April 12th

Happy Monday 3rd graders! We hope you enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend and that you are well rested for a WHOLE week of school. We discussed in morning meeting that there are 910school days until Fastbridge tests, 14 school days until the Color Run, and 15 school days until state assessments.

We began a new reading unit today called, "Early Explorations of North America." During this unit, you will be learning about European explorers who traveled to different parts of the Americas. You will learn about the many reasons Spaniards and other Europeans explored areas with which they were not familiar. All the reading and read-alouds in this unit are nonfiction. Remember, nonfiction writing deals with facts about real people and real events.

In today's introduction reading you learned that the early explorers changed the world by connecting Europe with the Americas, which brought people from very different cultures together. After we read the introduction, we continued onto Chapter 1, The Lure of Spices. European explorers were very eager to find spices because spices were scarce in Europe, which made them expensive. Finding spices could bring great wealth to the explorers.

For our daily rotations, you met with Mrs. Day for a writing lesson about personal narratives. In a personal narrative you are the main character in the story.

For math with Mrs. Meridith you calculated the perimeter of polygons with given side lengths. Remember, the perimeter is the length around the outside of a polygon or the path that surrounds an area.

In Miss Gurley's group you continued onto Chapter 2 in your little reader titled, Toscanelli's Map. Toscanelli was a mapmaker who created a map based on where he thought places were in the world. Many European explorers used this map to try to find a new route to the Far East. For an extra dollar, comment below how Toscanelli's map explains why Columbus and other European explorers confused the West with the East Indies.

During science, we met with Mystery Doug to discuss the question, "Why are some apples red and some green?" We discovered that for thousands of years, people have kept selecting their favorite fruits and then planting those seeds, over and over. So why are some apples red and some green? The answer is that some people like sweet red ones, and some people like sour green ones. After our lesson, we challenged your cohorts to see which group could come up with the most types of apples. The cohort that came up with the most (correct) apple types was awarded $5 classroom dollars.

We also celebrated Kyan's birthday with some yummy cupcakes. Happy birthday Kyan!

Have a great evening class, see you tomorrow!