Welcome to Third Grade Class 3A 2015-2016!

It is hard to believe that three weeks of school have already passed and the third grade students in room 177 have settled into their routine.  The new school year saw us off to a busy start as we learned about the new school-wide positive behavior intervention system (PBIS).  Students spent the first few days of school learning about the new school mission and the new acronym for P.R.I.D.E.

Each morning following the Pledge of Allegiance, students recite the HSA mission statement:

The mission of Horizon Science Academy is to provide

 all students with the behavior and academic skills 

necessary to reach their fullest potential 

intellectually, emotionally, 

and physically.

Following the mission statement, students say the new Horizon P.R.I.D.E. statement:

P:  Practice safety

R:  Respect others

I:  I will follow directions

D:  Do my best

E:  Exercise responsibility

During the first few days of school, students were presented with examples of how to show P.R.I.D.E. in various areas of the school including the bathrooms, hallways, and cafeterias.  

After being show a matrix for each area of the school the students in room 177 divided into their P.R.I.D.E. groups (groups of about 4 students who will work together on all group projects throughout the year) to develop a matrix of what to do to show P.R.I.D.E. in the classroom.

Jaylyn, Ruby, Makily, Zy'Aire, and Ayoob work together
to create a classroom P.R.I.D.E. matrix.

Finally, we celebrated the new implementation of our P.R.I.D.E. PBIS by having a P.R.I.D.E. Pep Rally complete with a P.R.I.D.E. wave, following directions with the Cupid Shuffle, and "What Does the Hawk Say?" with our school mascot.

Those first few days of school were not just about rules and routines.  Third graders also talked about their wishes and goals for their third grade year.  We worked together to discuss the difference between a goal and a wish and discussed the meaning of the theme for our data wall this year.  Our data wall theme this year is, "A goal without a plan is just a wish."  Students will be learning how to write smart goals in third grade that will help them make some of their wishes come true.  After talking about wishes, third graders wrote Third Grade Wishes poems and created a craftivity to display on our bulletin board.  Some finished samples are shown below.

 

Third graders also learned about writing high quality paragraphs by writing a topic sentence, three supporting details, and a closing sentence.  To practice this still, they were given a series of sentences to cut apart.  Students had to work with their table partner to determine which sentence was the topic sentence and then put the remaining sentences in proper order using clues in the sentences.

Caleb and Brandazia work together to order sentences to form a proper paragraph.

In math, students learned about what they would be doing in Math Workshop.  After much anticipation, students FINALLY got to use their math boxes and do a hands on learning activity to practice place value and forms of numbers (word form, standard form, expanded form).

AJ uses his 9-sided die to create 4-digit numbers.  He then writes these
numbers in word form, expanded form and models them with place value blocks.

Finally, we wrapped up our "Welcome Back" unit and we were officially warmed up to third grade!  We were ready for our first interdisciplinary unit to begin!  The third graders can't wait to see what comes next!