Forces of Motion

Push or Pull?! How can we get things to move?

Today, we investigated Newton's Third Law of Motion: Every action has an EQUAL and OPPOSITE reaction. We had six objects: spool, paper clip, link, marble, cube, & a stick. Then we brainstormed ways to may those objects move: flick, hit, roll, drop, push, blow, or hit. As we got our objects moving, we recorded both how far the object moved and what stopped the object from moving (friction, running into something, etc.)

Famous Artists Week, Part II

This week, we are taking the Kansas State Math Assessments! We are going to TACKLE THE TEST!

In the afternoons each day, we are going to study a famous artists: Georgia O'Keefe, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Jackson Pollock, Wang Yani and Pablo Picasso.

Georges Seurat
-Georges Seurat is a French artist, famous for pointillism. He created large paintings made up of individual dots/points that come together to create a larger picture. Georges Seurat painted both portraits and scenes.
-Students can create their very own Seurat-inspired art with the help of sandpaper. Students use crayons to create a simple drawing on a piece of sandpaper. They must draw very hard with their crayons. Once their drawing is complete, cover it with white paper and iron over two (you may add another paper or wax paper to be used as a buffer for the iron heat). The crayon melts onto the white paper in a pointillism design!
Student creations:

Wang Yani
-Wang Yani was a child prodigy, born in China. She used water colors to paint monkeys and baboons. Click here to watch a short clip about her work.
-Students use brown and red water colors to paint a Wang Yani monkey. Start at the head and swoop down, over the back and into the tail. For the body, swirl or loop brown paint; then add four legs to the monkey. The head of the monkey looks a little like a heart, because of the bump for the nose. Let the pain completely dry and add the eye, nose, mouth, and claws with black marker.
-Student can also add a "chop" to their paintings. Have them make a symbol on a small piece of clay and use a red ink pad to mark their and others' paintings.
Teacher Model:

Student creations:

Pablo Picasso
-Picasso did many self-portraits, some are life-like while others are abstract. We will be creating an abstract portait for art!
-This is a project in which students can get really creative! The only directions I gave is the background paper and it was to be an abstract portrait of a person. I did purposely not give them any "normal" portrait colors: peach, brown, white, black, etc. I wanted to be sure this was not a life-like creation. The students used paint and construction paper to make the portrait.
-Students may also create a Picasso-like self-portrait on PicassoHead.com.
Teacher Model:
(not completely done, I added a swirling background as well)

Student creations:

Getting A Little EGGY!

With Easter on its way, third grade is getting a bit EGGY! We are going to study all about eggs, here's what we are doing:

Day 1:
-Discussion Questions: "What can you do with a dozen eggs?" "What is your favorite way to eat an egg?" (make a graph!) "What animals are hatched from eggs?"
-Read the book The Golden Egg Book. Fold a paper in half, then fold the bottom half again, and draw an egg over the fold. Then let the students choose an animal to draw and have "hatch" from their egg.

Day 2:
-Motion experiments: Today we roll the eggs! The students will create ramps on which to to roll the eggs. Students will measure how far the eggs roll and the impact of the different ramps.

Day 3:
-Today we compare weights of eggs with cubes, scissors, crayons, and colored chips. We will compare both hard boiled and non-hard boiled eggs.

Day 4:
-EGG DROP DAY! Students have created contraptions to protect their eggs. They have been working hard on their inventions at home and today is the day to test them out! We will take them outside and drop them from the top of a ladder. Each egg will be dropped and then the student will check to see if their egg protection worked or not. This project is definitely a student favorite!


Day 5:
-Time to dye some eggs! So that the eggs do not start to stink up our classroom, we blow them out. Each student makes a tiny hole on each end of their egg and blow out the insides. They think it is awesome and gross at the same time! Then, we dye them and they get to take them home. If they are careful, they can last forever!

Famous Artists Week Part I

This week, we are taking the Kansas State Math Assessments! We are going to TACKLE THE TEST!

In the afternoons each day, we are going to study a famous artists: Georgia O'Keefe, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Jackson Pollock, Wang Yani and Pablo Picasso.

Georgia O'Keefe
-Students are given history about Georgia O'Keefe and show some of her most famous paintings. O'Keefe's flower paintings are what we are focusing on. She found a flower to paint and really focused in on just that one flower.

-The students are given a choice of which flower to choose from. (I printed images of various flowers with many colors)
-Students are given a white piece of paper and oil pastels with which to create their flower. Be sure to model how to use oil pastels. For some students it is hard create a 'blown up' version of the flower, but with a teacher model, they can do it.

Teacher model:

Students' creations:


Jackson Pollock
-Splatter Paint at its best! Jackson Pollock created HUGE splatter paintings. He would lay his canvas on the ground and walk around it, splattering paint as he went. The students really like this artist because he likes to make a mess!

-Students are given contruction paper to place in the lid of a paper box. Give the students cups of paint, each with a few marbles in them. Let the students choose the colors they would like to use and have them scoop the marble into their paper box. Then the fun begins!
-Have the students shake their boxes and add different marbles/colors as they go. Each student will end up with a one-of-a-kind splatter art.
-Students can also creat splatter art on the computer through JacksonPollock.org.
Students' creations:

Vincent van Gogh
-Van Gogh created motion in his paintings. Starry Night is a wonderful example of this. The wind seems to be moving objects in the painting the same direction. Students will create their own Starry Night with oil pastels.

-Students color the starts in the sky first on white paper, then draw swirls around each star, making the swirls larger and larger as they create the sky. The oil pastels should completely cover the background of the paper. Put this to the side
-Using black paper, students create a town in the valley of Starry Night. After the outline of the town is drawn in pencil, students cut it out. The town should extend from one end of the paper horizontally to the other end.
-Finally, let the students use a kleenex to rub (in one direction only!) the wind from one side of their paper to the other. Then, glue the townscape on top of the oil pastel night.
Teacher Model:

Student Creations:

March Madness

We are a class full of Bracketologists!

Who did you pick to win the big dance? We missed the first round due to Spring Break, but have now made our choices. We will follow the games and finding out who in our class is the best bracketologist!



Most of our class thinks the Kansas Jayhawks will win the Big Dance, but we also have some that think Florida, Baylor, or Kentucky might win it all.

We also located all of the Sweet Sixteen teams on our US Map and connected them to the team they will be playing this weekend. We are looking forward to seeing who advances!




(Interesting how no Western teams are still in the tournament!)

Wanting to play some online basketball math games? Check out Math-Play and Math Playground!