Science Fair in Full Swing!

Students have created a topic, a materials list and a hypothesis... let the testing begin! There have been a LOT of questions about the science fair experiment but students ARE expected to be starting their science experiment now, especially if they are doing an experiment with plants of any kind. Their experiment is expected to be done by April 6th (next Friday) so that we can start analyzing the results and preparing for the science fair. We will be spending some time in class preparing the materials for the science fair but students WILL need to work on their poster board, write ups, etc. at home. There is no extra homework given during this time because it is expected that students are working on their science experiment.

If you have any questions or concerns about due dates, feel free to contact me ASAP. The project is due April 10 so students can present their findings in class on the 11th and have the materials AT SCHOOL to set up for the science fair on the 12th.

Thanks for all of your help and support!

Dollar Matching with DonorsChoose!!

It's back again! The excitement is building this spring over at DonorsChoose.org!! This week only DonorsChoose.org has a FANTASTIC dollar matching offer this week. For every dollar you donate, DonorsChoose.org will match that dollar amount.

If you're interested in donating to our classroom project, click here. We are getting so close to help our classroom AND school library by getting a lot of new books. Anything that you can give is so helpful. When you are checking out, enter the match code BLOOM and your money will be matched dollar for dollar!

Thank you in advance for supporting our classroom and school!

Keeping up with Room 15 - A Week in One Post

Well we are all back in the swing of school after break and we are having quite the adjustment period! Our class is MIGHTY giggly and distracted it seems, so hopefully we can sleep that off after our early release today!

This week we finished up our fantasy reading and writing unit with our final writing drafts and our book reports. Fantasy writing reports turned out great overall! I can see that all of our time spent editing and revising have paid off. I saw SIMILES and great WORD CHOICE. WOW! The QUOTATION MARKS looks great! I was very impressed with most of the drafts and could tell all of the hard work that was put into it.

Our book reports are due tomorrow about a main character from our book club books. Students are telling details about their character and making an illustration of the character. I can't wait to see how those turn out!

Tomorrow we are staring our new unit of study, NONFICTION! Nonfiction is often times the hardest genre for third graders to read, digest, and interact with. No longer is student imagination getting to play the lead role, the facts are taking the driver's seat. We will be taking this non-fiction unit step-by-step to make sure that everyone knows how to read it well and pull out those important details from the text. It is also important that students are being supported at home with digging through the nonfiction depths! Encourage nonfiction reading whenever possible! Newspapers are great starts and getting books that are about anything your child is interested in - animals, space, sports, you name it! The sky is the limit!

Science fair packets will be coming home tomorrow and more information will be available soon to answer all of those burning questions! I can't wait to see what wonderful projects you're coming up with! The science fair is mandatory for all third grade students so put those thinking caps on and start brainstorming!