A new school year is upon us and I am excited to connect with each student, family and the wonderful Queen Anne Elementary Community! We have a wonderful journey ahead of us!
Today we finished our PBL presentation videos! To think back and reflect on our growth within the process of PBL, we watched this video and thought about all the wonderful examples of being self-directed, kind safe and fair, and collaboration in action. I had them write all the good/noteworthy stuff they saw and used their words and reflections to compose this wonderful word cloud. I feel the word cloud captures the heart of what we were practicing and showing in our group work (which wasn't always a walk in the park). The words that stand out are: sharing, constructive, ideas, working, helpful, listening and truthful, however, more than once I read such strong words like: criticism, supportive, focused, work, safe and feedback that show the challenge and growth found within the group process. Enjoy!
Fraction Action!
For the past 2 weeks we have been covering fractions during our Math Block. This includes the Math vocabulary of numerator, denominator, equivalent fractions, and partition. By now we have covered how to read fractions, show fractions as part of a set, part of a whole, and on a number line and can make and explain equivalent fractions! As we continue to polish up our fraction understanding, I added the menu option of creating a board game that helps practice understanding of one of the standards we have covered. We have such a creative class! Here are some examples of what they produced either individually or in small groups. Some are incredibly original and combine multiple math operations and problem solving which others are refined games that truly test your fraction understanding. It was a great opportunity to let the students construct their own learning and output path!
A Class of Green Thumbs!
Plant Science is upon us! We have successfully planted Wisconsin Fast Plants and in (literally) a matter of days, have watched them take off growing! We are making observations of how fast they grow and how they change. Pretty soon I am going to open up a class seed bank and see what else we can grow! I have always wanted to grow an avocado seed! Now I have a class full of experts that can support me in that effort!
Last Notes:
We have a field trip coming up soon! As a final culmination of our PBL and in conjunction with our beginning science unit on plants, the two third grades are heading to the Arboretum! The field trip is April 9th, a Wednesday, and details along with a permission slip has been sent home last Friday. We signed up for the Plants 201 Course: The interconnected nature of life is explored through observation, data collection, digging deeper into plant parts and their functions, and continued learning with a take home experiment!
Working hard on crafting our opinion papers with a bold thesis!
Here are some of our theses that we are researching and elaborating on:
Jack: The Titanic is the most interesting disaster ever.
Jackson: The Titanic was the most luxurious ship ever
Adam: Mrs. Meyers is the best teacher!
Kalia: Endangered animals should have more homes!!!
Zoey: We need to stop poaching.
Mali: We should have two soccer fields!
Scout: Cape town is the best vacation spot!
Julien: The Titanic is the worst tragedy at sea ever!
Evan: The sun is important
Fiona: We need to stop pollution!
Liana: we should stop killing animals
Penelope:try not to pollute the world
Harrison: Minecraft can teach you things.
Jake: Air pollution is bad for the world.
Tyler: The Titanic is the most famous ship ever built.
Luka: Universal Studios has a GREAT combo of movies and rides!
Safiya: Animals are endangered and we should help by not hunting endangered animals!
Dominique: We should clear out garbage in the ocean!
Justice: Aunt Kelley and Mike are the best!
Hazel: Music can help us learn and work.
Sarah Kate: G.M.O, we don't know what's in it, or what it does, so we should stop!
John: Amulet is the best series.
Jesse: Math is the best subject!
Nathalie: Yakima is a good place to explore.
Project Update on our Project Based Learning:
The second half of today we spent planning, writing, and filming ourselves in groups for our final blueprint presentation. They worked hard practicing their stage presence as they reflected on the process of collaboration and explained the details of the final blueprints they created. I am so excited to see the final videos! Set to capture our hard work was Harrison who showed creativity and dedication in making this teaser video about what's to come! They should be proud of their progress and growth as they have become confident, inspiring, presenters and engineers! Enjoy!
On March 17th, during the Monday Morning Meeting, the two third grades will sing! Working with the wonderful Connor Desai, they have created an original song together using their non-fiction writing on perseverance and it is amazing! The invitation is out for all parents and friends to come to the Monday Morning Meeting at around 9:35. A reminder as well to have them come to school in a black shirt for the performance (despite it being St. Patricks day). Hope to see you all there!
Oh all the snow stories! Coming back from Mid-Winter Break is always fun as I get to hear all about their adventures creating amazing games and gadgets at Kids Co. or being snow bunnies up in the mountains somewhere! We got to write about and share some of our silly stories before jumping into two new units on opinion and persuasive writing and fractions!
Having Opinions that Matter!
How can we, as 3rd grade writers, write and present a persuasive speech on a topic that we are passionate about?
Our newest Writing unit is all about seeing a problem in the world as a challenge and having the passion to envision a solution. The Changing the World Writing unit has officially begun! We have been listening to and reading the script of famous American speeches, from Dr. Martin Luther King to John F. Kennedy, to Chief Sealth, studying what makes a powerful and persuasive orator and writer. I also had the class tackle a quick write on why QAE should send a class to Dwankhozi in Zambia, Africa. They had just 15 minutes to prepare a speech and should be proud of the hard work and writing that they were able to complete! Two brave students gave their speech to the class as I captured the video with my iPad.
The work doesn't stop there! Moving forward, we are exploring how positive change in the world begins as an idea and how we can have opinions that matter. We are working towards developing a strong thesis and supporting our thesis with strong details, facts, or examples. Already I see great motivation and excitement bubbling within the class at the challenge presented within persuasive and opinion writing.
Drafting, Drafting, Drafting...
Our PBL continues as we have worked hard to create our first draft blueprint of our living wall and have successfully practiced giving and receiving constructive feedback from our peers! I am excited to see all the wonderful planning come together in their final blueprints. Next steps we are going to tackle the PTA by writing and giving a speech on why a living wall is important and sharing our final blueprint designs.
Moving forward with our PBL, I am calling all parents who have an interest, curiosity, or expertise in construction or architecture to email me as we will need support in making our living wall a reality!
About Our New Homework Sheet
A quick note about the new format of your student's homework sheet. The expectation is that every student is reading every night, and I am now only asking for brief notes as what happened in their book or a personal reaction. ST Math, X-tra Math, Word Study and Flashcards are not expected every night, but do mark when practiced or when time is spent on such. ST Math should only be about 30-45 min a week.
Let's approach Valentine's Day with the spirit of social/emotional learning in mind. The students are becoming masterful at giving compliments. It is not only an important and wonderful start to our class meetings, but it also is perhaps one of my favorite times of the day. Never underestimate the power of kind words. Our kids have been giving meaningful, kind comments regularly and I see Valentine's Day as an opportunity to celebrate just that!
Valentine's Day Guidelines:
-Making Valentine's is entirely optional! You can still come participate and have a great time at the party even if you didn't make Valentines this year. -If you do want to make Valentines, make sure that you make one for every student -Write a simple compliment for each student -Let's just give cards, no treats (We will have great treats at our party!) -Remember to bring in empty cereal boxes by Thursday! We will decorate them to hold our cards.
Jenice is doing a great job updating on other particulars of the Valentine's Day celebration in which I believe we still need some parent volunteers from 1:20-2:25 to help with some Valentine's Day activities. Parents are welcome to attend our end of the day party as well! It will be held on Friday from 2:45-3:25
A quick teaser video about our PBL:
We have been working hard as researchers, engineers, planners, and collaborators for the past 3 weeks and wanted to share a video with everyone. Moving forward, we usually work on PBL Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2:45-3:35 and if you are thinking of volunteering, that would be a wonderful time to come help facilitate and share in the discussion and planning of our living wall. I also hope to reach out to possible "experts" to come give a mini presentation in class. I have a list in mind but please do send me an email if you are willing/able to come and talk about what you do! It was such a fun and valuable experience to have Brian Watkins and Cheryl Phillips sharing their work and expertise that I am excited to have more!
After our field trip this Friday we asked the class to reflect on their experience. We wanted to hear from the source how they felt and how they were inspired. Asking: "What did you enjoy the most about the field trip?" and "What are you looking forward to with our PBL?"
Jack L
Answer 1: It was fun and we learned a lot about our next PBL.
Answer 2: It will be fun and it might be something we can do at our house when we grow up that will make it look very nice.
Jackson L
Answer 1: I had a lot of fun and we learned a lot about green walls and I also enjoyed it when my sister sat in my lap.
Answer 2: Building the green wall because I've built a lot of things and I'm excited to build some more.
Adam M
Answer 1: Going to a college.
Answer 2: I think working on it will be fun because it will be cool to plant the plants on a wall.
Zoey B
Answer 1: I enjoyed looking at the plants and learning about how they lived and what happens to them over time.
Answer 2: Being able to care for the plants and make our own living green wall we can design and care for.
Mali S
Answer 1: I liked seeing all the walls and plants and hearing about how they were made.
Answer 2: I'm looking forward to making the structure and seeing how it will be built.
Scout N
Answer 1: The first wall, I really liked the way you could reel it in to water and tend it.
Answer 2: What kind of design we are going to put on our wall. Now that I've seen the other walls it's made me think that we can make something beautiful with flowers and ferns.
Julien K
Answer 1: What I liked most was seeing the walls. It was cool to see a UW wall made by older students and we are going to do the same thing as them.
Answer 2: I'm excited more about the project - building the wall and having the opportunity to work together to build something cool.
Evan P
Answer 1: I liked seeing the living wall and the place where we had lunch.
Answer 2: I'm looking forward to making the living wall and having one at our school.
Fiona C
Answer 1: What I really liked is that we got to see a lot of plants - instead of going to a museum we got to see something more alive.
Answer 2: Building the living wall because it's going to be really fun to build with plants.
LIana M
Answer 1: Looking at the living wall.
Answer 2: Trying to make a watering system.
Penelope H
Answer 1: The living wall's pulley system was my favorite thing.
Answer 2: I'm looking forward to watching our living wall grow.
Harrison L
Answer 1: My favorite thing about the field trip was getting to go to my cousins college.
Answer 2: Building it, watering the plants and seeing how they grow.
Jake B
Answer 1: My favorite thing about the field trip was going to UW.
Answer 2: I'm looking forward to figuring out how to set up the plants on a wall.
Aidan G
Answer 1: It was looking at the living walls and seeing how they were different.
Answer 2: I'm looking forward to growing carrots and other vegetables in our wall.
Tyler W
Answer 1: Going to the living walls and seeing the different plants on them.
Answer 2: Putting the different plants on the wall and designing it.
Luka R
Answer 1: I liked seeing the living walls. It was really cool.
Answer 2: Figuring out how the water system will work and what type of plants we should use in the living wall.
Safiya R
Answer 1: I liked seeing the living walls and looking at what they were made out of and what plants they used.
Answer 2: Watching our living wall grow and watering it. Seeing how it will develop.
Dominique S
Answer 1: My favorite part of the field trip was when I asked if the Seahawks would win and if they could make a Seahawks symbol and they said "Yes!"
Answer 2: I'm looking forward to making the green wall and seeing what kind of plants we can use so it can be a really beautiful wall.
Taj H
Answer 1: The best part was eating lunch while looking at the wall at the UW.
Answer 2: Actually building the wall.
Hazel A
Answer 1: I enjoyed looking at the walls and seeing how one wall was more alive and the other was more dead. It was cool to see how the angles could make such a difference.
Answer 2: I'm looking forward to see how we can make our walls the same as the ones we saw and how we can make them different.
John P
Answer 1: My favorite part of the field trip was eating lunch outside on the round hill.
Answer 2: Building it is what I'm looking forward to most.
Jesse K
Answer 1: My favorite part was when we saw the UW living wall. It was pretty cool.
Answer 2: Having fun building our green wall.
Nathalie G
Answer 1: Seeing how the hoses work.
Answer 2: I'm looking forward to designing our wall.
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break! I was excited see everyone as it felt like it had been too long (not sure the sentiment was shared)! We celebrated the new year and coming back to class with some resolution writing for 2014 along with the launch of our PBL! Finally!
Examples of living walls
How can we, as 3rd grade engineers, design and create a self-sustaining living wall that is both educational and enjoyable?
Both Ms. Klope and I thought it would be wonderful to give this year's third grade a chance to leave a physical impact on Queen Anne Elementary through the creation of an educational living wall. This Friday we have the opportunity to hear from local experts from Solterra Systems who have worked to design and create a living wall at a private residence in Wallingford and one on the UW campus. Field trip forms will be sent home today. Please fill them out and return them before Friday as we will be visiting both sites to see in person two local examples.
Happenings in the class...
The switch to non-fiction Reading and Writing:
We have taken the dive into meaningful and purposeful non-fiction text exploration. Through interesting and leveled non-fiction articles, we are understanding how text features help us access new information, practicing asking questions to guide our reading, and taking notes right on the page using our non-fiction code that helps us shorthand our background knowledge, reactions, questions, and reactions to text. Non-fiction texts are also a lot of fun to share and talk about with friends and we have explored how to use each other as a resource to gain a deeper understanding of the text. Overall, it has been a great opportunity to demonstrate critical thinking and learning everywhere and together.
Last one to croak: Discovering the Math within origami frogs!
Math has become a blend of multiplication fluency practice and the hands on application of organizing data and measurement as seen in our origami frog jumping contest. This week we are exploring the connection between area and multiplication along with comparing area and perimeter. As a class, we are becoming quite adept at using the distributive property of multiplication to break intimidating multiplication sentences into easier to manage chunks. As for memorizing multiplication fact families, we are taking timed tests every Tuesday and Thursday and keeping track of our improvement and progress. In the end, it comes down to repetition and practice and I hope to continue to provide many different fun ways to access and practice multiplication fluency.
Goal Setting: High expectations, personal expectations.
Upon coming back from the break, we have revisited and reflected on appropriate and effective goal setting along with discussing the types of goals we can set for ourselves. I hope to help create thoughtful and reflective learners and I think goal setting is at the foundation of being a self-directed learner. We used the new year as a way to write yearlong goals for ourselves in the form of a New Years resolutions letter along with personal goal conferencing where we meet one on one to discuss next step individual goals, both academic and social.
...to gain perspective on the amazing growth and learning we have accomplished in just 3 months! I truly enjoyed parent-teacher conferences as was incredibly valuable to meet with everyone and have such great discussions and mini presentations by each of the students.
Dress like Mr. Elliott day last Friday! So much fun!
Themes of Greatness: Friendship, Hope, Home, Compassion and Art
This week we concluded our exploration of character change, plot structure and theme with our read aloud, The One and Only Ivan with a brave, entirely student lead discussion. The class partook in a fish bowl discussion where half form an inner circle and discuss the book with guided questions while the other half quietly observe the process and take notes. Upon switching roles from the inner and outer circle and seeing two interestingly different, yet amazing paths the discussion went (frustrations and celebrations alike), the class commented on what went well, what was a challenge, and how it felt to be on either side of the "glass".
CharacterWorks Performance Friday!
We have practiced all week and I am excited to see the fruition of their hard work celebrating Queen Anne Elementary's 5 Pillars through song, dance, and acting! It is set to begin at 2:15, most likely in the empty classroom on the second floor of the Tree House. Here is a list of costume suggestions for each character if the sheet never made it home:
Storytellers: Plain white t-shirt and jeans Ants: All black Grasshopper: All green Crow: All black Lion: All brown, beige, or khaki Mouse: All black Hunter 1: Jeans and green/orange/khaki/brown shirt Hunter 2: Jeans and green/orange/khaki/brown shirt Old Farmer: Jeans and overalls/plaid Child 1: Jeans and solid colored shirt Child 2: Jeans and solid colored shirt Child 3: Jeans and solid colored shirt Narrator: Plain white t-shirt and jeans Aesop: Shorts and plain white t-shirt Wolf: All grey
Writing Our OWN Math Story Problems!
Who is Sally and why do I care how many apples she has?! Today in Math we took it upon ourselves to make our own multiplication story problems that were perhaps a little more original, silly, and overall fun to read and solve. They chose from one of the three categories: a comparison problem, an unknown-factor problem, or an array problem. I was impressed with the result! Tomorrow we vote on awarding the hardest, silliest, most original, and most creative story problems!
Parent-Teacher Conferences are just around the corner (as in a week away) and I am extremely excited to reflect on the progress and growth of the whole class! I can't believe that it is already that time! I have uploaded the Parent-Teacher Conference schedule as well under the Resources tab and let me know if you need to reschedule or change the time at all.*
* Conferences: Please note that I will be holding conferences on Saturday the 23rd! I had mentioned at curriculum night that I may not be here, but I will be! Please fill up those time slots if that Saturday is easier on your schedule. I greatly appreciate efforts to back-to-back time slots, as well!
I'm really looking forward to conference times! They will be student-led (please bring your child!) with a set-aside time at the end if there is a need to talk as an adult team while the student plays some games in the hallway.
Multiplication and Division Update:
Our classroom has jumped in head first! We are surrounding ourselves with multiplication and division. We are doing number talks, whole group lessons, activities, problem solving and learning many new strategies . Multiplication and Division is a major third grade topic and we will be studying it throughout the year. Here are the three big ideas we are currently working in:
1. Fact Fluency : Memorizing multiplication facts! (once we have these memorized, we can use fact family knowledge to quickly learn division facts). 2. Conceptual Understanding: Digging deep to understand the meaning behind multiplication and division. We are sharing our own thinking during number talks and then reaching to understand the way others think and process, as well. We are learning about models, equations, fact families, and strategies for multipying and dividing. 3. Problem Solving: We are learning about how to determine when multiplication and division can be used to solve a problem, and then employing strategies to solve problems. We even wrote our own problems and had friends solve them!
How you can help at home: - Purchase multiplication and division games and play as a family! Check out Blue Highway Games in Queen Anne. -Listen to multiplication and division songs on YouTube. They are quite annoying after some time, and also quite effective for memorizing facts! -Stop and share how you use multiplication and division every day. -Use the Library Resource page to find many high-quality games to teach and reinforce these skills.
ALSO: I have uploaded more mini lesson videos under the Mini Lesson tab. Watch them at home with your kids and check their understanding!
Our Round the Schoolyard Multiplication games!
Mystery Writing!
Students are so excited and totally absorbed in writing their mystery fiction stories! Here are the highlights of this unit: 1. We read and studied many books by Chris Van Allsburg, keeping a list of the writing strategies that he uses. 2. We studied important story elements, drawing a picture of a mountain to illustrate the path our stories take. The exposition starts the western slope, the rising action carries up to the peak (climax), then the falling action takes us down the eastern slope to the resolution. 3. We planned our stories with graphic organizers to outline important events. Students developed characters and settings, as well. They studied "mystery words" and selected 3-5 they will incorporate in their writing. 4. Students conferenced with an adult sharing their story plans to make sure they had a solid plan. 5. We learned strategies for writing a "hook" and looked at Chris VanAllsburg's books for examples. 6. Students hurried off to computers, wrote their "hook" and are now developing their mysteries. 7. The final part of this writing project will require students to read their story aloud while recording themselves using the Photobooth application. We will learn storytelling and read-aloud strategies to make these oral storytelling performances really engaging. 8. Students will upload their typed stories, as well as their oral storytelling videos to their websites and publish for their audience! We will share these accomplishments at an upcoming Writer's Celebration :)
Reading: The One and Only Ivan
We are about halfway through our book, The One and Only Ivan, and becoming adept at making inferences. Students have also been keeping a notebook where we detail our characters, respond with writing to deep thinking questions, visualize the setting, and more! Our goals for this unit are to look deeply at our characters and watch as they change over time. As always, I am having the students keep track of their thoughts using sticky notes and gathering those sticky notes to create a fun little surprise for the class when we finish the book.
Upcoming Events!
Upcoming Events: -Writer's Celebration: We will hold a formal writer's celebration upon the completion of our current Harris Burdick Writing unit! Invitations to follow :)
-Parent Talk Nights: Beaven Walters, our CharacterWorks instructor, will be holding parent talks. After the survey results, the first one will be about: "Boredom-The Hidden Key to Encourage Creativity in our Kids" (We are creative) Wed. Nov. 20 from 7:30-9 PM Location: Most likely at QAE/Mr. Liner's Classroom
-CharacterWorks Performance: Friday. Dec 13- Mr. Liner's Class performs for families and celebrates 2:15-3:15
*Our first big PBL unit will commence this month! Look forward to lots of information and opportunities to join us :)