Martin Luther King Jr.

Last week we started our unit on Martin Luther King Jr..  We read several non fiction books and had some really great discussions.  I decided that instead of a pattern or just another color sheet that I would show my class, step-by-step, how to draw a portrait.  So I demonstrated on my elmo as they followed my directions at their desks.  The outcome was awesome!  Just look at all the cute MLK's in our hallway.  Then I had write three facts about Dr. King and write them on their graphic organizers.  They didn't have a problem coming up with three, they wanted to write more facts!  I think I'll have to make a new organizer with room for more facts for our next study.

January

 

Check out our Snowman Glyphs!  I wrote it on chart paper.  They didn't have any patterns, but they did awesome!  Maybe it's because we have made a glyph every month....hmmm...probably!  I love the personality of each one.  Third graders Rock!!!

This is the our classroom door that my student teacher made this year.

My December bulletin board, we used "The Grinch" to teach both reading and English skills.  We ended the unit with a writing assignment "I Would make the Grinch grin by..." Didn't they turn out cute?

W

We read "Legend of the Poinsettia" by Tomie DePaola and finished our unit by painting these beautiful poinsettias.  I cut a petal shapes from sponges bought at the Dollar Tree.  Attached a clothes pin to the top and had my students stamp the petals in either red or pink and even mix the two.  The white spots left showing made them even better.  We finished them by tracing the flower with glue (3 dots in the center too!) and then added the gold glitter.  I think the glitter really makes them pop!  Didn't they do a great job on these?

These cute little elves are actually glyphs.  I made a pattern for the head, body, shoes, mittens, hat and the collar.  My class actually traced them and cut out the color according to their likes and dislikes.  I'm really into glyphs this year!

Columbus Day Activities

Did you ever have an idea for a lesson at the last minute that turned into a treasure?  Well, that's what happened to us the week of Columbus Day.  We read some nonfiction books about Christopher Columbus, made the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria...probably just like every other third grade class.  Nothing too noteworthy, pretty standard until....  we decided that my class needed to do a little creative writing assignment.  We read the book You Wouldn't Want to Sail with Christopher Columbus!  We discussed as we read what it would be like to discover a new land.  Then I gave them the topic of writing a letter to a loved one telling them that they had been shipwrecked.  What would we need to tell our mothers, dads, grandmas?  We talked about what were the things that we really need to survive, using the T.V. show "Survivor" as an example.  They came up with food, clothing, shelter, water, and fire!!  Awesome!  Then we talked about how we could signal our rescuers.  The results were awesome!!

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!