Who Let the Dogs Out?

....................... We did!

In Andrew Clements' book, Dogku, he writes:

An idea knocks:

I open, think, and smile.

And then it's your turn.

            This dog-gone, charming book is written in traditional Japanese haiku form.  Each three line poem has 17 syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.  

       The girls modeled haiku writing with the inspiration of their favorite furry dogs.  

    Really cute and small
    Big and furry brown eyes
    Soft fur black and white

      






Small tiny pink leash
Dreams of bones and other treats
Good night cute Snowball

Soft grass high trees, cat
Chasing time teasing cats, woof
The cat won, now angry, grrrr

We'd play together
How I helped her and fed her
Because she was old

I am scared, bath time
I rolled in mud, dirty slush
So I am hiding

She looks good with gold
Muffin is the cutest dog
I wish we met once

Sound asleep all day
Playing all night, no rest
I'm a happy dog

Fluffy, old, pretty
I love her, she loves me
Friends forever

  

         We dedicate our dogku writing in loving memory of Honey Webb, Muffin Orlando, & Kelty Rogers.

GIRLS ROCK!

        The Lower School Read-A-Thon rocks with our parent readers!

All Dolled Up

Recently, the girls selected to read a biography about someone who has made a positive contribution to the world. 

Ranging from authors to artists and musicians to inventors, this project portion of this report, “All Dolled Up” shows their amazing creativity and an understanding of what they have read. 

    

Tons of Tech

The girls in third grade have been working very hard on a variety of tech skills.  We completed our final project in Scratch Jr.  The girls created a game in the app and used many different buttons and skills.  Next, we learned how to use Edmodo.  They are using this app to ask and answer question in reading language arts.  Finally, we have started to learn the basic of keyboarding through the use of typing.com .  If you would like your daughter to access either of these at home, small strips of paper are coming home with user names and passwords.  The first user name and password is for Google Drive (which we are not using currently), the second is for Edmodo and the last is for Typing.com.  If you have any questions about accessing these from home, please contact me. 

Reading: Determining Importance

Today we introduced our fifth reading strategy: Determining Importance.  To help the girls understand the value of this strategy, we all sat in a large circle outside the classrooms. I told the girls I would be taking a walk this afternoon and needed their help in deciding what I should take with me.  They enthusiastically agreed! I dumped the contents of my purse on the floor and we went through each item. The girls decided the items I should take with me: a license, chapstick, a credit card, gloves, a hair tie, etc. They ruled out unnecessary items: a comb, lipstick, my wallet, a tape measure. I asked the girls to tell me how this activity is like reading. The girls quickly made a connection to determining important parts of a story.

Art: Recording Memories with Cyanotypes

Third graders have been exploring cyanotypes (a form of photography) with Mrs. Hiivala. To experiment with the medium, girls recorded a memory of a place using found objects and cyanotype paper. They shared stories as they arranged materials, made predictions while they waited for the paper to be exposed to the light, and analyzed the results of their experiments. Ask your third grader which memory of a place she chose to record, which objects remind her of that place, and why. 

It's About Time!

 Third graders are learning to measure units of time. 

After carefully analyzing the placement of the hour and minute hand, the girls log onto Think Central using a digital and analog clock to help with the concept of elapsed time and to individually assess their work.