We Huffed and We Puffed...

Once upon a time in the village of Williston there was a group of third grade engineers. They used what they knew about the Engineering Design Process and weather to design a house that would keep the little pigs safe from the big bad wolf and his storm of wind and rain. The students worked in teams of four to ask, imagine, plan, and create a home that could withstand rain and winds. We tested outside with the help of a watering can (rain) and a powerful leaf blower (wolf winds!)  All of the houses withstood the test, although a few pigs were dryer than others. The students then used google classroom to do a written response about how they used the EDP as a team and what steps they would take to improve their design. Next week they will use this activity to design a home that could withstand the type of extreme weather that they are each studying. Many thanks to the amazing Julie Rogers for supporting this type of awesome learning and collaboration!

We are still looking for some more volunteers for our Harvest Craft Morning that will take place on Friday, October 31st from 9:30-10:30. If you are available to run a craft station please let us know. We would love to have your join in the celebration. 

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Hiking for Hunger

We were very lucky with the lovely weather on Wednesday for our annual Hike For Hunger. We donned our awesome new t-shirts and headed to Catamount to walk for a good cause while spending time together as a team. We are still calculating donations, but we anticipate that we will have over $1,000 to send to Hunger Free Vermont. Thank you all for helping to support this great cause.

 This week we also finished Unit 1 in Bridges Mathematics and we will be starting to think about multiplication in Unit 2 next week. Students will have plenty of opportunities to think flexibly and cooperatively about solving problems that involve groups of items. See here to read more about these concepts and how to support your students with them.

It has been wonderful chatting with all of you during our conferences this past week. We appreciate having this time to set goals for the next two years. We look forward to learning and growing together with all of you.

Growing Writers

This week in literacy we learned about the three main parts of a paragraph and how writers use them to organize their thoughts. We practiced thinking like writers using sensory details while enjoying some yummy apples. Now we will be writing strong paragraphs using the strong detail words that we brainstormed.

Writing strong paragraphs will be a focus in third grade across the content areas. The students will get more practice as they begin to research a location on the globe that is faced with extreme weather. This week they have been  tracking the weather in their location and inputting the data into a Google Spreadsheet. Then they will be working in pairs to conduct research about different weather phenomena (i.e. tornadoes, blizzards, floods, and droughts). Then they will be displaying their findings in a Google Presentation. Part of this activity will also involve an engineering task. The groups will have to use the Engineering Design Process to develop a plan to help their town deal with this extreme weather.

In math we have been working on using efficient strategies for solving addition and subtraction story problems. We have also been discussing angles and liquid volume measurement in Number Corner. Next week we will show what we understand about addition and subtraction strategies in the Unit 1 Post Assessment.

Next week is a short week. Students are in school Monday-Wednesday. We will be having conferences on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you have not signed up yet, please see the link on the side bar of the blog. It is located under "Important Dates." We look forward to seeing you and discussing goals for the next two years.

We hope to see you on Wednesday at our Hike For Hunger. We will be getting to Catamount at 10:00 and hiking until about 11:00. 

Happy Fall!

Energetic Engineers

It was so nice seeing and chatting with many of you on Thursday night at the Mosaic Dessert Social. We hope that your kiddos went to bed alright after the initial sugar rush! I know that Mr. Eaton and Mr. Parker were very thankful for their cookie delivery!

This week the kids learned all about the Engineering Design Process through several different activities. We learned many new things about what technology is. Understandably, many of the students thought technology meant that something is electronic and plugs in. They were shocked when we held up items like a pencil or a paperclip and said that these were also examples of technology because they were created by engineers to meet a need or solve a problem.

They learned about the word prototype while viewing an everyday engineer at work as he tried to develop a new way of feeding his neighbor's cat. Throughout this video, the narrator followed the steps of the process to create a piece of technology that could help meet this need.

The young engineers got to put their new knowledge to the test on Thursday and Friday when they used the EDP to solve their own problem. They were given a task to create a tower  at least 10 inches high that could hold an animal (beenie baby) for at least ten seconds. The groups worked together to imagine ideas, plan using discussion and sketches, create using the materials available to them, and then improve after initial testing. As you'll see from the video and photos, they were very excited and engaged and everyone was successful!

Next week we will continue to think like scientists and engineers during our weather and climate unit. The scientists will be learning about climate and weather forecasting. They will then chart the weather of a location of their choice using digital tools and Google spreadsheets.

The location that they choose is also one that is inclined to severe weather of some sort. (i.e. blizzards, hurricanes, ice storms, tornados, or floods). In pairs, they will research and become "experts" on this type of extreme weather and how it affects their location. They will then use the EDP to design an idea for how to minimize the impact of the extreme weather. We will use other Google tools to present our findings. We can't wait to see what these amazing thinkers come up with!