Park Specialists' Newsletter
Third Grade Edition - First Trimester
First Trimester Recap
From Park's Art Instructor - Mrs. Ovadje
For the first trimester, students from Mrs. Padrnos, Mrs. Rude, Mr. Nornes, and Mrs. Macemon's respective classes attended art.
Half of the third grade classrooms visit the art classroom every other day. In January, my art students will go to STEM and I will get to meet the rest of the third grade students!
In art, we explore many materials and create numerous projects each year. Students work with a variety of materials, including markers, crayons, watercolor paint, tempera paint, collage, pastels, oil pastels, paint sticks and clay. While making art, students explore line, shape, color, texture and space.
Projects completed this trimester:
- The Dot, based on Peter Reynold's book, "The Dot"
- Shading pumpkins with oil pastels
- Creating our own version of "Starry Night" - inspired by Impressionist painter, Vincent Van Gogh
- Wacky Picasso portraits
- Choice-based art, inspired by Mondrian
Students are keeping their artwork in a portfolio. At the end of January, students will bring their portfolios home. Some of the fabulous art pieces will be kept for the art show in the spring and then returned to their creator.
Works of Art
Works of Art
Work of Art
From Park's Librarian - Ms. Shadis
In the Library:
Third grade began the year by enjoying some great read-alouds (some of the books are pictured below the article). In addition, students reviewed how to take good care of books as well as beginning research skills of print and online encyclopedias.
Considering giving your child a special book for the holidays?
Here are some resources that can help:
http://bccb.ischool.illinois.edu/files/2017/11/GBGB2017.pdf
http://www.readingrockets.org/books/buyingguide/
http://www.scholastic.com/parents/
Check out Park Elementary's FREE e-books!
Below are two resources for students to access that work on any internet-connected device:
- http://www.tbcjr.com/ This website contains longer books for advanced readers. Login information is: Username: park423. Password: login
- http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/ (grades K-3) Students can listen to books while following along with the text at a variety of levels. Check it out! Login information is the same as mentioned above: Username: park423. Password: login
Need Anything Further?
You are also very welcome to contact our Teacher-Librarian, Ms. Shadis, 320-234-2616 for personalized recommendations. Thank you for encouraging the children you know and love to read -- it's an important lifelong skill!
Electronic Library of Minnesota.
Tumble Book Library
Come to Park Elementary's Book Fair! When: Thursday, Jan. 17, from 3:30-8:00 PM; Friday, Jan. 18, from 8 AM-3:00 PM. Location: Park Elementary Foyer
From Park's Technology Integration Instructor - Mr. Durheim
The first trimester of TechTime was filled with fun, challenges, and learning for third graders. We focused on three main topics.
Computational Thinking - How do we think when we try to solve a problem? That’s computational thinking! We worked on challenges which helped us learn more about our thinking strengthened problem solving skills.
Online Safety - Each year we build student knowledge about being safe online. This fall we reviewed the NetSmartz online safety rules from second grade and added two additional rules. We will continue to review online safety throughout the year.
G-Suite for Education (formerly Google Apps for Education) - Students have been using their online Google account to learn about commonly used tools through Google Drawings.
UP NEXT: During the month of December students will participate in the Hour of Code and learn about being a responsible consumer by analyzing advertising gimmicks in our Media Literacy unit.
Please visit the TechTime website to learn more about specific activities, websites, and learning goals.
Third grade students will begin recording Park’s multimedia Daily Announcements later during the second trimester. Anyone can view these videos on Park’s website.
Keyboarding Skills
We are in our second year of keyboarding as a part of the specialist rotation schedule. The program is self-paced and students progress at their own speed. Classes meet for 30 minutes every four school days.
This year, students are learning keyboarding skills using a new program called Typing Quest. This program teaches students to type on a computer keyboard and builds their skills so they can more efficiently use a computer. Students began with “TypeTastic!” games which help students to learn where keys are located on the keyboard and also develop fine-motor mousing skills. Next, students moved to “Keyboarding Kickstart” games that introduced using proper keyboarding position (home row keys). After completing all of these games, students move into the “Typing Quest” lessons which teach proper finger movements and help students to memorize key location through practice and fun games.
Some Typing Quest lessons and games are available free to home users at typingquest.com/personal. Many other typing games are available online for extra practice outside of school. A favorite of many students is DanceMatTyping.
From Park's Phy Ed Educators - Mrs. Hahn & Ms. Mueller
A typical day in the Physical Education class begins with a fitness warm-up activity. These activities vary from cardiovascular, muscular strength/endurance, and/or flexibility. The purpose of these activities is to increase the students’ awareness and level of fitness. After the warm-up, students have a lesson that focuses on the skills that will help them to be successful in the games in a unit. The, students participate in an age-appropriate game using the skill(s) practiced in that lesson.
Units covered during the first trimester:
- soccer skills
- football skills
- fitness tests
- volleyball
- bowling
Sportsmanship:
Students discussed and demonstrated good sportsmanship during Physical Education and evaluated their own sportsmanship. To continue this throughout the year, a traveling sportsmanship trophy will be awarded each month to a class that demonstrates good sportsmanship.
Reminder:
With the coming of snow and the need for boots, please help your child to remember to bring his/her tennis shoes on days that they have Phy Ed.
Sculpture Stroll Recap:
A big thank you for all your help in making the "Sculpture Stroll" a success! It was great to see students and families get out and explore our community through a healthy does of exercise. "Slices of Heaven" was selected as the students' favorite sculpture. The bulletin board is looking awesome! It is pictured below.
Walking for a Good Cause:
We will once again be doing the "Walk for Hunger" Food Shelf Drive on December 13-14.
This event combines wellness and community service for our students. All items must be brought to school by the event date so that we can get items to the McLeod County Food Shelf in time for the holidays. Last year, our students collected 2,068 pounds of food. We will be needing volunteers once again this year. Please contact us if you are able to help at 320-587-2837 or email us at bonnie.hahn@isd423.org or maggie.mueller@isd423.org
Healthy Tips:
1. Never use food as a reward. This could create weight problems later in life. Instead, reward your child(ren) with something physical and fun - - perhaps, a trip to the park or a quick game of catch.
2. Sit down to family dinners at night. If this is not a tradition in your home, make it one. Research shows that children who eat dinners, at the table, and with their parents, have better nutrition. Additionally, they are less likely to get in trouble as teenagers. Don't know how to begin? Start with one night a week, and then work up to at least three or four nights so that you can gradually build the habit.
3. Prepare plates in the kitchen. You can put the right portion of each item on everyone's dinner plate, instead of offering up a food buffet or serve-yourself style. This way, your children will learn to recognize healthy portion sizes. If adjusting to healthier portion sizes means smaller portions for your family, help make the switch seem less shocking by using smaller plates.
From Park's Music Teachers - Ms. Hauth & Mrs. Hoeft
In third grade music, we add new songs to our repertoire while still enjoying old favorites from second grade, as we work hard to strengthen our singing voices and match pitch. The students especially enjoyed singing rounds, which is when one group starts a song before the other group. This takes a lot of listening and focus to stay on your part. Songs we have sung this trimester include: September, Seasons Song (Hey Ho Fall is Here), Hush My Baby, Autumn Leaves Now Are Falling, Skeleton Stomp, Make New Friends, I Had a Cat, Mirrorland, Armed Forces Medley (for our All-School Veterans Day Program), Pumpkin Stew, Grey Squirrel, We Are One, and Rig-a-Jig-Jig. We have reviewed direction of melody through singing, moving to songs, and playing instruments. We have been reviewing solfege syllables (Do, Re, Mi and So) and learned two new notes called High Do and La. Students first echo melodic patterns using these notes, and then they learn to read melodies on the music staff. Students enjoyed playing La on the xylophones in a song called Pumpkin Stew, to which they also added rhythmic ingredients using percussion instruments.
One of the skills we focus on in music is cooperation and working in teams to create music together. This trimester students worked with others to create movements while rhythmically speaking October Poem. The students discovered that it takes patience and kindness to share ideas and make decisions as a group, but it is also a lot of fun to be creative together!
We have done a lot of rhythmic work by reading and using rhythmic patterns in meters of two and three, reviewing time signatures and placing bar lines for rhythmic notation and easy organization of music notes. New rhythms learned this trimester included the half note and the dotted half note. We experienced meter in three beats and two beats through a vocal and instrumental piece titled September, which we sang while simultaneously performing an ostinato on the Orff instruments and chanted a poem while playing unpitched percussion. We have a full set of Orff instruments, including xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels in each room so every child can fully participate as we play together. A new skill we worked on this fall was alternating mallets (left hand, right hand, left, right…etc.), which we practiced while playing Little Puppy/Kitty and Grey Squirrel.
Watch below for a video of Mrs. Wheatley's class performing Grey Squirrel on the Orff instruments.
From Park's Science Specialist - Mrs. McDowell
Throughout all of the STEM projects students are continually following the Engineering Design Process to ask questions, plan, create, make observations and improve their designs along the way. Check out what your child/student has been up to these last couple of months in STEM!
Earthquake Homes!
Third graders learned all about natural disasters the first couple of weeks of school. Using marshmallows, craft sticks, toothpicks and cardstock, they were challenged to create a structure that could withstand an earthquake that reached a level 5 on the Richter Scale. Not only were students amazed at how powerful earthquakes could be, but they were pleasantly surprised when they got to see how their hard-work paid off. Several of the groups had success with their prototypes! Upon completion of their mission, students had great discussions about the importance of choosing the right materials, the style of home that would work the best in a real-life earthquake situation, and other factors that a builder/engineer would need to consider when building a home or building in an earthquake zone. (Note: We used the Survive the Quake Engineering Kit made by Lakeshore to simulate the earthquake.)
Bridges!
In October, third graders spent their time becoming civil engineers. They were challenged to build a bridge (beam, suspension or arch) that could support the most weight. Before beginning the challenge, there were a few things students needed to discover and discuss. Upon learning about the different types of engineers, students tried to determine which engineer speciality they would be good at being based on their own individual qualities and interests. Thereafter, students learned about the term abutment and discovered which material would be the strongest to use for their own abutments. After several days of building, creating, testing and improving, all students got to demonstrate how much weight their bridge could hold by strategically placing washers on the bridge until it collapsed. They discussed why some bridges could hold more than others and also what a good quality STEM bridge should have. It was an amazing process and experience that the students seemed to thoroughly enjoy! Some groups had bridges that were able to hold 70+ washers!
Animals!
Currently, third graders have been focusing on animals. First, we discussed the animal kingdom and how it is classified into several different categories based on the animal’s character traits. We have talked about how these different animals are separated into smaller categories within those kingdoms. Example: vertebrate → mammal → cat → type of cat, etc. We will be continuing to work on animals throughout the course of November into December, and will discuss key terms like habitat and adaptation. Eventually, students will discover that their next STEM project will involve them getting to create their own animal and will have to identify what animal kingdom it belongs to and how it will adapt to the habitat it lives in. I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with!
STEM Challenge
STEM Challenge
STEM Challenge
Park Elementary School
Email: dan.olberg@isd423.org
Website: isd423.org/park-elementary/
Location: 100 Glen Street Southwest, Hutchinson, MN, United States
Phone: (320) 587-2837
Twitter: @parkelem