March 26, 2012
Dear Parents,
After our two-week break, we are off and running here in the far corner of the basement. Inclined planes work has involved applying the scientific method in exploring different ramp heights and resulting distances of rolling marbles. This led to partners experimenting with marble relay kits. This week, each third grader will design and construct a marble maze, using the concepts of friction and angles of turns to accomplish the slowest possible run from start to finish. In math we have started a fractions unit. In a few lessons, the children will work with different strategies to generate equivalent fractions. Again, the mastery of the multiplication facts will facilitate division and fraction work. Please support your children’s progress in this key math skill - it will have far reaching benefits as they continue their math studies.
DATES FOR SPRING TRIPS:
April 17 (Tuesday): The Thompson House* Leave TGS 10:30
April 26 (Thursday): Third and Fourth Graders to Boston: We will travel by bus to see the Ancient Egypt exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts –a more detailed letter on this trip will be sent next week.
May 15 (Tuesday): The Thompson House*
May 25 (Friday): A pond study field trip,Hooper Institute, Walpole,leaving TGS 8:30,returning 1:00 *
May 31, Thursday: Deerfield Historical Village-Schoolhouse, a trip with the second grade, leaving around 9:00 *
June 12 (Tuesday): The Thompson House*
June 13 (Wednesday): Annual Third Grade Camp-Out at TGS (more details coming in May)
*These trips (not MFA trip) need parent drivers. Please let Michelle know if you would like to help with transportation. Many thanks!
Your children are leaving their fingerprints all over our wall! Outside our room are enlarged thumbprints. Next, each third grader will create a poem to accompany his/her print. Another (longer) creative writing project: the children are planning the foundation of their respective American tall tales.
We are reading The Canada Geese Quilt by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. In addition the children will read many of her other picture and chapter books while making critical comparisons in their literature responses. This past Friday, they studied this Vermont author’s website on a quest to answer provided questions.
Thank you for your support and have a wonderful week.
Sincerely,
Linda
Our magnum opus!
A beautifully woven cloth by the third graders
Looking back and looking forward
Our end of the year camp out
Our last Thompson House visit
We made a mural of our activities this year!
Writing stories inspired by the paintings of Chris Van Allsburg
"Yes Linda, we are using the home keys!"
Ancient Egypt Studies
Finishing our projects!
Our Last Literature Unit for the School Year
Ava reading THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN
Izlin creates a message in hieroglyphs
Using different scales and units to weigh objects
Magda adds final touches to her research mini-book
Experiencing the day in an 1839 Schoolhouse
The Day Begins for Second and Third Graders
Kylee enjoys an old-fashioned recess game
Amelia gets the knack of rolling the hoop
Early American recess games
Writing with a quill pen
Practicing our penmanship in copybooks
A picnic lunch outside the one room schoolhouse
Our Play, "Pepi and the Secret Names"
Amelia, the tomb painter
Crocodile scares Pepi with his gnashing teeth
Hawk arrives!
Sam as Cobra and Kylee as Pepi
Prince Dhutmose approves the tomb painting
"Howard Carter" introduces our play
Our two outstanding narrators
A feline moment during our play
WHAT IS THIS?
Pond studies at Hooper Institute
Nature journals and aquatic creatures
Taking a closer look at pond organisms
May 25, 2012
Collecting pond samples
Getting ready for our play!
Amelia and Marley paint a lion for our background
An art project related to our reading THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN
Charcoal drawings
Two perspectives of a trumpet
Sketching Wulff's trumpet
Grandfriend's Day
A beautiful May morning and a wonderful time of celebration with our friends and family
Grandfriend's Day is soon!
We painted flower pots with our buddies
Mummy Mask Completed!
Magda's creative artistry at work!
Robert makes final touches on his tall tale.
Mummy Mask Making
It's not easy being still this long! (Click photo for more pictures)
Mask making requires patience and care!
Third graders make felted coasters for the Spring Auction
Collin shows us how to felt!
Students illustrate ancient Egyptians on papyrus paper
Adding hieroglyphs to a tomb painting
Portraying the harvesting of papyrus
A finished tomb painting
Painting a weaver from ancient Egypt
OUR APRIL VISIT TO THOMPSON HOUSE
We decorated spring bonnet centerpieces
Hmmmm, what else should we add to our hat?
David, Lyle, and Robert decorated a spring bonnet
April 10, 2012
Gears and drivebelts-how to change direction of movement
Sketching a bicycle and finding the simple machines
Using K'Nex, Bryn buids a working pulley system
Comparing fixed and movable pulleys
Our Egypt Unit Begins!
Third and Fourth Graders Practice the Science of Archeology, solving the puzzle of mystery objects
A kindergarten peer tests Amelia's marble maze
A Sample of our Completed Marble Mazes
Designing individual marble mazes-the challenge to create the longest marble ride
Work begins!
Amelia carefully plans her series of inclined planes.
Serious work begins on marble mazes.
Holton always has a solid plan for design and build projects.
From science activities about friction to an art project
Maddie paints with care to finish a colorful enlargement of her thumbprint
THUMBPRINTS AND ABSTRACT PAINTINGS
MARBLE RELAYS: Third graders apply inclined planes to do work
FIRST DAY OF SPRING AT THE THOMPSON HOUSE
Decorating flower vases with our friends
SIMPLE MACHINES AND GEAR GADGETS
Studying the gear arrangement in a popcorn popper
Investigating the workings of a manual drill
How do the gears on an eggbeater do work?
Third and fourth graders enjoyed snacks and eachothers' original stories on Friday afternoon
Solving the gear mystery
a close look at the direction and speed of gears' turns
MYSTERY GEARS!
Guessing the gear arrangement
Sam's vehicle goes the distance!
Lyle releases his "Bull's Eye" vehicle
Inclined planes and wheel and axles
Amelia tests two vehicles
Our Vehicles
Third graders on the Move!
A third grader shares her finished story
A Simple Machine Activity
We explored various gear arrangements
Two Heads ARE better than one!
A Research Project
Our timeline is nearly complete!
Third graders made wheel-and -axle vehicles using recycled materials
February 10, 2012: symmetry, visiting our Thompson House friends, finishing biography dioramas...
Sporting hair bows fashioned from duct tape
SYMMETRY WITH PATTERN BLOCKS
Building symmetrical designs and testing for lines of symmetry
We made Valentines with our friends at Thompson House
Biography Boxes, a sampling
Each third grader read about a person from the 19 century
Inspired by the Red Clover book, MIRROR, MIRROR, third graders work with this fun form of poetry
Sharing poems with our classmates
Sam composes his poem
Bryn uses a thesaurus to revise her mirror poem
Reading with our Big Buddies!
Biography Art Boxes
Third graders read about Charlie Chaplin, Harriet Tubman, Amelia Earhart, Annie Oakley, Abraham Lincoln....
A Language Arts Exercise
Proofreading a paragraph on the origin of the word, "bobcat."
AN ART PROJECT CELEBRATING THE IDEALS AND WORK OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Sam adds final touches to his painting of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
A portrait of Rosa Parks
A portrait of Ruby Bridges
WATERWHEELS
A careful planning and construction session
Game Day at All School Meeting
A twister game with our buddies
We studied gristmills and made working waterwheels
Success!
My waterwheel works!
Testing....
Izlin designs and constructs her waterwheel
Robert makes great progress on his waterwheel.
Our December Visit to Thompson House
We made tree centerpieces with our friends.
A Structure and Design Challenge
Building a 5' Tall Tower that withstands being blown over
A charcoal drawing of an artifact
Artifacts Teach Us about History
Observing and sketching 1800's tools and everyday gadgets
SUCCESS!!! OUR 50-TRIANGLE STRUCTURES STAND!
The Bird Cage Made of 67 Triangles
The Straw Maze
Tape Tower
Little Hotel
Leaning House
The Giant Eiffel Tower
Our November Visit to Thompson House
Ava introduces her new puppy to our Senior friends
Sharing a Song
Sharing a Dance
A Design and Build Challenge
Beginning to create a "50 Triangle" Straw Structure
Exploring Howeville
Walking the woods to seek clues about people and places from 150 years ago
A close look at found artifacts in an 1800's village site
A FUN DAY AT HOOPER INSTITUTE
We learned about the tools and gadgets from New England's past
Learning how to use a Shaving Horse
A Yoke Lightens the Load
Drilling with a hand auger
Grinding Corn Meal
From wheat seed to wheat flour
It takes two to work log tongs!
Working hard with a mortar and pestle
Grinding Corn Meal
Working on the Shaving Horse
Spinning Wool Yarn
Final Stages of a Research Project
Creating a Spider Poster
Our October Visit to The Thompson House
Decorating Pumpkin Centerpieces
Calculating Change
a math lesson
Classroom Store
Shopping and making change
Our completed weavings!
Carol demonstrates how the floor loom works
Weaving on Carol's Floor Loom
Weaving on our Backstrap Looms
A CLOSE LOOK AT SPIDERS
A LOOK AT LIVE SPECIMENS
Observing and sketching to learn more about spiders
SPIDERS! A CLOSER LOOK
TO THE FAIR WE WENT!
Lunch under the grandstand's roof
Touring the Barns
Wow, that is a big cow!
Sharpening an ax blade on the whetstone
Shingler on a shaving horse
Our First Visit to Thompson House
Circle up for Introductions!
Sharing a special memory object
Sharing from our summer experiences
First Day of School in the Third Grade
Third Grade Camp Out, June 2011
Our tents are up! Let the games begin!
Ann-Michele makes yummy pancakes!
AFTER OUR CAMP-OUT
Relaxing with board games
That water is cold!
WE MADE CHINESE LANTERNS
Each third grader chose an animal from the Chinese Zodiac Calendar
FOLLOWING A CHINESE TRADITION, STUDENTS HONOR THEIR ANCESTORS BY BUILDING ANCESTRAL HOUSES
Val adds details to his model
Finishing touches to ancestral houses
A fourth grade trumpeter visits us.
Wulff shows us how the trumpet makes different sounds.
Wulff explains how the valves work on his trumpet.
The Pearl is fed to the Dragon and third graders made marble mazes on that theme!
Garrett invites Tea to try his marble maze
Ibby gives Pierce's marble maze a test run
Chip tests Elle's marble maze
We visited the pond at Hooper Institute!
Where is that dragonfly nymph?
Third graders look closely at samples of pond life
Choosing pond specimens to sketch
Chinese Brush Painting
Putney School students teach us about different Asian cultures
We spent an afternoon traveling with our passports in hand
Learning my name in Thai
Chopstick Masters!
Tangram puzzles
Cai Silver spent time with the third grade as a visiting artist and teacher of Chinese culture
Cai shows us how to write Chinese characters
Cai leads us in morning exercises
THIRD GRADERS USE FRICTION AND SLOPE TO DESIGN AND BUILD MARBLE MAZES
I'm done! It works!
Elle carefully plans the paths of her maze.
Garrett gets ready to decorate his maze.
Val fine tunes a slope of a section of his marble maze.
Ethan constructs a meandering maze.
Clara tests her marble maze
Linda's Birthday
We can't wait to eat some of Ann-Michele's gorgeous cake!
Steven and the "open mind bowl"
Opening our minds to our world
Our poetry workshop with Steven
The joy of composing a poem
Decorating bonnets with our Thompson House friends
A new friendship begins!
WRITING ORIGINAL TALL TALES
Beginning our tall tales!
Which lead will I use?
A first draft of a lead to my story
Simple Machines in Third Grade
Building a block and tackle model
An efficient gear system!
Our nets are on and we are ready!
Lucky third graders tour Burdick's
Val's dad starts our tour
YUM!
Dipping fruit in chocolate
Preparing for the Start
Whose car will travel the longest distance?
Racing our balloon vehicles!
A History Project
Working on our TIMELINES
Buddy Reading!
Sharing Dr. Seuss books
Aahhh. I solved the Gear Mystery!
Exploring gear systems
Waterwheels
Planning a design!
WATERWHEELS ON DISPLAY
They come in all sizes and shapes!
OUR VISIT TO THOMPSON HOUSE
We started a collage of our hands!
The structure you can see in the picture is actually 5'10''. We met the challenge with many setbacks, including when Linda forgot her hairdryer on Friday. By Monday our structure had collapsed so we had to work on it again. But in the end we were successful! (Pierce and Clara)
We have the same base and curves as the Eiffel Tower. We worked on some rocky roads but we managed to get through the hair dryer test. (Chloe and Matt)
It looked hopeless in our first try, but after a sturdy base and fast building we did it! We had to fix the base for it to stand. (Kasey and Valentin)
E. and Garrett smile next to their “hair dryer surviving tower” that they worked so hard to build.
We had to finish the five- foot structure in less than two hours. It fell over the next day. (Ethan and Ella)
The Puppet Circus Performs
Our Ringmaster
Puppetry in third grade
We made string puppets!
Building Straw Structures
Working together to make 50 Triangles!
Watercolor Landscapes
Using Winslow Homer's style
Studying Winslow Homer paintings
We are having fun!
Our December visit to Thompson House
Creating together, for the holidays
Working together
Garrett and his partner make a snowman centerpiece
Ethan and Peggy make a reindeer centerpiece
12/3/08
warming up for "Fox and Hounds"
December 3,2010
stretching before a game of tag
Using newspaper insulation
Whose cube will last longest?
Insulating Ice Cubes
Preparing an Experiment
Landscape Paintings
Blending soft pastels
a math lesson
Measuring the perimeter of triangles
1800's artifacts
Thoughtful observations
Howeville
Searching for artifacts
Collecting information:Is it a pond, a vernal pool, or a puddle?
Measuring the width of a TGS aquatic habitat
Collecting Data
Observing an aquatic ecosystem
Yarn spun by a drop spindle
sketching at the Hooper Institute
Using a mallet and froe
To the Hooper Institute
Using a shaving horse
Our October visit to Thompson House
Planning to decorate our pumpkin
a Thompson House visit
Decorating pumpkins
10/1/10
Garrett studies a common house spider
OCTOBER 1, 2010
Studying and sketching spiders
Vocabulary from CHARLOTTE'S WEB
Looking up "Radiant" in the dictionary!
A Rainy Day
Reading about spiders
