African Drumming Circle

Every year we have a drumming expert facilitate workshops with the whole third grade around the time of our Third Grade West Africa Museum. This year, Ibrahima, visited us the last week in February to share his expertise! Third graders participated in drumming circles in half groups, allowing them to have a more authentic and intimate experience. Ibrahima gave them an introduction to the djembe as a drum that can come in different sizes, what materials he uses to make and repair drums, and the three notes that can be played. He led them in learning three different rhythms, explaining that expert drummers keep a rhythm while each one takes turns overlaying another more complex beat. They learned different techniques for holding the drum and how to hold their hands to create particular sounds. They certainly left this experience having a greater appreciation for the art of drumming!

100th Day of School

The 100th Day of School was an exciting day! Third graders participated in a variety of activities to get them engaged in all things 100! They started their day with a challenge, "Identify 100 classroom artifacts." Once the festivities began, they moved through seven stations of activities:
1. 100 Exercises - completing 100 exercises in repetitions of 10
2. Roll a Die 100 - rolling die and tally as the numbers show
3. Make 100 - Find as many ways as possible to make 100
4. 100 Beaker - What are all the ways to skip count to 100?
5. All About Me 100 - What will I be like when I'm 100?
6. I Wish I had 100...
7. 100 Days - "My favorite thing in school so far is ..."

Learning about Photosynthesis

The concluding lesson of our plant study was "How do plants make food?" Third graders grappled with the difficult concept of photosynthesis by building models of water and carbon dioxide molecules. They used gummy drops and tooth picks to demonstrate what happens when these two come together. Below you will see them moving through the process of rearranging molecules to discover glucose and why we get oxygen from plants and trees!

Planting Kidney Bean Seeds

As part of our plant study, students have created an experiment bag with four varying kidney bean seeds - whole bean with coat, whole bean without coat, half bean with baby plant, and baby plant alone. Students worked in partnerships to set up their experiments and recorded their predictions about which ones would grow and why. Below are students in the midst of this process. Ask your third grader if their predictions were correct and how their beans are growing or not. 

Part 1: Set up each bean in the correct state and place them in the bag above the staple. 

Part 2: Once your beans are set up and you've added water, capture your steps in your Science notebook adding a scientific drawing with labels and a detailed prediction. 

Documenting in progress

Movement with Jose

Every Wednesday we have movement with Jose in the auditorium. With just a few more weeks left, it is apparent these third graders have grown in their ability uses their other senses, take risks within the group, and trust each other. The weeks before have been building up to participation in an activity with blindfolds. Here are a few photos of an activity called Get the Gold. The object of this activity is for the thief to steal the "gold" while a guard protects it. Both individuals are blindfolded and must use their other senses to complete the task.

Jose securing blindfolds for both participants.

Jose sending the thief to their staring position.

The thief trying a new approach to get close to the gold.

Material Explore

We had the opportunity to partner with The Materials Center! This partnership afforded us the experience to have a teaching artist come to the school through a program called Teaching Beyond the Square. Wendy Gelsanliter came to our classroom, set up materials for exploration, and set these artists loose. 

Wendy and her assistant asking kids to raise their hands if their item is made of plastic. 

Students sharing about their items made of wood. 

Buildings in progress

Experimentation at its finest

Seeing where it goes 

The balancing act

Filling for effect

Designing at work

Proud of the product

Testing the waters

Interior design

These students are ready to share about their experience building with these new materials. 

To see all the photos from that day follow this link
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1nsbRZuyyrhjsiyi8

Publishing Share - Small Moment Stories

These young writers worked so hard to publish stories to share with their friends and family. They shared their many drafts and fully published pieces with covers. Families and friends wrote special notes to each child in their comment books. This was a magical day!