One big blur....

Ok, I apologize. I am out of routine and need to get back on the ball. The last week and a half have been one big blur. I swear I blink and it is a new week. With that being said. Here is an update for last week and this week so far.

Lunch and recess will be different today and on Friday as 4th grade has lunch buddies from Rockwell in the building. On Wednesday and Friday, 3rd grade will have recess first 11:15-11:45 and lunch 2nd 11:45-12:15.

Math- Last week we continued our geometry unit and talked a lot about the creation of boxes, how many cubes would it take to make an open box, how about a closed box. This required a lot of spacial awareness and helped us to learn about finding the volume of something also! :)  The last few days we have worked on defining and creating examples and non-examples of lines, line segments, angles (right, acute, and obtuse), and rays. We have also worked on what a polygon is; a closed figure, created from straight lines, and at least four angles. 

Reading-   Last week we read  Dream Wolf by Paul Goble. This story is about a Native American legend, which tells the story of two young children who wander away from their mother. When night falls, the children, cold and lost, take refuge in a cave. A friendly wolf keeps them warm and the next morning leads them home.

 

Text Talk- This week we will use  Koko's Kitten. This is a nonfiction piece about a gorilla who uses sign language named Koko and his deep love for his kitten named All Ball.  Our text talk words are: accustomed, affection, aggressive, distress, capable, and console. This will be our last text talk book for the year.   

Science- Last week we switched from talking about paleontology and fossils to geology and the study of the earth. This was a great introduction to our Earth Materials unit. However, this year seemed to take a lot longer for our "mock" rocks to dry out than in the past. I am blaming all the wet weather! :) I finally brought them to school and placed them on the heater in the teacher's workroom.

To fill the time, the class had a chance to make salt dough and use a variety of toys (dinosaurs, animals, trees, etc.) to create an imprint fossil. After some time to dry, we greased the imprint and filled it with Plaster of Paris to create the fossil from the mold. The kids were very excited to crack these open today. They should be arriving home in a ziploc bag. 

We also discussed how different rocks are formed as well as the difference between a sedimentary rock, a metamorphic rock, and an igneous rock. We furthered our exploration with making some crayon rock examples. Monday for Earth Day we discussed the importance of Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling our trash. We also enjoyed some dirt cake. YUM!

Our crayon shavings for rock layers

Igneous rock- sold to a liquid to a solid

metamorphic rock- different layers with pressure and heat fuses together but you can still see the different layers.

sedimentary rock- (not a good picture) rock layers with just pressure, no heat, most fragile of rock types

Finally, today the kids got to get their hands on their mock rocks. Today we talked about the properties of a rock. The students made observations of their mock rocks (fake rocks), by its looks and smell. They created a sketch, a magnified sketch, as well as measured the diameter (across), the circumference (around), and the depth (thickness) in centimeters. Last but not least they used a scale and measured their mock rocks weight in grams. Sorry, I didn't take more pictures. There was some measuring confusion I needed to address! :) 

Tomorrow, the students will get to play geologist and break their mock rocks apart using a nail and more importantly safety goggles. They will have to use their observations from today and what they can see tomorrow to determine what a mock rock is made out of. I have a feeling after a few more experiments, they will want or need to add more ingredients to our list.

 

Writing- Last week we started our poetry unit as April is "National Poetry Month." We started off with some poems where you filled in the blanks and are now creating our own poetry while learning about new types of poetry and new vocabulary poetry can involve. The students are already amazed with the different kind of poetry. Just wait till they continue to watch our list grow throughout the rest of the month.  Students have their own poetry folder they have designed. Each day we collect our poems and add them to their folders. They will be arriving home at the end of the month.

Upcoming dates:  
 4/24 & 4/25 Book Club after school till 4

4/25 4th grade informance 

4/25 Girls on the Run

4/30 1:30 dismissal 

5/3 I am gone at Grant Wood AEA for a PBIS coaches meeting all day- Mrs. Randall is scheduled to be here.

5/6 & 5/7 I am gone to an RTI (Response to Intervention) conference in North Liberty both days- Mrs. Randall is scheduled to be here.  These are hopefully the last days I am gone for the rest of the year! 

5/ 29 3rd grade track and field day (more details to come, I don't know much! :) )

 


Have a great week!  
Mrs. Jodie Yuska

All things April

Wow! It is hard to believe the last trimester is already half way over. I am hoping to send midterm reports home next week. The week of April 15th! :)

There has a been and will be a lot happening in our room, this sometimes means guest teachers as well changes in schedules.  So far the kids have been really good about this. 

Math- Last week we completed a review of math we learned prior to spring break. This included a review of fractions, division, and multiplication facts. We will continue to practice these skills while moving on. This week we started to discuss geometry. So far we have discussed the properties of 2d and 3d shapes. The last few days we have worked on designing open and closed boxes for cubes and determining the number and shapes of cube faces and other rectangular prisms. This helped us learn how they come together to make a whole. Today we will be working on the same concepts with triangular pyramids. 

Reading-   Last week we  read Storm in the Night by Mary Stolz. This story is about a grandson named Thomas who listens to his grandfather tell a tale about a storm that occurred when he was a boy. As he listens, Thomas begins to overcome his fear of the thunderous night while realizing that fear is a natural response.  This week we took our unit test and used reading time to work on our Text Talk vocabulary. 

Text Talk- This week we read  Angel Child, Dragon Child. Book Summary from Scholastic: Ut, a Vietnamese girl attending school in the United States, is lonely for her mother left behind in Vietnam. She has difficulty adjusting to her new life, and her classmates do not accept her because she is different. Then she makes a new friend who presents her with a wonderful gift. A heartfelt, gentle, and realistic story. Our text talk words are: tilted, tender, yearn, gleam, mumbling, and cooperative.  

Science- Last week the students chose a country and did a small research project. They created brochures with travel information, which they presented to the class. 

 

 

This week we have been learning a lot about fossils. I love when I learn new information too! :) With our trip to the fossil gorge tomorrow, we have been learning a lot about paleontology (the study of things living long ago) and what a paleontologist (a person who digs and researches things found in sedimentary rock levels) may do and use. 

 

  
 

Writing- Last week we wrote "Cloudy with a chance of..." stories either by ourselves or in a small group. We took the time to edit our writing and word process them on the mobile lab cart. We took time to write a quick story about if you dug up a dinosaur bone using a t-chart to pre-write. We will print our cloudy stories, illustrate them, and share them with the class.  

Upcoming this month:  
4/12 Field Trip to Coralville
4/15 Pictures and/ or picture DUE
4/19 I will be gone to attend my daughter's Kindergarten Roundup- Mr. Shaffer is scheduled to be in our room.
4/19 LAST day to turn in Book Club signup sheets
Other than that, I believe there is just a continuation of Good News Club and Girls on the Run.  


Have a great week!  
Mrs. Jodie Yuska