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.