May Weekly Update

May 28th-June 1st

It is amazing that this school year is coming to an end! I feel like just yesterday we were sitting on the carpet for the first time talking about what we did over the summer. I always find this time of year bittersweet. I look at the students and see all the growth they have made and see how excited they are to become ‘4th Graders’, leaders of the Lower School. But I will be honest, I am a little sad to see these amazing individuals move on. But onward and upward they must go!

We spent time this week reflecting back on our year by looking at our work and reflecting on what the experience meant to us. The third graders are so excited to share their reflections and memories with you during Culmination Night on Monday.

We spent time working with snap cubes and creating mini structures based on images that were flashed on the screen for three seconds. We then talked about the strategies we used to build the structures and how many cubes we used. This activity allows us to work with our visual perception and work with 3D shapes.

The students are very excited to have finished their bridges and write ups as well this week. They will be showing the rest of the Lower School tomorrow. The students were also very excited to harvest their seeds from their plants! 26 seeds was the largest harvest.

As we wind down the year, we are also making sure to have lots of fun and create many lasting memories together. Thank you Mrs. Bretones for creating a lasting memory with the 3rd grade class song! It was enjoyed by all!

May 21st-May 25th

Last week was so much fun with the Spring Show and the 3rd/4th field trip ‘Stand Up, Speak Out’ at the Holocaust Museum in Skokie.

Students participated in group activities learning about what it means to be a bystander or an upstander. They evaluated art and tried to decipher the artist’s message, usually one that being that we are all different, but have so much to offer. And they read the story Stepping Stones which detailed the life of a 9 year old girl who had to flee her country. The students talked about how she would be feeling and how they relate, and what they would do to make her feel welcome. The students did an amazing job and the conversations they had with the docents was wonderful. (They were complimented for being so insightful.) There were a handful of times they connected the activities to the 7 Habits, which was so wonderful to hear!

The Spring Show was a hit! It is always a joy to watch the students get ready on the performance night, become a group that is independent from instruction, and own their performance! The best is to see how proud they are as they perform and at the end when they have the feeling of accomplishment from doing a job well done.

In the classroom, we are continuing to read stories about plant mysteries, build bridges and write about them, write in our journals, and do a few science activities relating to plants, growing, and fruit. Some of the 3rd graders spent some time with measurement this past week. We were learning about conversion too. To make the ideas more concrete we decided to estimate then measure longer distances such as the hall and the little playground. One group had 91 feet for the small playground, the other had 30 yards. They got really excited when they realized it was the same thing. I love learning through action and discovery!

May 14th-May 18th

Third graders continued to be very busy in the classroom tending to their plants and building bridges.

Students spent some time this week learning the parts of the flower and then dissecting a flower to see all these amazing parts! As we were learning about the flower parts, they were watching their own fast plants grow a fruit. Each morning they would come in amazed to see the progress of the fruit. We took a closer look this week at the definition of a fruit, the part of the plant that has the seeds, and looked at various foods we eat every day. We discussed how there is not 100% way to define the foods we cook with, but any food with seeds is scientifically a fruit.

Our bridges are looking amazing. The students are starting to put the pieces together to create the 3D bridge. We have also started creating an environment for the bridge. While the many pieces of our bridges are drying or setting, the students have been working on their write up that discusses the purpose and design, which will accompany the bridge.

In reading, we continued to read science mysteries about plants that help us understand the form and function of the plant. We learned about the Nile River and how they have used markings on the bank to decide if it was going to be a good flood year, or maybe even a year with too much water. Students learned how the flooding of this river brings nutrient rich soil up to the land, and that is how the crops can grow for the harvest season.

Students also participated in some cooperative team building skills this week. During morning meeting we discussed strengths and weaknesses. For those who wanted we shared some of our strengths and weaknesses. (It is always easier to share your strength but I was impressed with the students honesty when it came to their weakness.) They were then put into two teams and given 8 task cards. The goal was that everyone had to complete a task, and they had to discuss who would do what task based on strength or comfort level. They did an amazing job!

May 7th-May 11th

I have been so impressed with the third grader’s engineering skills! It has been so much fun to watch the students build their bridges with their partners. Working collaboratively is such an important skill and this activity has really given the students more opportunities to problem solve, be attentive listeners, and work together towards a common goal. I have also loved watching the design process in action as students have been revising their designs as needed to build a functional bridge. When students are waiting for the glue to dry, they have been engaged by reading about bridges in our selection of nonfiction books or building more bridges (and testing them) using K'nex!

This week was also pollination week in the classroom. The student’s plants were growing flowers and were ready to be pollinated to make fruit. One main learning goal during this unit is to learn that the purpose of a plant is to make more plants and they do this by making a fruit, which carries the seeds. The students learned about the importance of bees and cross pollination. They created paper models of this process and then were able to replicate the same process using their plants and dried bees. They really enjoyed seeing the pollen get on the bee’s back and trying to watch as it was transferred from flower to flower.

Third graders continued to use their active reading strategies (questioning, making connections, inferencing, synthesising, and predicting) as we read more of our story ‘The Good Flood’. The students are becoming more comfortable talking about how the strategies they are using can help them understand their reading. They are continuing to practice these strategies independently in their Reading Response Journals, where they are responding to their independent reading.

In math, the students are learning about fractions or measurement and time. They are learning how these concepts are integrated into activities we do everyday.

Finally, third graders spent some time learning about the events taking place in Hawaii and learning about volcanoes. They were asked a question, 'Could a volcano appear in your backyard?' By mapping volcanoes from around the world, they discovered the ring of fire and conclude that it would be unlikely for a volcano to form in our backyard, but not impossible.

April 30th-May 4th

Third graders have been busy, busy, busy! First, I want to say what a wonderful job they did in Seussical the Musical! I know that they had so much fun on Wednesday night and really gave it 110%

We started off the week with a visit from Mr. Fogerty, Upper School Math/Science, who taught us how to build bridges out of popsicle sticks and make our structures strong. He reinforced the idea that triangles are a strong support and demonstrated how trusses provide extra support for bridges. He led us through the process of creating a blueprint, how we need to be patient, steady, and take our time. The students spent the rest of the week researching some bridges of their own curiosity. They paid attention to the types of materials that were used, the type of bridge, the length of the bridge, and the reason the bridge was built. On Friday, students were put into partner pairs and they began the design process for creating their own bridge. The process started with thinking of the purpose for their bridge (cross a stream, a river, a bay, an overpass), then they decided the type of bridge that matched their purpose, and the length of the bridge. They were all thrilled to begin this process and I can’t wait to see their engineering skills in action. They also were demonstrating habit number 6, synergize, as they worked together to share ideas, knowing two heads working together is better than one.

The 3rd grade botanists have also been tending to their plants and learning about the hardships of plant care; sometimes not all of the plants survive. They are amazed each day as they come into the classroom to see how their plants have changed and grown overnight. One of the fun parts of tending to our plants is keeping track in our plant journals and measuring them every other day! They are excited to track this growth and we will be making a graph at the end of the unit. I love hearing the students get excited and using plant vocabulary. “Look Mrs. Aksamitowski! My plant has two new true leaves! That is so cool!”

To enhance our learning about plants, during our Language Arts block, the students are reading a series of ‘plant mysteries’. The stories follow a family of scientists who go on adventures and discover the answer to some real world ideas. The first story we are reading is called the ‘The Good Flood’ and the question is: How can the Nile be such a large river when it is in the middle of the desert, and how do people get food? As we read we are applying reading strategies and marking up our text making connections, predictions, paying attention to big ideas, new words, things that are funny or we like, and having great discussions.

The students have also started Reading Response Journals and responding more specifically to their own independent reading. They are learning how to write by responding to the reading while using examples from the text and their own ideas.