It’s Wednesday – here are some problems to solve

numbersby Adelle

Adelle and Logan threw a party for all the 3rd graders.  Logan orders some pizzas.  There were 12 pieces of pizza in each box.  Three were 46 people at the party.  If everyone has 2 pieces of pizza, how many boxes of pizza did Logan order?

by Allie

Dillan and Abi went apple picking.  Dylan picked 180 apples.  Abi picked 282 apples.  How many apples did Abi pick more than Dillan?  How many apples did they pick altogether?

by Dillan

Sam and Faith had 3 packs of goldfish crackers.  Each pack had 20 crackers in them.  They had 3 packs for 2 weeks.  How many goldfish crackers did they each have?

by Seamus

At NHS there was a pizza party.  There were 4 cheese pizzas.  There were 8 pepperoni pizzas.  There were 2 mushroom pizzas.  If each pizza had 12 slices, how many slices would there be?  If 1/3 of the pizzas got eaten how many slices were left?

It’s Monday – here are some books you might like to read!

If you look at the bookshelf in the sidebar, you’ll see some of the books I read last week- they’re all different and all good.  Some are realistic fiction, some are fantasy, some magic realism and one is a mystery.  Check them out – you’ll be glad you did.

UnknownElias gave me Look Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts at the end of school.  It was written by his second cousin, Esta Spalding.  Isn’t that cool!  The four Fitzgearald-Trout kids live on an island in a car parked at the beach.  Up until the moment the book begins living in a car has been fine, but kids grow and cars don’t.  They are a little crowded and a little discouraged.  There are only so many options on a rainy day.  The Fitzgerald-Trouts need change.  They need the opportunity to help each other explore possibilities. Kim and Kimo are 11.  Pippa is 8 and Toby is 5.   They’ve been more or less abandoned by their parents, but this seems to be for the best.  The Fitzgearald-Trouts have the absolutely worst, most self-centered parents in the universe.  They will be no help at all, probably – but there always a little smidgeon of hope… always a maybe until the day at the laundromat.  The time has come for the Fitzgerald-Trouts to find a house and make a big change.  You’ll have fun discovering what the future brings to the Fitzgerald-Trouts when they move beyond wishes and complaints to take action!  (Would you brave a forest full of blood-sucking iguanas?)  I am looking forward to more time with the Fitzgerald-Trouts.  They are strong resilient kids who stand up for themselves and work together to make the best of what they have.

Unknown-1Stories from Bug Garden by Lisa Moser is a picture book full of possibilities.  At the beginning of the book the garden is empty, abandoned and uncared for.  Then page by page the bugs move into the garden and share their stories.  Here’s one, HORSEFLY AND BUTTERFLY.

“What are you doing?” asked Butterfly.

“I am running,” said Horsefly.  “See the wind ripple my mane?  See my mighty hooves flash?  See my tail streaming behind?”

“No,” said Butterfly.  “I don’t see those things.”

“Look again,” said Horsefly as he ran around the garden.

Butterfly watched closely.  “You know you’re not a horse.  You’re a horsefly.  A teeny, tiny bug.”

Horsefly stopped running.  He looked at Butterfly and sniffed.  “Well, you’re not butter, either.”  Then he ran some more.

I love this idea.  I can imagine using it as a model to build on.  What could move into a backyard, or a forest?  What stories could we find in the vegetable garden, the fair, or even one tree.  What stories does this book inspire you to write?

 

It’s Friday – you might have fun making this…

A few years ago I discovered this craft book and craft.  Click on craft for directions.Unknown

I was trying to come up with a Friday post to share with you, and I thought of this.  I can imagine so many of you having fun making these for pencil pals.  I wish I had thought of it while we were in school when we did our animal studies.  I wonder how a flamingo would have looked, or a caribou, a jaguar or a koala. Have fun making one or two!

Unknown-3Unknown-2When you’ve made your own pipe cleaner pal, please post your creation with your comment.

I hope your summer has begun perfectly.  I am missing you a ton.  Enjoy every day!

Mrs. Eaves

 

It’s Wednesday – here are some problems to solve

Hi everyone!  How is your summer beginning?  I’ve been at school a bit each day this week.  The room is starting to look packed and emptied.  I think I’ll be done by Friday.  That’s my goal.  At the end of the year you wrote some great math problems for each other to solve.  Here are a few.  Each Wednesday I’ll post a few more. Leave your math thinking and solutions in a comment.  Happy Mathing!

numbersby Abi

If you were at a party and you had 7 sliced of pizza per box and you had 79 people at the party, how many pizzas would you need to order?

by Max

In the hockey try outs in the locker room Max was there with 13 other people.  In the other locker room there was 17 people.  If there were 18 kids who were late, but came, how may players were there altogether?     If 2/4 of the kids had to leave early, how many players were left at the try outs?

by Grace H

Yesterday morning there were 40 pencils at our table.  At the end of the day, there were 25 pencils.  How many pencils got lost/used up/broken?

by Nolan

Elias and Caleb were on the nature trail.  They picked up 1,237 acorns, 9,999 leaves and 8,872 stones.  Nolan picked up 2,789 oak galls.  How many things did they pick up altogether?

It’s Monday – here are some books you might like to read!

Happy 1st day of Summer.  It’s an extra special  first day because the full moon, the Strawberry Moon, is happening on the same day as the Summer Solstice.  It won’t happen again for another 70 years.  I hope you get to see it.

JamesIt was also a special day for our family.  I didn’t get any books read.  I didn’t get any thank you notes written.  I didn’t watch any birds, but I did get to welcome this little guy into the world.  I’d like you to meet James, the newest member of our family.  So yes, Max and Seamus, I am a grandma now.

Our Week – June 10

the classWith one more week of school there are mixed feelings circulating in the classroom. Relief, joy, sadness and worry are some of them. “Do you really have to go up the front stairs when you get off the bus? Is that a rule? Will I be able to come this way to return books?” “I’m going to really miss 3rd grade.” Summer will come and go. They’ll all be ready for their new challenges – but right now some of the class is feeling a bit unsure and unsettled. Others are excited for new challenges. Our room is full of excitement and possibilities.

DSC08413This week we put our final Artist-Writers’ Workshop gallery. We wrote our final on-demand writing piece to share with fourth grade teacher. We are doing our final round of fact checks, adding to our blogs and watching our broccoli and tadpoles grow (some have back legs!)

Coming Full Circle by Developing Digital Portfolios

portfoliosIn the fall one of your units of study was exploring the theory of multiple intelligences and thinking about all the different ways we are smart in the world. We identified habits that lead to success like effort and taking action, appreciation and gratitude, hopefulness and perseverance. We graphed our multiple intelligences to share with you in the October. We set learning goals for ourselves. In the last few weeks we have reconnected with that study by looking through our work collections, listening to recordings and sorting through photographs. We’ve discovered that portfolio buildingsome of the goals have been met, and others have not. The children are looking at their accomplishments and reflecting on learning growth. This can be challenging to see and name in third grade. The evidence of learning in not as concrete and obvious as in past grades. It is subtler and shows up in how they think and understand. They have grown as readers in how they think about and make connections to what they read. They have grown as writers in how they work to clearly express their ideas, their sense of humor and their interests. They have grown as problem solvers and mathematicians. They know about all four operations and are better able to approach a problem with a clear sense of how to imagine the action taken and record their thinking numerically. They are excited to share their portfolios with you next week.

Humphrey Book Clubs

DSC08477DSC08475The children are working to read and record their thinking to share what they find important in their books. What I find amazing is the connections they make between the book we read in April and the books they are reading now. Humphrey is a classroom hamster who shares classroom life as he sees it. He tries to be helpful to all his classmates and to find ways to encourage them. One group is reading about Humphrey and his class at the start of the school year, another group is reading about October, another group is reading about December and the final group is reading about February. Together we read about this class in April.

DSC08397As the groups read, they are discovering which characters in Humphrey’s classroom are changing the most. They can see their challenges and their accomplishments – Mrs. Brisbane’s class is much like ours. It is fun!

Bits and Pieces –

  • We’ll be celebrating Mrs. Sherouse on Tuesday.
  • We’ll be meeting fourth grade teachers on Wednesday
  • We’ll be celebrating our year together on Thursday.
  • Please make sure kids come to school with empty backpacks all week so we can fill them bit by bit with journals and sketchbooks and artwork and more.DSC08476DSC08398

Our Week – June 3

DSC08272We are at the bittersweet part of our year. We are all ready for the vacation at the end of school, but also very sad that our time as a class is coming to a close. We have been looking back at our accomplishments as we put together portfolios. It’s fun to see how we have grown and changed. In the words of Albie, from, Absolutely Almost,

            “…I knew what Dad would probably say if he saw it, that even if a B was almost an A, that almost wasn’t good enough.

But I knew something else too.

You couldn’t get where you we going without knowing where you’d been.

And you couldn’t be anywhere at all without having been almost for awhile.”

DSC08347It’s nice to look back and notice how we have grown.

S.E.L. – Coming Full Circle –

from Fall Goal Setting to Student Led Conference of Accomplishment

            We are spending time in these last few weeks looking through the work we have saved throughout the year. We’ve looked back at what we shared with you in the fall and reflected on our goals. We’ve met many of them and have realized, some weren’t that important to us. We didn’t work on them. We’ve been looking at photographs of our projects and activities throughout the year. We are selecting photographs and work samples important to us, and placing them in a digital portfolio with the plan of sharing them with you during the last week DSC08345of school. Be on the look out for a conference schedule sign up on Monday. It is going to be a tight schedule. I hope the children can finish developing their portfolios and that everyone will be able to find some time when their child can present their work – the cherry on the top of the 3rd grade sundae so to speak.

The Parade of the States

            Thank you for your help and support with this project. It is such a great celebration of learning. I hope each child noticed how his or her research skills have grown (think back to our Insect museum in the fall). I hope each child noticed how his or her abilities with information writing have grown along with knowledge of the traits of excellent DSC08342writing. I know everyone knows more about our country through this study. And think of how confidently each of them stood on stage and played at the concert and sang for you. Think of how they each presented their float, first for kindergarten through 4th grade and then later for families and friends. Their effort certainly glowed brightly!

Tadpoles and Water Bugs

            This week we were given a bucket of tadpoles that had been found in a pool when it was opened for the season. We’ve got a great observation tank. Today we took some of them down to the marsh on the nature trail (our tank wasn’t large DSC08357enough for all of them) and while there we scooped up a bit more pond water. In the little scoop we captured a dragonfly nymph. These nymphs are predators and, yes, we did see one of the tadpoles get eaten. It is a pretty interesting thing to observe. We hope we’ll be able to see the tadpoles change into frogs much like Humphrey did in Spring According to Humphrey.

Humphrey Book Clubs

            There are 4 book club meeting to discuss their reading and questions. We are enjoying Humphrey and how he interacts with his class. He is always trying to discover ways to help his classmates meet with success with both learning and friendships. Humphrey says things that are important to him three times in a row and I think our DSC08274class would say they really, really, really like Humphrey and the lessons he teaches about friendship.

Bits and Pieces –

  • We are working on a special project for Mrs. Sherouse.
  • Our broccoli continues to thrive in the greenhouse.
  • We are working to add and subtract fractions with like denominators.
  • We’re having fun!

DSC08322