Vivid Verbs

In Mrs. Essenburg's class we have been writing personal narratives.

What is a personal narrative? 

We have been working hard to make sure our narratives paint a vivid picture in the mind of our readers so when they read our narrative they can feel like they are there with us.

One way to do that is to choose exciting verbs when we write.

Okay, so what are verbs?

Verbs show action. So to get a good understanding of what a verb is, we brainstormed a lot of examples of verbs and we acted them out! Check out the video below to see some of the verbs that we thought of.

Now that we have a good understanding of verbs we need to use them in our writing. However, when we write, we want to use STRONG verbs. 

If we say someone is going somewhere, there are probably better verbs than the word walk. How about the words trudged, or raced, or shuffled? Those verbs give us so much more information about our character and make our writing more interesting.

For example, look at the sentences below.

Kaitlyn walked to the park.

Mason looked out the window.

Ethan ate an apple. 

Third graders, now it is your turn. 

Look at the sentences above, and notice the verbs. Those verbs are boring and that makes the sentence boring.

Comment below and change the boring verbs to strong, interesting, exciting verbs. 

Make the sentence even better by giving us more details, adding interesting adjectives, or any thing else you can do to make the sentence come alive.

Nonfiction Text Features

In Mrs. Essenburg's class we have been reading and learning about nonfiction. What is nonfiction?

There are lots of different types of nonfiction, such as books about animals, sports, history, biography, or different states or countries.

Mrs. Essenburg loves nonfiction books about history!

Authors write nonfiction in a different way than they write fiction. Authors use special text features to help the reader understand the facts they are reading about.

What are text features?

Text features are things like captions, which tell what a pictures is about.

 A text feature might also be a heading, which explains what the section of text is about.

Don't forget about the Table of Contents! The Table of Contents lets us know what each of the chapters are about and also what page they are on.

A map is one of Mrs. Essenburg's favorite text feature, because if we are reading about a place it shows us exactly where that place is.

Don't forget about bold-faced words. Bold-faced words are words that the author thinks are important, so the author makes them darker than the other words. 

Charts and graphs are very important text features. Charts and graphs organize information in a way that is very easy to read. 

 Glossaries are the last text feature we will talk about here. A glossary is like a very small dictionary just for the nonfiction book you are reading. A glossary tells you what the bold-faced words mean and how to pronounce the word.

Those are just some of the text features authors use to make nonfiction books more interesting and to help the reader understand the facts in the book.

Check out this great video Jordan and Cordelia made about the text features of this nonfiction book about animals!




We practiced using text features.  In Social Studies we were learning about the Midwest Region. After we read about the different food, fun activities, and music of the Midwest we used the Pic Collage app to make headings and captions about what we read. Here are some examples of what we made.

Here are Korin's and Mason W.'s headings and captions about food in the Midwest.

Here are Andrew's and Kaitlyn's headings and captions about things people do for fun in the Midwest.

Here are Sydey's, Riley's, and Addison's headings and captions about things people might do for fun in the Midwest.

Here are Omar and Julian's headings and captions about some food you might find in the Midwest.

Here are Dorothy and Jordan's headings and captions about the music you might hear in the Midwest.

Here are Lainie and Selena's headings and captions about the music in the Midwest.

Without text features nonfiction books would not be nearly as interesting! 

Think about the nonfiction books you like to read. What type of nonfiction do you like the best? Which text feature do you find helps you the most to understand the book? Why is that text feature so helpful? Please comment below and let us know. Make sure your comment is a Quality Comment. 

Global Read Aloud

We are participating in the 2015 Global Read Aloud.

What is the Global Read Aloud? It is a story read aloud at the same time by schools all over the world. Classrooms can discuss the books and learn with each other.

The book we will be reading is Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt.

We are very excited to be collaborating with other classes as we read and think about this book. We will be collaborating with Mrs. Remedios's class in Brampton, Ontario, Canada and Mrs. Kiabacka's class in Pointe Verde, Florida. 

We started thinking about the book today and connected with Mrs. Remedios's class on Padlet. Both classes had a chance to look at the front page and the title and make a prediction about what the book is about based on those clues. Here is our Padlet of predictions!

Created with Padlet

Now we are going to watch this book trailer about Fish in a Tree. 




After watching the book trailer, does your prediction change? What is it now and why do you make that prediction? Is there anything you are wondering about? Parents and visitors to the blog, we would love to hear from you as well!

Rounding Numbers

In Mrs. Essenburg's classroom we are learning to round numbers to the nearest 10 and the nearest 100. We round numbers all the time to make working with numbers easier. Understanding how to round numbers shows we have a good understanding of place value and number sense.

Also, if we can explain what we have learned to others it shows we truly understand what we are learning. Check out the videos below with two students explaining how to round!

Here is Mason W.'s video about rounding to the nearest 10.



Here is Lainie's video about rounding to the nearest 100.



Great job Mason W. and Lainie!

Something else we are working on are Math Practices. 

What are Math Practices?

Math Practices describe how we should think and act as mathematicians to have a deep understanding of mathematics. We will be focusing on one or two math practices each day.

For this lesson, we concentrated on the math practice Using Numbers and Words to Help us Make Sense of Problems. It is sometimes easy to find the answer to problems, but it is not as easy to explain why the answer make sense. Check out the great explanations that the third graders gave to the rounding problems below!

Being able to explain our math thinking is a very important skill. It shows we have a good understanding or what we are learning. Great job third-graders!

Third Graders, comment below with a two or three digit number and round it to the nearest 10 or 100. Can you explain your thinking and tell us why you rounded it the way you did?

Parents or visitors to the blog, do you have a rounding problem for us to try? If you do, share it in the comment section below. 

Also, it is so important for us to see how we use math in every day life. Can you think of an example of when you might use rounding in your job or during your day? If you can, comment below with an example!

Making Our Mark and Celebrating International Dot Day

This week we are celebrating International Dot Day.

What is Dot Day?

International Dot Day is a celebration of creativity and innovation. It is based on the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds.

In the book The Dot, Vashti doesn't know what to draw. In frustration, she just puts a dot in the middle of the paper and gives up. As the story continues, Vashti realizes that even a dot can become something very special and that she can create amazing things. She needed to make her mark to see where it would take her.

Watch the video below for the story The Dot.

We read the story The Dot together and talked about what we learned. Making something new can be frustrating and even a little scary, but it is worth the risk. Each of us has our own way of creating something, and each person's way is unique and special.

To celebrate Dot Day, we started by making dot t-shirts. First we put dots all over the shirt, in any way we wanted.

Then, our parent volunteers helped us by turning them into tie-dye t-shirts. Each shirt is wonderfully different!

We also made dot posters. The instructions were simply "make a dot". It was great fun to see the different dots everyone made.

On our dot paper we wrote how we want to make our mark. Check out the video below to see the pictures we made and how we are going to make our mark.



After we wrote how we hope to make our mark, we Skyped with a class from Texas and a class from Pennsylvania. We shared with each other the dots we created. It was fun to see how other classes celebrated Dot Day and to learn a little bit about them.

Happy Dot Day!

Please tell us in the comments below, how are you going to make your mark?

First Mystery Skype of 2015 - 2016

In third grade this year we are learning all about the United States. One of the ways we learn about the United States is to participate in Mystery Skypes with other classrooms.

What is a Mystery Skype?

A Mystery Skype is a problem solving game. Two classrooms set up a Skype call to each other. They do not tell each other where they are located. Students need to ask yes or no geography questions to figure out where the other class is.

It teaches geography, problem solving skills, critical thinking, and helps us to learn about other classrooms in other parts of the country. 

Watch the video below to see our first Mystery Skype in action!



We will be keeping track of all of our Skypes on the Mystery Skype page on the tab along the top of the blog. Check back and look at the map to see the different places around the country--and perhaps around the world--that we have been able to Mystery Skype with this year!

We would love to hear what you think about Mystery Skype. Share in the comment section below!

Technology Tool

Today we learned about a technology tool called Padlet. Padlet is an online bulletin board where we can write our thoughts to share with the class. We have used Padlet in the past to share our thoughts with other classrooms as well, from classes here at Pinewood to classes in the United States and even a class in Australia.

For our first time using Padlet we wrote down our favorite foods. 

Here is our first Padlet!

Created with Padlet

We had a lot of fun using Padlet and we will be using it as a tool for learning as the year goes on. I challenged the third graders to see if they could show their parents how to use Padlet. Below is an empty Padlet for parents. Please share what your favorite foods are on the Padlet! Ask your child how to use the Padlet.

When describing yourself, please identify yourself in relationship to your child, such as Mason's Mom or Avery's Dad. I'm looking forward to seeing what the favorite foods of our parents are. Thank you!

Created with Padlet

Did anyone mention something that reminded you of something you really like? Did you see anything that surprised you? Let us know in the comment section below.