The girls became even more Wordly Wise as they played a quick-draw vocabulary game on their iPads. As each word was given, they sketched pictures to represent their mental images. This comprehension strategy came alive and also deepened their understanding of personal visualizations. Be sure to ask the girls about their drawings. 

 

 

 

French: Dollhouse Rooms Arriving

We have received our first three dollhouse rooms.  The girls are having a blast admiring each one.  We have been working together in class to write a paragraph about each room.  We can not wait to see what each girl will come up with for her room.

Language Arts: Dreams, Past and Present, of a Better World

This morning  Elvis Presley, Amelia Earhart, Abigail Adams, Harriet Tubman, and Abraham Lincoln visited our classroom. This afternoon Helen Keller, King Tut, Cleopatra, Barak Obama, Bill Gates, Elizabeth Blackwell, and George Washington told us about their lives. As these famous visitors concluded their interviews, they spoke about the way in which they hoped to be remembered.

I hope your daughters will be inspired by their classmates' reports to read more biographies and to think about the work they might be interested in doing some day.

Language Arts: A Better World

 After we read about Martin Luther King's dream, I asked the girls to think about what their dream for a better world would be. They dream of providing food, shelter, clothing, and medical care for those less fortunate than they are and for the homeless. They dream of teaching the disabled to swim and everyone to dance. They dream of protecting the environment and wild animals from trophy hunters. They dream of a world where there are "no bad guys" and "Everyone has a chance to dream."

While your daughters enjoyed illustrating their visions of a better world, they also love listening to stories about women who had dreams and realized their dreams. They could not imagine a world in which women were discouraged from exercising and could only bob in water-logged swimming outfits until they heard how Annette Kellerman, known as the Mermaid Queen, showed women that they too could swim and do so freely. Appreciating their easy access to books, the girls were enchanted by the true story of Mary Moore from Limerick, Maine, who created the Children's Room at New York's Public Library, a paradise for children when libraries were generally only for adults. After hearing about Mary Kingsley's travels in 1893 and 1894 to West Africa, they knew that Mary Kingsley would have insisted that it was important for women to be able to learn about other cultures from first-hand experience. This afternoon, as they imagined themselves as Elisabeth Cady Stanton, they voiced the reasons women should be able to vote. 

As we continue to read tales of the Greek gods and brave heroes, your daughters may be thinking about the courage these women showed as they pursued their dreams.

Science: Falling, falling, falling

As we began our unit on flight, we first learned that gravity pulls everything down towards the center of the earth.  The girls made hypotheses as to how 2 stones, one large and heavy and one small and light, would land.  To their surprise, when they did the experiment, if the stones were dropped at the same time, they landed at the same time, regardless of size or weight!  The girls have now done experiments, changing one variable at a time, to see what changes can be made to slow the decent of a parachute.  Sharing what they have learned by experimentation will help them as each group designs a parachute to let an egg (hopefully!) drift gently from the deck of the Science Center to the ground without breaking.

From Greek Myths to Dreams of a Better World

After three days at home, the girls seemed ready to be back. They are enjoying reading Greek myths and becoming familiar with the gods and their attributes. This afternoom the girls made a map of ancient Greece and learned where Mt. Olympus, Athens, Sparta, Troy, and Crete are located. They noticed how surrounded by bodies of water Greece is and decided that the ancient Greeks living in coastal areas might have been good sailors.

Last week we read Faith Ringgold's book, My Dream of Martin Luther King and the girls started to think about their dreams for making the world a better place. Tomorrow we will return to this project; the girls will complete their pictures and think about how they would persuade people to support their dreams. Stay tuned to hear more about their dreams.

Reminder: book reports on biographies are due January 30. The girls' interviews should give them a wonderful opportunity to learn about quite a range of famous people.

French: Preparing for our Dollhouses

When we returned from winter break the girls got right to work preparing for their dollhouse unit.  They have been learning vocabulary for rooms and furniture.  Thanks to their iPads, they have been able to play interactive games both by themselves and with their classmates to practice this vocabulary.  We have already received our first dollhouse and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the rest.  It is so much fun to admire all of the creative ideas that the girls come up with for their rooms.

 

From the Library

Third Graders have just finished a Scavenger Hunt in the library. They "became books", were assigned spine tags with their Dewey decimal information and found themselves on the shelves. Then, in teams of two, they selected one found book and researched it for specific information. This was a good way to review table of contents, index, copyright date, translator, illustrator, and even a supplemental bibliography. Where do you look to find information on sundials? How many poems are in each section of the book? To whom is this book dedicated? Girls sleuthed their way through the research together, taking notes and then writing beautiful paragraphs with complete sentences. Ask you daughter how to find out when a book was published.

Winter Eyes and Dogku, Spark Writing Ideas!

 

As we returned from winter break, the frigid weather seemed to be the conversation among everyone.  The girls listened enthusiastically to each other's wintertime stories.  Poems from the book, Winter Eyes, also inspired them to reflect upon their feelings about winter.

Next, the girls modeled the haiku writing of one of their favorite authors, Andrew Clements.  His popular book, Frindle, is currently our read aloud. 

In his book, Dogku, he writes:
An idea knocks:
I open, think, write, and smile.
And then it's your turn.


Now, let us share our traditional Japanese haiku writings.  Each poem has 17 syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.  


White snow on the ground,              Abby
Sledding children all around.
Winter here at last.

Chicken noodle soup                        Ashy
Snuggling up with family
Watching good movies

Warm, fuzzy blankets                       Maddy
Make a hot drink when it's cold
Have a snowball fight

I sat at the fire                                   Meley
as I sipped hot chocolate.
I saw a snowman.

Ice skates, figure eights                    Lexie
Hot chocolate, stemming hot
Fire wood burning, crack!

Icicles hanging                                    Lydia
Opening presents are fun
Winter break, no school!

Sitting by the fire                                Lucia
Christmas, friends, presents, carols
Warm sweaters, warm hugs

Christmas lights, warm fires              Grace
Wearing gloves, warm pajamas
Making a snowman

Sledding is so fun                               Mia H.
My dog Panda loves the snow
Snow ball fights are great

No school, ice skating                         Ingrid
Hot chocolate, cookies
Snow covered trees, warm fires

Ice skating is fun!                                Meredith
I like having snowball fights.
Hot chocolate, Yum!

Hot coco, skiing                                   Lizzie
Icicles hanging on trees
Eating snow outside

Snowball fights outside                      Merriwether
Hot chocolate with fluffy
marshmallows after.

Wake up look, the snow                      Sadie
It's glistening, like the ice
Seriously look!