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It was a dark and STEAM-y week at Old Mill. We kicked off this rainy week with an all-girl coding session while the boys went to ½ class art. Thank you AGAIN to our incredibly supportive PTA for purchasing the LEGO WeDo2.0 kits. I am so impressed by the independence and can-do spirit of this class. They certainly don’t back down from challenges. Our Monday afternoon was topped off with an hour long, hands on STEAM Museum in the multi-purpose room. There were gears, robots, electrical circuitry activities, 3-d printer demo, fun STEAM carnival game activities. Again, kudos to our clever PTA for bringing this to Old Mill. It was a BLAST!

In math, we got comfortable with calculating area of rectangular shapes. When we return, the children will learn to figure the area and perimeter of different shapes, with an emphasis on finding square units. We used our mad bar graphing skills to graph the average rainfall of Mill Valley, and then designed a really informative line graph that shows the average high and low temperatures of Mill Valley. Our main line of inquiry this week was learning how weather is predicted, and referring to past weather activity (these graphs) is just one way.

In science, your child made a storm spotter handbook with 4 types of clouds. These clouds help us predict incoming weather. Over break, take a moment to look at the sky and ask your child what they see. Both cumulus (fluffy) and stratus (blanket) clouds indicate fair weather, but cumulonimbus and stratonimbus clouds mean trouble ahead. On Friday, your child made an informative poster about these cloud types using cotton balls to represent the clouds. I’m curious what your child retained, please let me know if they were able to identify any of these clouds!

Reading and writing this week was also focused around clouds and weather, and your child got good practice with reading a selection, then answering questions using multiple choice answers, short and essay responses. This is similar format and good practice for the state testing coming up in a couple months.
 
You might have heard that your child spent some of the day in Kindergarten on Wednesday. Both Mrs. Butler and I are part of the district Global Studies Committee. Unfortunately, both of our subs canceled the day before the Wednesday meeting, but fortunately, Mrs. Butler offered to cover our class so at least one of us could attend the meeting. Her kinders were in specials most of the day, and when they weren’t, the two classes worked side by side. Mrs. Butler reports that the Room 8 kids were AMAZING and so incredibly hard working and independent. Way to go, crew!
 
STEAM night on Wednesday was so impressive. I loved seeing so many Room 8 participants. Thank you, parents, for supporting your young scholars!

Walk down the 3rd grade hall, and your heart will fill with patriotic pride and awe when you see the handcrafted models of our nation’s national monuments and symbols. Every 3rd grader selected a monument or symbol, conducted research, and in our class, wrote and typed up an informational report. Today, we toured the artwork, wrote positive feedback and comments, folded a National Landmark cootie catcher to study for a Landmark quiz. The kids are so proud of their work, I really appreciate your support and guidance at home!

Thanks to our generous PTA, 3rd grade now has eleven LEGO WeDo2.0 coding sets. Because our class reported different levels of LEGO experience between the genders, our ½ class art is now gender based. This week, the girls went to art and the boys spent an hour with me and used the kits to build and code rovers similar to the Mars rover, Curiosity. Our prior coding lessons on Code.org were excellent preparation for this activity, and the boys had a ball…they had rovers driving all over our classroom. Later in the week, when I read a book about the Mars rover the boys were especially excited to see that the LEGO rover looks almost identical. Way to connect to the real world, LEGO! This Monday, we will flip flop and the girls will build and code.

On Thursday, we kicked off our IB weather unit. The central (big) idea is; We can predict and prepare for the effects of changing weather patterns and climate. Our lines of inquiry are; how we predict weather, the difference between weather and climate, preparing for weather related events, and changing weather and climate patterns locally and globally. We kicked off the unit by looking at a bunch of weather pictures and books posted around the room. We then talked about our preferences regarding weather, did a bit of research about our local weather, and finally met a 3rd grade class in Winchester, Virginia in a live video chat. The two classes asked and answered questions about weather, outdoor activities, favorite pastimes, etc. It was such fun to use technology to meet our new friends! Your child also read a riveting article about the Joplin tornado, and watched a video by Lauren Tarsish, the author of the “I Survived” book series.
 
One of the beauties of the International Baccalaureate (IB) framework is that I will be able to wrap language arts, math, science, social studies and art together in this weather unit, building a rich and engaging learning experience for your child. Be sure to keep asking
 
Global Play Day was a blast! Here’s what your children told me they learned: “I learned how to stop an argument”, “I learned that being cooped up in side is not where you should always be.” “I learned to be creative and find some solutions for boredom.” “I learned to make friends with little kids.” “I learned how to entertain myself and not be bored.” Some pretty great life lessons, eh?

We celebrated La Chandeleur with delicious crepes this morning. Merci to Aziliz, Susannah and Olivier who supplied the tasty French treat. As Aziliz explained, La Chandeleur celebrates the halfway point of winter. February 2nd is 40 days after Christmas and signifies the approach of spring and warmer weather. It was fun to learn about this French tradition and expand our knowledge of global customs.

In math, your child practiced measuring to the nearest quarter inch by measuring a Beanie Baby and creating an instructional Seesaw measurement video. We hope that you are impressed by your child’s understanding of measurement, length, width, height, and their technological prowess. Earlier in the week, your child also found some creative ways to measure the weight and capacity of their little friend using standard and non-standard units of measure. Be sure to ask. We are studying the attributes of polygons, and the second math activity was to create a ChatterKid video to explain the attributes of a classroom item. What an authentic and fun way to practice using math vocabulary!
You can help at home by pointing out geometric shapes you see and encouraging your child to use math terms such as parallel, vertex, angle (acute, right, obtuse), triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, etc…)

We wrapped up the National Landmark reports in class. The paragraph you will see is the result of book and online research. Your child used Google Docs to type the report, and along the way learned to control font sizes, change line spacing, to use bold, tabs to indent, to insert images, add a border, and respond to online teacher comments and edits. Whew! These fantastic mini-reports will be hanging on the windows behind the landmark models, which are due this coming Friday morning. Please stop by the following week if you can!
 
Reading was absolutely the thing this week. On Monday, our class met with our 1st grade buddies to read together. On Thursday, we spent time reading and encouraging Mrs. Butler’s kindergarten class as they practiced for a big reading event. Emma brought in a wonderful book about Maya Lin, the young designer of the Vietnam War Memorial which we really enjoyed reading. We finished The One and Only Ivan, read a companion informational text about his life, and watched a short movie featuring Ivan and his people. But wait, that’s not all! On Friday, we met local historical fiction author Ellen Klages (Out of Left Field) who inspired us with her book talk about women in baseball and being a writer.
 
Next week, we will launch our new IB science unit of study, chat via video with a classroom 2 time zones away, learn about area and perimeter, explore the 3 branches of government, and do a little Lego coding. Doesn’t 3rd grade sound fun?