Holiday Card Exchange

This year our class participated in a Holiday Card Exchange. This is one of the many online collaborative projects for schools created and hosted by Jen Wagner.

 
First we each made a Holiday card. The theme this year was lights.

Inside each card we put a paper with information about our classroom. 

Then we addressed envelopes to classrooms all over the United States and Canada and mailed them out!

Then we waited...

At first just a few cards came in the mail.

Then more...

And finally more cards than students in our class!

When there were enough cards so each of had one to open, we went ahead and opened them.



Then we looked to see where all the cards came from. Check out the map below to see.



We looked at the information papers in their cards. It was fun learning about the different schools! Then we each entered the information from our card into a Google form. This way we can use this data later! Here is the information we collected.

The cards look wonderful. Every class was so creative! 

Sending cards to friends during the holiday season is a tradition.

Many people have special traditions during the holiday season such as sending cards. Do you have any holiday traditions that you celebrate with your family? We would love to hear about them. Please share in the comment section below.

Simple Machines Make Work Easier

Our first science unit this year is all about simple machines.

There are six simple machines. They are:

A pulley.

An inclined plane.

A wheel and axle.

A wedge.

A screw.

And a lever.

So what are simple machines and why are they important?

In order to find out, we set out to find the answers to some questions.

How do simple machines affect work?
How can a simple machine trade force for distance?
How can a simple machine change the direction of a force?

We used both print and digital resources to find the answers. Research takes time and a lot of thought, but by reading carefully we were able to find the answers to the questions. 

Then we took what we learned from those resources and put it in our own words using an app called Write About This. Here are some of the final products.

After we researched and wrote about what we learned, it was time to see if we could make some simple machines ourselves. Check out the video below to see what we did.

Simple machines are everywhere! Look around you. Do you see any simple machines? Tell us what simple machines you see in the comment section below.

Using Context Clues

Reading is Thinking!

In third grade, we have been learning about context clues.

What are Context Clues?

Context clues are a way to figure out what an unfamiliar word means. 

We look at the clues in the sentences around the word to give us hints about what the word means.

Here's an example.

Thomas went to the apex of the mountain, and because it was so high, he had to take a tank of oxygen with him. 

What does the word apex mean? Check out Mrs. Essenburg's screencast that shows us how to figure out the word apex using context clues.



It isn't just Mrs. Essenburg who can explain how to use context clues to figure out an unfamiliar word. Here is one student explaining how she used context clues to figure out the meaning of the word splendidly.





And Sara Jean used context clues to figure out the meaning of the word mortified.



And Gavin shows how he used context clues to figure out the meaning of saturated.



Check back for more context clues videos from students!

Want more fun practice using context clues? Try this Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Game!

Context Clues Game


By now you should be an expert at context clues, so here's one more for you to answer in the comment section below. Here is a picture of Mrs. Essenburg's cats, Troy and Lucy. 

After slumbering on the bed all day, Mrs. Essenburg's cats, Lucy and Troy, clambered up the Christmas tree. They knocked it over, and ornaments scattered all over the floor. Naughty cats!

Use context clues. What do you think the words slumbering and clambered up mean? Answer in the comment section below.

Thinking About Numbers

In math right now we are learning about rounding. To help us think about numbers in ways that will help us learn to round, we did some thinking about place value.

Usually when we look at a number such as 427, we just think about the three digits we see. We don't often stop and think about what each number means.

It is helpful to think about a number such as 427 as 4 hundreds and 2 tens and 7 ones.

That's great, but we want to really think about numbers and how we can break them apart. So we played a game called Find Three Ways.

In Find Three Ways, we looked at a three digit number and came up with different ways we can think about that number. We can think about it as it is pictured above, like this:

4 Hundreds
2 Tens
7 Ones

Or we could think of it as 

3 Hundreds
12 Tens
7 Ones

Or we could think of it as 

4 Hundreds
1 ten
17 Ones

There are SO many different ways we can think about one number like 427. 

First we used place value blocks to show different ways to show a number. When we finished some of us had the chance to share our thinking with a screencast. Check them out below!

Here is Claire's screencast.



Here is Jocelyn's screencast.




Here is Tessa's screencast.



Here is Gavin's screencast.



As  you can see, many students did more than three ways!  

Check back as more screencasts will be uploaded soon.

Until then, can you think of another way to show one of the numbers listed above? Tell us in the comment section below!

Main Idea and Details

In Social Studies we have been learning a lot about the United States! We have been fortunate enough to participate in Mystery Skypes (so far) with classrooms in Wisconsin, Utah, Massachusetts, Alabama, Texas, Nebraska, and Michigan. (Yes, Michigan! It took everyone awhile to realize we could have a Mystery Skype with someone in our own state!)

We are also using our study of the United States to practice important informational reading skills. This week we used our reading to work on identifying main idea and supporting details. 

Students needed to read each paragraph carefully and identify the main idea and three details that supported that main idea.They then used an app to write those ideas down.

We used an app new to us called Popplet to show our work.

Here are some examples of what we did.

Everyone did such a good job! Popplet is engaging and a great way to help us organize our thinking. A number of students finished early and worked on learning how to add images to their Popples. We will definitely be using the Popplet app again for other thinking tasks.

Have you ever visited the Western Region of the United States? If you have, what did you like best about your visit there?

Pumpkin Measurement

Check out the update on the bottom of the post!

A short time ago, one of our amazing volunteers, Mr. Swanson, stopped by. He had two enormous pumpkins left over from Halloween. He was wondering if we might be able to use them somehow.

Our answer: Yes, of course we can!

Here are the pumpkins:

As we are just wrapping up a unit on measurement, these two days before Thanksgiving are a great time to practice what we've been learning using the pumpkins we received from Mr. Swanson.

There are two of them, so Mrs. Scholma's class will take one pumpkin and our class will take the other. Mrs. Lemmen's class will join our classes as well.

Here is the pumpkin our class will be using:

Now it's time to estimate! We are going to estimate the weight, the height, the width, and even the capacity after we hollow it out. Use the Google Form below to submit your estimate. We will be estimating with the metric system in our classroom as that is what we have been working on, but visitors to our blog--feel free to use either one. We will be measuring with both.

Here is the form:



Check back to see the results!

UPDATE!

We had a great time measuring the pumpkins. It was fun to join together with Mrs. Lemmen's class and put our estimates in the form.

Here are the final results.

Weight: 14.1 Kilograms/31 pounds
Height: 50 Centimeters/19.5 inches
Width: 22 cm/ 8.5 inches
Volume/Capacity: 7 liters/1.8 gallons

Congratulations to:

Ruby and Krista, who had the closest estimate to the weight with an estimate of 15 kilograms.

Deven and Garrett, with an estimate of 50 centimeters for the height which was exactly right!

Aniya and Brooklyn, with an estimate of 21 centimeters for the width--only one centimeter off!

Jack and Kaydance, who had the closest estimate of the capacity of the pumpkin with an estimate of 8 Liters.

Well done everyone!

Investigating Grams and Kilograms

This past week, in math, we have been learning about measurement. More specifically, we have been learning how to find the mass of items in grams and kilograms.

Grams and kilograms are new concepts to most third graders, and the only way to truly understand something that you have very little experience with (or none at all), is to spend some time working with it.

So that is what we did! We did a lot of hands on activities so we all had a good understanding of what exactly a gram is and what exactly a kilogram is.

Check out the video below that explains what we did.



*Note: You might notice that we are using both the words weight and mass. We did discuss the difference between weight and mass (Mass is the measure of how much matter is in an object, weight is a measure of how hard gravity is pulling on that object), but that is a discussion that will continue as we understand this concept better. The term mass was new to us!

 When we finished, we went on one more scavenger hunt. A Skitch Scavenger hunt!

Skitch is an app that allows us to annotate a photograph very easily.

The students went in the room and the hallway, took pictures of items, then used Skitch to tell me if the mass of that item would be found with grams or kilograms. Here are some of our Skitch Scavenger hunt pictures below!

 

 

 

We had a lot of fun investigating grams and kilograms. We would love to hear from you! Look around you. Do you see any items that you would use grams to find their mass? Or maybe some items that you might use kilograms instead? Comment below, we would love to hear what they are.

Compound Sentences

In third grade we have been learning how to write compound sentences. 

Earlier in the year we learned about how simple sentences needed a subject and a predicate.

Now we are learning how to create compound sentences by combining two simple sentences.

Here is a video about how we create compound sentences.




We need to use a conjunction to connect two simple sentences to make a compound sentence. We learned to think of the word FANBOYS to help us remember the conjunctions we can use to connect the sentences.

F--For
A--And
N--Nor
B--But
O--Or
Y--Yet
S--So

We need to remember to put a COMMA before the conjunction when we combine the sentences. 

There are many, many ways to make compound sentences! Here are two examples:

Here are two simple sentences:

I like to go to the beach in the summer. It is fun to get ice cream on the way home.

Here is a compound sentence made from those sentences:

My favorite place to go in the summer is the beach, and it is fun to get ice cream on the way home. 

Here are two more simple sentences:

We might get a new cat. It would be great to get a dog.

Here is a compound sentence made from those sentences:

We might get a new cat for a pet, or we might choose a dog instead.

Remember, compound sentences are always two SENTENCES combined with a comma and a conjunction. This is NOT a compound sentence.

Mrs. Essenburg went to the mall and then to the store. 

The underlined section is not a sentence. Everything before and after the conjunction must be a sentence for it to be a compound sentence.

Compound sentences make our writing more interesting and easier to read. It keeps our writing from sounding choppy.

Instead of filling out a worksheet, we practiced making simple and compound sentences using the app Pic Collage. Here are some of what we created:

 

 

 

Next we will practice putting compound sentences into our writing projects to continue to improve on our writing skills.

We hope you liked our simple and compound sentences. We would love to see some more simple and compound sentences, especially compound sentences. Can you share a compound sentence in the comment section below?