Life on Mars Skype

Friday was a very exciting day, not only was it hat day and the day before February vacation, but it was also the day that we got to Skype with a scientist from L.A. who studies life on Mars!

Even though we have completed our study of the solar system we always like to find out more about the topics we study in school. Team 203 recently read a great article about life on Mars. They practiced reading this article, highlighting important information, answering multiple choice questions, and practicing how to answer an open response question. After reading all of this information and talking about our reading, Team 203 still had some unanswered questions about Mars. Lucky us, we had an amazing opportunity to have a video conference in the computer lab with a Jet Propulsion Laboratory in CA! Mr. Aubrey showed us around his lab, told us about the instruments his lab uses to study the potential of life on Mars, and answered students’ questions about the fourth planet from the sun.

Check out our pictures from Friday’s video chat!

Native American Expedition

Last week all of our third graders got to travel on a very exciting expedition to learn about 5 Native American tribes. Students left their own classrooms and “traveled” to a different third grade room to get an up close, hands on experience with the Sioux, the Seminoles, the Navajo, the native Hawaiian, and Inuit tribes. Students got to learn about code talkers, practice throat singing, create a parfleche, design surfboards, and make turquoise jewelry! I wish I could have captured an image from each tribe but here are some great close ups of the functional pieces of art made by the Sioux people. Ask your student what a parfleche is used for and why it was important to the Sioux culture.

Valentine’s Day

Team 203 celebrated Valentine’s day by giving each team mate a special compliment. The students worked hard all week writing unique praises for each student. I loved hearing all of the genuine thank yous and seeing the bright smiles as students read compliments and delivered their hard work to each other.

 

Here’s a sneak peak into how we practiced giving and receiving compliments with our mysterious Sparklers jar!

Our Stars

During the last two weeks we have had two dynamic stars of the week!

Our first star was brave enough to share her original art work and read a book in front of the whole class! We learned that this star has traveled to different countries and is part of a book club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our star from last week shared many items from his life as well. He had many guests visit Mullen Hall during his week of fame including his guest reader, Kerri! What a wonderful way to share a love of reading with the whole class! Nice work to both of our stars!

Our star

Our star this week brought in pieces from her cat collection and she shared her love of wolves. We read the story Pinduli together which taught a great lesson about bullying. Team 203 loved learning more about this smart and creative animal lover!

Heritage Museum

We were lucky enough to have the Heritage Museum from Sandwich visit Mullen Hall last week. They shared a map that depicted different Native American culture areas. The students loved being able to show what they knew about our country and its neighbors.

We also got to put on special white gloves in order to handle the artifacts that were passed around. Tools, dishes, dolls, and more were shared with our class!

Star of the Week

This star loves to read and proved it during her read aloud to the class. She also brought in many treasured pictures of her family. We got to learn about her love for cooking and helping around the house. Here’s a picture of our star in action!