Bread Baking with Shelburne Farms!

We had a great time on Thursday baking bread with teachers from Shelburne Farms!  We began the morning by making the dough.  The children measured, mixed, and shaped the dough! Then the children participated in three stations: wheat grinding, butter making, and felt soap making.  The best part of the day was the taste testing!  We had fantastic time!  What was your child's favorite part of the process?

We also finished our Ecosystems unit with an engineering task!  The children made a plan with their groups about how to clean up a river oil spill. They had to design a 4-step cleaning process and choose tools that they thought would work best to contain and eliminate oil.  After testing their plans, they pressed a paper to the surface of their "river" to see how much oil was on the paper.  How did your child do?  Was he or she able to clean up the oil and save the river ecosystem?

 Enjoy the long weekend!

Clean Up!

 This week during theme, our Environmental Engineers had a chance test out the best methods for cleaning up an oil spill in a river ecosystem.  We began by discussing ecosystems and how the animals and plants are connected in an ecosystem.  If a river is polluted, it not only affects the fish, but the animals that eat the fish. Each child took on the role of a plant or animal in a river ecosystem and we created a food web to model the connections.  Then the children were given containers of water with a small vegetable oil spill.  They tested out several tools and materials that could be used to contain the oil or remove the oil.  They used sponges, pipettes, felt, yarn, rubber bands, cotton balls, spoons.  Be sure to ask your child what was the best material to remove oil from our "river"!  The children will use this information next week to engineer the most effective way to clean our mock oil spill. They will brainstorm, design, and test their plans and reflect on changes they want to make.  Did their methods remove the oil the best? What could have worked better?

We had our last Hands on Nature lesson this month...in fact, it is the last one ever!  Hands on Nature does not continue after third grade.  Thank you very much to our dedicated Hands on Nature volunteers for sharing your joy and love of nature with us each month!  This month we focused on flowers.  The children had the opportunity to dissect flowers and compare the flowers and their structures.  They learned vocabulary for the parts of a flower and even had a chance to do some dandelion artwork!

In math, we started our last unit of the year.  During Unit 7, we will be working on multiplying one-digit numbers by two-digit numbers and fractions.  This week we used base ten pieces and arrays to multiply numbers by 11s and 12s.  Be sure to ask your child if he or she can tell you about the number patterns we found in the products of these equations!

Please note there is information in your child's backpack regarding the PTO Jog-a-thon.  The Jog-a-thon is on Friday, June 2nd.  Also, on Thursday, Shelburne Farms will be visiting the third grade at SCS to do a bread baking event.  Team Esprit will be outside for most of the morning so please make sure your child is dress appropriately.

Have a great weekend!

Environmental Engineering

We had a good start to our SBAC testing this week!  The children worked hard and persevered.  We have completed three of the four tests.  We will finish on Monday morning.  Please make sure your child has a good night's sleep and a good breakfast in the morning!

During science, we continued to be environmental engineers.  We were given a task to help solve an environmental problem in a fictitious town, Greentown.  The frogs and plants are dying in the ponds and marshlands and the children had to test pH levels of soil and water from the area to determine the pollution problem in that town. After measuring the pH levels, we discussed the changes in the levels of pH in soil and water and brainstormed reasons why those changes
happened. What would your child do to help the Mayor of Greentown clean up their environment?  Next week, the children will complete an engineering task to clean up an oil spill.

In Reader's Workshop, the children are still participating in book clubs.  The children are reading books and working on tasks/projects to demonstrate comprehension of the book.  Ask your child about the book he or she is reading this week!

On May 25th, we will be participating in a Break Baking project with Shelburne Farms here at SCS.  If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Jill Warrington  at jill.warrington@gmail.com

Have a great weekend!

SBAC Testing and Breadmaking

Team Esprit has had a busy first week back from school vacation!  We have spent this week practicing for the upcoming SBAC tests.  These tests will be taken on chromebooks so we have spent some time getting used to using the chromebooks to navigate training and practice tests.  We will be taking the actual SBAC on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday mornings for the next two weeks.  Please make sure your child is well rested and well fed on those mornings.

This week we began a science and engineering ecology unit.  We have been learning about environmental engineering and ecosystems.  We read a story about an oil spill and learned about how the engineering design process was used to clean up the oil spill in the story.  We are learning how testing and careful research can help to reveal pollutants and their sources in environments and ecosystems.  Next week students will have an opportunity to solve their own environmental mystery.

We are currently finishing up our geometry unit in math and will begin a new unit that will revisit multiplication and fractions.  We will be  learning about one-by-two digit multiplication through arrays, and will thinking about fractions as parts of a whole and parts of a set.

On Thursday, May 25th, the entire third grade will be participating in an annual bread making event with Shelburne Farms. Shelburne Farms will bring their traveling oven to SCS and each class will have the opportunity to make, bake, and eat bread outside at SCS.   

Have a great weekend,

Deb and Jenn