Problem and Solution - Reading News Stories

The 3rd graders read a story called Beatrice's Goat a few weeks ago.  We started off by looking at children's bedrooms around the world and the different problems that could cause all of these children to be in those bedrooms.  Some were rich, some were poor, and some even slept in dirt.  As we read the story of Beatrice, we discussed how her goat affected a lot of change and made it possible for her to go to school in a poverty stricken society.

My goal was to have the students take this lesson and be able to apply it to real world situations.  I gave them the task of researching news stories on Timeforkids.com.  Once they had picked a news story, they had to dissect the article for the problem/solution and causes/effects that were hidden in it.  Once the problem was clearly noted, the kids were also challenged to come up some creative solutions to those problems and then create a news report video documenting what they learned.  This was a long process, but it showed me just how deep they can think.  It also made me proud to watch them pick out real world problems and start to analyze them as little adults.  Every part of this process was student driven and created.  I merely gave them the physical tools they needed to accomplish the task.  Here are the results!

Too Many Snow Days

Reported by Alexa, Mallory, and Logan

Trashing the Earth

Reported by Ryan, Kate, and Thelma

Addicted to Sugar?

Reported by Layna, Colton, and Evie

Strange Monkey Business in Bananas

Reported by Caleb and Sophia

Earthquake in Ecuador

Reported by Emma, Nicholas, and Mason

Get Hydrated 

Reported by Evaline, Savannah, and Eli

Week of May 9th

Dear parents,
I have just a few things to inform you of for our last couple weeks of school.

Field Trip
Our last field trip is scheduled for Monday May 23rd.  We will be leaving school at 9 am and returning around 1:30 pm.  You are welcome to ride the bus with us or if you plan to meet us there, we will meet in the tennis court parking lot of Forest Park (right across from the trolley and visitor center).  We will be starting the race around 9:30 and then have lunch around noon or whenever everyone finishes.

I could still use a couple more people to help lead groups around the park.  Ideally groups of 3 work best and we are about 1 or 2 people short of that.  If you plan on joining us this is what you should be sure to bring:
1. Sack Lunch for after the race
2. Water, Water, Water
3. Shoes and clothes that you can run/walk a lot in
4. Your cell phone (We will be using an app on the phones to do the scavenger hunt with.  There are a couple of options on how to do this, but you will either need to allow the kids to look at your phone, or have a hot spot connection that they can connect an ipad to.  I will give more details about this later.)

Field Day
Mrs. Knost has been sending out emails about field day which is on Friday May 20th.  Be sure to check her emails to find the color your child is supposed to wear that day.  Also, thank you for sending in $1 to help offset the cost of the Ted Drewe's for the kids.

Book Club
We are doing one last book club using the dearly loved author Beverly Cleary.  These books were written specifically for this age group (Level 0) and really appeal to the kids.  I am not sure that we will have time to do another Tic-Tac-Toe project with these, so I will have a shorter assessment piece that is done in class as we near the end of the books.  This will most likely take place the last week of school on Tuesday.  I'll send home more info as we get a little closer.

Thank You!!
I have had such a wonderful year teaching your kids and am a little bit sad to let them go on to 4th grade.  They have all come so far, and as a class we truly enjoy being around each other every day.  Thank you for all of your cards, gifts, prayers, support and time this year.  I have been blessed to get to know each one of your families and pray that you have a wonderful summer!

1st Week of May

Dear parents,
I cannot believe that we have less than 4 weeks of school left.  Your kiddos have come such a long way since August and I am very proud of them.  Last week was lovely since we were able to get back into the routine of things after so many big events.  Here's a look at the next couple weeks:

Religion: 
We finished up talking about communion and will be going through confession in our Catechisms.  We will also be reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which ties in nicely with our Christian faith.  It has a lot of symbolism and is a great book to practice comparisons with the Bible.

Math:  
We are working on division and still trying to get everyone to learn their times tables through 12.  We still have enough time for the class to earn an ice cream party if everyone keeps practicing!

Reading: 
A couple weeks ago we read a story in our reader called Beatrice's Goat.  This gave us a good glimpse into what life is like in other parts of the world.  We are now studying problems in the news using the website "Time for Kids" and learning about the causes, effects, and solutions to those problems.  Your kids have written news scripts to report on those problems and will be turning them into iMovies this week.

Science: 
We have finished up our unit on Ecosystems and are sharing our last couple projects this week.  From now until the end of the year, we will be working on learning body systems (mostly bones and muscles) and health.  There may be a couple smaller lessons thrown in there depending on how much time we have.

Grammar: 
We have been talking about pronouns in class and will have a small quiz tomorrow.  This is really just an activity to see if they can pick out the correct pronoun and it's antecedent.  We have done a lot with this in class so there isn't much to study.  If you'd like to review, you can use the story Play Ball that we worked on in class today.  They should have brought it home with them.

Field Trip: 
Monday May 23rd is our Amazing Race Field Trip.  We will be needing a few more parents to help out with this.  It's been awhile since I've said anything about it, so here is the list of parents I currently have.  If you could please confirm your spot, that would be very helpful!  The smaller the groups we have, the more fun it is for everyone.  We will be arriving at the park around 9:15 and leaving around 1:30.  Thanks!
Karl and Jenna Nelson
Kelly (Nate?) Ritter
Rene Uhlig
Craig Uhlig
Jayme (Colton's aunt)

Important Dates

• May 23rd  - Amazing Race Field Trip at Forest Park (We need as many parents as are willing!)

• May 26th - Last Day of School; Join us for closing worship and early dismissal