We had a SPOOK-TACULAR time today! The children fully enjoyed our third grade Halloween party, thanks to our parent volunteers!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

This morning we tried something new. I handed the students an envelope with several sentences cut into pieces (subjects and predicates). In teams, they sorted the subjects and predicates and then matched them up to make a sensible sentence. Afterward, they illustrated one of the sentences...but most students chose to create a silly subject/predicate combination to illustrate...something along the lines of, "The angry anteater poked the scurvy pirate." It was funny!

We completed the estimating and measuring using centimeters, decimeters, and meters by finishing the rest of page 61 in our math journals. We also responded to these two questions:

If the sun rose at 7:35 this morning and will set at 6:48 this evening, how many hours of sunlight will we have today?

The high across the nation on Oct. 21st was 97 degrees in Desert Center, CA. The nation's low on the same date was in Tanana, AK at 3 degrees. What is the difference between these two temperatures?

Both answers were recorded in our math journals (pages 43 and 27).

After Spanish, we talked about food chains. Of course, you have seen this plankton power point before, but further on down the slides, you'll find a slide or two describing how food chains work and why each part of the food chain is important. There are several hyperlinks available in the power point below, but some are hard to locate. Try viewing these:
Food Chain
Zooplankton (we've seen this one before)
Ocean Decomposers

After talking about food chains, I read a book aloud called Ocean Seasons. It talked about how the ocean goes through cycles of life and how the animals within the ocean depend on each other. I passed out creature cards (that came from the book) and the students ordered them in a food chain. I will have the cards for you when you return.

You can try this one for fun.

Over the next few days we will create a food chain "masterpiece" using the cards. I'm excited to see the end result!

This afternoon is a fun-packed day. Mr. Shane is presenting Halloween Science Fun for an hour! I know the children are going to love it!

Afterwards, we will visit the library to check out books and take RC tests. Mrs. Hillmer will also see us today for art, even though she normally sees us on Tuesdays.

I hope you are feeling better and are able to come to school tomorrow!
:)Mrs. Neal

This morning, we completed the "Caught Ya" and solved two math problems.

If the sun rose at 7:31 this morning and will set at 6:55 this evening, how many hours of sunlight will we have today?

The high across the nation on Oct. 16th was 103 degrees in Laredo, TX. The nation's low on the same date was in Northway, AK at 8 degrees. What is the difference between these two temperatures?

Both answers were recorded in our math journals (pages 43 and 27).

Afterwards, I introduced the new Wordly Wise words for lesson 4.

We also read an anonymous student's story and gave it a score on the Ideas rubric in teams. It was a well written piece about a family trip to the beach.

For math today, we first practiced how to add multiple numbers as quickly as possible.



We also talked about "standard" units for measurement and how once upon a time, people used their actual feet, hands, thumbs, and arms for measuring. When we are all built the same, it seems to be confusing having everyone refer to their own foot as a "foot" of measurement. Nonetheless, we found the "average" third grader's shoe size and spent time finding objects around the room that are about "one class shoe" in length.

Later this afternoon, we will estimate the length of objects around the room in terms of how many "class shoes" it will take. Then we will test our estimates out to see if they were correct. (Math journal page 55)

After lunch, the children will create a character using a stick figure I've begun for them. I will ask them to dress their character to suit the personality of Brenna from the Manatee Blues book we are reading. The directions can be found here, but the stick figure will be sent home to you.

Afterwards, we will discuss how a character's behavior, actions, and words effect our feelings about the character. We will discuss the literature circle job of "Character Captain". The class will read pages 55-73 in the Manatee Blues book and complete the form independently.



Before the end of the day, I will share with the class the next topic of study: The Timucua Indians of Florida. Students will be working in teams as they research a part of the Timucua way of life. You will get a chance to decide what part of their lives you would like to become an expert on:

Families and Children
Hunting and Tools
Villages and Homes
Medicines and Teas
Clothes and Decorations

If we have time at the end of the day, we will complete a new page in our cursive books and take a few moments to share our most recent stories.

We hope you are feeling better and will be able to come back to school tomorrow!
:)Mrs. Neal

Today the children created a Cartesian diver named Squiddy. It was GREAT fun, but also a wonderful lesson on air bladders. The children might like to take a crack at this diver to see if they can exert just the right amount of pressure to get the diver to stay hovering around the middle line. Click the picture above to take you there and have fun!

This week we've been reading about a fictional character named Brenna who is visiting Tampa to watch manatee rescues. Recently, the Clearwater Aquarium held a virtual field trip on Scholastic's website. Here, you can learn about a rescued dolphin named Winter. Click on the picture above to take a peek!

Other information about Winter can be found here.

Click the "Bioluminescence" icon below to learn a catchy tune!

This morning we spent a bit of time talking about how good authors "show" a scene instead of just "telling" us about it. We didn't have time to write a sample, but we will tomorrow. Check out the power point below.

We also practiced highlighting the Wordly Wise words in part E and reviewed the homework together.

During math, I shared the partial sums method of addition, as well as how helpful ballpark estimates are when solving problems.

We completed pages 44 and 45 in the math journal and played the game "Target 50" which reviewed addition and subtraction facts.



This afternoon, we worked on our Voicethread poems, Ocean Zones project, math boxes, and we visited the computer lab. Mrs. Driscoll challenged the students to make more complicated scripts on Scratch.

We missed you today and hope you can make it back to school tomorrow!
:)Mrs. Neal

Interested in the octopus? Check out more videos from National Geographic here.

Check out the other videos on the site...including "Octo Thief".

Try this! :)

This morning, we reviewed last week's spelling test and entered any misspelled words into our personal dictionaries. We also added this week's new spelling words to our dictionaries as well:
friend, really, school, when, who

For a review of the Wordly Wise words for lesson three, we played a game called Swat-a-Word. A smattering of this week's words were written on the board in various places. Contestants came up, armed with a flyswatter. A random definition was read and the first contestant to "swat" the correct word scored a point for his/her team.

During Math, we practiced solving story problems using a "change diagram" like the one below:



We discussed the "? FISH" strategy:

1. ?= Find the question.
2. F= Find the clues.
3. I= Identify a strategy.
4. S= Solve the problem.
5. H= How sure ARE you?

We will review the concept again and again, but please look over journal pages 39 and 40.

We also talked about different ways to solve subtraction problems like 76-29. The "trade fist" method is well known by third graders, but the "counting up" method might be new to you. Look at this example for 76-29=.



This afternoon, I will assign the job of Word Wizard to everyone. Students are to read chapters 2 and 3 in the Missing Manatee book. While reading, look for unusual or unknown words and highlight. AFTER you are done reading, complete the Word Wizard form, ensuring that you choose the correct definition for each word.

Aftewards, we will continue to work on our Zones Craft. These should be completed as soon as possible.

Mrs. Hillmer also rescheduled our art class, so we will see her from 2-3 this afternoon instead of tomorrow.

We've missed you! Hope you feel better soon!
:)Mrs. Neal