We are right in the midst of our Pioneer unit. We are learning about westward expansion and the lives of the American Pioneers. The kids are in "wagon train" groups and they earn points to travel the trail from Missouri to Oregon by completing various learning activities. They have all updated their learning blogs with their latest "Pioneer Diary" entries.
Make sure to read the student blogs listed on the right side of this blog. They are wonderful!
We are going to start using NXT Legos in class and in an after school club. These are the videos that I want to show the kids.
My class will be participating in the World-Wide Idita"read" project that is going on during the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska. This is where kids sign-in. This coincides with "I Love to Read" month at Washington Elementary. There is a video explaining the project and PDF guides explaining the project such as the Idita-Read_MusherGuide the ReadingMileageWorksheet and Idita-Read_Bookmarks that will make life easy for kids and parents participating.
While I was at the TIES technology conference on Monday I went to a session about the Iditorod. During the session Gary Paulsen, my favorite author of all time, joined us via SKYPE. He was at his home in New Mexico. Gary has written many books about his experiences as a musher, but retired from running major events in the late 1980's due to heart disease. Much to my surprise and excitement his name was on the 2006 Iditarod roster. He had a blog which told about his preparations. And then, he scratched. And nothing else was posted to his blog. And I have wondered for 2 years what happened. So, during the live video session I asked Gary what happened. His first question was, "How graphic do you want me to be?" and his next question was, "Are there any kids in the room?". So, he told a group of teachers what happened. It involved a fence, a deep cut and blood. That's all I'm going to tell.
Yesterday, we started reading "Woodsong" an excellent children's novel by Gary Paulsen. The kids are doing this project as a book circle, with each child having a specific role.
This post was prepared by Parker, Drew and Angel. Hi
did you know that me Parker, Drew and Angel are in 3rd grade? And we want to
tell you about what we saw on the NASA website. We saw this... how they
slept in space in their space rocket room. Now here
To visit more space links, click here.
We started our space unit yesterday. We are doing research using books, informational video clips and the internet. Today we learned about how vast our Milky Way Galaxy is. Did you know that if you were traveling by jet from the earth to the moon it would take you 3 months! If your were to travel by jet from the Earth to Venus it would take 3 years. If you traveled from Earth to Neptune by jet it would take 313 years! To learn more about the planets you can visit BrainPop. The kids in my class know the username and password. Type in planets in the search tool to view short informational video clips about the planets. Thanks to our Washington PIE group for funding this video learning resource! To visit more space related internet sites click here (my educational bookmarks on delicious-space). We are looking forward to our space field trip to Paulucci Space Theater to learn more about space and the solar system! Below is a picture of the earth from space...at night!
We have been working on eco-system projects for science. Everyone has done a fantastic job! We are going to do a really cool technology project that involves students using a green screen and superimposing themselves into a digital still picture. It appears that the kids are reporting "live" from their ecosystem. I can't wait to see the finished products!
Today in math class we created a graph with the number of letters in our first names. This is what it looks like.
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My third grade students created these book club projects in May of last year and I'm finally finding time to post them. I think they are fabulous!
Download how_to_eat_fried_worms.ppt
Download presenting_from_judy_blume_studios.ppt
Download stage_fright_on_a_summer_night.ppt
