3rd Grade Invasion!

 This week, the students continued to inquire into how living things are interconnected by playing a card game that forced them to make decisions about how to create a healthy balance within a pond for a fish to be able to live there. We learned about how different organisms either add or reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in a pond depending on what type of role they play. Plants or producers help take out carbon dioxide and change it into oxygen, while consumers and decomposers increase the level of carbon dioxide. Throughout the game, the students added different organisms to their pond and adjusted the carbon dioxide level accordingly, until they got conditions just right for their big fish! Whoever got their pond ready first, would be the winner.

In PE, we also played a food chain tag game. Students took on the roles of plants, rabbits, eagles, and one was the sun.  When a rabbit tagged or 'ate' a plant, the plant would become a rabbit, likewise if an eagle 'ate' a rabbit then the rabbit would become an eagle. If an eagle were to be tagged by the sun, then the eagle would return to the ground and become a plant again.

After a few minutes of playing, we noticed a problem...there were no more bunnies! At this point, we stopped and discussed why the bunnies were all gone, as well as what had happened to the other organisms. They were quick to notice that the eagles' population had grown, but also observed that without the bunnies to eat that the eagles would also start to die.

Our final project for the week was a research project on an invasive species. Each student chose one invasive species to learn more about. Working on their own, they could choose to show what they learnt in one of three ways: 1) Poster  2) Research Paper on Google Drive, or 3) A book or slideshow on Seesaw.

I am looking forward to them presenting their findings to the class on Monday so those who are not done, MUST FINISH over the weekend.

We will be wrapping up this unit, and starting our 2nd unit next week.

Speaking of next week...

Oktoberfest!

Next Friday, October 8th we will celebrate Oktoberfest in school with the students. The PTA and some teachers have made some preparations for the festivities, such as various games for the students to play. On the day, parents are asked to prepare a Bavarian-themed lunch (sausages, mashed potatoes, etc.) and if the students happen to have dirndl or lederhosen, they are encouraged to wear them!

Short Week in Third

 This was a short week in third grade as we all enjoyed the first holiday of the year on Monday. Although it was even shorter for me as I recovered from my second dose of the Coronavirus vaccine, the students were still busy with projects and work to complete. 

On Tuesday, the students worked on completing their information posters about how plants grow. They also included answers to questions such as, "Do plants eat?" and "Do plants poo?" Then on Wednesday, the partners presented their posters to the class.

On Thursday, we reviewed what the students had learnt from the presentations and watched a few new BrainPop videos to expand their understanding of photosynthesis, as well as discover the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers in the food chain. On Friday, students added questions and wondering to our Wonder Wall, and worked on two Seesaw assignments to demonstrate their understanding of the topics covered during Thursday's unit lessons. Those who have not yet completed the two assignments have been asked to complete them over the weekend as homework.

In math, the students worked on assignments related to data handling, creating their own line plots on Seesaw, and coming up with questions and answers about the data. Today we looked at sorting things based on characteristics. Students each received a photo with some facts about a certain animal and then had to find the other animals that belonged to the same group of animals. Once they found their group (Mammals, Birds, Fish, or Reptiles) then they had to come up with a list of characteristics that are shared by all members of the group. At first, this proved to be a very difficult task and took quite some time for the students to come up with. Next week, we will continue to use the same list of animals for some more data handling.

Food Chains

 This week, we shifted our focus in unit from "What makes up an ecosystem" to "The interconnectedness of living things within an ecosystem." Considering the interactions and relationships between the living things lead us to inquire into food chains! To begin, the students created their own KWL (Know, Wonder, and Learnt) Chart. They added in things that they felt they already knew about the topic of food chains, as well as questions or wondering about things that they want to know or learn about food chains. After doing this, a few students shared their thinking of what they felt they knew about food chains, and then students drew and labeled pictures of food chains.

To find out more, we watched a Mystery Science video about food chains and enjoyed playing a food chain card game in small groups called, "Eat or Be Eaten!" This, and the follow-up lesson really helped us to understand the different parts of food chains, and lead us to the conclusion that plants are at the low end of the food chain, followed by a herbivore (plant-eater), then one or more carnivores (meat-eaters). 

From there, we began inquiring into 'How do plants grow?' 'Do plants eat?' and 'Do plants poo or create waste?" The students began researching these questions today and will create a poster together with a partner on Tuesday to show their understanding of what they discovered in their research and will do a short presentation about their poster to the rest of the class on Wednesday.

In math, students started putting their knowledge of line plots to the test by creating their own survey questions for their classmates and then made a line plot of their own to show the data. After creating it by hand in their math notebooks they started making good copies of it digitally on Seesaw. Next week they will complete the activity which also requires them to make a question and answer sheet about the data in their line plot. We ended the week with a line plot review by playing a game on Kahoot.

In PE, we continued playing various cooperative games. This week we focussed more on small group or partner games. Some of the games we played were Time Machine where 2 players use a hula hoop as a time machine portal. One player stands in the hula hoop and the other has to lift it over the first player and then put it on the ground in front of the first player who then jumps into the portal moving forward in place and time. They repeat this until the player has crossed the playground and then the players swap roles. We also played two similar games, Frogs Across the Pond, and Loggers, all of which involved teammates helping each other across the playground.

We also played a new tag game called, Two's Company, Three is a Crowd, and Boom Ball where teams battled each other by trying to knock a basketball into another team's zone by throwing balls at it.

Spare Masks

Please make sure that your child has at least one spare mask each day, occasionally they get dirty, wet, sweaty, or have straps that break off by accident so the child should always be ready just in case. I did have a couple spares on hand in the classroom but my supply is getting low. Thanks for your cooperation.