Geocaching!

Yesterday morning, Tony from Fallen Timbers, came to school to teach us how GPS devices work. We practiced marking waypoints and then using the GPS to find the waypoint. The class was partnered up and he gave them each a container. They had to put their names on a paper and put that in the cup. They placed it somewhere in the front area and marked it using their GPS devices. Then, Tony gave their devices to a different group and told them who they were looking for. They had to use the GPS to find the right container. Once they thought they had the right one, they opened it up to see whose names were inside. The class had a blast!

#thestruggleisreal

Today we had a discussion about why it is important to struggle. It is okay to not know how to do something right away, but it is NOT okay to just give up and not try. We talked about how our brain is able to grow and learn more when we have to work hard to figure out the answer. If I would simply walk over and tell them how to solve it, that would not help them to learn. Please have a discussion about this at home with your child! We want to be our best student we can be this year and make sure we reach our full potential! 

Independent Reading

In third grade, we focus A LOT on building stamina for independent reading. We not only want our students to be able to sit and read for at least 30 minutes at a time, but also to be thinking about their story as they are reading. In order to build this, we teach about good fit books and independent reading behaviors. Yesterday we focused on 'IPICK' for good fit books.

I CHOOSE
Purpose - why am I reading it?
Interest- Do I like it?
Comprehend - Do I understand?
Know - Do I know most of the words? 5 finger rule

Here's a song we learned to remember that!

Today after we discussed our independent reading behaviors, we put it into practice. We made it for 12 min with the whole class silently reading and not distracting others!

Here is the class in action.

Word of the Day: Perseverance

Our word of the day today was perseverance. We watched this video to understand what perseverance is. 

Check it out!

I then explained to the class that their challenge today is to Save Sam! Sam just happened to be a gummy worm whose boat capsized. They needed to get Sam in his boat with his life jacket on. Sounds simple right? Well...there's a catch. They were not able to touch Sam, the boat, or life jacket with their hands. Sam also could not touch the desk (water) because he cannot swim. They had their work cut out for them!

Check out the Saving Sam Challenge HERE

Happy First Day of School!

Wow! What an exciting first day of school we had! The day sure flew by!

We started our day off with a people search in order to get to know a little bit more about our classmates. Then, we read the book, Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon. Molly Lou Melon was often made fun of because of her quirky and unique looks and personality. We discussed what it feels like to be made fun of. In their pods, the class had to share some not so nice things they have seen or heard and every time they said something, they squeezed a little bit of toothpaste out of the tube and onto their plate. Once all the toothpaste was on their plate, I challenged them to put all of the toothpaste back in the tube just as they found it. The class was very vocal telling me this was impossible. We related that to our words. Once you say something, it cannot be undone. We refer to those as "toothpaste" words. I told the class that this year, our goal is to make sure we are always treating each other with kindness and only using words to build each other up, not tear each other down. Even though we can say we are sorry, that doesn't undo the hurt that was already caused.