Polar Express Tradition

Tradition Share #4-Saturday Night Dinner with the Family

We had fun listening to this student share about his family tradition of having dinner every Saturday Night with his family and extended family.  He spoke about looking forward each week to playing with his cousins and eating good food together!  He shared about how family is the most important thing to him!  This is a picture of him having fun at Family Dinner Night!

Tradition Share #3-Christmas Cookies!

Today this student shared about her tradition of decorating holiday cookies with her family. With a cute smile on her face, she shared about the joy that it brings when it is cookie decorating and eating time! She even brought in cookies and icing for her friends to decorate two cookies of their own at school.  Look at what they created!

Tradition Share #2: Scottish Highland Games

This student's tradition share was about attending the Highland Games with his family and extended family.  His friends learned about family crests, got to see a Scottish flag, and were able to hold a very treasured stuffed puppy dog named "Scottie".  It was such a pleasure listening to him share his tradition with such pride!

All For the Birds

The kids learned all about birds and migration today during Hands On Nature.  They enjoyed another fabulously educational puppet show and made bird feeders to take home.  We also had a very unexpected visitor in our bird feeder outside of our classroom window during Read Aloud Time.  It was a very entertaining day!

Gingerbread House Making Tradition Share

Yesterday I shared my classroom tradition of making a gingerbread house with my students every year at the beginning of December.  We have been reading various versions of the Gingerbread Man stories.  The kids have enjoyed comparing these stories, talking about the characters and settings within the books, and finding text-to-text connections within the literature.

Here are a few photos of the kids working together to decorate our gingerbread house.

We Read Too!

There is a new bulletin board in the hallway that celebrates my little readers.  Come check it out!

Three Little Pigs Engineering Design Task

This week the kids participated in close readings of four different versions of the three little pigs story during Reading Workshop.  As the culminating activity, the students were given the following scenario during Science time:  Pretend that there was a fourth little pig.  The pig is walking down the road and comes across a man with a wagon filled with gumdrops and toothpicks. How could this pig use these materials to build a house strong enough to withstand the force of the wolf's mighty blow?  We pretended that the fan was the huff and puff from the wolf.  Each child had to test their design and explain why they thought that it worked.   The following are photos of what they designed.  Most met the challenge and the ones that did not learned from others' success and redesigned their houses.  It was sooooooo much fun!  Don't be surprised if they ask for you to buy gumdrops and toothpicks at your next grocery shopping trip!

Third Grade Reading Buddies

Ms. Niles' 3rd grade class will be our book buddy class this year.  We will meet every other week on Tuesdays at the end of Morning Meeting.

Elephant Toothpaste Anyone?

Our little scientists learned how to record predictions before an investigation and to draw observations to share with partners after the experiment was complete.

Reading Lots of Books

Today the little readers are taking home a book that they can all read.  It has the sight words "see" and "the" throughout the book.  Be sure they read it to you by placing their tracking fingers under the words.