Emma's Baypath Humane Society Project

This week in class we read the true story "Here's My Dollar" about a young girl who started a fundraising effort to save a local zoo in California. As we were discussing the story, Emma told us that she had recently started a collection basket for Baypath Humane Society animals. Emma is collecting items (not money) from Baypath's Wishlist for their animals. We all were so excited about Emma's project that Emma agreed to bring her basket to our classroom so we all could help her fill the basket with the needed items. Please take a moment to check out the wish list and consider donating to this kid inspired charitable project! Many of the items are general household items that you may already have around your home. We will be collecting items for Emma's basket until April vacation.

Matt's Mom Surprises Us (... and Matt!)

Matt's mom surprised our class as Mystery Reader today! She went to great lengths to surprise Matt (she even pretended to leave for her office this morning!). Matt's mom read us Cactus Hotel, a family favorite from an aunt who lives in Arizona. She also read us McElligot's Pool by Dr. Seuss in honor of Dr. Suess's birthday this week. Matt also donated this book to our classroom library -- thank you!

Moon Phases and the Mobile Lab

This week in science class we started our observation of the moon phase cycle, beginning with the new moon on February 14th. Using links from our class website, we viewed and logged the moon phases for the week of vacation up through today. The children are encouraged to look for the moon when they are at home or just driving around town. Many children were surprised to see the moon out of our classroom window yesterday afternoon -- a waxing gibbous! The moon has a different rise and set cycle than the sun, so it is often visible during the day and night. Using these links from our class website, the class also chose Apollo 11 videos to view from the NASA website. On these original videos from the 1960s, the boys and girls saw Neil Armstrong take his first step onto the moon and heard his famous "One step for Man, one giant leap for Man Kind" proclamation. Thank you to our new Technology Integration Specialist, Mrs. Mack, for helping us access these resources while using the mobile laptop lab right in our classroom!

Kailey's Mom Comes to Read

Kailey's mom came to read to us on the last day before February vacation. Thank you for spending time with our class and reading these two funny stories about a snowman and our favorite class animal, penguins!

Compare and Contrast Reports

Our most recent story in reading was Cook-A-Doodle-Doo by Janet Stevens. This humorous story is a "fractured" fairy tale based upon the classic folk tale, Little Red Hen. After reading both stories, each child wrote a two paragraph Compare and Contrast Report.

For this project, we followed the writing process and first compared the stories on a chart. After this analysis was finished, the children wrote drafts of each paragraph using a graphic organizer. Then, after revising and editing, we began our final copies. In the compare paragraph, the students individually analyzed how the stories were similar and used words such as also, both, too, similar and for example in their writing. For the contrast paragraph the children wrote about how the two tales were different while using words such as but, however, and although.

Be looking in your child's backpack for these reports to come home this week. I am particularly impressed with the development in their writing since the beginning of the year. Once again, a marvelous job by the boys and girls of Room 29!

"How to Draw" Books

What Do Illustrators Do? by Eileen Christelow is recent story in our anthology which chronicles the process illustrators follow from "dummy " sketches through to the published book. This story was a perfect application for applying the comprehension strategy of sequencing. The boys and girls also chose a drawing to "How To" and published their own detailed, six step "doodle" book. Each student had their own doodle topic -- check out this impressive list below!

How to Draw ..... frog, double star, smiley face Red Sox Fan, pig, dog, running pencil, violin, erupting volcano, turtle, Massachusetts, globe, sun, hockey stick and puck, tree, flower, fish, "Eye Grow", Snowman, Tow Truck, Stick Person, Tree House.

Uthman's mom as Mystery Reader

Uthmans' mom came to read to us on January 27th! She read Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen to the class. The beautiful illustrations in this story were a timely reinforcement to the concepts of "A bird's eye view" that we had learned about in our weekly story, What Do illustrators Do? We also enjoyed some fun Jack Prelutsky poems too.

Plimouth Plantation

Plimouth Plantation came to visit our classroom on January 29th. Randy, a modern day Wampanoag from Cape Cod, captivated the boys and girls with the Native American artifacts from this living history museum. Check out the slide show to the right for pictures of the class during this HPTA funded visit. If your child has not been to Plimouth Plantation, think about planning a family visit this school year. We are fortunate to live so close to this world class museum that has such a perfect tie to our third grade Social Studies curriculum.

Our Camilla Wins Third Grade Bookmark Contest

Our very own Camilla won Elmwood School's Third Grade Bookmark Contest. Mrs. Weldon announced this to the whole school this morning. Our whole class erupted in applause and cheers for Camilla, who had just learned the big news too. Camilla's bookmark will go on to the state competition sponsored by the Massachusetts School Library Association. If Camilla wins the state competition, she will get to meet Governor Patrick and tour the State House in Boston! We are so proud of Camilla who worked on this project out of school and created such a creative contest entry!

Billy came to read to us ...

Mrs. Oldach's son, Billy, finished his finals at Hopkinton High School on Thursday morning and then headed over to our classroom to be our Mystery Reader. He read us Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner. Ever wonder why your snowman may look a little disheveled in the morning? Well maybe he was out with his friends sledding or having a snowball fight!

Camilla's Mom Comes to Read

Camilla and Her Mom

Camilla's mom visited us last Friday to read us Camilla's favorite picture book "Farfallina and Marcel" that she received for her fourth birthday. This Italian story is a gentle illustration of the power of friendship between an emerging butterfly, Farfallina, and a duck named Marcel. We also asked her mom to read us "Tacky and the Winter Games" in the spirit of the upcoming Winter Olympics!

Erosion Explosion!

This week in science class we built our own meandering river and observed how run-off water changed the stream bed. On the first day, we built the river using sand and marble chips. We cut the river bed into the sand table and left room open at the end for the water to flow into the "ocean". On the second day, students slowly poured three pitchers of water down the stream trough and we discussed our observations. The children observed the aging of a river by watching the erosion of the waterfall and the creation of a plunge pool in its place. Further down our river we watched as the river banks collapsed and at the mouth of the river a delta was formed ! At the end, it was hard to see where our meandering river bed had been located due to the erosion and the changing river landscape. We all loved this first-ever activity in our rocks and minerals unit.

Here is our video of the second day when "the river flowed" in Room 29!

The "How To" Files

The hallway outside of our classroom has been transformed into a "How To" Information Center! The children chose their own topic for this writing project. Would you like to know how to make a mushroom and shrimp pizza, the proper way to bat a ball, or how to set up a fish tank? Then stop by sometime before or after school and check out our display. Using the writing process, the children incorporated time order transition words and effective topic and clincher sentences to carefully explain how to perform a task. The expanded paragraphs are complemented by a colorful, detailed illustration. Another job well done by the boys and girls of Room 29!

Patrick's Brother Visits Too!

Patrick's very big brother, Calvin, came home from college and read to us before December vacation. Patrick's mom also read us some favorite winter poems . Thank you to Patrick's family for helping us get in the mood to play in the snow and drink hot chocolate!

Thank You Mystery Readers!

John and His Mom

Jack and His Mom

Thank you to Jack and John's mothers for surprising us with stories about inventions, marching ducks and maple sugaring! We appreciate the time that you spent choosing interesting books to read to us and coming into school to knock mysteriosiously on our classroom door.