Happy Johnny Appleseed Day

John Chapman, otherwise known as Johnny Appleseed, is still important to third graders! We have an Apple Theme Day around Johnny Appleseed Day. Our activities read into reading, writing, math, & science.

The previous week, students are given a note asking them to bring in an apple. It is hoped that each student will bring in their own apple, but we teachers are sure to pick up a few to be sure there's a class set. I try to get "interesting" apples: Granny Smith, Fuji, Honeycrisp, etc. so that we have a variety to look at.

On Monday, we read a Johnny Appleseed text. This year, we read Johnny Appleseed: The Story of A Legend, Johnny Appleseed: The Legend and the Truth, and Johnny Appleseed. While reading these informational texts, we list the facts we learn about Johnny. We make a long list together as a class. Many students do not know that Johnny Appleseed was an actual person!

Tuesday is our note-taking day. After making our long list on Monday, students now choose the most important fact about Johnny's life. (We just finished another nonfiction research writing, so they are pros at taking notes/finding interesting facts!)

Next, students start their rough draft about the importance of Johnny Appleseed from our notes on Tuesday. Plus, Wednesday is our movie day! We watch Wholesome Heroes with Rick Sowash, Johnny Appleseed. We continue to work on our rough drafts and revising/editing on Thursday

Friday is our scientific & delicious day! We start the day filling crockpots to make apple butter. Our classroom smell WONDERFUL by the end of the day! Students measure our ingredients as we read the apple butter recipe together.

The apples they have brought from home are used in math & science experiments. We measure the apples (using string to measure the circumference) and weigh the apples. The students share their information with their classmates at their tables and graph these numbers.

 

We have a motion experiment where the apples are rolled and the length of their roll is measured. We find the maximum, minimum, range, and median of these measurements.

 

At the end of our experimenting, we get to eat our apples and apple butter while watching Johnny Appleseed's adventure!

Happy Constitution Day!

As a class, we read We the Kids by David Catrow. This is fun picture book that beautifully illustrates our Constitution's Preamble. The only text is the book is the Preamble and it is a great gateway into discussions of its meaning.

After reading We the Kids, the students created their own Preamble illustrations. They worked in pairs, then explained their interpretation of their section of the Preamble. It was awesome (and entertaining) to listen to their explanations! (idea from Chalk Talk)

 

 

Here is a screenprint of my definitions:

Popcorn Writing

We are working on writing nonfiction texts using descriptive words. We decided to have a little fun with our senses and do a writing about popping popcorn!

Each student had a four-square note taking page labeled "See, Hear, Smell, Feel, and Taste." We discussed how we were going to pay close attention to words that fit under each sense as we popped a bag of popcorn in the microwave. We took a trip down the hall to the nearest microwave and sat with our clipboards and notes page writing descriptive words for each sense. The students were so intent on watching the popcorn bag rise as it heated in the microwave- they kept asking for more and more popcorn events. And, of course, each student got a bit of popcorn to eat!

The rest of the week, we worked on taking our notes and turning them into descriptive nonfiction texts. We discussed that our papers need to be in time-order with the popcorn going into the microwave first and tasting it last. This writing process also provided a great time for students to learn our editing (red pen) and revising (blue pen) procedures. Final copies are being written on popcorn-themed paper!

Stamina: Read to Self, Work on Writing, Read to Someone

Our class has been working very hard at building stamina in Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Read to Someone since the first day of school.

My students actually cheer for Read to Self time! Our school district did not renew our AR subscription this school year. To me, this is a blessing in disguise. Instead of my students reading through books quickly in order to take a test to earn points. Now, my students are choosing books that interest them (I-PICK!) and we are creating a love of reading.

Work on Writing has been inspirational for my students. This part of Daily 5 give my students an outlet to express themselves. They love it!

Read to Someone is new to our classroom in the last week. This is where Daily 5 gets a little shaky for my students. They are a social bunch, so we have to pause and come back together to review what RtS should look like and how to Check for Understanding. This is also their favorite thing to do as they get to read with another person!

As for Word Work, it is not my favorite. Our grade level does not have a strict spelling curriculum. We study spelling patterns and our prefixes/suffixes. But we do have 10 vocabulary words each week. I would like to make Word Work fast (and maybe a little boring) so students move onto Read to Self or Work on Writing. My plan is to have a repetitious Word Work assignment: Students write the word (or maybe just 6 of the 10), draw a picture showing the definition, and students write a sentence using the word. This will reinforce their learning of each vocabulary word, but will get them back to reading and writing quickly.

This is how we practiced our vocabulary today: back-to-back with partners, one partner facing the words & definitions and the other partner facing our back wall. The partner facing the words chooses one word to give to their partner that they need to define. Then they switched places. It was a fun, quick way to study our words!

September 11th Observation

My students were not yet born on 9/11/2001 but the events of that day still have an impact on their lives. We have been at war with terrorism the entire time they have been alive, and even if they are not impacted by it, they do not know America at peace.

We discussed what happened on September 11th and how people reacted. I told them where I was when it happened (junior year of high school, in Chemistry class) and my feelings at the time. It was hard not to get choked up talking about it. We watched the BrainPop on 9/11 which led to more questions from my students. I explained as best I could, but also told my students to take time to talk with their parents about 9/11. It is something they need to know about.

After our discussion, I asked each student to make an America quilt square. They were to draw something that represented what they think when I said "America" or something to honor those who lost their lives eleven years ago. Here is our quilt:

TasteKid.com - Cool Site!

I discovered this website today and wanted to share! It's www.tastekid.com. It's a kid-friendly site that offers suggestions for books, music, movies, etc. Simply type in a book, music, or movie you enjoy and the site will generate suggestions for you! You can create a profile or just use its free resources.

According to the website: "I provide recommendations and help you discover new music, movies, shows, books, authors or games, based on what you like. Some call me a recommendation system or a discovery engine, but I prefer to simply be called TasteKid. Explore your taste"

Can't wait to show it to my students!!

A Bad Case of Stripes Art Day!

After reading A Bad Case of Stripes during the first week of school, we added a little art to our schema!

First the students traced two hands onto white construction paper. Their direction was to decorate their hand any way they would like. We reviewed all the designs in the book and discussed a variety of lines (diagonal, zigzag, crisscross, wavy, etc.). They had to cover up the white in the background as much as possible. They had a ball with this and got vary creative with their hands. My plan is to make a hand wreath with their finished products!

Our second Bad Case of Stripes art projects was decorating themselves! Earlier in the week, I took a picture of each of my students. I told them to strike a pose and some of them got really silly with it! I printed their pictures off black & white. Again, we discussed the designed in Base Case, and I let them color freely with markers, crayons, and/or colored pencils! They turned out awesome!!