3rd Grade

Along with rules and expectations, we spent part of our first week of STEM discussing teamwork and collaboration skills. Third grade students had to work together to build a tower of cups without touching the cups using only a rubber band and some string! This task focuses on teamwork and our ability to communicate with our teammates. It was frustrating at times, but many groups were able to persevere and build their tower!

I can work effectively as a member of a team. 

This was the goal for third grade students in STEM this August! They were challenged to create the tallest, free-standing tower using only pipe cleaners. They had a few minutes to plan what strategy they were going to use: we had square bases, triangle bases, and even circular bases! Students then worked together as a team to bring that strategy to life. It was quite the task!  We measured, compared measurements, and determined our winner in each class. 

The last few weeks, we have really been hitting collaboration skills hard. Third grade students discussed what it means to be a good teammate, how we can deal with frustration when working together, and how to share and communicate ideas while also listening to our teammates ideas. Sometimes these skills are difficult, and practice makes perfect! For our last teamwork challenge, third grade students practiced collaborating effectively as a member of a team, accepting ideas of their teammates, and communicating ideas effectively to their teammates through building a "Rube Goldberg" Machine to catch a "mouse". We discovered that Rube Goldberg Machines are very tricky to build but teamwork makes the dream work! 

This week, third grade students put their collaboration skills to the test. Here was our challenge: 

Can you build the tallest tower to hold a small pumpkin?? 

Students earned points for how tall their tower was, how creative their design was,  if the tower truly held the pumpkin or not, and if their collaboration skills were on point. We had some insanely creative designs, some incredibly helpful and effective collaborators, AND a few towers that could hold a pumpkin! I am so proud of our students! Check them out below.

Digital literacy is an important part of our technology skills! We began talking about Google Slides in third grade and how it can be a useful tool to help share information with others. With a theme of "winter", 3rd grade students were tasked with demonstrating some new Google skills and creating a scene using shapes in Google Slides. I am always blown away by our creativity! 

Being smart and safe on the Internet is so important in being a good digital citizen. We talked all about privacy, kindness, and even the dreaded, pop-up ads! We discussed why we shouldn't click on them and how to avoid being tricked by sneaky online predators. Then we used our knowledge and skills to try and "trick" our classmates: check out a few of our pop-up ads below.