On Friday we celebrated filling our dino jar with a class picnic. It was a beautiful day to eat lunch outside. We even had time for a fun game of Duck-Duck-Goose.
A Dino-mite Class Picnic
Year: 2024
Special Lessons this Week
This week we were treated to two special lessons.
On Thursday, Brecknock held a Music in the School assembly for third and fourth grade. This assembly introduced us to the Woodwind family of instruments. Third graders will bring home a paper in a few week to decide if they would like to start instrument lessons next year at Brecknock. This assembly was informative and hopefully inspiring for some future musicians.
Today we had a visit from two Garden Spot High Schoolers who are on the Health Council. They came to talk about the upcoming Mini-Thon. Our guest speakers were Elizabeth Bowman and Erin Usner. These two twelfth graders were in Mrs. Muhr’s class at Brecknock when they were in second grade. We looked way back in the blog archives and found this picture from December, 2013 when we had collected gifts for our Christmas Child. It was fun for the girls to reminisce and for my current students to see how different things looked (chalk board and mounted tv).
Eclipse 2024
Today was an exciting day at Brecknock as we prepared to watch the eclipse. After P.E. we watched a slide show that explained what causes an eclipse and showed a video of the projected path of today’s eclipse. Then we watched a video that explained how eclipse glasses protect our eyes and talked about how to be safe while viewing it. After packing up, we all headed out to the playground to view the eclipse. We were disapointed at first that the clouds were covering the sun, but they parted a few times and gave way to a beautiful view of the eclipse. We calculated that the third graders will be 30 years old the next time a total eclipse is expected to cross PA’s path!
Fort Day!
Today as our Dino-mite Reward we had Fort Day. Before lunch, learners worked together to build forts around the classroom with blankets and pillows they brought from home. This was a great way for us to practice cooperation. After library we had 30 minutes to enjoy inside our forts. Learners could read their library books or work on their computers in their forts.
TEAMS Lessons
Last week we had our third TEAMS lesson with Officer Wolfe. He has met with us once each month since January to talk about police officers and making safe choices. As part of our last lesson, we got to get an upclose look at his patrol car. Some learners sat in the front seat like officers and used the radio to make announcements to others on the sidewalk or turn on the flashing lights. Other learners got to sit in the backseat to see what it’s like for a criminal to be in a patrol car. The class really enjoyed Officer Wolfe’s lessons and will get to see him more next year when he does fourth grade TEAMS lessons.
Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences
Spring conferences are scheduled for March 27th from 12:00 pm – 7:30 pm and March 28th from 8:00 am – 3:30 pm.
Third grade learners are participating in these conferences. Your child will take part in discussions and share what they have learned. Please pick a time that will allow your child to attend the conference with you.
Here is the link for our class sign up.
Here is a link for all other teachers at Brecknock if you are scheduling for multiple children.
Author Share
After weeks of brainstorming, planning, writing, conferencing, revising, and publishing we have finished our Historical Fiction writing! Historical fiction takes place at a specific time and place in history. It includes fictional characters that deal with problems that could have really happened. On Friday our proud authors had the opportunity to read their finished book to classmates. Then they gathered up all of the organizers and planning sheets they used when writitng to share with families. They also took home their finished stories too. I hope you enjoy reading their finished masterpiece!
Read Across America Spirit Week
Next week we celebrate Read Across America with some fun spirit days!
Monday, 3/4- “Reading is Wild!”= wear animal prints or animal colors
Tuesday, 3/5- “Read my shirt.”= wear a shirt with words.
Wednesday, 3/6- “Reading jogs your mind”= wear workout clothes
Thursday, 3/7- “Read, White and Blue”= wear red, white and blue colors
Friday, 3/8- “Reading is a slam dunk!”= wear your favorite sports team or uniform
Valentine’s Day
Today we celebrated Valentine’s Day. The kids had lots of fun passing out their valentines and checking out what they received. We also enjoyed some delicious snacks. Thanks to everyone who donated items for the party!
Our buffet of treats
Magnet Explorations
Last week we did an experiment to test which items in our classroom are magnetic and which are not. Today learners got a chance to explore 5 different magnet themed stations. By the voice level and smiles I could tell they had a blast! This exploration wraps up our Physical Science unit.
- GeoMags– This station allowed learners to build creations using double sided magnet sticks and metal balls. They got pretty creative!
2. Disk Magnets– Learners were able to float magnets by harnessing their power to repel. Others used attraction and repel to roll disks across the table.
3. Horseshoe and Wand Magnets– These powerful magnets were fun to hold against one another to feel the magnetism as they attracted and repelled.
4. Iron Filings– Learners could decorate faces using iron filings by moving them with a magnet stick. They could also make the iron filings “dance” inside the tubes with a magnet.
5. Bar Magnets– At this station, learners could explore magnets to see what happens when the North and North poles are near each other and when the North and South poles are together. Unfortunately, these bar magnets lost some of their magnetism during storage and weren’t as strong as in past years, but that didn’t stop learners from exploring!
