Is it really May already?

No. Seriously? It's May!? Where the heck has this school year gone!
15 more school days for us here at Cartwright Elementary School! Hard to believe!

There were honestly times when I didn't know if I would make it to May, and here we are! Yikes!!

This week, in room 9, we continued our Rainforest thematic unit!

On Monday, we were able to almost get all caught up with part 1 of the unit. Most groups were finishing up their final publishing pieces of their proposal for their project, which includes all the research information they have found through reading articles, stories, and searching the web with our ipads. They have been very intrigued, and it's fun to see them working together in their groups.

I am adding a twist to our project, which is already turing out pretty cool. The other classrooms don't have the means to do it, but I love it! I divided the class up and gave each of them a layer of the rainforest to work on. They are reading an article about their layer, highlighting important information, and then using that data to create picCollage posters of their layer. They then are working in those "new" groups to create a circle map highlighting the important information about their layer, and then presenting this information to the class! Yay for more collaboration, and innovation!

Here are my favorite PicCollage Posters from what they created:

 

We did something a little different this week with our Scholastic News magazines. We usually have read them aloud as a class, discussed them, and answered the questions together. This week, I had them work with a partner. They read the magazine, made a circle map highlighting an article, answered the questions, and then shared their article with the class. I love when they work together to learn, and I love it even more when they share what they learned! 

 

On Tuesday, we started part 2 of the rainforest project, even though some groups were still finishing up publishing, most groups were ready to move on. This is the part of the project where the kiddos start planning for their school in the sky. They build plans with dimensions and work to solve areas and and perimeters of each room, and the entire school. They also have been working hard to create vertex edge graphs to map the area in the rainforest. They have to be able to get from the school to the village, the river, and other locations.


Wednesday, we had field day in the afternoon. Another fun, wet day for these kiddos! I wish every week, we had something fun like this to look forward to. Especially, now that it's hot again! :)
We also continued working on part 2 of our rainforest unit! Some groups were working so good together and were finalizing their dimensions and plans! By the end of the day Wednesday, all of the groups were completely finished with part 1, and their proposals/research reports were submitted!

We also took class and grade level pictures! Check out our silly class picture, and all the third graders! :)

On Thursday, we had a little bit of time to work in our groups through part 2, but the highlight was the individual animal reports! We each were given a rainforest animal to research, and used the information we learned to create a class book of Rainforest Animals! We printed pictures from the internet, illustrated our own drawings, and wrote a few sentences about what we learned! The book turned out awesome! I love when our creativity, individuality, and collaboration can work together with some awesome learning!

On Friday, we finished up part 2 of our rainforest unit. All groups had their paths created, maps created, paragraphs written, and plans published. We also went to Art and started to build the trees for our project. Friday was the last day to prepare for our LAST Galileo testing week of the school year.
We also were able to set up a secret skype with Christopher Tozier on Friday. We finished book 2 of the Olivia Brophie series: Sky Island, and were able to chat with Chris about the ending, book 3, and other fun things! I look forward to sharing this series with another class next year, and I have promised these kiddos that I will mail their 4th grade teacher a copy of the 3rd book!

We will start Galileo next week. We take Math, Reading, Writing, and Science.
Friday will be a day to finish up our trees, polish up our planning pieces, and have some fun with the Rainforest! :) We may even watch a Rainforest movie! :)


Have a great weekend, ya'll! THREE MORE WEEKS!

~Ms. Niehaus