You have heard of Kid President... Meet Kid Teacher

Have you seen Kid President's uplifting videos?  If you are saying no, you must check them out on Youtube.  The class got to know him when I introduced them to Genius Hour.





We were inspired by Kid President's style and message so the class made their own video.  This one is focused on Tips for Taking the Test.  We are taking the New York ELA test next week, so we will have to take our own advice.




One of our students made her own version using the ShowMe app on her iPad at home!  Great job!

Fraction Tutorials for Ordering Fractions Using ShowMe

Having problems with ordering fractions? Have no fear! 3-Steffens will teach all you need to know about ordering fractions with like and unlike denominators.  At the bottom we even have tutorials that explain fractions of a group.

Ordering Fractions with the Same Numerator

Comparing Fractions with the Same Denominator

Finding a Fraction of a Whole Number

Second Blogger of the Week, EB

 

   In Social Studies we are studying a Winter Olympic sport of our choice. We are making newsletters.We got information from computers and information packets. We use the information to answer questions. When we are done answering the questions we forge all the answers into one paragraph or more. We put our paragraphs with paragraphs we already made on either Sochi,Russia,or the winter Olympics. 

     On Thursday an author came to visit our school. His name is David A. Adler and he used to be a Math teacher. He told us how he comes up with his books.He is the author of the Cam Janson series. Cam Janson is based on a boy with photographic memory who was in David A. Adler’s school. He also told us about some of his books and how writing based on someone you know makes you capital of many things.



    On Friday it was Rockland Read-In Day. We brought some books from our houses and got to wear pajamas.We did other subjects to but we tried to read between classes.

Mrs. Bader came back to read to us.

Class Blogger of the Week: AW

SnowDay

Last Tuesday there was a snowstorm that lasted 12 hours.The next day it was very deep. The snow blew around and our school had a 2 hour delay.The roads were covered in snow. There was lots of snow everywhere.

         Concert

This past Thursday it was the 3rd and 4th-grade concert. We were very nervous, plus we were very excited. When it started we were very good. It was very fun. We were playing music and singing songs.

Art Imitates Math?

     The class is currently working on understanding how to calculate the area of rectangles.  So what better way to understand area of rectangles, than to connect it to real life.  Rather than focusing on pretending to measure floor coverings (carpet and tiles do not inspire most) we looked to Art.

From Wikipedia

Specifically, we were inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian and his Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue.  You can learn more about him here.

From Wikipedia

Rectangles of various sizes and a splash of primary colors reveal hidden considerations of area.  After learning about Mondrian and his works, the students set to work creating their own compositions. First they put in the black outlines on 1 centimeter grid paper making sure that they used vertical and horizontal lines to make rectangles.




 After I photocopied their design, the class calculated the area of their rectangles.

On the second copy, they colored in some of the rectangles with red, yellow, and blue.

   When they were all done they cut out both paper and we mounted them on black paper.  Then they discussed the dimensions of their rectangles.  We talked about how rectangles can have the same area but different dimensions, relating it to our multiplication arrays.

Here's the result...

Thank You To the Airmont Rotary Club

Mr. Behr from the Airmont Rotary Club came by on Friday, January 10 to deliver an important message and an important educational tool.   The students learned about community service (Service before self) and the Rotary Clubs mission to give back, especially when it comes to literacy.

All third graders received their very own dictionary, a special gift that will serve everyone for years to come.  

The class loves words and especially finding out their meanings.

After reading Donovan's Word Jar and The Boy Who Loved Words,  we became collectors of words too.

Now we can practice our dictionary skills and understanding of alphabetically order.

Tableaux Writing Workshop

     For the past few months we have been focusing on writing to entertain.  Our personal narrative writing transitioned to fictional narratives  To inspire writing that includes great details, we sought the cliche "A picture is worth a thousand word" for the last piece of 2013.
    Our first step was to come up with as story idea- primarily the conflict.  Once we had this idea the students conjured a "scene" from the story in which they would pose as the characters.  We essentially created a tableaux where each student wrote their own descriptive piece.  Below are the "fruits of their labor."

Below are their photographs and you can read their stories by clicking here to go to our class website.

The Rescue

The Audition

 Little Penguin Lost

The Big Game