WHAT'S HAPPENING IN 3rd GRADE...

-Math- Everyone is finishing up our last Module, #6.  We working on a majority of different topics for the remainder of the year.  Telling time is an important concept, along with perimeter, measurement, and collecting data.  We plan to have a lot of fun creating different types of graphs and visuals to share the data we collect.  We are also going to be doing a lot of hands-on creative activities with math!  Looking forward to finishing the year off strong!  Please, please, remember to still practice your facts at home daily.  We have had several students finish all their fact tests up which is great!  They worked hard practicing, and it paid off!  

-Reading- We wrapped up our penguin novel studies with Penguin Day! Students enjoyed creating a penguin life cycle craft, experiencing the way blubber insulates penguins from the cold, a heat experiment, creating life-sized realistic penguin posters (which will be used to create a wall comparing the sizes of all of the penguin breeds we researched),  penguin poetry, grid puzzles, silly penguin videos and a penguin encounter video. Students ended the day by bringing home a "penguin/krill" snack! Students worked really hard researching their penguins and creating their slide presentations. We're finishing sharing those presentations. Moving forward we're going to take a deeper dive into non-fiction text features and how they help us understand what we are reading. 

-Science / Social Studies  We are having SO much fun learning about animals!  We started out our unit by seeing how animals are classified.  First, we looked at the differences between vertebrates and invertebrates.  Then we explored the different characteristics of the animal groups within the vertebrate group.  For invertebrates, we specifically focused on the arthropod subgroup because it is the largest of all the animal groups.  We then analyzed the differences between inherited and acquired traits, both physical and behavioral.  Our field trip at Lake Farmpark reinforced our knowledge of inherited and acquired traits of corn, sheep, and horses. Our animal unit would not be complete without learning about life cycles.  We are so lucky to be able to witness part of the life cycle of a chick and a butterfly firsthand in our classroom!!  Our chick eggs are incubating and our caterpillars are eating to prepare to enter the chrysalis stage.  To illustrate adaptations animals have to survive, students engaged in a bird beak simulation.  A virtual field trip to the Cleveland Aquarium will follow up with a guide to point out the many aquatic adaptations of the animals in the  exhibits. Other fun activities we have done are solving animal escape rooms and playing Guess Who using our animal knowledge.