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Halloween Party Donation money to UnicefThanks to the generosity and kindness of our class, we raised almost $200 for impoverished kids around the world. That will pay for almost half of a water pump for a community in need! Shadow Hand-Holding I've been wanting to share this image with you. Our class had our shadows "hold hands" without actually touching. Watch the video below for a close up. And yep, that's Mr. Jacobson joining us at the end of the video.
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Tracking the Sun Two weeks ago, we began an investigation into the movement of the sun. When surveyed, the majority of the students believed that the sun rose in the west. After three visits to the playground throughout the day armed with an iPad compass (morning, noon, and afternoon), we concluded that it indeed rises in the east and sets in the west. We confirmed this on the days that followed. Changing Shadows Last week, to follow up with our tracking the sun exercise, we monitored the shape and direction of our shadows throughout the day. Here you see us with our long northwestern-facing shadows. In the afternoon, they got a lot shorter in length and faced northeast. Ask your child why that is! Blooming Garden Mr. Baber and Mr. Thornton (and their children) have been generously donated time over a few weekends to completely rebuild our garden area so that our students have a beautiful and well-designed space to not only garden but spend time working with small groups. Here is an image of its progress. When it's completed, Mrs. Baber and other parent volunteers will help run the garden experience with students. We are all looking forward to it!  Chloe made a scarecrow for our garden!
"Feed a Family" & "Grow a Plant" September Projects!We had five students create outstanding "Feed a Family" project and four students grow a plant for the month of October! Here they are showing off their goods!
Math Centers A special thanks to Sonia Sohn, Sandra Lázaro, and Christina Bosch for leading math centers two Thursdays ago! The students had a great time and the parents claimed to as well! Maker FaireLast Wednesday the Maker Faire was a rousing success! I was so proud to have our class represented by 10 outstanding student projects. Take a look at our representation in the images below. Spanish with Mrs. Cabarrus's students One thing that we do at Bel Aire is take care of each other. When Mrs. Cabarrus and Ms. Morphy were both absent on the same day, we invited them into our classroom to enjoy a virtual Spanish experience together. Just ask your child "Ayyyyyyyy... las frutas bin bin tee bom" and see how they react! Fire Safety You never can be too prepared for an emergency situation. Thankfully, we have the wonderful local fire department joining us for a quick overview of various emergency situations and how to respond. We even got to climb out of a window! Video Conference with Students in Florida
Yesterday we had the opportunity to meet students from Florida via Rock Our World. Here are a few pictures from our video conference.
Buddy Class - Prototyping with a PurposeThe great innovating minds of tomorrow are incubating here at Bel Aire! We have been fortunate to have Mr. Remmers' 5th-graders join us two more times over the past week to learn about prototyping with a purpose. The first activity involved creating an animal, a piece of furniture, and a vehicle with paperclips, string, and tape. The second activity required them to create something with masking tape and paper that would prevent a pet cat from scratching them! Compass Rose Scavenger Hunt On Friday, we partnered up and toured the school using our digital compass rose. Students were asked to locate different locations around the school using a compass as well as identify the compass readings for new locations. I don't know about you, but when I was in school the only thing I learned about a compass rose was you needed one to sail a ship back in the day and it shared a name with a flower. Zun Zun Assembly Last week students enjoyed the Zun Zun assembly which highlighted various hand-made instruments from cultures around the world. Highlights included limbo and a student jam session! James took the idea into his own hands and created drums that he shared with the class! See videos below. James made a homemade instrument of his own and shared it with the class! I think he may have inspired our challenge activity for next month. Student Council Reps!I am so proud of the 7 students who ran to be class representatives for our school's student council. They got up in front of the class and gave a short speech about why they would be a great representative, and they made it clear that they all would be! I let them know that in elementary school I was never brave enough to run for such a position. Congratulations to Samantha, Sonya, and Max S. who will be the first students representing our class! Next trimester three new students will represent us. Back-to-School NightIt was great meeting so many of you at Back-to-School Night. If you weren't able to make it, you can see parts of my presentation in last week's blog post below.
-Mr. D Digital Portfolios Earlier this week we started our "Digital Portfolio" Keynote Presentation that can house our work from the year. We used our iPad to take a picture of our watercolor art, cropped and enhanced it in the Photos app, then imported it into a new Keynote Presentation that we titled, "My Digital Portfolio." Within this portfolio we will be able to store pictures of our work, poems, short written work, art, movies, and more! Class Meetings Being new to 3rd grade, I am really seeing the value and importance of class meetings where we can review rules and procedures, preview important dates and information, problem solve, and get to know each other better. I have started to implement them as a daily routine immediately following quiet morning work. Design Thinking with Mr. Remmer's Buddy Class Has Begun!In order to help our students become young makers, Mr. Remmers and I have crafted an ongoing curriculum for making and prototyping titled simply "Design Thinking." Today we had our first meeting with our 5th-grade buddies and first team challenge: "Make a toy or something entertaining" with cardboard, tape, and scissors. Check out the slideshow below for some glimpses into our "making!" ¡Español con Señorita Morphy!
Compliment from Mr. Gist - our Music TeacherOur class had Mr. Gist for the first time yesterday, and he wrote me an email afterward with the following message: "Your class was great in music today. They came in quietly, followed directions, and lined up appropriately at the end. Keep it up! Thanks, Mr. Gist" I was proud to receive such a kind note from a fellow teacher! Tennis Shoes for PE A friendly reminder from our PE teachers Mr. Jacobson and Mr. Rossi to wear exercise/running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays (our PE days).
Maker Faire Magic Coming to Bel Aire! Bel Aire's First Annual Maker Faire is around the corner! On Wednesday, October 2nd from 5:30-7:30 pm, hundreds of students will have their inventions on display. Will you be one of them? A Maker Faire is an opportunity for tech enthusiasts, crafters, tinkerers, engineers, artists, musicians, designers, toy-makers and inventors to share what they have made. For more information, please visit the Makers page in the Students section of this website and the dedicated Bel Aire Maker Faire page. Rock Our World 19 - "Deck the Halls"... We Are Officially In! We have been accepted into the 19th Rock Our World global project titled, "Deck the Halls - Share Your Art with the World." From their website: Rock Our World is an international global collaboration project where students from all 7 continents compose original music, make movies, and meet each other in live video chats! It all culminates in an International Family Night where all of our classes come together in a live worldwide webcast to share what they've learned and celebrate education! Stay tuned for more information. C3 Room Parent Revealed - Welcome Sara Tamer!Nicolas's mother Sara will be our room mother for the year. This involves coordinating the organization and delivery of class parties, managing parent volunteers, and communicating important information to parents. It is an important position and we are glad to have her leading the way! Accelerated Reader (AR) Program Accelerated Reader (also known as "AR") is an online reading program that motivates students to read books at their reading level. For more information, including how you can monitor your child's progress, please visit our Accelerated Reader page under the Parents section of this website. IXL - Online Math Skill Practice IXL is an online website that allows students to practice 3rd-grade (and above) math skills. We will be using IXL throughout the year to help students master important concepts and receive practice that is tailored to their ability. For more information, please visit our IXL page under the Parents section of this website. iPad App Recommendations I have had several requests for iPad apps that I can recommend for skill practice at home. I have created a tab "Recommended Apps" under the Parents section of this website, and as the year progresses, I will continue to add apps there. For now, I recommend thatquiz.org and ixl.com (both Safari-based web apps) for math skill practice, and the Accelerated Reader app for tracking reading comprehension practice. Parent SurveysThank you for taking the time to fill out and return the Parent Surveys. They provide me valuable insight into your perspective of your child. If you have not yet had a chance to fill one out, you can download a copy of the survey at the link just below this text, and either print it and send it in an envelope with your child, or you can fill it out digitally if you have the skills to do so! HomeworkOverall, the students did a great job on their first week's homework! Several students were able to share their projects with the class. In the future, I will find a way to carve time out so that students can opt to give a "30-Second Share Out" of their choice activity if they choose to.
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June 2015
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