Fish Bowl Measurement

Earth week has been filled with exploring the world in little and big ways.  At the beginning of the week our focus was on measuring to the nearest 1/4 inch.  I saw an idea on Pinterest for a measurement project with fish - which is perfect since we're studying vertebrates and measurement.  The site I noticed this on was "Fun in the Fours".  Apparently it's originally from another site, but modified somewhat...isn't all teaching a bit of this and a bit of that to make it work for our particular group of kiddos????  Anywho...I thought we were in need of a REAL reason to measure and a bit of NATURE based art to go with it.

The kids are each given a set of dimensions, such as 5 1/4 inch x 6 1/2 inch.  They aren't given a ton of directions except that they are expected to draw a rectangle that fits the given measurement.  I let them know that I will be picky.  We also reviewed the properties of a rectangle so they would remember that they have 4 right angles.  Some kids finished rather quickly and showed me their lopsided attempts at a rectangle. I had them prove they measured accurately and that they had SQUARE corners by matching up with a Post It Note.  Obviously some of them reworked their rectangles a time or TWO.

Once they finally had their rectangles ready - YES with straight lines - we sat down to talk about fish.  I was pleased the kids knew their special characteristics and that a dolphin was NOT a fish!!  This part gets tricky because they needed to create a drawing of a fish that would fit their rectangle perfectly.  So if they had a rather squarish rectangle - a long skinny fish just wouldn't do.  If their rectangle was long and skinny - no they couldn't do a puffer fish!

At this point they had a chance to look at the fish from the 4th grade classroom across the hall - funny as it may seem my good friend and I had the very same idea on the same day and decided to collaborate on the project!!!  My 3rd graders were VERY impressed with the fish creations and worked hard to MEASURE up to the older kids.  Some kiddos really struggle to make theirs fit and had to retry and even redraw their rectangles.

The next day a small group of my kids with a parent "dove" into an interesting math problem...given the size of the fish in our room and basically the same sizes in the neighboring room, how big of a fish bowl should we create for our fish?

As you will see on the photos, the kids thought the fish should have some space for swimming, but the size turned out pretty perfect.  Other children in my classroom helped to design the bowl, while another volunteer helped kiddos to sponge paint the beautiful water of the bowl.

Finally they outlined their fish in black permanent marker
and painted with watercolor paints.  I must admit the fish bowl is admired by all in our hall:0)

Digging into Earth Day

Earth Day in the classroom was a buzz of activity and learning, but inspiring none-the-less.  It's lovely to think how just doing a little can mean so much to the kids.  On Friday, a few kids stayed in at recess to create a LARGE cut out of the earth.

Monday morning we glued down the letters and I gave the kids the low down on the lunch time project we were planning.  About 3 kids at a time would take shifts down in the lunch room; with a roll of tape, markers and cut outs of bare feet.  Kids from the school could make a pledge to help the earth.  The idea was based off the book - 50 Simple Things Kids can do to Save the Earth.  The Earth Club created the book earlier in the winter and we had a copy of it at the table so the kiddos could get some ideas.  My class handled their responsibilities quite well; following the schedule, leaving for "work" on time and helping others in the building to do for the earth.  The picture shows the final results.  As you can tell, I neglected to have the kids place the feet around the earth and they plopped them all over the earth!!!  If you can't see the message, it says, "Steps to Save the Earth".

Later in the afternoon, with our 2nd grade buddies, we walked the the trail and picked up trash.  The weather forecast was dire - with radar calling for rain throughout the day.  Anne, the 2nd grade teacher and I tend to just GO FOR IT and we were pleasantly surprised.  The sun peeped out and soon we were putting our coats around our waists.  All in all, there's less trash scattered around and the kids learned some valuable lessons about "DOING FOR THE EARTH".

The important lesson I've figured out from this is...it doesn't have to be SUPER planned or elaborate to be AMAZING.

Earth Day is Coming!!

Are you ready?  Earth day is almost here!!!  Can you tell that this is one of my favorite holidays?  Of course you've heard the expression that "Everyday is Earth Day"...well yes it is, but Earth Day is a great time to share ideas with kids who never take the time to think about it.















Our Earth Club put together a book about what we can do to save the earth.  We put a copy in the library and will put together a brief video.

 

Our classroom lives for the Earth every day!  We compost our plant scraps, have seedlings for the garden, take care of our classroom pets and adopt the critters from science in the other grades.  Microgreens were even sampled by EVERYONE in the class.  With all this going on in the classroom, everyday I find paper in the garbage and garbage in the recycle bin!  They are little and just don't know or care until they learn why.

Next week we'll be digging into Earth friendly practices and learning to reduce, reuse and recycle.  I'll post updates throughout the week.  If you're interested in my "Earth Day Mini Unit" check out my store.  There's also a freebie with math problems based on environmental facts.  I'm throwing a sale on the Earth Day Mini Unit through Friday if you want a good deal!

Thematic Unit and THE CORE

The happiness continues in my classroom as the kiddos explore the world of animals.  They LOVE the topic and are pouring through books about every type of animal you can imagine.  We are in the process of narrowing our focus and choosing essential questions.

Partners had a chance to explore the bones.  It was amazing to hear their discussions.  They wondered about so many aspects of the animal as they looked at the bones.  There were guesses about the use and placement of the bones.  Wonderings based on the teeth and how they match up.  Kids wanted to get some books about deer and see if they could look at a skeleton to figure out which bone went with what part of the body.  The science paired with reading was inspiring.

Not sure if you've ever done this with 3rd graders before, but it's an intriguing process (to put it MILDLY).  I created a little Powerpoint to guide them through what is and is NOT an essential question.  Ended the BIG show some examples that might fit closely with their research.

At this point I send them off to work on writing their essential question.  After five minutes they get together with their collaborative study group - basically the kids with similar research topics - to share and question.  Finally they write out their essential question and hand it directly into my hands.

Guess what?  I know you're thinking that everybody had a great question since I'm such a fabulous teacher...but alas it was only four.  Please don't feel too sorry for me because great things came of this disappointing start to the day.  I spent time talking with each of the kids about their research, what they're thinking and if they thought they could write a BOOK about the question they came up with?!?

The mini conferences were AMAZING.  The kids all had real direction and purpose in their thoughts and questions.  Here's just a few of the gems:

• How do birds who don't fly south survive the winter?
• How can we save the tigers?
• Why aren't coyotes endangered?
• How do shark's bodies help them survive?
• How do whales eat?

I'll get back to you soon to share more about notes and focusing in on a topic.

Animal Exploration: 3rd Grade Thematic Unit

I'm so excited to get back into a thematic unit.  With the Core all around, it's tough to get into learning across the curriculum.  This month we are ENCOURAGED to tie our writing and reading to a topic in either science or social studies.  Our study of life cycles and animal classification seems the perfect time to bring it all together.




We started out the unit talking about how scientists are always classifying things into groups.  During our rocks and minerals unit, we spent time sorting and classifying rocks.  We sorted into living and non-living.  Right away the kiddos figured out a way to sort the books I brought into the classroom.  They put the books into 5 bins; mammals, fish, birds, amphibians and reptiles.

As we get more into the unit kids will gravitate to an animal, group of animals or study of a food chain. I'll have books, articles, video clips, online resources and other items available so they can get into a total in-depth study.  Kids will be taught to take simple notes, delve into ideas and write about their thoughts and learning.  They'll be able to draw to create labeled diagrams and use number statistics to figure out size, age or other interesting facts.






In the classroom we'll look at bones, skulls and teeth.  They will start to think how the teeth may be designed differently for carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.  Skulls and other bones can be magnified, drawn, measured, put together and identified.







A day centered around common learning, gives plenty of opportunities to explore and learn with all the senses and intelligences.  I'll keep you posted on our progress!!

And they don't even know they're practicing Division Facts...shhhhh

The kids in my class REALLY need to learn their division facts.  I've set up some online practice and written many notes home to remind families to practice with the kids.  After our last division timed test, I knew I had to do something different.

Each tribe was giving the task of creating a game using division facts.  They had about an hour to come up with the concept and design their boards.  It was fascinating to watch the groups collaborate - all of the groups worked really well together except for one.  They had great discussions about division and how they could make it work as a game.

The next day we mixed up the groups and had the kids rotate through the games.  Each group spent about 10 minutes per game.  Little did they know that they had 40 minutes of division fact practice.  Next week kids will be able to play the games again during the last 20 minutes of math.

As you can see, they're getting the practice with division and DON'T even know it!