Yesterday we went to the computer lab to start our animal reports/ slide shows. Everyone has chosen an animal and will be writing a sentence about what the animal looks like, where it lives, what it eats, and then one more sentence that either tells about a special feature that helps this animal survive or an interesting fact. Almost everyone finished their cover slides and some even began work on a second slide. We will continue working on these next week and for several weeks after the vacation. In conjunction with this, this morning we began working on paper mache models of the animals. Everyone did a fantastic job and seemed to really enjoy this process.

We have been playing two games related to math that everyone seems to really enjoy. One involves guessing a 3-D shape by feel. A student is given a 3-D shape to hold behind his or her back and then asked several questions to help identify it: does it have curved surfaces, would it roll, does it have any points, do some of the edges come to a point at the top etc. They are quite adept at using the questions to correctly identify the shape. For the other game, a volunteer uses his or her hands to flash a given number and the rest of the class guesses what it is. This is challenging when we get into higher numbers like 67, but great practice for both the person flashing the number, and for the students guessing what it is.

At assembly this Friday morning we will be showing a short clip of activities that we have done with third graders while working on the Pennies for Peace project. Mr. Hubbard will once again try to lift the bin and provided that he can't, Mrs. Korb will be shaving a W into his head. It should be exciting!