Play On! . . . Realistic Fiction Game Board Book Reports

What a fun experience we had in library today!!  Each student chose a realistic fiction chapter book and checked it off with me.  They helped each other with ideas and really got into it.  The students were all pretty excited about their books when they got back to class. They were also encouraged to bring their books home to finish reading them for their book reports:)

When students are ready to begin working on the actual game, here are some reminders.  The game should be simple, align with the story they read, and include at least 10 question cards with true/false or multiple choice answers.  Dice and game pieces are available at school to actually play the games.  Below are a few links if you're looking for board game templates or other ideas. I've also included two examples of our game board book reports.  Review the instructions in your homework folder and let your creative juices flow!

Word Board Game Templates

Printable Board Games

More Board Games
Board Game Template  

Playing Card Templates

Happy Mother's Day

This week, during recess, two students composed a Mother's Day rap and organized parts for everyone to do in the background.  We're definitely a class of many talents!  Just for fun, I recorded it and am posting it with the rap lyrics below. I hope everyone has a special Mother's Day weekend!

"The Mother's Day Rap"

Yo, this is the Mother's Day Rap.

This is for all the Mothers.

Be nice to them for Mother's Day.

They cook, they clean, and they make our beds

And give them something for Mother's Day. 

Word!

Thank you:)

Green shirts, fresh fruit, beautiful flowers, and a special lunch . . . sound like a dream vacation? If you add dry erase markers, baggies, kleenex, and sticky notes to the list, it's Teacher Appreciation Week!  Thank you, parents and students, for your kindness and generosity last week. I was touched by the many thoughtful notes, gifts, and acts. We enjoyed celebrating as a class with special things each day. I appreciate being appreciated:)

Amazing Authors!

At the end of April, each student brought home a personally published information book. I am often asked if the students write and publish these books by themselves. The answer is, "Yes!" All of the work is completely done by them.  Students begin by learning preparatory skills at the beginning of the school year, such as using informational text features, keyboarding, formatting Word documents, reading online text, writing paragraphs, etc. After choosing a topic, they read informational books and approved websites to answer research questions. Then, they draft, revise, and edit a paragraph before typing it and selecting a picture that matches the text.  Each one of these steps is practiced multiple times as a class or with groups and partners. They also analyze other authors' informational paragraphs to improve their author's craft.  The process of actually researching and writing the books takes about two months.

This year, a first grade teacher happened to be passing by our classroom when the finished books were on the students' desks. She eagerly invited us to visit her class that very afternoon to read to her students. We also had third graders interviewed by reporters on Altara TV.  Our class has been so excited to share their own treasured written word as published authors!

Reading our newly published books aloud. What a special day!

American Patriotic Symbols

Students are currently engaged in a Social Studies unit on Patriotism and Citizenship. Last week we spent a great deal of time reading, writing, and learning about the Statue of Liberty. Students then voted on four additional patriotic symbols to do more in-depth studies on: Mt. Rushmore, the Lincoln Memorial, the Bald Eagle, and the Liberty Bell.  We also discussed the Declaration of Independence and visited Altara's Freedom Wall to examine it for signatures we recognized (good thing we can read and write in cursive!). We learned many interesting facts and were actually surprised to find out how much the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell have in common!  Both were gifts from other countries, both stand for liberty, and both are made with copper.  Ask your child what interesting facts they've learned about America's patriotic symbols.

Click on the picture to learn more about the Statue of Liberty from a news report commemorating its 125 birthday.

Native Americans and Mountain Men

While I was out sick, we had special visitors in 3rd grade! Family members of one of our students set up a real Navajo teepee and spent the afternoon doing activities with the students to teach them about one of our Native American tribes and a little bit about Mountain Men. Students examined artifacts up close, learned some Navajo words, and did sand painting, just to name a few. What a fantastic way to celebrate important aspects of American culture!

We can fit an entire third grade class inside a Navajo teepee!

Check out our sand painting!

Good thing we have such warm head gear on a cold, windy day!

Sick:(

According to the Chinese Zodiac, this is the year of the snake, but it may need to be nicknamed the year of the virus:)  The students have made it through rounds of 2-3 different viruses and I happened to catch the last one pretty hard, after escaping the first two very mildly. Thank you for your patience while I was out of school for a whole week with a virus. I am almost never sick and I was so happy to be back with my students again!

3rd Grade Program

Thank you for coming to see us shine at our program on April 12th! We enjoyed performing for wonderful audiences of family and friends. The students worked hard memorizing songs, learning new dances, practicing speaking parts and solos, and focusing on "shining" by thinking about others, as our class star signified, "I can be a good friend by . . ." We hope it was as memorable for you as it was for us.

Dancing the Mexican Hat Dance

Dancing the Mexican Hat Dance

Singing the "Colors" song with sign language

See us Shine!

After the program, we did a huge measurement activity with the half of the class that stayed at school. They measured a variety of things around our classroom in centimeters, inches, feet, and meters. Then they decided to figure out the perimeter of our classroom! With everyone helping to measure, draw a diagram, and add, we found that it is 39 meters 40 centimeters long! Impressive work, students!

Multiplication Ice Cream Party

On Thursday, April 4th, third graders celebrated four months of hard work passing off their multiplication/division fact families with delicious ice cream! Thank you, parents for diligently practicing math facts with your children at home, and thank you, room moms, for organizing such a wonderful ice cream party.  This week a final multiplication progress report will be sent home in the students' homework folders, showing what they'll need to review over the summer in order to be ready for fourth grade. Congratulations, students!

In line, filling up on ice cream and toppings. Yum!

All of these students passed off their multiplication/division fact families x0-10, and many of them went on to x11's, x12's, and beyond! Way to go!

Come, "See us Shine!"

Dear Parents,
This week you will be receiving an invitation from your child to attend our annual 3rd grade program, "See us Shine."  As part of the program, our class will be dancing the Mexican Hat Dance! On Thursday, April 11th and Friday, April 12th, students should bring or wear the following costumes for their dance:

• Girls: longer, brightly colored skirts and solid-colored shirts, dressier shoes than can comfortably be danced in without easily coming off (no flip-flops or tennis shoes), brightly colored hair bows or other hair accessories
• Boys: white, button-down shirts and dark pants, dark socks and shoes

 If you do not have these exact clothing items, just bring the closest things you have. The students are looking forward to performing for you next week!