Book Clubs

                                                               Book Clubs

   We are enjoying some wonderful novels in our book clubs this month.  The students were given a choice of several books to enjoy in a book club setting during our reading block.  We ended up with three wonderful novels for our first book club session.  One group is reading Poppy, another group is reading Tale of Despereaux, and three groups are reading Holes.  Each group is working together to peel back the layers within the story and discussing how each one sees the story unfolding. The students are also jotting down thoughts, ideas, questions, predictions, and connections into their individual Reading Journals.  I am so pleased to see the students working together to discover the life lessons within each of these amazing novels. 

Holes

                  Tale of Despereaux

Holes

     










                                                                      Poppy




  Merry Christmas to all of our magnificent families! Enjoy a wonderful holiday break with your family and sit down to a great story together.  I encourage all of the students to pick up a book to read over the Christmas break.  Winter is a wonderful time to snuggle up on the couch and escape into a magical story! I look forward to talking about all of the books that everyone read once we return in January!

TrailWise Adventures: October

Today was our second TrailWise adventure this year.  We always looking forward to spending the day with Mr. Mark and learning everything he has to share with us!  Last month we learned about building squirrel nests.  The students had to work together to create a solid structure that would keep out the wind and rain.  We realized that our project was a success once we all climbed inside our cozy little nest and stayed warm!


  This month, the students learned that the Cherokee tribe closely watched the squirrels' technique for building homes.  They took this technique and used the same materials when creating huts to keep their families dry and warm in the harsh winter months. 


  This month, the third graders task was a tough one. They had to work closely as a team to find natural materials and build a strong living structure for our tribe.  Many of my students worked hard to insure that they were putting forth a great deal of effort within the team, but we had four strong leaders who stayed focused and determined to build our hut throughout the two hour class with Mr. Mark.

  Thank you to our class leaders for the day. Ethan, Lainey, Louie, and Jane made sure that they were listening closely as Mr. Mark gave instructions on how to properly gather the materials and build the hut.  They were always the first to volunteer their efforts to insure that our tribe had a safe place to rest our heads.  

After a hard day's work building our hut with Mr. Mark, we enjoyed a 2 hour hike around Reflection Riding. The students took a break by the pond and enjoyed the birds singing and the sun shining! It was a wonderful opportunity for friends to gather and share stories and laughs! We truly enjoyed a magnificent day in the forest. :) 

Our very own Lainey Maddox and Alex Cramer shared their talent for making fishing rods out of the natural materials around the pond.  They were so kind (and creative) to share their hand-made fishing poles with all of the students who wanted to spend some time at the water's edge.  We had such a blast "fishing" for new adventures!!! 

Reading Buddies

  We are so excited to have started "Reading Buddies" with Ms. Dana's class! Each Thursday morning the third grade students will have the opportunity to share a wonderful story with the younger students.  This is a great opportunity to connect our preschool and grade-school students.  It is also a wonderful opportunity to inspire our young readers to escape into a marvelous story with a new buddy.  :)

Rivers of the World

   The third grade students discovered a great deal about important "Rivers around the World". As our culminating activity, each student chose a river and created a light switch cover that integrated writing and art.  Each light switch cover has a paragraph that shares what each student learned about the river and has a beautiful picture of the river surrounding the words.  These creative history projects will soon be displayed around the school. 

Enjoy a few pictures of the third grade students using the lab to type out their river paragraphs.

 

 

More TrailWise Adventures

   On our first TrailWise adventure with Mr. Mark, he reminded us of the importance of focus, patience, and believing that you can accomplish anything when you try hard enough.  Our first task was to make it across a set of logs without using our hands. I will be the first to admit that this was no easy task! What began as each child trying to balance and reach the end, quickly became a team of students encouraging one another to believe in themselves. I am so proud of these kids for not giving up and overcoming the fear of trying something that is "uncomfortable" and hard to accomplish! Way to go third graders!!

Max did a great job believing in himself
to get across the logs.

Take your time and stay focused. :)

I am so proud of Ethan for not giving up!

Back on The Trail!

  The third graders had so much fun with their first adventure on TrailWise with Mr. Mark.  Our day was filled with a variety of outdoor exploring and left us excited about our next visit! Mr. Mark taught us how to look at the world from a different perspective and appreciate the hard work that animals put into preparing for a long winter.


    It was a great team building day that encouraged our group of students to work together when creating a squirrel home out of leaves, curved sticks, a vine, and a Tulip Magnolia's inner bark.  Not only did we have to work together on collecting the materials, we all had to be patient with one another as we "crawled inside" for a long winter's nap.  It was so much fun to be a part of this with the kids!

Our little squirrels carefully gathered the leaves for their nest.

Will, Jane, Lainey, and Joseph
begin to create the
bedding for our nest.

Ethan and LaWance secure the nest with sticks.

Mr. Mark begins the weaving process
to make sure our nest is secure
against the strong winter winds.