Third grade had a fun holiday party on Friday, 12/20.  Each homeroom class got to visit Mrs. Miller’s room to make a craft/ornament, Mrs. Blankley’s room to decorate and eat a cookie, and my room to play games.  In the game room our first task was to decorate a student to look like a Christmas tree.  Groups had 1 minute to plan and 8 minutes to create their tree using a roll of green streamers, a string of garland, 10 bows and a star tree topper. Next we played a silly game called “Make me Rudolph”. Students tried to swing a red pompom up to hit their Vaseline covered nose. Any successful Rudolphs raised their hands so I could run to take their picture. Thank you to all the families who sent in donations or volunteered to help at our Holiday Party!

On 12/19 we celebrated excellent student behavior with our monthly Star party. Each day our Students are Taking Academic Responsibility by making good choices at school. They start the day with 4 stars and try to keep them all day or even earn an extra star for excellent behavior. Teachers kept track of student scores all month and averaged them to see who was invited to celebrate good behavior at our S.T.A.R. Party. Any student that averaged 3.5 stars or higher was invited to make a root beer or orange crush float. We celebrated with floats because they included a solid (ice cream), liquid (soda), and gas (carbonation) to go along with what we’ve been learning in Science. Students who averaged 4 stars or higher were “Rock Stars” and got to pick a fancy straw to use and keep.  Now we’ll begin working on making good behavior choices for January.

Students have been hard at work exploring a topic of their choice during Genius Hour and preparing a project to present their learning.  This month ten students from our class presented their projects. We’ll keep working on our research and will have more projects to present next month.

On Tuesday we celebrated excellent student behavior with our monthly Star party. Each day our Students are Taking Academic Responsibility by making good choices at school. They start the day with 4 stars and try to keep them all day or even earn an extra star for excellent behavior. Teachers kept track of student scores all month and averaged them to see who was invited to celebrate good behavior at our S.T.A.R. Party. Any student that averaged 3.5 stars or higher was invited to B.Y.O.D. (Bring Your Own Device) day. They had fun playing their own electronic devices or playing games on their school laptops. Students who averaged 4 stars or higher were “Rock Stars” and enjoyed a blow pop.  Now we’ll begin working on making good behavior choices for December.

Students have been hard at work exploring a topic of their choice during Genius Hour and preparing a project to present their learning.  This month four students from our class presented their projects. We’ll keep working on our research and will have more projects to present next month.

Third grade will be sponsoring a family for Christmas.  You may wish to purchase something for one of the children. We have a wish list of some items they need and would like for Christmas. You can view a sign up by clicking here to see what items have already been sent in and sign up for something. If you would like to purchase a specific item off the list, please sign up or feel free to send me a quick note and I will reserve that item for you. Please send all items into school unwrapped by Dec. 5th.

Any money that is collected will be compiled to purchase remaining items off their wish lists.  Thank you for helping to make this a merry Christmas for this family and and for allowing our third graders to learn how good it feels to help someone in need.

Today some high school members of Garden Spot Performing Arts came to read Christmas books to us and invite us to attend their upcoming play “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” They shared that the play is funny and entertaining for kids.  The play runs Nov. 22-24 with shows at 7:30 p.m..  Tickets are $5 but Friday’s show is free with a donation to support Cross Connections.

Today Brecknock Elementary honored veterans with a school-wide assembly.  Students were able to invite family members and friends who have served our country to join us for this special day.  Masie’s grandpa and Carson’s aunt spent some time in our classroom before the assembly.  During the assembly, each veteran introduced himself/herself and shared their branch and years of service.  The fifth and sixth grades sang some songs as well.

In science we spent two days learning about light. Miss Erb planned some cool light exploration stations for the students. They predicted and experimented to see how much light (if any) would go through a plastic bag, wax paper, and card stock.  They reflected white light off a CD onto white paper and got to see the colors emerge. They also used flashlights and mirrors to experiment with how light reflects.

In math class we are learning about kilograms and grams.  On Wednesday students got a chance to explore these weight units by finding objects in the classroom that they thought weighed 1 kg, 100 g, 10 g, and 1 g.  They tested their findings using weights and pan balances.