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

Miss Niles' Class Sharing our Fairy Tale Adaptations

A Visit from the Vermont Bucks!

One highlight from this week was a visit from the Vermont Bucks Football Team.  They are the new indoor football team in Burlington!  Two players, Kelvin and Brandon, visited our team. They had the children do some warm up exercises and then talked with the children about the importance of working hard in school and following your dreams.  The team also gave every student in the school a free coupon to the game this weekend at the Gutterson Fieldhouse at UVM.  Hope you can make it to a game!


In math, we continued our geometry unit by exploring quadrilaterals.  This week, the children had to solve riddles using what they know about quadrilateral attributes.  Then they made their own quadrilateral riddles for their classmates to solve.  We also continued to work more with area and perimeter of a variety of arrays.

During Reader's Workshop, we finished our second book called Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel.  We have been studying Dyamonde as a character and have been comparing her actions, problem resolution skills, and her character traits to Opal from Because of Winn Dixie.  We also explored the themes of the book and the lessons learned. The children found that both of these books dealt with themes of friendship and kindness.  We ended the week by watching the movie Because of Winn Dixie!  Ask your child if the movie was the same as the book!  Which did he or she like better?

We finished writing our fairy tale adaptations this week and celebrated with a publishing party. Both classes shared their adaptations with their Kindergarten Book Buddies.  It was fun to see how proud our third grader authors were of their work!

It was wonderful to see so many of you at the Third Grade Informance this week!  Hope you enjoyed the songs and the dancing!

Have a wonderful vacation!  School resumes on Monday, May 1st!

Another Busy Week!

Team Esprit continued their learning about Geometry this week and focused on polygons and quadrilaterals.  We spent some time sorting shapes, building them with geoboards, and playing a game called "Guess My Quadrilateral".   Next week we will continue our work with geometry and we will revisit perimeter and area.





We finished reading Because of Winn Dixie this week and had great discussions about the lessons learned by Opal and other characters in the book.  We also spent some time analyzing the author's craft. We are now moving into another book called Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel by Nikki Grimes.  We will use this book to compare and contrast characters, their problems, and their reactions.

In Writer's Workshop we are busy publishing our final copies of our adapted fairy tales.  Next week Miss Deb's class will have share their adapted fairy tales with their Kindergarten book buddies. Today, Miss Deb's class visited Miss Megan's first grade class and listened to her students share their writing pieces.

Miss Deb's class also enjoyed a terrific Hands On Nature lesson this week about birds.  We listened to different bird calls and songs and played games to practice recognizing various birds by their calls and songs. A huge thank you to Erica Schramm, Anne Marcoe and Christi Koenig for another great learning experience.  Miss Niles' class will enjoy this same lesson next week.


Miss Niles' class enjoyed Fiber Art Friday today!  Bradie taught the children how to knit using their hand-crafted knitting needles.  Thanks to Anita, Martha, Johnine for teaching us as well!

This Tuesday, April 18th will be the dress rehearsal for our team's "Music Informance".  The Informance will take place at 8:40 in the cafeteria on Wednesday, April 19th.  We hope you all can make it!
Have a great weekend!
Deb and Jenn

Happy April!

Thank you to everyone for coming in for Parent Conferences last month.  It was nice to connect and celebrate your child's accomplishments this year!  Please note that the 3rd graders have a Music Informance on April 19th at 8:40am.  Please contact Amy Southworth with any questions. We hope to see you there!

In Writer's Workshop, the children have begun writing their Fairy Tale adaptations.  They are using their storyboard as plans and are drafting stories using narration and dialogue. As the children are writing, they are encouraged to elaborate with details to make the story come to life for the reader.  What is your child writing about?  Is it an adaptation of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, or Three Billy Goats Gruff?

We are almost finished reading Because of Winn-Dixie.  This week we focused on exploring secondary characters in a story.  These are the characters that are not the main focus of the story, but have some effect on the main character.  We found in our reading that secondary or supporting characters can act as advisers (giving advice), sidekicks (friends), or challengers (antagonists).  See if your child can tell you about the secondary characters in Because of Winn-Dixie. What role do Gloria, Otis, and Franny Block play?

In math, we began a Geometry unit.  This week we explored the term attributes and identified attributes of a variety of shapes. The children worked in partnerships to create a shape poster highlighting the attributes of special quadrilaterals:  squares, trapezoids, parallelograms, and rhombuses.  Ask your child if he or she can tell you about an attribute of one of these shapes.  We also learned about and explored tangrams.  Tangrams were invented in China hundreds of years ago and are a set of seven puzzle pieces called tans.  These tans (different shapes) can be combined to form a square.  It was quite a challenge to put them together into a square!

Have a good weekend!