Building Project

May 29th

After a month of testing various materials and building designs, the students were challenged to put their knowledge to the test with a final building project.  Students had to build a "Creature".  The criteria was that it had to be creative and had to stand and be sturdy and stable.  Students planned their projects at home with the help of their parents.  They were able to bring supplies from home. All of the building took place at school.

I was totally impressed with their creativity and learning!  I loved seeing the students solve and overcome problems that they encountered such as: tape not sticking, wrong type of glue or wrong type of paint.  Students talked to each other and even swapped materials in order to make things work.  It was cool seeing their designs come to life!

Here is a collage of the work in progress. The classroom was definitely a construction zone!

Here are a few of the finished projects.  Stay tuned for more pictures next week.

And here are the rest of the finished projects.

Birthday Cupcakes!

May 27th
I am so lucky!  I got to spend my birthday with these great kids!

Mme Rhonda and I share the same birthday so we thought it would be fun to do something together. We decided on a creative math lesson ~ "Birthday Cupcakes"!  It was so much fun.
 First the students were given recipes cards at random.  These cards were colour coded to make two groups. The students then had to look at their card to discover what "ingredient" they were.  Then they were challenged to put themselves in to groups of "wet" ingredients and "dry" ingredients.  After that, the second challenge was to turn their recipe card to the other side to discover what part of the recipe they were, what sequence?  Then they were challenged to put themselves in order from beginning to end in the sequence you would make cupcakes.  #1 was "preheat oven" all the way to the last card "decorate with icing".
Thanks for a great birthday, grade 3!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Friday May 22nd

Check out these Characters!

We finished our novel and wrapped up the unit by doing a character study.  Each student chose one of the characters from the novel and made a puppet modeled after that character.  Inside the character's vest is a summary of events that the character experienced in the story.

Science ~ Testing Joints

May 19th & 20th

Which one is the strongest material to use as a joint for building a 3D cube :  Plasticine, Pipe Cleaners, Paper Clips?

Students were challenged to figure that out!

Groups were given straws and the 3 testable materials and challenged to make a strong 3D cube.
We discovered that the plasticine joints were the strongest!

For our second test, we substituted the straws for toothpicks and we tested Plasticine VS. marshmallow joints.  The plasticine was still the strongest.  The cube with the plasticine joints held 250 grams of weight.  The marshmallow cube held less than 50 grams.

Mountview Showcase

May 9th

Today the school held its annual open house "Mountview Showcase."  Here are a few pictures that show the work that our class had on display.  We have a lot to be proud of!

Building Bridges

May 4th

Science~ Building Straw Bridges.

The students were challenged to build a bridge, that would span 20 cm, with 50 straws and some masking tape.  We first looked at the designs of some real bridges, then the students broke in to groups to get started.  Groups had to plan their bridge design and then work together to get it built.