Wednesday was a special day for our elementary campus. All of our PS – 5th grade students got to “move up” to next year’s grade for a portion of the morning. This has been an annual tradition so that the students get a snapshot of what next year could be like. The teachers planned special activities that highlighted their grade and enjoyed getting to know their rising students a little better. If your child “moved up” on Wednesday, please ask them all about it. I’m sure they will have something enthusiastic to share! #SaklanConnected
Category: Third Grade
A Visit from a Feathered Friend
Tumbling down from the sky and landing in our play yard, our Owlets and Hoot Owls had a special visitor this week. They were deliriously excited, to say the least. A pigeon! Close up and personal! They were amused and had many questions. Their curiosity was uncontainable. Look! He has a green bracelet! What is it? Why is it here? Is it hurt?
Our little Friend was tagged with his “name” and his owner’s information. After a little bit of detective work on the American Racing Pigeon Union site, we were able to find out that he was lost and where he came from.
To make a 2-day story short, our Feathered Friend is at home with Matt from Concord. Matt says “Thank you” to our Owlets and Hoot Owls for showing compassion and concern for the safety and well-being of our Feathered Friend.
If I Were Trapped in a Snow Globe
The third grade students have been busy working on a creative writing piece titled: “If I Were Trapped in a Snow Globe.” They used the strategies we learned in our personal narrative writing unit to create such fun, original stories!
Their writing, along with a picture of their snow globe, is on display in our classroom. Please come by and take a look!
Halloween Couplets
The third grade has been working on using adjectives in their writing. Last week, they gave a spooky Halloween presentation for their parents where each student shared their original Halloween themed couplet.
Their poetry is on display in the third grade classroom. Please feel free to stop by to read their poems!
Because of Winn Dixie Day
The first class novel in third grade was Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. The story centers around a girl named Opal who just moved to a new town and is having a hard time making new friends. She adopts a stray dog that she names after the grocery store where she found him. Everything that happens to her and the new friends she makes are all “because of Winn Dixie.”
The students learned many new things through this novel study including new vocabulary, identifying character traits, and about the theme of friendship. They also wrote chapter summaries and made predictions about what was going to happen next in the story.
One of the characters in the book was a candy maker who developed a type of candy that made you feel sad when you ate it. For a creative writing activity each student created their own candy that evoked different emotions, such as Lilah’s Laughter and Crying Caramel. They then created an advertisement to persuade people to want to buy their candy.
Tuesday was “Because of Winn Dixie Day” in third grade. The students celebrated by watching the movie and having a party. They talked about their favorite characters from the book. They played a compare/contrast game where they used a Venn diagram to determine if something happened in the book, the movie or both. They had a party just like the one in the book that Opal throws for her friends. Many students tried new foods they had never tried before like egg-salad sandwiches and dill pickles! This day was a wonderful way to celebrate friendship and share our joy of reading!
Student Council Elections
The Saklan School recently held an election for Student Council. The students campaigned by writing speeches and presenting them at Flag. The students voted later that day. We announced the results of the election to the middle school students on Tuesday. Here is a list of the elected officers.
Max B. (8th grade) and Harrison L. (8th grade)
Co-Presidents
Jordan D. (6th grade) Makenna C. (6th grade)
Secretary Treasurer
Evy A. (6th grade) and Elishka G. (6th grade)
Co-Publicity Chairs
Lauren A. (8th grade) and Phoebe K. (6th grade)
Co-Activity Chairs
We are very proud of all the students who ran and we are excited for a great year!
Family Groups
This month, Family Groups discussed collaboration: working as a team, taking turns, listening to ideas, doing your best, and encouraging others. Students read the book: The Dot, where a girl is encouraged to find out she is actually a great “dot” artist. She ends up encouraging others to find out what they are good and what they bring to the community. Students were then asked to create their own dot with something they are good at and bring to their community. Each family group worked together to build paper and sticky dot towers.
Poetry Cafe
On Wednesday morning, the third grade classroom was transformed into a Poetry Cafe as the third graders took to the stage to share their original poetry with family and friends.
The students embraced the Beatnik culture of the 50’s by dressing in black shirts and berets. Each poet shared two of their favorite poems, their book dedication and their “About the Author” page. This was a fun way to celebrate the end of our poetry unit!
Spirit of the Old West
Our third grade class went on a field trip to the Blackhawk Museum on Thursday, May 10 to see the Spirit of the Old West exhibit. This exhibit is dedicated to presenting a balanced narrative of both Native Americans and American Settler – depicting their challenges, their successes and failures, their ways of life. Since our two main social studies units in third grade are about Native Americans and Pioneers, this was the perfect field trip to complement our studies. We saw many of the animals that roam the plains and mountains, many artifacts from Native Americans and Pioneers, a life size replica of a covered wagon, and a very large miniature diorama that tells the story of the settlement of the western plains. The students’ favorite activity was spinning the “wheel of death” to learn about the many ways the Native Americans and Pioneers might have died since life back then was much harder than it is today. We also got to tour the auto museum and get a VIP “sneak peak” at an upcoming exhibit still being built.
Many thanks to Keely Dreisbach for organizing and coordinating this amazing field trip for our class!
One Room Schoolhouse
On Monday, the third graders went back in time to 1888 and experienced life as a pioneer child at the Tassajara One Room Schoolhouse. They came dressed in their finest pioneer clothes and brought their lunches in a basket or a kerchief tied to a stick. They learned that the schoolhouse is 130 years old and was built when Grover Cleveland was president. The students got to write on slate boards with chalk and also use a quill pen dipped in ink. Some fun recess activities included tug-of-war, jump rope, and walking on cans and stilts. They also sang songs popular in the 1800’s. The third graders had a great day and decided that school was fun in 1888!
Many thanks to our parent chaperones Keely Dreisbach, Charlene Poziumschi and Jen Barry, who all looked fabulous in their pioneer dresses and bonnets!
FRIDAY BLOG 
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