Social Studies and Language Arts
I feel the need to start with Social Studies...because if the kids enjoyed the past two weeks 1/2 as much as I did, it was WELL worth our time!! We spent last week discussing the history of voting...and this week we turned our focus to the two main candidates for president. We asked the kids who they wanted to see win the election...and then played an awful trick on them...we made them research "the other guy!" We felt that this was the best way to make them think outside of themselves and write about why the "other guy" was a good candidate...because whether or not he's the one we want, a whole lot of people think he's the best of the best...in each separate political party! They took this job on just like they do with everything they do...with motivation and a great attitude. They researched one day, and wrote informative paragraphs the next. The focus was on main idea, ideas to support the main idea, and details to support the ideas. The graphic organizer we used helped to make this make sense! After these paragraphs were complete, the kids got into groups and "voted" on the best well written paragraph for the candidate. Let me take a moment to say...ALL of the paragraphs were wonderful....but we couldn't share 16...they then chose speakers that would best communicate their message. Those choices represented the "popular vote", and then I represented the "electoral college"...I picked a few other people to share their paragraphs. THEN...here comes the really good part...Friday, we presented to Mrs. Foster's class and Mr. Schartner's class. We explained that we were not there to persuade them who to vote for, we wanted them to make an informed decision, therefore we were sharing information about the candidates. The speakers did an outstanding job...and the entire third grade participated in a mock election that afternoon. Believe it or not...I forgot to give the results to the kids yesterday...we were so busy with the Fall Festival...but in the third grade at Urbana Elementary School, Barack Obama won by 20 votes...the final tally was 61 votes for Obama and 41 votes for John McCain...I think we're in for a long night this Tuesday!!
Math
This week in math we started a unit on collecting and displaying information. We delved into double bar graphs, and we are headed into the world of stem and leaf plots, line plots, line graphs and much, much more!
Science
This week we found time to test our unknown powders...mixing them with vinegar...the "green" powder was very exciting to watch! We will test with iodine and cabbage juice this coming week. The following week we will be doing our final tests and then the students will be given some pertinent information to help them draw some conclusions based on all of our testing. We have some quite a few potential scientists in our group!!
FALL FESTIVAL!!
And then Friday...what a day...we started off the morning with a great pumpkin math activity...we made all kinds of predictions about pumpkins and then verified them all...we weighed, measured circumference, diameter, height, we counted pumpkin seeds...boy, were we surprised at how many seeds there were in each pumpkin!! After our math activity the kids did some creative writing...poems and stories about Fall...man, do I have some talented writers! And then in the afternoon, we had the most marvelous party planned by Ms. Kim and helped by so many wonderful parent volunteers. The kids made beautiful frames, played a fun memory game, and enjoyed delicious treats! Thank you so much to all of you...for making donations to make this party SO amazing...it was one the kids will remember for a long time. One more thing...Ms. Kim had the kids write down on a leaf what they are thankful for...and then they hung them on branches...this "Thankful Tree" is on the table in my room...if you get a chance this month...stop by to see it...your children are all very thankful for YOU.
Let me apologize for the SUNDAY posting...but I was definitely not getting one out on Friday...I had to hurry home and be "Mom" and go trick or treating...and I needed yesterday to recover!! So...sorry to make you wait...hope the pictures below make it worth it...this will be a very long post based on how many pictures I want to share...so enjoy the pictures and the extra two days with your kids! I look forward to seeing them on Wednesday!
