Writing in 3rd and 5th Grade

Third graders have been working on historical narratives.  They did a lot of research by reading books, having first-hand experiences in the woods, and a virtual field trip to the ocean that included touching sand and seashells and watching a video of waves crashing on the beach.  Here they are revising with help from a buddy.

Fifth graders are preparing to write opinion essays either for or against having zoos.  They took notes when they read three articles, watched a short video, and analyzed a graph.  Here they are organizing their notes in preparation for writing.

3rd Grade Virtual Field Trip to the Ocean

Third graders are doing some research in preparation for writing stories that take place at the ocean.  Since we couldn't actually go to the ocean, we took a virtual field trip there.  We took notes on what we saw, heard, and felt as we watched a video of waves crashing on a beach and got our hands into some sand.  We'll incorporate these sensory details in our stories.

Extraordinary Eggs

The kindergarteners read Leo Lionni's book An Extraordinary Egg.  We learned about the kinds of animals that hatch from eggs.  We've also read several other books by Leo Lionni and we noticed that his illustrations are often collages of different types of paper.  We then used fancy paper that we made or found to make little animals to put inside papier mache eggs.

Engineering with First Graders: Making a Cat Feeder

These first graders are making a prototype of a cat feeder that could be used to feed your upstairs neighbor's cat if you didn't want to have to walk up there all the time.

Engineering: Designing A Boat That Will Float And Predicting How Much Cargo It Can Hold

The sixth graders had a challenge a few weeks ago.  They were told to build a boat out of aluminum foil and they had to predict exactly how many pennies it would hold.  Needless to say, none of them had any idea of how to make such a prediction.  Now, after learning a lot about density and why things float, they are attempting the challenge again, this time using their math and science knowledge.  Here they are calculating and constructing.