Park Specialists' Newsletter
Third Grade Edition - 2nd Trimester
First Trimester Recap
From Park's Art Instructor - Mrs. Ovadje
From Park's Librarian - Mrs. Hanneman
Learning in the Library:
We started this rotation by celebrating the arrival of new books. Students walked around to preview a large sample of the newest books. Books were divided by genre and students were exposed to all genres and reading levels. It was wonderful to see the excitement on their faces!
Check out the list of new books online:
destiny.isd423.org. Click on “Resource Lists” Select “2019-2020 New Park Books”.
Next, third graders were introduced to the Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award. Along with fellow students across Minnesota, students learned about ten chapter books that were nominated for this annual award (books are pictured below). We watched various book trailers and discussed what makes a book good. Students are encouraged to read at least 3 out of the 10 nominated books in order to cast their vote for their favorite; voting will take place later in March. Results will be unveiled in April. To learn more, please visit: www.myrahome.org.
To cap off this unit, we discussed a concept of media literacy, which is understanding the purposes of advertisements and how to distinguish ads from other images. Students shared some interesting insights! Media literacy is continued in fourth and fifth grade.
From Park's Technology Integration Instructor - Mr. Durheim
During the most recent set of classes, we started each class with a Computational Thinking warmup game or puzzle. These activities are meant to be fun and challenging. Then third graders logged into code.org where they continued to learn about coding as they worked through lessons at their own pace. Check out the TechTime website or our Google Classroom (student login required) to learn more about specific activities, websites, and learning goals.
UP NEXT: During the next set of classes, students will continue learning about coding by creating code in Blockly to solve puzzles with Dash robots.
Keep up with what’s happening at Park by viewing our multimedia Daily Announcements. During the second and third trimesters, second and third grade classes are taking turns creating our Daily Announcements. The videos are available on Park’s website.
From Park's Phy Ed Educators - Mrs. Hahn & Mrs. Juergensen
Walk for Hunger Recap:
In December, our students participated in the “Walk for Hunger Food Shelf Drive”. This event combined wellness and community service for our students. We donated 1524 pounds of food to the McLeod County Food Shelf! Thanks to all the families that donated and helped make this event a success!
Units covered during second trimester:
Basketball
Cooperatives- large and small group activities
Multicultural Games
Jumping Activities- Jump ropes, broad jump, hopscotch, leaping and Chinese Jump ropes
Table Tennis
Components of Fitness- Fitness Wheel and identification activities of components.
Simple steps for making a real difference in children’s lives and helping build healthy habits for life:
Keep fresh fruit in a bowl within your child’s reach to grab as a quick snack.
Take a walk with your family after dinner.
Drinking just one can of soda a day increases a child's risk of obesity by 60%. Restrict your child's soft drink consumption.
Turn off the TV during meals and share some family time.
From Park's Music Teachers - Mrs. Hoeft & Ms. Newton
This trimester we continued our efforts to develop an awareness of pitch matching and the use of the singing voice. The students love singing rounds and ostinatos. Some favorites from this trimester include The Canoe Song, A Ram Sam Sam, Sing Sing Together, Zum Gali Gali, and Hey Ho Winter’s Here. We encourage pitch matching through the use of hand signs and echo singing of the intervals Do, Re, Mi, So and La. Pumpkin Stew, Canoe Song, Let Us Chase the Squirrel and Grey Squirrel were fun songs to play on the Orff instruments using these intervals. Students focused on alternating mallets and singing the words at the same time. After learning the song, students enjoyed making up their own melodies using the same notes as well as adding new notes. Another fun song was There Was a Pig, a Christmas song from England. The students enjoyed acting out the planting and harvesting motions, adding the Orff instruments, then performing the whole piece for their teacher.
Students practice teamwork and cooperation often in music class. Besides being able to stay on their part while doing a round, this trimester they worked on dancing in a circle using a grapevine step while singing Zum Gali Gali. They worked with a partner to create mirroring movements on the Mirrorland Dance and worked in small groups to create movements for October Chant. They worked in teams to pass rhythms up their row and write them down during the Rhythm Relay Game. It takes concentration and focus in order to stay together and be successful at these activities.
Multi-cultural music this trimester included the Native American song We Are One, to which students added drums and sang verses about nature. During the holiday season, students read a story about Hanukkah and sang a dreydl song called I Have A Little Dreydl, then played the dreydl game. They also danced and sang the Jewish folk song Zum Gali Gali. Other multi-cultural connections were There Was A Pig (England) and Tue Tue (Ghana).
The students will soon begin working on their musical Alice in Wonderland, which will be performed on May 7 and 8 (mark your calendars!). Every child will have a special part in the show. You will be receiving information after Spring Break about your child’s part and costumes. The students have been busy practicing singing solos, studying acting techniques, and dancing a line dance during their music time so that they could do singing, acting, and dancing auditions in front of their classmates in preparation for the musical.(see pictures of students acting)
From Park's STEM 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!
Animals! Towards the end of the 1st trimester, 3rd graders were beginning to focus on animals. They discussed the animal kingdom and how it is classified into several different categories based on the animal’s character traits. They talked about how these different animals are separated into smaller categories within those kingdoms. Example: Vertebrate → Mammal → Cat → Type of Cat, etc. Throughout the end of the 1st trimester and into the 2nd they studied key terms like habitat and adaptation. Eventually students were guided into creating their own animal! They had to identify what animal kingdom it belonged to and how it could adapt to the habitat that it lived in. Every 3rd grader exceeded my expectations and created amazing animals that not only looked beautiful, but also had great adaptations to survive in the habitat that was selected for them. We have some very creative minds here at Park Elementary!!!
A “new” STEM year began on January 14th for the classes of Mrs. Wheatley, Mrs. Rude and Mrs. Mallak. Up until this point, they had been seeing Mrs. Ovadje for Art. It was a bittersweet change as many of the students were going to miss Art, but were also anxiously awaiting their very 1st STEM challenge of the school year!
Earthquake Homes! The new 3rd grade STEM students recently finished up learning all about natural disasters. Using clay, 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 they 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! Most recently, 3rd graders have been focusing their time on civil engineering. They have been challenged to build a bridge (beam, suspension or arch) that can support the most weight. Before beginning their challenge, there were a few things they needed to discover and discuss. So far, they have learned about the different types of engineers that are out there and which engineer they would be good at being based on their own individual qualities and interests. They have also learned about the terms abutment and pier, and have discovered which material would be the strongest to use for their own bridge piers and decks. Students will begin the building process after they return from spring break. I look forward to seeing all of the concepts we’ve been discussing be put to use.
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