August 22-September 2

Students over the past two weeks have achieved despite the exam schedule and
the time dedicated to reviewing for their Social Studies test.

After studying Denmark and Europe the focus turned to sub-Saharan Africa,
specifically Kenya.

Following the lead of the textbook's authors, the class worked first on the
country's famed natural and geographic resources before turning to what the
teacher made clear is the world's most important; people.

To this end, efforts to show the "other Africa," the functional Africa, were
made. A video clip showing Nairobi's middle class was the tool with which
many issues were discussed (social class, British colonialism, and Indian
migration, for example).

Students then turned their attention to the African Union, with the teacher
pressing students to put a document's "bullets" in their own words.

Their work over these past days and continued writing practice in their
Bellworks have been designed to prepare them for an upcoming open-book Quiz.

August 8-19

The groups' Projects went well, with students showing tremendous creativity
in their creation of superheroes.

Students invented from scratch a male and female superhero. They brought
these creations to life with drawings, descriptive paragraphs, circle
graphs, and timelines.

Classes also took Quiz #2, an open-book, completely essay-based exercise
focused on Denmark, the European Union, and Brazil.

July 26-August 5

Two out of the three classes wrapped up their study of Denmark (finishing
the book reading) and the European Union (reviewing a hand-out), with one
class still to see and discuss the movie clip on the latter.

These two school weeks following the vacation brought the roll-out of
Bellworks, which give students 10-15 minutes at the beginning of each class
to reflect on questions (written on the white board before
school) relating to the previous day's lesson. This first round of Bellworks
represents Classwork #4 and has a Homework follow-up assignment.

Students were encouraged to be more independent about Spanish-English
translation while stretching their ideas.

Next up is the Project, followed by the Exam review and the Exam itself.

June 20-24

The 3rd grade classes that had not seen the "Three Thinkers" critical
thinking movie clip did so, helping the teacher record on the whiteboard the
thinking qualities of "Naive Nancy," "Selfish Sam," and "Fair-Minded Fran."

The groups completed their study of Brazil, using vocabulary from the unit
for a showdown between Boys and Girls and by discussing the book's unit
review questions.

The 3rd graders also began the wave of writing that would take them through
the remainder of the year, using the countries in study as the focus.

June 13-17

We continued to wrap up our focus on geography,  
finishing up an In-Class work (timelines and line graphs) and moving  
on to our study of Brazil.

Following a lecture and mini-discussion, students read the two page  
sections, underlining words they did not know. These words were  
subsequently taught through peer and teacher explanation and through a  
paragraph on Brazil the teacher wrote on the whiteboard.

One group played a Brazilian game outside for part of a class ("Luta  
de Galo") in which they had to pull a string out from the side of  
their opponent's pants, while having their right hand across their  
chest and their left leg up in the air.

Complementing students' study of Brazil, 3rd graders completed a  
Homework in which they had to write sentences comparing/contrasting  
Costa Rica and Brazil, using an interview passage from Time for Kids.

One group was introduced to the concept of Critical Thinking, watching  
and discussing a five minute clip on "The Three Thinkers."

June 6-10

This week the class completed its focused study on geography, and with  
that, the geography book we have used. The groups wrapped up with a  
focus on Line Graphs and Timelines, completing In-Class #3 on these  
two topics.

The group then transitioned to a study of individual countries, as  
highlighted in the books that many had been eager to finally use. The  
months of geography study will be useful in the focus on several  
countries, to include Brazil, China, and Kenya.

Before leaping in the teacher introduced the book, reviewing the table  
of contents and noting that the countries to be studies were  
"representative" of others in their given region. Students defined in  
their notebooks "representative," "climate" (learning the four main  
types and how they impact how we live), and "culture" (essentially,  
everything we do that goes beyond our shared necessities for  
survival). Finally, the teacher promised students that they would be  
doing a lot of writing, and tasked them to write a paragraph on "what  
makes Costa Rica special" before they began learning about what makes  
other countries the same.

May 30-June 3

This week the 3rd grade class continued its work on graphs, moving on  
from Bar Graphs to Circle Graphs and Line Graphs.

The Circle Graphs lesson was introduced with the hypothetical question  
to the class of "how would you spend $1,000,000," with students having  
to divide the money into purchases--as they saw fit--that totaled 100%  
of the total. Next, to practice the skill, students completed the two  
pages of book exercises.

Line Graphs were another area of focus, with students learning the  
value of these graphs is to show trends or patterns, something that  
Bar Graphs and Circle Graphs fail to do.

The teacher introduced the lesson by drawing a Line Graph showing  
Inches of Rain/Per Month in Costa Rica. The teacher did this by  
soliciting students' help in estimating monthly rainfall.

Also this week students completed In-Class #2, which had them create a  
Bar Graph (of hours per week spent on three favorite activities) and a  
Circle Graph (on how they would spend $100).

May 23-27

The 3rd graders this week completed a homework assignment which had  
them apply their map skills to a map of Japan related to the major  
earthquake suffered earlier this year.

On Tuesday students took their first quiz of the trimester, covering  
Latitude and Relief Maps.

After introducing some procedures to maximize class learning time  
(including making a "thumbs up" to go the bathroom instead of having  
to interrupt to ask to go), the teacher introduced the subject of  
Graphs. Students' favorite activities were polled, and the results  
were applied to a bar graph that the teacher drew on the white board.  
One 3rd grade class had the opportunity to briefly go outside to form  
a "human bar graph" reflecting the results of this poll.

Classes also completed p.64-65, answers for which the teacher reviewed.

May 16-May 20

The 3rd Grade finished up its work with Mr. Blubberman, who had helped 
students understand the concept of Latitude. In the run-up to In-Class 
Work #1 on Tuesday, students finished book exercises up through page 55.

Mr. Blubberman and Latitude then exited the scene. Replacing him was 
his significant other, Mrs. Stripesberger, on hand to teach the 
related theme of Longitude. Students learned Longitude basics 
(vertical stripes with degrees up to 180, the Eastern and Western 
Hemispheres, and the Prime Meridian) before using these elements to 
create (on construction paper) a friend for Mrs. Stripesberger.

Over the subsequent days, 3rd graders worked efficiently on Longitude 
book exercises, confirming their understanding and ability to use this 
locational measurement.

At the end of the class Friday, the teacher made a call to Mr. 
Blubberman, welcoming him back to briefly review Latitude in light of 
the following week's Quiz #1.

May 9-13

With the 3rd graders completing their Exam on Monday the year's first  
trimester had ended and the second had begun.

The group jumped into the Relief Maps and following the teacher's  
overview and explanation and the students' copying of the key  
vocabulary in their notebooks, the groups completed pages 44, 45, and  
47 in this relatively simple unit.

Subsequently 3rd graders tackled Latitude. This was done with the help  
of the teacher's friend, "Mr. Blubberman" (a round fellow with a body  
resembling Planet Earth). Stressing to the students that with his rows  
of latitude, Mr. Blubberman had rows of "fatitude," the teacher drew  
Mr. Blubberman's belt--the Equator at 0 degrees, other latitutde rows,  
the North Pole--90 degrees North, and the South Pole--90 degrees South.

Mr. Blubberman is nothing without his family, however, and students  
were asked to use colored construction paper to draw a family member  
(or Significant Other). The teacher checked for creativity while  
focusing on the students' application of the Latitude rows and  
appropriate corresponding degree numbers.

One 3rd grade group next began practicing Latitude exercises in the
workbooks.

All groups will continue to work on their new skill before completing  
In-Class #1 in the middle of next week.

May 2-6

On Monday the 3rd graders continued to practice their work on Map  
Scales, which they put to the test with a more formal In-Class Work on  
Tuesday.

Following the In-Class Work the groups began reviewing for their exam.  
They did this by going over the terms from the review guide with the  
teacher and by taking a more strategic look ("WHY do we use Grids?")  
of the material they had studied.

April 25-29

This week the classes finished up their "Fantasy Land" posters. Groups  
scored high marks on Presentation and Teamwork while also effectively  
accomplishing the Technical aspect of the project (completing the  
Grid, Index, Compass Rose, and Legend, and including the assigned  
number of cities, mountains, lakes, and rivers). Although some of the  
groups had issues with lost maps (or literally eaten ones, as candy  
was used in their design), they bounced back to complete the assignment.

Between work on the projects the 3rd Grade also continued its efforts  
on Scales, in preparation for In-Class #3 the following week. Students  
worked in the book and the teacher went over the concept using  
students names as "cities." In addition, students were called to the  
board one after the other, the one student teaching the concept to the  
subsequent student, up and down the rows.

Third graders also received their study guide for the Exam (on May  
9th), for which the groups will have a week to review.