Keep Up The Great Reading!

Vacation Reading Challenge

I hope this post finds everyone relaxing and staying cozy. With a storm on the way it is a perfect time to sit down and read a book with your child! If you child fills out the Vacation Reading Log they will have a reward waiting for them when they return. Please make sure to initial each time they read for accountability :) 

See you in 2016! 

S.T.E.M 1

STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education.

Our goal for 2016 is to do a monthly STEM project. This works on room 138's teamwork, and the above educational skills. 

To kick it off we dove into the "Great Gingerbread House" problem. Students were given a budget and had to buy materials to support two gingerbread members in a "gingerbread" house to protect them from a fox! This teamwork activity had students putting their ideas together as well as sharing responsibilities in the process. 

Mystery Reader

Officer McCarty

It was a special treat for Officer McCarty (Grace's dad) to come share a tradition him and Grace had started as a young girl. He came in to read A Cops Night Before Christmas, and shared with us important information about what it means to be a police officer. Thank you again Officer McCarty! 

We Reached 30 Gold Leaves!

E.L.F Day! 

We took selfies with the Elfie, Elfed ourselves and watched Elf the movie. We deserved an afternoon of reward for the hard work we have been doing in room 138! :) 

**** Important Notice! ****

 It's that time of year!

Please make sure your student comes to school prepared for the upcoming weather this winter!

Hats

Mittens

Jacket

Snow pants

Boots

Extra socks

...Even though today was 50* and felt like spring! 

More Magic in 3/4

Room 138 works very hard on following instructions everyday... Students were asked to follow explicit instructions and directions on Tuesday. This was a very hard task when the outcome is unknown. Alas, they persevered and below are the final products.  

Students were able to discuss with others on how challenging this task was for them. They were able to connect to the importance of following directions for tasks here at school. That everything has a purpose or an outcome, even if we don't know the end result yet! 

Until next months directions drawing..... :) 

Virtual Field Trip

Plimoth Plantation

November 23rd, 2015

Today we took a field trip! We had a lot of planning to do; from checking and comparing the weather, to seeing which route was the best to take! Room 138 has been busy taking notes and discussing comparisons and differences between Native Americans and the first settlers. Today Our field trip was on the Mayflower we discovered a lot of interesting facts, like there were 120 pilgrims aboard and they could only get fresh air when the emptied their chamber pot! We learned so much and we cannot wait to go back to finish our trip tomorrow at the Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth Massachusetts. 

Thanks to Scholastic we were able to take this informational field trip! 

Native American Drumming

"Listen with your heart, you will understand" 

One of our students has a special music time twice a week. He has been practicing drumming and how it comes from the heart. Since we have been discussing the Native Americans in Vermont, He connected his learning in his music class to what we were learning in Social Studies. Today he helped us perform a song about the four elements of the earth. Check out the video below to hear how soulful our class is. :) 

Glad to be back!

Ohana Means Family

One of our students had gone on a recent 10 day trip, to Honduras. Here he was able to experience a different culture. His purpose for being there was to give toys and goods to the children and families in need. He had so many wonderful things to share. We missed him dearly and are glad he is back!

He brought back a Honduras bracelet for everyone! 

"THANK YOU!" 

UVM Field Trip

GO, CATS, GO! 

We had a blast on our field trip last Friday! The Cats won and I know its from all of our cheering! The students made a lot of real life and educational connections while on this field trip to Patrick Gym. They were busy on the bus with their Field Trip packs:

About 75% of our students fell asleep on the way home! It was a sign of a good day! 

Writing, writing, writing!

Biographies

We have been investigating what makes a good biography. The students compiled a list of characteristics that make a well written biography. They were then asked to pick a famous person and take notes on them. They then had to create their own written biography on the person they researched. Our final product was a portrait of our famous person to go with our Biography! 

Math, Together!

"The more we get together"

We had the opportunity to enjoy a combined math class last week. This led for the fourth graders to give an opportunity to teach what they knew about math strategies to the third graders. We had very successful groups that lasted 15 minutes each. The students were able to learn from their peers and ask higher level questions about what they are learning in class. They enjoyed it so much they want to try it again! 

REMINDER!

BOOK ORDERS

Book orders will be placed for order on NOVEMBER 20th 

This date ensures time for shipping and wrapping before the holidays! 

A note will be sent home with the class code if you prefer to order online. 

Happy Reading! 

Social Studies

Discovering Early Vermont Settlers 

"Come One, Come All!" 

Third and fourth grade have been working on a lot of note taking. We are practicing how our notes can be organized in our notebooks. It was time for them to start learning more hands on. We are at the moment in our unit where we talk about the Native American settlers in Vermont. Our discussion has been buzzing about their communities and early living. 

Students worked on recreating a Dome Wigwam.

Technology

Mathematicians using technology

One of our workshop stations is a program based off of the third grade common core standards called TenMarks. This is a rigorous program which leads to success. The third graders experienced another interactive website today called Illuminations. This is more game base practice to transfer the strategies learned in class. 

Writers use technology for research! 

Third and Fourth graders worked hard today to find out more information on their famous person. We have been investigating biographies and now feel confident enough to write our own. The writing process and technology piece are helping us to our final biography piece. 

 

Halloween

Spooky Celebrations! 

We were so lucky to have spent the end of our day doing Halloween themed arts and crafts, along with estimation of Candy Corn, creative spooky stories, an enjoyable Vermont read aloud, and delicious treats! 

Geologist Visit

Special Guest 

We had the honor of having Geologist, Jon Kim from Vermont Geological survey, join us in wrapping up our Rock Cycle unit. Jon showed us many formations of rocks and a geological map for Vermont. 

Jon taking students to represent the Rock cycle

The Geological map of Vermont! 

Writing Workshop

Biography Detectives!

 Good writers use reading strategies to help them discover how to produce a good writing piece. Our class has been investigating different biographies to find the great characteristics that make a good story about someones life. Next week we will look at all of our information we collected and begin our first biography piece! 

Digging Deep Into Science

Digging Deep Into Science!

Today we discussed the weathering and erosion of rocks. We have become experts on the rock cycle! These young scientist were able to use their knowledge and tools to represent the weathering portion of the rock cycle. 

It was a messy job, but worth it for the knowledge gained! 

Students are exploring with droplets of water.

Students explore with a rush of water and pressure (done by a hammer). 

Students exploring using bolder rocks to prevent a land slide. 

Bursting with knowledge

We are 'BURSTING' with knowledge

Scientists at work!

Students in room 138 were busy experimenting the rock cycle first hand through... STARBURST! Students have studied and reviewed the properties of each type of rock,now they are connecting the pieces and discovering how the rock cycle happens. 

Cutting up to make sediment

"A little bit of heat and pressure makes a Sedimentary rock"

"more pressure and heat create Metamorphic"

"This is hot! The heat from this is melting the Starburst (sediment), it makes magma!"

Leafing through a good book in 3/4 

Our class loves to read! We are very interested in what we are reading and beginning to recommend books to others in our class. This week we will be discussing how to recommend and persuade someone to read a book you have just read! The students will be asked to rate by giving it 1-4 stars and write a one sentence summary of why it was given that rating. This is getting the students to interact more with thier reading and keeping them accountable for their independent reading time.  

TEAMWORK 

This group of third and fourth graders is a group full of many wonderful personalities and helpful hands. After reviewing our classroom expectations last week, we decided our number one goal to work on was TEAMWORK. Here we made a fabulous learning opportunity where, as a class, we made an acrostic poem about teamwork. 

T teach others

E encourage others

A achieve your goals

M make good choices

W work together

O outstanding 

R respect responsibilities

K keep kindness strong

We are very proud of our goals and expectations and the students work hard so we can achieve them. Take a moment to talk about these expectations to you child and share your ideas with them as well!

Surprise Reading Guest! 

Because the class worked so hard to create such wonderful goals and expectations I decided it was only right to reward them with a special read aloud from Mr. Restighini. He came in to do a read aloud where the moral of the story was to work together and be kind. The students were very engaged and had a wonderful follow-up discussion. 

"Mr. R pointing out a double page spread"

"Mr. R emphasizing a vocabulary word" 

Thank you again Mr. Restighini! 

G.R.O.U.P.S

Give thoughtful feedback, respect others, on task, use soft voices, participate, stay with your group. 

Science has ROCKED the past two weeks, where we have split up into three groups and have been researching, discussing and taking notes about the three types of rocks. The students have gone through a series of steps, where they were assigned a rock form, given books and the internet to access information, discussed the most important facts, wrote them down on a poster, drew and labeled a picture and are now in the presenting stage. We have been so eager for science each day learning new things and being able to really work together collaboratively. 

 

Reminder:

Parent/ Teacher Conferences 

October 8th-October 9th

Please Sign-up at PTCfast.com 

Writer's Workshop

Today I was interrupted during our mini lesson to a student begging to "just write." I am thrilled we have been enjoying our process of writing. The current piece started off on making a strong beginning paragraph. Which we then worked on making a strong middle of a story. We have yet to get to the end, because these students have been so interested in letting their imaginations run free. We have some mysteries, drama and historical fiction writing pieces. Throughout this process the students periodically conference with me and go back to writing. Today we conferenced with a buddy and learned so much more about how we write. We noticed editing, discussion, and new, fresh ideas.  

P.I.E

Wednesday we discussed the Authors Purpose for writing a book. After a few mentor texts, we discovered the authors purpose is to persuade, inform or entertain. We took notes on what each of the above means and made a list of examples. Our next task will be to choose books for our book bins that contain the purpose of persuading, informing and entertaining. The students had fun investigating the purpose of their books they were reading for independent reading!  

"When you're curious, you find lots of things to do"

-Walt Disney

Third and Fourth grade has spent the past week examining rocks we collected from outside North Hero Elementary. We have come to sort them into different properties of rocks and minerals. The students have recorded their rocks and made notes about their attributes; size, color, luster and hardness. They are becoming quite the scientists and we are excited for our experiments of the different types of ricks in the coming weeks.