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THIRD GRADE JOURNEYS (What we do in third grade!)

= ** June 2011 ** =

= HAPPY SUMMER! =

Have a happy and fun-filled summer! Mrs. Meyer and I will look forward to seeing you in the fall....as 4th graders!! Meanwhile, please do keep up with your reading and your addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. You will make Mrs. Butler so happy!!! And don't forget...there are many math games you can play on the LInks page that make practicing your facts fun!

See you in September.

** THIRD AND SECOND GRADE LUNCH ** The third graders (soon to be fourth graders) and the second graders (soon to be third graders) got together for lunch today in anticipation of next year when they will be doing it on a regular basis. Here are some of the photos.











We had great fun and the third graders gave the upcoming class some great pointers for next year!

READING We've enjoyed reading aloud many books to the third graders this year and they have loved them all. The last book which we finished today was no exception. Halfway into the story, students were unhappy with our choice of book - "This is a bad book," This is so sad," "I don't like this book." Hmmmmm..........well, they sat riveted these last two days and we promised we'd put the cover up on the website for those who wanted to purchase it and reread it. Other books we have read this year included: //First Day Jitters//, //Because of Winn Dixie//, //The Adventures of Edward Tulane//, //Chasing George Washington//, //Being Teddy Roosevelt//, and //Love Ruby Lavender.// The students even thought Ruby Lavender would make a great movie (along the lines of Because of Winn Dixie) and we wrote to Betty White suggesting she persuade a producer to think the same way and cast her as Miss Eula (you'll have to read the book)! We'll let you know if we get a response.

May 2011 Math - fractions and multiplying two digits by one digit Spelling Biographies

Artistic Hats


Cockatoo Visits Third Grade Sally Tucker Levy visited third grade with the 8-month old cockatoo she is fostering, Mr. Bo Jangles.



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Making Pasta This week, thank to Robbie's parents, the third graders were visited by Chef Jim and Dee from The Stonehouse Restaurant. They came to teach us how to make pasta. Each student got a turn at kneading and putting the dough through the pasta machine to make spaghetti. Then they got to eat what they made. It was delicious!









Biographies

Students have chosen who they will be for the Biography Fair on Thursday, May 19 will be: Louis Braille, Cleopatra, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Teddy Roosevelt, Jane Goodall, Annie Oakley, Sir Isacc Newton, Princess Diana, Charles Lindberg, John Lennon, Galelleo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Walt Disney. To read about other famous people, go to our Links page and click on //Biographies//. February 28 - March 4 Math - lines, line segment, rays Spelling - Their, there, they're Oregon Trail - check out our progress.



Happy Birthday Dr. Suess! To learn more about this beloved author, click [|here]. For some fun activities, click [|here].

February 7 - 11, 20011 (Will we get a whole week of school? Let's hope so!) [|Presidents] - Get information and play games! Math - fractions and decimals Spelling Oregon Trail Talking about Good Character [|Valentine's Day] is Monday - Play some games here



This week we begin our study of Presidents. Each student has picked one or two names of United States Presidents about whom they will research and share their knowledge in a written paragraph.Information on the presidents can be found here:

[|The Presidents] - Get information

[|Play President Games] Have some fun and play President games

February 1-4, 2011

Work for this week while you are home.

Snow, snow, snow. Yes, it can be fun but it also takes away a lot of time from school when we should be learning third grade skills! Since we may lose 2days this week, we need you to work on some things while you are home. This week, please work on:

POEM - Practice your poem for next week's poetry recitation.

MATH - Study your times tables 2, 3, 4s in particular!!

We have been talking about fractions and decimals. Pick some of these sites to practice this week.

[|Fraction Review] [|Fractions on Number Lines] [|Compare fractions] [|What mixed number is shown] [|Fraction Balls!]

[|What decimal is illustrated] [|Convert between decimals and fractions] [|Put decimal numers in order]

You can also go to the website [|IXL] to play other games that will help you practice other third grade skills.

READING - Read //If You Traveled in a Covered Wagon// and work on your packet. The packet should be completed by Friday, February 4.

SPELLING - Work on your //Oregon Trail Spelling Words// packet. This should be done by Friday, February 4. Remember: we are working on identifying diphthongs (oa, ai, ee, ow, ou, au, aw, oo, oy, oi, etc) so look for them in your words.

Can you answer these questions:

1. Which spelling word shows the -cle syllable? 2. Find a word that has 2 closed syllables. 3. Is there a a Bossy R syllable in our words?

January 18 - 21, 2011

Dr. Martin Luther KingJanuary 15, 1929-April 4, 1968

This week we celebrate the birth of [|Martin Luther King] civil rights leader and peace activist. Click below to view a short version of his famous speech, "I Have Dream."

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If you want to see the longer speech, watch here:

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January 10 - 14, 2011 Author Visit ** January 14, 2011 **

This week [|Jake Halpern] visited TCS to talk about his book //World's End//, the second in his //Dormia// series. Students were fascinated by the master storyteller and asked several questions regarding his book and he he got started on writing books.Visit the world of [|Dormia] here for more activities and fun.



The Caldecott and Newbery Awards The Caldecott and Newbery awards were announced by the American Library Association today, January 10. The winners are:


 * A Sick Day for Amos McGee** written by Phillip Stead, illustrated by Erin Stead.




 * David the Potter, Artist, Poet Slave** by Laran Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier



**Interrupting Chicken** written and ilustrated by David Stein

Happy New Year - 2011! Spelling - oi/oy words. Check out [|Spelling City] for some fun words generated by students. Math - multiplication and division Social Studies - Lewis and Clark Caldecott Books -visit some Caldecott authors under Authors on our LINKS page

= Caldecott Award Books = January is the month for the annual awarding of the [|Caldecott] and [|Newbery] awards (as well as many other) by the American Library Association (ALA). The Caldecott Award is given to the best picture book of the previous year. It is named in honor of the nineteenth-century English illustrator[| Randolph Caldecott].



This month in third grade, we will have fun reading the gold and silver medal winners that students are bringing from home and also finding in the library.

For a list of winners, dating back to 1938 for the Caldecott and 1922 for the Newbery, go to the following links:

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Louisiana PurchaseLewis and Clark The Deal of the Century! ==

== In 1803, the United States bought (purchased) 828,000 square miles of land from France for $15,000,000 (about 3 cents an acre)! The Louisiana Territory was in the middle of the continent and this doubled the size of our country. Some called the purchase foolish; others "The Deal of the Century!"

The Territory needed to be explored and so President Thomas Jefferson in 1804 sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on an expedition called The Corps of Discovery to explore the region and to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. For more information and to play some fun games, go to the History section of our LINKS page.



Have some fun at these links:

[|Lewis and Clark - Montana Kids] [|Lewis and Clark] - Interactive page [|Louisiana Purchase]
 * [|Lewis and Clark Game - National Geographic Kids]** - Follow along with Lewis and Clark

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Holiday Projects The third graders did an excellent (and in many instances, yummy) job on their holiday projects. Here are a couple. You can check out others on the individual student pages.



Holiday Fun!

Here are some fun things to do over the holidays:

1. Click [|here]to decorate a Christmas tree!

[|2. Santa Television] Learn about Santa, his reindeer, Lapland, Christmas Around the World, and the Northern Lights.

[|3. Santa Webcam] Live from Lapland. See if you can spot Santa or the Elves!

4. [|The North Pole] Play fun games and learn about Santa and the North Pole

5. Click to see a Christmas lights display like no other!!

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Third Grade Writing ProjectDecember 15, 2010



In October we showed the third grader a book called **Dirty Wow Wow** which was a tribute to adults' beloved stuffed animals from their childhoods. We then decided to write our own Dirty Wow Wow book. Students brought in their stuffed animals and wrote a paragraph about their special friend. Our own "Dirty Wow Wow" book is now available on Snapfish.

November 22, 2010 We have much to be thankful for this year! Happy Thanksgiving to all!



November 15, 2010 Math Check out your stocks Spelling Proper Nouns: days of the week and months of the year World Language Fun website for students to practice their Spanish

The Lost Colony of Roanoke We started reading about the Lost Colony of Roanoke today. Here is a claymation done by students from another school that tells the story!

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Spanish



Senora Schofield has found a fun website where third graders can go to practice some Spanish. Navigating the site was explained in World Language today. Students may click here to get to [|Mi Mundo en Palabras]

Special Events Last week on Thursday, November 11, the dads joined third graders for our annual Dads' Breakfast. Thanks to technology and Skype, //**all**// dads were present.



We were treated to a presentation by Jim Golden (who comes from a long line of military ancestors) who told us family stories going back to the Civil War.





We're talking about the meaning of Veterans' Day in third grade and one student brought in this Marine that was a special gift from his grandfather.



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Mysteries seem to lend themselves to Halloween so teachers paired up the third graders to read and enjoy some mysteries.

Pictures to follow tomorrow.

October 25 - 29, 2010 With our study on explorers, we thought it would be fun to send the third graders out to hunt down their own treasure. Here are some photos of the "Tresure Hunt."



Spelling - Frequently Misspelled Words Check out the spelling page for **Spelling City**, a fun way to practice our words! Math - Money

Research Project for Our Field Trip



On October 12, the third grade will take its first field trip concentrating on art. We will be visiting the [|Florence Griswold Museum] to see the scarecrows that have been created in the style of a famous artists. Each student has chosen one of the artists that is represented in the exhibit. We are showing our students works by these various artists, as is our art teacher, David Acheson. Our librarian, Beth Coyne, is working with the third graders on researching their artists. The third graders are looking up information on Henri Matisse, Childe Hassam, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Frank Lloyd Wright, Deigo Valazquez, Paul Klee, Salvador Dali, Vincent Van Gogh, Freida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Georgia O'Keefe, Edgar Degas, Katsushika Hokusai, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollack and Marc Chagall.Look here next week for photos of our trip! And, be sure to check out the other fun [|events] for children at the museum during October.

If students want to continue their artist research at hoem, Mrs. Coyne has encouraged them to go to the TCS website and click on Lower School and then Elmore Library. There students can access the website for [|World Book Kids] (or they can just click here!).

September 27, 2010 Spelling Bossy R Math - Money

Happy October! To celebrate the beginning of October and the break in the hot muggy weather, the third graders all received their own gourds today!



Autobiographies Here are just a few of the creative projects students brought in:















Winn Dixie Party



Last Friday, September 24, we watched the movie //Because of Winn Dixie// in celebration of completing the book. We tried our best to replicate Opal and Gloria's party of egg salad sandwiches, Dump punch, Littmus Lozenges and pickles.The movie is one of our favorites and we highly recommend it for a second viewing.

The First Day of School Meet our third graders, or M & Ms!





September 20, 2010 Spelling Math New Links - Do you like to do mazes? We've added maze website under **Fun** on the Links page. Art History - Check out this page for the first pick for our **//Name the Artist//** game.



Each Wednesday, the lower school meets in the gym at 8:30. We always start the meeting with //Friends//, a song Mr. Borden and lower school students wrote several years ago. Ms. Wepler, the lower school music teacher, joined on the violin this morning as Mrs. Glasser and Ms. Hard signed the words.

September 13, 2010 Spelling Math Science

We're Off to a Great Start Third graders had fun the first week getting to know their new building, new routine and three new classmates.Some things the students liked about their first days were: art, P.E. recess on the larger playground, the Candle Ceremony, seeing their friends, soccer, the "presents," lunch, 3rd grade meetings, the Word Find puzzle with their names, music, reading, DEAR (Drop Everything and Read), the book First Day Jitters, and even homework! One student even brought in a rock collection to share with the class when learning they would be studying Rocks and Minerals in science:

Go to Science - Classroom to see more of our rock collection photos. These rocks were found at [|Lucky 33 Gemstone Flume Mine] in Westbrook. There children can have a "mining" experience, sifting for rough gemstones, fool’s gold and other treasures washed clean by the running water of the indoor flume. On Monday we began introducing students to their workbooks as we began work in spelling, math and vocabulary. To keep up with our progress this year, you can visit those specific pages.



Fun things often happen in third grade that we like to write about - Cultural Arts programs, a visit from a new pet, or parents talking to us about their work. Special daily events and photos will be recorded here, so this is the page to bookmark!

For our first post:

Dear Class of 2016,

Welcome to __third grade__!

As some of you may know, the theme for the third grade year is "Journeys." And as Mrs. McCurdy and Mrs. Meyer are better known as M & M, they and all third grade students henceforth will be known as the M & Ms!

Join us on our "journey" over the next few months. Keep in touch with this website for third grade news, writings and projects that will be posted by the students as well as the teachers. In September we will also be adding pages for each third grade student. This is a great way for parents and relatives to keep up with what students are doing.

For students, it's a great place to go to find **links** to websites that will provide information for projects or fun educational games to play. Just go to the LINKS page in the menu on the left.

We will be explaining our new venture in more detail at Parents' Night on September 16. We are excited about our "journey" this year and look forward to comments and suggestions on what you would like to see on our class "blog."

Want to be an M & M? Join us! We hope to hear from you in "Comments."

Here we go!

Mrs. McCurdy and Mrs. Meyer