S'more Learning, S'more Fun
Week of December 4, 2018
Space Is the Place!
Initially, we explored books about the eight planets. Many students learned new and interesting facts. Lilly learned Saturn was the second largest planet. Lawson was surprised to learn Uranus has 21 moons. In his opinion, one of the moons, looked like tin. Following that, we teamed up together to creatively draw a specific planet. Markers and colored pencils were used to design each poster. Last but not least, each person wrote one different fact per poster. The point of this activity was to learn facts about each planet. Our planet posters are now hanging from the ceiling. It was suggested by a classmate that we put black paper on the ceiling with white stars, so we could feel like we were in space looking at the planets. The majority of the students preferred drawing the planets than writing the information. Currently, we are completing murals of the solar system.
Rad Robotics
Lego creations were sensational! Ms. Mullarkey's third grade class walked into the creative wonderland where they built moving Lego structures. This was, by far, the most fun activity in Maker Lab. Ferris wheels rose super fast and almost flung the Lego person off into the middle of the room.
The bridge would rise up any time a boat would pass the sensor. "Yippee!" gasped the children.
There were many incredible movements to be seen as we created these phenomenal structures.
The Wonderful World of Writing
Have you ever hesitated when coming up with a topic to write about? Make a web! This week in writing as we focus on our new unit of OPINION WRITING, the class made two webs to help them generate ideas. The first web we made was about our "favorites." Another example was a web titled, "I want..." Today, we heard the book, I Wanna New Room. The main character was very persistent in trying to persuade his parents to get his own room. Last week, we read a mentor passage where the author believed kids should earn an allowance.
The class laughed at the last sentence that stated- START PAYING TODAY!
Reading Rules!
To infer means to try to figure out what the author is saying without them directly stating it. Students must support their inference with evidence from the text. "An example from my book, 11 Birthdays, is when I was able to infer that the main character, Amanda, didn't want Leo to come to her party. When Amanda's mom told her Leo was coming to her party, she said with a tone, "Why does he have to come?"
We are also learning character traits. In another independent reading book, the main character, Jess, is described as brave, confident, and kind. When Mount Saint Helen's erupted, the twins were seriously injured and Jess went to find help on her own. This is an example of character traits. A character trait means a word that describes a person's personality most of the time.