With cooler temperatures, we took every opportunity to take our lessons outdoors! The students and I welcomed Fall by participating in a nature scavenger hunt. They introduced me to the Nature Trail where we found many unique leaves to create leaf art animals!

We began our Ancient Rome unit of study. With a partner, students retold the legend of “Romulous and Remus” by making a comic strip. 

St. James participated in, “Pink Out Texarkana”,  and wore pink to support breast cancer awareness. 

3rd graders are earning badges as they type their way to to top! By the end of the year, they will have mastered 49 levels and a lifetime worth of keyboarding skills! 

I introduced Reader’s Theater this month. The students absolutely loved it and asked to perform for the 1st and 2nd graders!!! By incorporating Reader’s Theater into our learning, students develop fluency through repeated practice reading scripts. This also improves expression and inflection while reading aloud. 

What a busy and fun 1st week of school it was! We played many “get to know you” games and Mrs. Burkes learned many things about us, too! We learned how to write a friendly letter using the words;  heading, greeting, body, closing and signature. Our class wrote a friendly letter to the Second graders next door and then delivered the letter ourselves! We’re very excited for a wonderful year.

Wow! What a year!

Every May, I look up and find it hard to believe the school year is already over.  It's amazing to think back on all the fun learning experiences we've had!

This year my third graders have gotten lost in the magic of reading and discovered that a good book can take you to any time or place!

As we've constructed sentences to inform, entertain, and persuade our readers, we've learned about the power of our words.  

We've traveled through history, learning about the people who've shaped the world as we know it today.

We unplugged and got our hands dirty, learning how things work and discovering for ourselves the principles of science.  

Plugging back in was fun too as we built robots and coded them to perform tasks as unlimited as our imaginations.

Finding patterns in our world allowed us to discover mathematic concepts authentically while we built solid foundation for future learning.

Above all else, we worked together to discover, practice, and create.  We strengthened our interpersonal skills through authentic problem solving while cultivating empathy and selflessness.

In these pictures you can certainly tell they have physically grown.  With another year of whole-child education they've been enlightened, strengthened, and refined--body, mind, and soul.