Monday --The Final Week

This week is so bittersweet!!! While I always look forward to lazy summer days spent with my family, it is going to be very difficult to say goodbye to this group of students and DES as a whole!!

The children started their day in the media center.  They were visited by Ms. Alpatti, the children's librarian from the Damascus Public Library.  She spoke to the students about their summer reading program.  Look for information, tonight, in your child's backpack.

When they returned to the classroom, I introduced an exciting project that we will work on this week.  It began as a math project but has branched out to reading and writing, too.

The children will be working in small groups to collaboratively plan an amusement park.  First, they will research various parks, using links on the third grade web site.  Next, they will decide what they want in their park.  From there, they will plan and map out a park.  They will be required to include a map key, or legend, and for each facility, they will have to identify the area and perimeter.  After they are finished with their map, they will create an advertisement to attract consumers.  Finally, if time allows, they will plan and record a commercial.

Today the groups began their research.  It was such fun for me to see how excited and engaged each student was!  I also thrilled to see many examples of incidental learning, such as; What does attractions mean?  How can we find the admission price?

After math, the students worked on completing last week's independent work assignments.  Once these are finished, they will use this time to continue working on the amusement parks.  There will not be any new assignments this week.


While the students worked on their independent work, I met with small groups.
This week's independent work assignment include:

1. Revise/complete the 3 journal entries about a person/event who inspired the student to make a positive change in their lives.
2. Read a blog post and then write about the topic, whether the author was writing to inform, share an opinion or express feelings, indicate the author's point of view and identify words or phrases that support the point of view.
3. Watch a video about making recycled paper and complete a 3-2-1 in their science journal (3 new facts, 2 ideas they want to try, and 1 question they have).

Sharks:  We reviewed the /ou/pattern.  We also did a word chain to focus on the short vowel sounds.  Finally, we read chapter 2 in the new book they got on Friday. 

Following lunch and outdoor recess, the students continued working independently while I met with more groups.

Dolphins:  we reviewed the /ou/ pattern and then read pages 12-15.  After reading as a group, the students reread this section and identified 2 fats they learned about baby roadrunners.

Cheetahs:  The children had finished reading their book on Friday.  So, today we discussed the last line, And the magic lives on..."  We also shared ideas about Walt's goals, as well as his motivation and effort to achieve them.

Pandas:  We met and decided to discontinue our reading of the Tiger Woods biography.

At the end of the day Mrs. Sweeney's class came over and shared the results of their science experiment where they used recycled paper to make paper.  Then the children worked together (our class and Mrs. Sweeney's class) to decide how they would proceed, together, to carry out an additional experiment to make paper.

There will not be any homework assigned this week!  :-)