We have been very busy the last week of September.  We just finished our desert unit where we incorporated the nocturnal animals from the week before. We read several nonfiction books and also The Cactus Hotel.

My student teacher, Miss Landrith, made another lapbook to go with the desert unit and it turned out great!

We studied the life cycle of a cactus and Miss Landrith came up with a great time line.

They also recreated the cycle of a cactus with candy...this was a giant hit!  The green is "Airheads", the yellow and red are the famous "M&M's".  As Miss Landrith narrated the life cycle the students manipulated their "cactus" with the growing of the cactus, next the arms, the flowers forming, then fruit, and finally the fruit falling off the cactus.  Then of course they got to eat them!  Yummy!!!

Check out our work!

Just a few of our finished bulletin board and hall displays.  We are working hard in third grade.  Check out our cute frog and toad comparison charts!  Science and Social Studies are even more fun when you get to draw what you are studying!

 

Bats, Owls, and Bobcats!!

Outside cover

 Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!  I mean .... Bats and owls and Bobcats, oh my!  We are busy studying nocturnal animals this week.  I came up with a new to me, but old idea and the kids loved it!   I was searching online for ideas for my unit and found a blog about lapbooks.  So I made a lapbook about our nocturnal
animal unit, using the existing test as a guide.  The mini file folders hold facts about the three animals (bats, owls, and bobcats) that we study.  We made a flap book with facts and an accordion fold (I called it a picket fence) with "more facts".   Then we read several nonfiction texts and together found three facts about bats.  Then we read some technical text about how to draw a bat, practiced and then drew our bat on "Bat Facts" accordion book.  Finally, they read a "National Geographic Explorer"  all about owls with a partner.  Together they were to find three facts and write them on their "Owl Fact" books.  They were very excited that they could do this research on their own and started asking if they could write done more than three facts!  I love it when they get excited about learning, don't you??  Check out how they turned out.

Inside

Mini file folder with facts

back of folder

Independent research

Flap book with facts

Picket fence accordion with more facts!

Frogs and things!!!

Wow! It's been a very busy, yet short week. I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. We accomplished a lot in four short days this week.  We are just finishing our unit on the life cycle of a frog. After reading several nonfiction books and watching a couple of informational videos about frogs, toads, and other amphibians. We brainstormed a list of facts about both and then filled out some graphic organizers complete with drawings of a frog and toad.  We made books about the life cycle of a frog in the shape of a lily pad.

We have also read A Whale is Not a Fish and we ate "Whale" crackers while we worked on a comparison worksheet.  They love anything they can eat!!! We read Frog and Toad are Friends to each other and then listened to the audio tape while reading it silently.  They giggled at the cookie chapter and again when Toad was singing to his plants.  Frog and Toad is an oldie, but a goody! 

American Symbols

My third grade class is finishing our unit on American Symbols.  We have read several non fiction books about the flag, the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, the bald eagle, other American symbols.  Here are a couple of books that we have used.  

The Bald Eagle is a wonderful book seems to be written on around a third grade level. The story is told by a man who is the bird keeper, he tells many facts throughout the book, including the debate about whether to have the wild turkey or the bald eagle as the national bird.  

The Story of the Statue of Liberty has wonderful illustrations that show the different stages of the statue being built.  It give a lot of information about the building, raising money, and delivering the statue.  The story moves quickly and kept my students engaged while listening.  We then filled out a graphic organizer with six different facts about the statue and finished with a short report on The Statue of Liberty.

I found a link on youtube that had an art teacher that taught kindergartners how to draw the Statue of Liberty.  I love to draw and incorporate art if I can, so I taught my students how to draw the statue.  Don't they look adorable???

We also studied about the flag, Betsy Ross, etc. So we colored some flags too.  I can't wait until our bald eagle reports are done, so that we can put all of this up on the bulletin board!  Although, to be honest, I may be a little sad to take down those cute pirates.  My class go so into drawing the Statue of Liberty that they keep drawing me pictures of her.  

They even have started drawing pictures of my student teacher and me!!  I see more art in our classroom in the future.  

We traced one of our shoes on a piece of brown construction paper.  Then we traced both hands, cut them out and curled them around a pencil.  We glued the wings on the sides of the shoe print we traced.  Then I found a clipart of an eagles head, we colored the beak and eye, cut it out, and finally glued it to the heel side of the shoe print.  We cut orange feet, no pattern just what they thought they looked like.  This is what they turned out like, what do you think???  

After the holiday we will finish our unit and I will post the bulletin board picture.  Until then have a great holiday!  

Story Mapping!

We are getting ready to learn about story mapping, so I sat down and created some simple, no themed maps to be used with my third graders all year long.  Click on the picture if you want to download a copy of your own.