Science - Do the terms sticky stigma or pollen dusters sound familiar? Have you ever thought about seeds as plant babies? Part of your child's homework tonight is to share a paper "flower" and "pipe cleaner" bee with you, using these models to describe the pollination process.
Today we completed the first mystery, Why do plants grow flowers? Our new online district science curriculum called Mystery Science presents third grade science concepts through a series of "mysteries." There are four mysteries in our first unit, Power of Flowers; Plant Life Cycle & Heredity. We will complete the assessment for the first mystery together as a class. We've been creating our own science notebooks, which we will use on the assessment, since these are our own notes. Future assessments will be completed independently, but students will always have access to their notebooks.
Social Studies - Last week, we completed our first social studies chapter, Understanding the Geography of the World. We covered hemispheres, continents, oceans, countries, states, and communities as we worked through a simulation in which we were astronauts on a space shuttle that has lost radio contact with Mission Control. We had to use our maps to make an emergency landing at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Our TCI social studies curriculum is highly engaging!
Students work in their ISN (Interactive Student Notebook). In last week's Thursday folder, you found the assessment for the first chapter. As your child may have told you, we completed the first assessment together as a class. We also used the ISN containing the students own notes. In the future, students will take the test themselves, but will always have access to their own ISN.
Math - Today we got on our Khan Academy accounts in the chromebooks. We watched one of the videos and started one lesson. Most students completed that lesson. Tonight, students who didn't finish will complete the lesson from class today, while others will complete a second lesson.