3rd graders have been busy learning new ways to show their knowledge. We utilize Quizlet to study vocabulary words. A neat feature of this free online resource is playing “Quizlet Live”. The program randomly choose teams and each team competes to be the first to correctly answer vocabulary questions. We read, “The Origami Master” and learned that becoming a master of origami is quite difficult! An online tutorial helped us create our origami birds. I am so proud of their perseverance during this challenging hands on activity.

We’ve also began our Poetry unit of study! In preparation of our “Poetry Cafe”, students are learning how poetry is organized and the many poetic devices that make up a poem. The weather here in East Texas was beautiful this week as we welcomed the cooler temps and sunshine! I love the flexibility of teaching outdoors when possible!

Check back to watch our poetry to come life with the presentation of our very own, “Poetry Cafe”, Thursday, October 7, 2021!

Our parent volunteers worked hard over the past year to spice up our school library! Our class visited the library for the first time this year and WOW! The beautiful colors and organization makes for a perfect place to dive into a book!!☺️

Whew! Summer break was over in a flash! We are excited for an adventurous year in 3rd grade!

~All About Equations~
This “get to know you” activity was a hit! The students loved solving for answers to personal questions about Mrs. Burkes! Following, they created equations for their own “Figure Me Out”! I hid their pictures for 2 days and revealed on Friday!

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Oh the laughs I heard as we read, How to Be Cool in the Third Grade! It’s a cute story that teaches children that being "cool" goes deeper than tangible things and names, but getting to know someone and building trust. And it IS cool to let your mom give you kisses in front of your friends! :)

I will use this chapter book next week to introduce a vocabulary study. We will also study parts of speech, character traits and end with an expository writing.

Reduce, REUSE, Recycle:

Earth Day is a day of celebrating our beautiful planet and teaching others about how we can KEEP it clean. Our REUSE project showed others that a fun and creative craft can be made with old magazine pages. And the more paper we humans use, the more trees we have to cut down. And the more trees we cut down, the more animal homes we destroy.

~Old magazine pages become new photo frames ~

Testing Week is a stress free, snack eating, science fun kinda week here at St. James! Each afternoon, we strive to create fun hands-on activities for our students that work extra hard during the morning tests! This year we participated in the Middle School’s Science Team, "Trajeggtory Engineering Challenge”, egg throwing with a ‘lil physics!

Each team was given 15 minutes to use their own building materials to construct a device capable of protecting an egg. A student from the team THREW their constructed device OVER the top of the volleyball net. The device that went the FARTHEST distance WITHOUT BREAKING was declared the winner.