say "Yes, because I like their food," or "No, because it's too small," but instead to back up their opinion with well-thought-out economic arguments based on evidence. In order for the students to keep track of their thinking and stay organized in their process, they are now using writing binders. These binders are a tool meant to help the 3rd graders move towards independence in essay writing. Included in the binder are reference pages reminding the students of writing "power moves" we've been learning this year (using similes, hyphenated adjectives, starting with a quote, etc.) as well as helpful sentence starters and transitions for those who need a jumping off point. Each binder also has a flip book containing simple checklists for each paragraph. For example, once a student has done all the steps in the introduction paragraph, he/she will simply tear off that page to see what to do next. As we continue to learn more valuable writing tips, their binders will become more robust resources. We are still in the 1st draft phase of this essay, and it's amazing how independently the 3rd graders are moving from paragraph to paragraph with this new tool at their disposal! The ability to form an argument and write an essay that coherently expresses one's reasoning is a crucial 21st Century skill, and these kids are well on their way! We did it! After a couple of scheduling mishaps, the 3rd graders finally got their field trip to Casa Tua Bakery! This field trip added another real-life component to our economics unit, allowing the students to see first-hand what it takes to run a business. The students took with them a graphic organizer to keep track of the economic ideas they will eventually write about in their non-fiction report about the bakery. As we moved through the bakery and listened to our tour guide, the students took notes about productive resources (mixers, walk-in ovens, bakers, flour), goods (bread, cookies, pastries), consumers (people who keep kosher, local restaurants, the JCC) and more. I was so impressed with their focus during the tour. They all took very valuable notes! Apparently I didn't get any pictures of them with their clipboards, but here they are waiting to wash their hands. To internalize further some of the resources required to make baked goods, the students got to make goods of their own. The head baker taught them how to make cinnamon rolls! The little bakers will bring home their creations, as well as some sweet bread samples, in their backpacks today.
Interested in hearing more about the trip? Here are some questions to ask your 3rd grader: - What capital resources do they use at the bakery? What about natural resources? - Did you see any evidence of scarcity? - Where there any resources that saved the bakers a lot of time? - Of all the goods you tried, which one was your favorite? |
3rd GradeLittle people, big minds. Archives
May 2019
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