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?

Presenting what we learned

As we learn about different regions of the United States, one of the things that it is a lot of fun to learn about is how the culture of each region varies. 

As Americans, we have a lot of similarities, but we have some interesting differences as well. Certain foods, or types of music, or leisure activities might be different depending on what part of the country we live in.

We were introduced to Haiku Deck a few weeks ago, when we learned about synonyms and antonyms. That was our first time using this tool, so our first Haiku Deck slide shows were quite simple.

This week we used Haiku Deck a bit more extensively in Social Studies. We divided into pairs and read about either the music, the food, or the activities people do for fun in the Southeastern United States and find interesting details in the reading passage. We then used Haiku Deck to make a slide show to share with the class what we learned. It was a great opportunity to practice informational reading skills and presentation skills. 

Everyone did a great job!

Here are some of the Haiku Decks we created.

The music of the Southeast Region of the United States:


Title - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires


Title - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires


Music Of The Southeast By Sara And Deven. - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires


Copy of Things People Do For Fun In The South east - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires


The food of the Southeast Region of the United States:


Title - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires


Foods - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires


Sotheast.bradyn And Kaiya - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Some of the things people do for fun in the Southeastern United States:

Southeast Fun Claire And Ryan - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires


Things People Do For Fun In The South east - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

When we were finished presenting our slide shows about what we learned there were a lot of comments such as, "We like to do the same things in Michigan!" "I like that kind of music too!", or "That's one of my favorite foods." 

It is fun to see how we differ, but it was easy to see how we are similar.

What did you notice about the music, the food, and the fun in the Southeast? Are there any things you like to do to? Are there things you learned about the Southeast?