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

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.

  1. 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!

Exploring Electricity

We have been learning about electricity and got to explore circuits a bit this week during Inquiry.  On Monday, learners worked in groups to build a circuit using wires, a light bulb, a battery, and a connecting platform. There was lots of excitement as light bulbs started lighting up!

On Tuesday we tested different materials to determine which items were conductors (electricity could travel through them to light the bulb) and which were insulators (electricity did not travel through them so the bulb remained dark). Ask your third grader to share with you what was discovered during this exploration.

A wooden spoon is an insulator.
A penny is a conductor. The lightbulb lit up!

More Matter Experiments

We are learning about Matter during Inquiry. We have done 2 cool experiments this week.

Mixing Solid and Liquid

Students experimented with adding drops of liquid (vinegar) to solids (flour, sugar, salt, baking soda). They used a pipette (dropper) to drop a little liquid at a time. We took time to observe and record what happened.  The most exciting step was watching the gas bubbles created when the vinegar was added to the baking soda.


Balloon Blow-Up

Our next experiment was to see if we could harness the gas created by mixing vinegar and baking soda and use it to inflate a balloon.  It worked! We tied off the balloon and noticed that the gas was very dense because the balloon dropped quickly to the floor. Both of these experiments can be completed at home with a few ingredients from your kitchen if you third-grade scientist wants to demonstrate.

Holiday Party

We had lots of fun on Dec. 22 as we celebrated together! We started by decorating “stocking” bags.

Next, students were able to pass out little stocking stuffer gifts to their classmates. It was so fun to check out what was given.
Next we enjoyed some refreshments.
We made an ornament craft and wrapped it up to gift our families and ended the morning with a Christmas singalong.