Autumn Bounty of Learning

Reading and Social Studies were integrated during our class novel study of Molly's Pilgrim. The book is  about a third grade Jewish Russian immigrant who helps her class learn it takes all kinds of pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving. Students used "lapbooks" containing a story vocabulary matching activity, graphic organizers, story comprehension questions, a prediction pilgrim, poems, and reader responses during the unit...

In the book, Molly and her classmates are assigned a project to make Thanksgiving pilgrim and Native American dolls. Our own 3rd graders did a similar activity, creating heritage dolls with accompanying reports about their chosen country. Our "Heritage Dolls around the World" bulletin board will be displayed in December when we come back from Thanksgiving break. We've also been hard at work practicing our Molly's Pilgrim play, which we'll perform at the school Thanksgiving Feast!

Learning about pilgrims was also part of our social studies unit about Thanksgiving, the Mayflower journey to the New World, the Plymouth Colony pilgrims, and the Wampanoag who helped them. Using Scholastic videos the class took virtual field trips to the Mayflower, Plymouth Plantation, and a Wampanoag village. We recorded facts learned on a trip recording sheet and created Venn diagrams comparing our lives to the pilgrims' lives. Students had the opportunity to examine Native American jewelry, a model birch bark canoe decorated with porcupine quills, and photos from my own trip to the Mayflower and Plymouth Plantation.

Books about Thanksgiving, the Mayflower voyage, Plymouth Colony, and Native Americans were also part of shared reading and the class library center...

In science we've begun our new "Simple Machines" unit. In class we've used anchor charts, our textbook, a magnets kit, and Brainpop  and Scholastic Study Jams videos to learn about force and friction, gravity, magnetism, and simple machines. We also made "Simple Machine" flip books to define types of simple machines and list everyday examples of each...

During S.T.E.M students had simple machine race contests. Using a variety of manipulatives such as paper towel roll wheels teams raced to see which would reach the other side of the classroom first...

 

In math, we're continuing to learn our times tables in a variety of engaging ways. Teams competed in "The Great Eight Race". Teams solved problems containing the 8 as a factor to move their number eight "runner" along a whiteboard race course and reach the finish line. Another game we played was "Nines Grid Game". Each student lifted a Post-it to reveal a problem containing nine as a factor. The student's team had to solve the problem to earn a point...

Wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving!