Our Globes and Our Creatures

We are very busy in third grade. We have so many exciting things going on that we would love to share. We are working hard on our globes. The students have colored and labeled the continents and most of them have glued them on their world. They are looking more like Earth each day. Friday we hope to start putting the Equator, Prime Meridian and the North and South Pole in the correct locations.

Our brine shrimp have finally hatched. We have many tiny creatures in our habitat. The students have been making many observations about them. They are clear, white, tiny, move quickly, look like they have flippers, and like to eat algae. Tomorrow they will have another surprise... our tadpole has arrived.

Brine Shrimp Eggs (Sea Monkeys)

As part of our new science unit, living things, we have been doing Science Court. This computer program is a court case about characteristics of living things. The students are learning how to identify living things, dead things, and non-living things. Part of the court case is a test to see if eggs, specifically the brine shrimp, are alive, dead, or non-living. So we decided to check it out. We added the brine shrimp yesterday to our purified water. Now, we are making observations and inferences about our eggs. Most of the students voted that they have the potential for life. We will continue to observe and see if our inferences are correct.

We are also working hard on creating models of the Earth. We are using pumpkins as our beginning sphere. Today we made many observations about our pumpkins. We decided that the lines that run north and south on our pumpkins really do resemble lines of longitude. We began our project by painting our pumpkins blue. We will continue by coloring our continents and then marking our important lines and points next week. I will post pictures as we progress. We are very excited.

Nightly Reading

The students should be bringing home a book sack along with a reading log and several books of their choice. My expectation is that the children read each evening. I don't have a set time or even a particular book that they have to read but I want them to practice reading. We are working hard at choosing 'just right' books and also books from different genres. Please encourage your child to read each evening and record the books on their log. Reading takes you places.

First Day of School!

I am so excited that our first day went so well. I had to talk most of the morning about procedures, rules, and reminders. The class handled it well. We will review all of those things throughout the year.



I was able to share some information about me and I am anxious to learn more about my students. We started a class book today about their interests. I will post pictures as they finish.



We will be very busy learning and having fun this year. I hope you continue to visit our blog!