Category: Third Grade

Scientific Sketches

Third graders spent time last week setting up their Science Notebooks, which included an introductory lesson on how to sketch scientifically. 

Scientists use sketches to record information for themselves as well as communicate information to others. They often sketch when they are doing field research, observing a plant or animal they cannot take back to the lab. Along with a drawing, a scientific sketch often includes labels and diagrams, questions and explanations. 

However, you don’t have to be an artist to create a successful scientific sketch! You simply have to take time, observe closely, and record what you see. Recording what you see is different from drawing the picture you have in your head. Many of us have cartoon-like images in our head of trees, flowers, houses, apples, rabbits, etc. When you set out to sketch a real thing, it’s important to focus on the individual specimen in front of you, rather than the generalized image you carry in your head. 

Third graders learned the criteria for a successful scientific sketch through the mnemonic: ABCDE. Scientific sketches should be:

  • Accurate
  • Big
  • Colorful
  • Detailed
  • Explained

With their new knowledge of what a scientific sketch is, the third graders used their careful observation skills and practiced scientifically sketching a redwood leaf in their journal. 

CLASY Resilience

Last Friday, the lower school students had their very last CLASY meet up of the year. For our social and emotional learning this month all students have been thinking about what it means to be resilient. They have been talking about what people can do when things are hard, including to keep going, positive self talk, and breaking down difficult tasks into smaller chunks. During this CLASY the Kindergarten – 5th grade students worked on a tricky activity with their friends: passing a hula hoop around a circle while everyone was holding hands, and thus couldn’t use their hands.

The students were delightfully surprised that hard work could be so much fun! 

#SaklanSEL

Back to 1888

On Tuesday, the third grade class traveled back in time to 1888 to experience life as a pioneer student. Each student took on a new identity by choosing an old fashioned name and came to school dressed in their finest pioneer attire.

During the day, the third graders participated in several traditional pioneer activities into the classroom. The day started with the three R’s: reading, writing and arithmetic. Students read from McGuffey Readers (published in 1879), practiced their cursive writing using quill feather pens and ink, and practiced their math on slate boards with chalk.

For lunch, each pioneer student brought authentic pioneer food in baskets, pails or tied to a stick. The students enjoyed their unique lunches at the garden, as well as time to pet the chickens.

The students also enjoyed working on some weaving and making butter in mason jars.

The third graders really embraced the pioneer spirit and enjoyed their time travel back to 1888! Huge thank you to Lisa, Meredith, and Joy for bringing this day to life for the third graders!

Visual Representation

The third graders did an amazing job turning their original designs into beautiful ground murals for our entire community to enjoy! These murals of a four-square and hopscotch not only provide a fun place for all students to play during recess, but also bring visual representation of Saklan/Bay Miwok culture onto our campus.

These murals are the final public product from the 3rd grade PBL unit, which helped them to answer their driving question of “How can we show respect to the people whose ancestral land our school is on?” When the third graders met with Vincent and Louis (owners of Cafe Ohlone) earlier this year and asked them this question, they said one way was to have images on campus that represent Saklan culture. The third graders worked with Lauren in art to create designs that were accurate and detailed. Local artists Tia and Paul Kratter helped to turn the students’ designs into reality and worked with the third graders to paint the murals. 

#SaklanPBL

Chain Reactions

Third grade has been learning about the famous cartoonist Rube Goldberg. Goldberg is well known for the elaborate crazy contraptions he drew of complicated chain reactions that, in the end, performed a simple task. Each of the third graders were inspired to use the engineering design process, along with what they learned about forces and motion in science, to create their own Rube Goldberg Machines. They each came up with their own design for a contraption with at least 5 chain reactions to complete a simple task.  The third graders used great perseverance to keep trying and redesigning until their machine worked! The students really enjoyed sharing their machines with each other and the second graders!

Pi Day Fun

To celebrate Pi Day (3/14) at Saklan, the 8th graders taught a special lesson to the third graders. Students worked together in pairs to measure the diameter and then the circumference of a cookie. They then calculated their own pi by making the ratio of circumference over diameter. No one got exactly 3.14159, but some groups came very close! The students had a group discussion about their results and concluded that two of the reasons they may not have gotten exactly 3.14159 was because the cookies weren’t perfectly round and using a string to calculate circumference might have led to errors.

To close the lesson, the pairs made memory mnemonics to help them remember the first ten digits of pi. A couple interesting ones were:

Can I make a small sculpture of purple glass now?

3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 3

Can I have a large tangerine or orange juice now?

3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 3

Groups that had extra time worked on writing a Pi-ku. These are like Haikus, but instead of only three lines with the syllable pattern 5-7-5, they can go on infinitely (or at least 32 lines) and follow the pattern of pi. Here are a couple examples: 

Cookies are (3)     

Warm (1)                        

Bees in a hive (4)    

swarm (1)                     

I take my ruler (5)  

In a cooler to the cookie jar (9) 

I like (2)

To jump in a lake (6)

With a massive snake (5)

Soccer is (3)

Fun (1)

And exciting (4)

You (1)

Kick a ball and run (5)

Basketball is also very fun (9)

And hard (2)

Running takes a lot of (6)

Hard work and training (5)

#SaklanHandsOn

Las Semillas

During Spanish class, the second and third graders have been learning about where chocolate comes from. Maestra Ester shared with the students that chocolate is made from the seeds of the fruit of cacao trees, which are native to Central and South America. They learned that the Olmecs, Mayans and Aztecs would call it “food from the gods” due to the health properties of the beans. They also found it fascinating that only the royalty and warriors had access to it. Las semillas (the seeds) were actually used as currency by these ancient civilizations. When the Spanish conquistadors came to the Americas for the first time they took the beans to Europe and it was there where they mixed it with milk and added sugar to it for the first time.

The second and third graders were very excited to participate in a Cacao Ceremony, where they had the opportunity to drink raw cacao and emulate the practices of the Olmec, Maya and Aztec people. Each class sat in a circle, set a positive intention, passed cups of cacao around the circle, and sang together in Spanish. Children were very excited about it and the whole experience was lovely.

#SaklanWellRounded

Seeking Approval

For the last few months third grade students have been doing a cross-curricular project that incorporated social studies, art, writing, and math with the driving question, “How can we show respect for the people whose ancestral land our school is on?” 

This week students reached a pivotal turning point in their work. After many rounds of revisions and edits guided by Vincent and Louis from Cafe Ohlone and our teaching artists, Tia and Paul Kratter in addition to Lauren, Lisa, and Linda, students presented to a full panel of school stakeholders for approval to paint two permanent ground murals that bring Saklan cultural representation onto our campus. 

You may remember the 3rd grade CLAS presentation about this project. After incorporating community feedback and continuing to consult with experts and reading relevant research to revise their designs, the 3rd graders are proposing a permanent hopscotch and permanent foursquare to be painted near the sports court. 

They will be working with Tia and Paul Kratter as well as Linda, Lisa, Lauren, and Javi to complete the installation this spring. Below is the slide deck the 3rd graders used to guide their presentation. Scroll through it to see the 2 designs they have picked, the revision process of the designs, and the desired locations for the final murals.

3rd-grade-mural-project-presentationDownload

Stay tuned for updates on the unveiling and culmination celebration! 

#SaklanPBL

Snowmen at Night

Third graders used the book Snowmen at Night as inspiration to create drawings of snowpeople from a worm’s eye view. After drafting sketches of their snowpeople, students created final versions on watercolor paper, using shading techniques to provide dimension to their snowpeople. Students used a variety of mediums to complete their drawings, including chalk pastels to create shadows, sharpies to outline their designs, and crayons and watercolors to create colorful backgrounds. Many students added their own creative details, making each snowperson unique!

#SaklanCreative

Snow Much Fun

The 3rd graders are exploring measurement in their current math unit which provides for lots of hands-on learning! Last week they focused on estimating and measuring mass using balance scales, and learned that mass and weight are not the same thing.

To begin math each day, the third graders work on a math warm up called number corner. In the number corner this month, the 3rd graders have been looking for patterns in shapes and colors, and identifying fractions/equivalent fractions on the calendar, as well as working on determining elapsed time and their multiplication fact fluency with their calendar collector. The Bridges math program that the class is piloting this year does a wonderful job of spiraling through multiple concepts each unit, while helping to build connections and a deeper understanding of the big ideas in mathematics. 

Building fact fluency of multiplication facts is a focus for the 3rd graders. The students love to play math games and sing songs to help them practice their facts. Last week the class had a “snowball fight” where they tossed paper “snowballs” with multiplication problems printed on it, then when it was time to “freeze” students picked up three snowballs and solved the equations.  The students had “SNOW” much fun!!

#HandsOnLearning