Park Specialists' Newsletter
Third Grade Edition - First Trimester
First Trimester Recap
From Park's Art Instructor - Mrs. Ovadje
What’s happening in Mrs. Ovadje’s art room??
This year in art, the students are learning about different kinds of art from “Around the World”. We have created:
Passports
Indian Elephants
Sugar Skulls for Dia de los Muertos
Spider Webs
Primary Pumpkins by mixing 2 primary colors together, and
Buffalo Hide Paintings for Native American Heritage Month
Coming up next…. CLAY! Stay tuned for more information…
From Park's Librarian - Mrs. Hanneman
New this year: Our Library/Tech Time rotations are a little different this year. Instead of rotating each color cycle, we will be staying with the same schedule for a unit and then switching. For example, two red days of TechTime and then two red days of Library. Or, six blue days of Library followed by six blue days of TechTime. As such, not all second grade students have been in Library instruction for some of these units at the time of this publication. Yet by the end of December, all students will have participated in these lessons.
Learning in the Library:
Third grade began the year by enjoying some great books that were read aloud at the beginning of each class (the titles are pictured below). Following that, students added onto their knowledge about internet safety skills, courtesy of Clicky and other characters from the website NetSmartzKids. In addition, students got to explore Tumblebooks (more information about the site is provided below) and further their knowledge of Destiny Quest, our library database.
Thank you for encouraging the children you know and love to read -- it's an important lifelong skill!
Check out Park’s FREE e-books. Works on any internet connected device: http://www.tbcjr.com/ (longer books for Grades 3-up) Username: park423. Password: login
http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/ (shorter books, Grades K-3rd grade)
Students can listen to books while following along with the text at a variety of levels. Check it out!
Thank you to our PTO for sponsoring this great opportunity!
You’re invited to Park Elementary’s Book Fair!
When: Held during Winter Conferences on 2/13 and 2/14. Times TBD.
Where: Park Elementary Foyer
From Park's Technology Integration Instructor - Mr. Durheim
The TechTime/Library rotation has changed a little for the 2019-2020 school year. Instead of rotating between the two classes every color rotation, classes will visit the same class for 5 or 6 color cycles and then rotate for an equivalent number of cycles. That means some classes have met many times and some have only met a few times so far. Please visit the NEW TechTime website to learn more about specific activities, websites, and learning goals. The site is continually updated as we progress through units
UP NEXT: During the next rotation, students will continue learning about coding and participate in the Hour of Code with students around the world.
Keep up with what’s happening at Park by viewing our multimedia Daily Announcements. During the second trimester, third grade classes will begin taking turns creating our Daily Announcements. All of the videos are available on Park’s website.
Keyboarding
We are in our third 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.
We are continuing to use a 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 move on to Keyboarding Kickstart, Typing Quest Jr., or Typing Quest.
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. You may find several on the Park Elementary “For Students” webpage. DanceMatTyping is a favorite of many students.
From Park's Phy Ed Educators - Mrs. Hahn & Mrs. Juergensen
Mrs. Hahn and Mrs. Juergensen are having a great start to the school year. New to Park, but not new to our district is Mrs. Juergensen. She taught 7 years at West Elementary before moving to Park this year.
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 will then participate in an age – appropriate game using the skill(s) practiced in that lesson.
Units covered first trimester:
*Soccer skills
*Football skills
*Fitness tests
*Table Ball and Gaga Ball
*Volleyball
*Bowling
With the coming of snow and the need for boots, please help your child to remember to bring his/her tennis shoes on phy-ed days.
A big thank you for all your help in making “Help Forky Slam Dunk the Junk” activity a big success! It was great to see how much trash students picked up at Park Elementary and in our community. Thank you to all that sent in pictures as well. The bulletin board is looking awesome!
Tips for Raising Heart-Healthy, Active Children:
The American Heart Association recommends kids 6-17 years old should get at least 60 minutes per day of moderate- to vigorous- intensity of physical activity a day.
Go to the grocery store together. Learn more about reading nutrition labels and make it fun for your child. Staples in your kitchen should be 100 percent whole wheat or grains, low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish and nuts.
When your child gets home from school, give him healthy snack options such as whole grain crackers and string cheese, hummus dip and vegetables, Greek yogurt with apple slices, nuts and dried fruit.
From Park's Music Teachers - Mrs. Hoeft & Ms. Newton
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, Button Game, Autumn
Leaves Now Are Falling, Grey Squirrel, Let Us Chase the Squirrel, Furry
Furry Squirrel, Skeleton Stomp, Make New Friends, I Had a Cat,
Mirrorland, Pumpkin Stew, and We Are One. 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 Mi So La on the xylophones in a song called Pumpkin Stew,
to which they also added rhythmic ingredients. Grey Squirrel and Let Us
Chase the Squirrel were also fun to play on the xylophones. Students
enjoyed making up their own melodies on the xylophones while chanting
Furry Furry Squirrel. (See the picture of Mrs. Bussler’s class making up
melodies on the xylophones in small groups.) Playing the squirrel game was
the highlight of the trimester!
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 accompaniment 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.
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!
Earthquake Homes! 3rd graders learned all about natural disasters the first
couple of weeks of school. 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! Towards the end of October into November, 3 rd 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 their
challenge, there were a few things they needed to discover and discuss. They
learned about the different types of engineers that are out there and which they
would be good at being based on their own individual qualities and interests.
They also learned about the terms abutment and pier, and discovered which
material would be the strongest to use for their own bridge piers. 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 it
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, 3 rd graders have been focusing on Animals. We have
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!
Students from Mrs. Padrnos’ and Mrs. Schumaci’s classes testing pier shapes with paper, cups and weights.
Students from Mrs. Padrnos’ and Mrs. Schumaci’s classes testing pier shapes with paper, cups and weights.
The bridges that could hold the most weight in each class!
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