Today, we finished up our poetry unit with our final type of poem--the bio poem! Students had the opportunity to either write about themselves, a friend or a family member. After spending the week writing and editing our drafts, the class typed up their poems and even added illustrations. Today was presentation day! Students first shared their stories with their smaller reading groups and before having the chance to present to the whole class if they wanted to. The students had all worked very hard on these poems, so it was great to see them so proud of their finished products.
This afternoon, our school was lucky enough to be visited by our namesake, Buzz Aldrin. Our class prepared for the school assembly by watching news clips of the first moon landing. We also brainstormed differences between living on Earth compared to outer space. During the assembly, Buzz Aldrin talked about how it felt to be part of such a historic mission, as well as the importance of learning math and science in school. Finally, a few lucky students had the opportunity to ask him questions. Once we were back in the classroom, each student wrote a paragraph about interesting things they learned and any questions they still wondered about. All in all, it was a very exciting day.
Today we celebrated the end of the first quarter with a school-wide spirit day. Everyone dressed up as their favorite storybook character. We had spooky characters, goofy characters, real and imaginary. After using pumpkins in math, learning about the stages of the moon (oooohh spookyyyyy) and reading one of my favorite books, The Hallo-Weiner, we rounded out the day with an classroom celebration. Thank you to the parents that brought in fall-themed snacks and helped with crafts.
All four third grade classes took a trip to the National Zoo today. The buses carted us away at the start of the school day and we arrived back just in time to head home at normal dismissal time. The field trip was based around our science study of different environments. We watched the seals play in the aquatic exhibit, looked at snakes living in the desert, and watched the lions prowl through the grass. The class favorite seemed to be the giraffes. The zookeeper even let us feed a few of the younger ones! Hopefully, learning about the different animals will make our science lessons in the future more relatable now that we've seen the environments in real life.
Its almost that time of year! Parent-teacher conferences happen at the end of the first quarter, which falls at the beginning of November this year. This is a chance for me to meet with parents to talk about their child's progress and all the great work they've been doing in the classroom. I'm posting this pretty far in advance to make it easier to plan ahead. Don't worry if you aren't sure when you'll be available yet--I'll be sending out reminder emails as it gets closer. Razzle Bam Boom is a musical duo that came and performed for students and staff in the auditorium this morning. They sang about everything from bullying to the history of Rock and Roll. This clip is from their song "H2O, Where Did You Go?" This clip was especially exciting for students because it built on the unit we just finished about environments. Assemblies like this are great because they show how music can be used as an important tool for learning. Here are the top 3 reasons for the blog!
Hello Students and Parents!
I'm so excited to be teaching your children this year. It should be a really excited year so I'm looking forward to it. Feel free to contact me anytime by phone at (703) 555-5555 or email me at [email protected] with any questions or concerns. The box on the right will also send me comments directly to me. I can't wait to get to know you all better in the coming months. |