Students Are Drafting Their Wax Museum Reports!

Students are using their new Google accounts to begin drafting their wax museum reports.  Students have learned how to log into their accounts, create a document, share the document with their teacher and begin typing using their research notes.  Check the newsletter in this week's Friday folder to learn more about student Google accounts.

Council Member Donna Bell Visits Carrboro

Council Member Donna Bell visited as a guest reader today for the African American Read In at CES. She shared three great books with us today.

by Kenneth Cole

She inspired students to not only look for the good news in their neighborhoods, but to be the good news in their neighborhoods by taking care of the environment and sharing kind words and actions with others.

by Walter Dean Myers

This book helped students realize all the roles they play and all the ways they can identify themselves in the community - sister, brother, son, daughter, neighbor, teammate, student, friend, singer, athlete, dancer, the list goes on and on!

by Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Bettye Stroud

The final selection is based on the true story of a mule that played an important role during the Civil Rights Movement.  Ask your child to tell you the story!

This week in Room 207...

Reading Objectives:

• Readers will identify and define barriers that heroes often overcome to make an impact.
• Readers will examine how their hero made an impact in the world today.

Math Objectives:

• Mathematicians will discuss how area relates to perimeter.
• Mathematician will explore how the perimeter of a shape can change while the area remains the same.
• Mathematicians will explore how the perimeter can stay fixed, while the area changes.
• Mathematicians will take a common assessment to assess their understanding of area and perimeter.

Project Objectives:

• Researchers will explore how objects move.
• Researchers will learn about push and pull.   

Writing Objectives:

• Writers will finish reading from various resources and conclude their note taking.
• Writers will  begin drafting paragraphs for their hero report using their organized notes.

KidBiz Contest

KidBiz 3000 is hosting a contest for the next few weeks.  There will be one winning class per school, so our chances of winning are excellent!  Here are the details:

• The contest runs from Monday, February 24th through March 21st.
• At least 75% of the students in the homeroom need to complete at least eight multiple choice news activities in that time frame.
• To encourage students to put forth their best effort, KidBiz is giving out extra points for high scores. 
• Every time a student does an activity your class earns a point.  
• For every score of 75%, the class earns two points.  
• For every score of 88% or higher, the class earns three points!  

The winning class is the qualifying class with the most points on average per student. 

So - here's what we have to do -  Each person has to read at least 8 articles and complete at least 8 multiple choice activities. Remember, the higher you score the more points you earn for yourself and our class.  You can work on KidBiz in school (check the schedule to see which day you have an ipad) or at home as your 30 minutes of reading homework.  We can do this!

Wax Museum Costuming Information

In order to help students look the part, we start to think about costuming ideas once they have selected the hero they will research.  Costumes are not elaborate, but we try to put items together to make them resemble their hero and help them “feel” the part.  Creative thinking and items from the closet usually do the trick.  (See Amelia Earhart, Thomas Edison, and Neil Armstrong below.)

Typically, a student will work with their family to create their costume.   As teachers, we try to support students who need to complete their look with our small classroom collection of clothing and props along with some creative thrift shop purchases.  

If you have some extra costuming items cluttering up a closet, you can send those in and help us build our collection.  Check the list below for some ideas!

Possible Costume & Prop Items

• Old fashioned looking dresses, blouses, & skirts
• Sport jackets
• Handkerchiefs, scarves, shawls, & ties
• Wigs or hats

Shh...

We are making Balloon Cars!

We will be beginning a unit on force and motion over the next few weeks.  Part of the unit involves making balloon cars. The students don't know this yet, so help to keep it a surprise!  We will be needing various supplies for this project. Over the coming week, please send in anything you may have at home. Here is a list of the types of things we will need:

Jet:
Balloon
Flexible straw
Rubber band or tape

Body:
Water bottle
Toilet-paper tube
Juice box
Disposable cup (paper or plastic)
Fast-food or deli “clamshell” container (where the top and bottom connect with a seam in the back)
Ice cream container (pint or quart)
Milk carton (individual size)
Cardboard sheet
Orange-juice can

Axles:
Straws
BBQ skewers
Chopsticks

Wheels :
Plastic bottle caps
CDs
Cardboard circles

Connector for attaching wheels to an axle:
Dry sponge
Foam
Clay
Marshmallows

Here is a website about it if you're interested:

http://www.instructables.com/id/4-Wheel-Balloon-Car/

Stuffed Animal Day for Room 207!

The students filled their giant pom pom jar!  The reward they earned was a Stuffed Animal Day.  Students may bring one stuffed animal on Friday, February 21st - same day as Crazy Hair Day!

Crazy Hair Day is on for Friday!

Crazy Hair Day has been rescheduled for Friday, February 21st.  Remember, we earned this reward for receiving 5,000 coupons as a school!  Way to go Carrboro Cubs!  Please come with your craziest hair!

Third Grade Wax Museum

The Wax Museum is one of the most memorable projects for third graders!  Third grade researchers will be reading about a hero or heroine, taking organized notes, and writing a paper to teach others about this important person.  Students will then compose a monologue that they will deliver as their hero or heroine - in full costume!  

Our Wax Museum presentations will be on:

Tuesday, March 25 from 1:30-2:30 

Wednesday, March 26th from 6:00-7:00

Ways for Parents to Get Involved with Wax Museum

There are many ways that you can help our kids prepare for Wax Museum!  

Here are some of the ways that you can help:

• Send items that can be used for costuming
• Help students rehearse their monologues  ( We will need volunteers to help students rehearse and offer feedback from March 17th to March 24th)

• Help students dress in costumes for daytime performance (We will need volunteers to come on Tuesday, March 25th from 12:45 to 1:30)

• Help students dress in costumes for evening performance (We will need volunteers to come on Wednesday, March 26th from 5:15 - 6:00)

 If you would like to help, please complete the volunteer sheet that will be in your child's Friday folder.

Learning How to Research!

We are reading about the life of Harriet Tubman.  In order to demonstrate for students how to read for relevant information, we are modeling how to read chunks of text searching for information using guiding questions.  We are also making clear how to take specific notes that will help us write our reports in our own words.

Finding our Heroes!

Today students learned more about biographies from Ms. Bolas.  After our lesson, we looked through tables and tables of biographies to find a hero to research.  Ask your child who they will be learning all about!

This week in Room 207...

Reading Objectives:

• Researchers will learn how to organize their writer’s notebook for taking notes.  
• Readers will learn about the organization of a biography text and how to use the text features.
• Readers will learn how to read information and take and organized notes.

Math Objectives:

• Mathematicians will take an assessment to demonstrate their ability to find the area of rectangles and irregular shapes with gridlines.
• Mathematicians will explore irregular figures without gridlines.
• Mathematician will learn how to find missing dimensions and the area of figures.

Project Objectives:

• Researchers are collecting facts and information about a real life landform.
• Students are building and painting a replica based on the information they have collected.  

Writing Objectives:

• Writers will learn how to take relevant and organized notes in their writer’s notebooks about their hero.

Valentine's Day Celebration is Back On!

We will be having our Valentine's Day celebration on 

Monday, February 17th.  

If your child made valentines for his/her classmates, please send them in tomorrow as we will be exchanging cards in the afternoon.  

Learning about Elizabeth Blackwell

Smart
Stubborn 
Curious
Brave

These were some of the words students used to describe Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor. Today we read Tonya Lee Stone's book, Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell to learn about another heroine in preparation for our wax museum.  Students discussed the impact she made and the courage she showed as she made history.

Crazy Hair Day Friday!

Just a reminder that the school has earned enough coupons for the next reward....

Crazy Hair Day!

Come to school with your best crazy hair on Friday, February 14th.

(In the event that we do not have school on Friday, we will reschedule our reward!)

This week in Room 207

Reading Objectives:

• Readers will identify the character traits of a hero/heroine.
• Readers will make lists of character traits of heros/heroines.  
• Readers will discuss how various historical figures have made an impact on their community and the world.

Math Objectives:

• Mathematicians are continuing to focus on finding the area of regular and irregular shapes.
• Mathematician have discovered the algorithm for area and are applying this to irregular figures.  
• Mathematicians will discover how to break apart shapes to form rectangles.  
• Mathematicians are exploring real life contexts in which the area algorithm is useful, such as when planting a garden.

Project Objectives:

• Researchers are collecting facts and information about a real life landform.
• Students are building and painting a replica based on the information they have collected.

Writing Objectives:

• Writers will write opinion pieces in response to the read aloud How To Steal a Dog.

Learning about Wilma Rudolph!

We learned about another great heroine today - Wilma Rudolph.  Students were amazed to see her grow from a sickly child to a confidant Olympian.  We thought about her traits and decided she was perseverant, confidant, hardworking, and courageous just to name a few.  She has inspired generations of people to dream big!

Kathleen Krull's biography about Wilma Rudolph inspires us all to look at obstacles and see opportunities!


We watched a video to see Wilma run.  Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLmn7MsDhHU

Learning about Dolores Huerta - A Hero to Migrant Workers

This picture biography by Sarah Warren tells Dolores' story so well.  

In preparation for third grade wax museum, we are examining the lives of heroes.  First we read about Dolores Huerta who fought a battle for fair wages and safe workplaces for migrant workers. Students made lists of her traits and discussed how she showed courage and made an impact in her community.