April 4-8

The 3rd grade class covered a lot of ground despite the shorter school  
week due to the Wednesday field trip.

The teacher introduced Distance and Scale (p.28-29) on the board. He  
did this by using the map in the book (of the US state of Florida) but  
also by using the distances between students in the class, calling up  
a variety of students to help him in this effort.

Students subsequently worked on p. 30-31 to practice their new skill  
of using map scales.

On Thursday students took an updated version of the Quiz #1 that they  
had taken the previous week; this version included a bonus question on  
scales.

The 3rd Grade also continued initial work on their Fantasyworld maps,  
on Friday doing paper-sized drafts as preparation for their large,  
poster-sized final versions. Students are responsible for maps that  
incorporate all skills learned so far this year, and have the  
opportunity to name cities, lakes, mountains, rivers, and any  
additional landmarks they choose.

This next week students will continue with their map projects--after  
the teacher returns their draft efforts--and continue work on map  
scales in preparation for In-Class #3 this week.

March 28-April 1

The 3rd grade finished preparing for Quiz #1, which they took this week. Some of the scores were very good. The teacher reviewed the quizzes and went over the correct answers, with the plan to do a very similar version of the same quiz this Thursday, and to count the grade for this second version.

At the end of the week students began the first steps of the Projects. They divided into their respective groups, identified group coordinators, and came up with names for the "fantasy worlds" for which they would be making maps and applying the skills they have learned in the first six weeks of school.