Field Trip to Westcave Preserve/Hamilton Pool
I am pretty sure your child already told you about our AMAZING field trip! The weather was perfect and we were astonished by the beauty of our nature. NATURE IS AMAZING. Park was a great example of the ecosystem where organisms interact with the physical environment. At the park, we saw, heard and felt the Grotto pool, the Westcave, stalagmites, waterfalls. bluebonnets, prickly pear cacti, the birds and the cool breeze. We learned a lot about the nature; we saw proof and evidence of decomposition (leaves, toilets and a dead mouse), weathering and erosion, and environmental changes caused by weather. Here are some pictures!
I am pretty sure your child already told you about our AMAZING field trip! The weather was perfect and we were astonished by the beauty of our nature. NATURE IS AMAZING. Park was a great example of the ecosystem where organisms interact with the physical environment. At the park, we saw, heard and felt the Grotto pool, the Westcave, stalagmites, waterfalls. bluebonnets, prickly pear cacti, the birds and the cool breeze. We learned a lot about the nature; we saw proof and evidence of decomposition (leaves, toilets and a dead mouse), weathering and erosion, and environmental changes caused by weather. Here are some pictures!
Economics Fair (3/12/2019)
Let us tell you about our successful Economics Fair! As we all know, Economics Fair was held on March 12th and our mighty entrepreneurs spent weeks and weeks preparing for the fair; students made, priced and advertised their products. We were all very excited since all the proceeds will be donated to World Wildlife Fund to conserve our environment. This was one of the major projects which integrated multiple subjects: social studies, math and language arts. Through this project, we learned about needs vs. wants, supply and demand, producer and consumer, goods and services, free enterprise system, pricing, marketing and advertising. We gained financial literacy and understood the importance of saving. Evidently, Math skills were involved during and after the fair and to calculate our expenses, sales and profits. We made advertisements using 'catchy' slogans to sustain demand for our products and also wrote a script about the fair and presented it to the 5th graders. Students used their assertive voice to talk about the purpose and the importance of the fair.
The fair was held for 2 hours in the cafeteria and the whole school (1200+ students) visited and shopped. Most of our shoppers were impressed with our products and how well organized the fair was. The fair was a HUGE SUCCESS. Our class made $341 and we made the total of $3,221.14.
Let us tell you about our successful Economics Fair! As we all know, Economics Fair was held on March 12th and our mighty entrepreneurs spent weeks and weeks preparing for the fair; students made, priced and advertised their products. We were all very excited since all the proceeds will be donated to World Wildlife Fund to conserve our environment. This was one of the major projects which integrated multiple subjects: social studies, math and language arts. Through this project, we learned about needs vs. wants, supply and demand, producer and consumer, goods and services, free enterprise system, pricing, marketing and advertising. We gained financial literacy and understood the importance of saving. Evidently, Math skills were involved during and after the fair and to calculate our expenses, sales and profits. We made advertisements using 'catchy' slogans to sustain demand for our products and also wrote a script about the fair and presented it to the 5th graders. Students used their assertive voice to talk about the purpose and the importance of the fair.
The fair was held for 2 hours in the cafeteria and the whole school (1200+ students) visited and shopped. Most of our shoppers were impressed with our products and how well organized the fair was. The fair was a HUGE SUCCESS. Our class made $341 and we made the total of $3,221.14.
Highlight of the Week (2/1/2019)
STEAM Day was on February 1st and the day was full of fun and challenging Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math activities. One of my favorite activity was when students were challenged to build a free standing tower out of straw. The tower had to be strong enough to hold a tennis ball and even better if it is tall! Each group was given 50 straws to design a strong and tall tower. Not every group ended up with a sturdy tower, but it was a meaningful activity where students cooperated together with their engineer hats on. After testing their towers, students came up with a modified plan to make their towers stronger and taller.
STEAM Day was on February 1st and the day was full of fun and challenging Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math activities. One of my favorite activity was when students were challenged to build a free standing tower out of straw. The tower had to be strong enough to hold a tennis ball and even better if it is tall! Each group was given 50 straws to design a strong and tall tower. Not every group ended up with a sturdy tower, but it was a meaningful activity where students cooperated together with their engineer hats on. After testing their towers, students came up with a modified plan to make their towers stronger and taller.
Highlight of the Week (1/18/2019)
Connecting areas to multiplication
One of the math lessons was finding out the area of different shapes. After learning that the area is the amount inside the shape, students were first given different-sized rectangles to figure out the area using the counters/fillers. We figured out that it is more accurate to use square counters than circle counters and students noticed that the counters were aligned as an array! Then, students recalled to their multiplication facts to figure out the area. This was an engaging activity led mostly by the students; I loved how they were putting their brains and hands together to connect areas to multiplication.
Connecting areas to multiplication
One of the math lessons was finding out the area of different shapes. After learning that the area is the amount inside the shape, students were first given different-sized rectangles to figure out the area using the counters/fillers. We figured out that it is more accurate to use square counters than circle counters and students noticed that the counters were aligned as an array! Then, students recalled to their multiplication facts to figure out the area. This was an engaging activity led mostly by the students; I loved how they were putting their brains and hands together to connect areas to multiplication.
Highlight of the Week (12/13/2018)
In Science, we've been working on forces and simple machines for the past few weeks. This week, we finally designed a compound machine to rescue a tiger. Students were to design and build a compound machine that could lift a tiger up at least 4 inches. We used design process to Ask, Explore, Model, Evaluate and Explain our machines. It was fun watching students putting their brains together to design a machine using the VEX kits. Hands on, Minds on!
In Science, we've been working on forces and simple machines for the past few weeks. This week, we finally designed a compound machine to rescue a tiger. Students were to design and build a compound machine that could lift a tiger up at least 4 inches. We used design process to Ask, Explore, Model, Evaluate and Explain our machines. It was fun watching students putting their brains together to design a machine using the VEX kits. Hands on, Minds on!
Highlight of the Week (11/2/2018)
Finally, the weather was warm enough for us to cook our S'mores on our hand-made solar ovens. The sun (solar energy) was our source of thermal energy and aluminum foil and black paper were used to reflect and absorb the sunlight. Our s'mores were ready in about 30 minutes under the hot Texas heat, and we topped this lesson off by enjoying our s'mores. Some say that this was their best experience in 3rd grade so far;).
Finally, the weather was warm enough for us to cook our S'mores on our hand-made solar ovens. The sun (solar energy) was our source of thermal energy and aluminum foil and black paper were used to reflect and absorb the sunlight. Our s'mores were ready in about 30 minutes under the hot Texas heat, and we topped this lesson off by enjoying our s'mores. Some say that this was their best experience in 3rd grade so far;).
Wrapping up our first 9 weeks of school (10/15-10/19)
Announcements:.
Upcoming Events:.
What's Been Happening In Class?
Announcements:.
- Today is the last day of our first 9 weeks of school. We've already grown so much and learned a lot! Report cards will be sent home next week.
- 3rd grade concert is coming up (October 30th!)
- Permission & Lunch forms for field trips were sent home yesterday, please return them as soon as possible if you haven't yet.
Upcoming Events:.
- October 22-26 - International Children's Festival
- October 30 - 3rd Grade Harvest Concert 6:30 pm at Elsa England Cafeteria
- November 13 - 3rd Grade Field Trip
What's Been Happening In Class?
- Reading &Writing: This week, we focused on narrative poems, humorous poems and lyrical poems. We compared lyrics to poems to see how lyrics also had a lot of the poetic techniques such as rhyming words, similes, personification, assonance and repetitions. Students also wrote a poem with a pattern using sound effect words (onomatopoeia).
- Math: Reinforced twos and fours multiplication facts. 'Double' for 2s and 'Double, Double' for 4s. I don't require students to memorize their multiplication facts, but I hope they can use efficient and quick strategies to figure out the product. Also worked on 2-step word problems where students are asked to figure out a number sentence and then the answer. Understanding what the question is asking for is the key to solving word problems.
- Science: Due to the weather, we didn't get to make our solar ovens this week, but we talked about sound energy (sound waves, volume, pitch) and light energy (refraction, reflection). Hopefully we can build our ovens next week and cook our S'mores.
- Social Studies: Finished our first Unit (This is Us) where we talked about voting, branches of government, civics, citizenship and responsibilities. This week, students made a campaign poster for themselves and we did a mock election. Next week, we will start our unit on heroes and great men/women in our history.
Week 9 Update (10/10-10/12)
Announcements:.
Upcoming Events:.
What's Been Happening In Class?
Announcements:.
- I had a great time meeting a lot of the parents on Monday. I hope all of us can work together to provide the best learning environment for the students.
- Our class is in need of 7-8 Medium Pizza Boxes (preferably NEW) and wooden/bamboo skewers for our upcoming science lesson. Please email me if you are willing to donate an item/items for our class.
- Fall Picture Day will be next Thursday 10/18/18.
- We go to specials in following order Art-PE-Music-PE. Next Monday will be PE.
Upcoming Events:.
- October 18 - Individual Picture Day
- October 22-26 - International Children's Festival
- October 30 - 3rd Grade Harvest Concert 6:30 pm at Elsa England Cafeteria
What's Been Happening In Class?
- Reading &Writing: Poetic techniques that we focused on are simile, metaphor and personification. We read and explored narrative poetry, free verse poetry and similes. We noticed that free verse poems does not have to rhyme and doesn't follow a lot of the writing conventions, narrative poems have characters, setting and a plot. For writing, we did another whole class writing where students compared themselves to an animal and came up with an animal simile and we turned it into class simile named 'Ms. Bae's Class is like a Zoo'.
- Math: Multiplication is just the same as repeated addition. We used various approaches (arrays, skip counting, equal groups, number line) to find the product of two or more numbers. Reviewed our multiplication facts for 2s,3s,4s, 5s and 10s.
- Science: Started our unit on Energy. We learned about 5 different types of Energy (Solar, Thermal, Sound, Light and Mechanical) and talked about Sound energy this week. Students made a kazoo with a straw and saw how the pitch of the sound differs depending on the length of the kazoo.
- Social Studies: Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day. Read a story about Christopher Columbus and his journey to the United States.
Week 8 Update (10/1-10/5)
Announcements:.
Upcoming Events:.
What's Been Happening In Class?
Announcements:.
- Fall conferences coming up! (October 8th, Monday).
- No School next Monday and Tuesday
- We go to specials in following order Art-PE-Music-PE. Next Wednesday will be Art.
Upcoming Events:.
- October 8 - Parent Teacher Conference (Sign up here)
- October 9 - NO SCHOOL
- October 17-18 - Individual Picture Day
- October 30 - 3rd Grade Harvest Concert 6:30 pm at Elsa England Cafeteria
What's Been Happening In Class?
- Writing: Started our unit on Poetry. Students are using poetic devices and figurative language to write their poems. This week, we talked about rhymes, metaphor, similes and free verse poems. Students also wrote a poem about 'Fall' or 'Halloween' and shared/read their poems to Kinder buddies :)
- Reading: Poem Books and Fiction Books. Students read a variety of poems and discussed about the similarities and differences. We also learned that every story can be turned into a poem just by tweaking some language and the format.
- Math: Finished Unit 2 (Adding/subtracting 3 digit numbers). Our next unit will be Multiplication. Students are practicing and memorizing their multiplication facts. We will start Unit 3 next week.
- Science: Finished Unit 2 (Changes in Matter and Mixture).
- Social Studies: Talked about what it means to be a good citizen and what we can do to show our citizenship. We also recorded our pledges.
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Week 7 Update (9/24-9/28)
Announcements:.
Upcoming Events:.
What's Been Happening In Class?
Announcements:.
- Fall conferences coming up! (October 8th, Monday).
- Please make sure your child brings a healthy snack and a water bottle to school everyday!
- We go to specials in following order Art-PE-Music-PE. Next Monday will be PE.
Upcoming Events:.
- October 8 - Parent Teacher Conference (Sign up here)
- October 9 - NO SCHOOL
- October 17-18 - Individual Picture Day
- October 30 - 3rd Grade Harvest Concert 6:30 pm at Elsa England Cafeteria
What's Been Happening In Class?
- Writing: Finished our personal narratives. We talked about having a powerful and reflective ending to wrap up our stories. The class celebrated by having a publication party on Friday. We will start our next unit on Poetry next week.
- Reading: Fiction Books -focused on summarizing and character traits. Students summarized the stories using Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then format and talked about character traits. Students use text evidence to talk about the characters.
- Math: Adding and subtracting 2 digit and 3 digit numbers using different tools and strategies (number lines, base ten cubes, partial sum, compensation strategy). We are not using standard algorithm in this unit. Students are using other tools and strategies and this will help them develop number sense.
- Science: Explored different types of mixture that we see everyday in our lives and how to separate the substances using their physical properties. 2 fun lessons we did on mixture were 1. making their own trail mix and 2. Hands-on stations where students were provided with multiple tools (magnets, strainers, funnels, microscopes) to separate the substances take a closer look.
- Social Studies: Wrapped up our unit on Government, and we will talk about 'Citizenship' next week!
Week 6 Update (9/17-9/21)
Announcements:.
Upcoming Events:.
What's Been Happening In Class?
Announcements:.
- Progress Reports went home in your child's Thursday folder. These grades reflect any work done up through the end of last week, and it serves as a midway checkpoint in our first 9 week grading period. This is for your records only, and you do not need to return it to school.
- Renee Dundee (Rilyn's Mom) will be working as our room parent:) A letter from Renee was also included in the Thursday folders. Please fill out the bottom portion of the letter and return to me.
- Please make sure your child brings a healthy snack and a water bottle to school everyday!
- We go to specials in following order Art-PE-Music-PE. Next Monday will be Music.
Upcoming Events:.
- October 8 - Parent Teacher Conference (Sign up here)
What's Been Happening In Class?
- Writing: Students talked about writing a strong lead to hook the readers. The types of the lead that we talked about are Question lead, snapshot lead, sound effect lead, talking lead and action lead. We also focused on writing showing stories than telling stories and our personal narratives are getting better and better everyday. We will be finishing our unit on Personal narrative next week.
- Reading: Fiction Books -focused on point of views (1st and 3rd), elements of a story and making inferences. I see that a lot of our classmates are excited about the Blue Bonnet books and quizzed. Encourage your child to read blue bonnet books and take the quiz so that we can all be invited to the party at the library. If students pass 10 blue bonnet quizzes, students will be invited to the party.
- Math: Adding and subtracting 2 digit and 3 digit numbers using different tools and strategies (number lines, base ten cubes, partial sum). We are not using standard algorithm in this unit. Students are using other tools and strategies and this will help them develop number sense .
- Science: Started our second unit- Changes in Heat and Mixture. We did 2 hands-on activity where students got to explore an ice cube turning into a liquid and water turning into gas.
- Social Studies: Focused on the 3 branches of the U.S government (Executive, Legislative and Judicial). Students went on a virtual tour to the White House in Washington D.C and roamed around the facilities in the White House. We also did a role play of the Legislative Branch where each student was assigned a role of Senate, House of Representative, Cabinet Member and the President. Bills were written by the Congress (Senate & House of Representatives) and the President and the cabinet members reviewed the Bill and passed or vetoed. Students loved both of the activities and we now have a better understanding of the U.S government :)
Week 5 Update (9/11-9/14)
Announcements:.
Upcoming Events:.
What's Been Happening In Class?
Announcements:.
- Grades should be posted on HAC. You can find all the information about HAC here. If you encounter any problems with HAC, please contact our registrar. You should see your child's grades for each subject.
- Thursday Folders! Please make sure to check your child's Thursday folders every Thursday for important information and you can also send paperwork back to me in the Thursday folder when your child returns it on Friday.
- Please make sure your child brings a healthy snack and a water bottle to school everyday!
- We go to specials in following order Art-PE-Music-PE. Next Monday will be PE.
Upcoming Events:.
- October 8 - Parent Teacher Conference (Sign up here)
What's Been Happening In Class?
- Writing: We are revising and editing our personal narratives to make them even better! Students are working on adding vivid details using powerful vocabularies. Students also got their first spelling list.
- Reading: Reading Workshop (making inference using our schema and clues/new information). Students had fun creating a story with wordless photos and they started making their own wordless picture books.
- Math: We learned about rounding 2 digit and 3 digit numbers to the nearest ten and hundred. Used multiple strategies and tools (compensation strategy, base-ten blocks, number lines) to add multi-digit numbers.
- Science: Finished our Unit on Matter! Reviewed the unit, had a whole class hands-on activity on physical properties of matter (magnetism, ability to float, temperature, mass), few assessments were done on STEMscope and we had our first DCA on Friday (9/14).
- Social Studies: Continued with voting (what is voting, why is it important) and had a DOT day for E-Slot. Students wrote kindness notes to each other! We will start our unit on Government Next Monday!
Week 4 Update (9/4-9/7)
Announcements:.
Upcoming Events:.
What's Been Happening In Class?
Announcements:.
- Grades should be posted on HAC. You can find all the information about HAC here. If you encounter any problems with HAC, please contact our registrar. You should see your child's grades for each subject.
- Thursday Folders! Please make sure to check your child's Thursday folders every Thursday for important information and you can also send paperwork back to me in the Thursday folder when your child returns it on Friday.
- Indoor recess - there will be times when we have indoor recess due to the weather. Your child may bring a stack of playing cards, coloring books or board games for indoor recess.
- Please make sure your child brings a healthy snack and a water bottle to school everyday!
- We go to specials in following order Art-PE-Music-PE. Next Monday will be Art.
- If you are willing to volunteer and help our class, please fill out a Volunteer Application and thank you for your support and help.
Upcoming Events:.
- October 8 - Parent Teacher Conference (Sign up here)
What's Been Happening In Class?
- Writing: Brushing up on our personal narratives and some students started typing their personal narratives on the computer. We are still in the process of editing/revising and we will make edits/revisions on our hard copy (typed) drafts. Students focused on using descriptive words and expressing strong emotions/vivid details. We talked about using adding dialogues to our writing using quotation marks.
- Reading: Reading Workshop (visualizing, making a movie in your mind while reading, asking questions while reading). Please encourage your child to share what they read (What they wonder, what they predict, what they picture)
- Math: Continued with dot plots and finished Unit 1 (Analyzing Data, Graphs). Started on Unit 2 (Adding, Subtracting and Rounding multi-digit numbers) and talked about rounding two-digit numbers.
- Science: Continued with our Unit on Matter and physical properties (states of matter, classifying matter)
- Social Studies: Talked about voting (what is voting, why is it important) and voted for our class reward. Also, we met our Kinder buddies for the first time:)
Week 3 Update (8/27-8/31)
Announcements:.
Upcoming Events:.
What's Been Happening In Class?
Announcements:.
- I had a great time meeting a lot you on Tuesday. Thanks for coming!
- You can find all the information about HAC here. If you encounter any problems with HAC, please contact our registrar.
- Our library day will be Tuesdays and students may check out up to 4 items. Please remind your students to bring library books on Tuesdays if they want to check out new items.
- Headphones! Your child may need headphones or earbuds for our classroom. These can be purchased at Target, Walmart, HEB, etc. The headphones/earbuds will be left here at school.
- No School Next Monday (Labor Day)
- We go to specials in following order Art-PE-Music-PE. Next Tuesday will be Art.
- If you are willing to volunteer and help our class, please fill out a Volunteer Application and thank you for your support and help.
Upcoming Events:.
- September 3 - Labor Day NO School!
- October 8 - Parent Teacher Conference (Sign up here)
What's Been Happening In Class?
- Writing: Started our unit on personal narratives, and students came up with brilliant ideas and I can't wait to see what their final pieces will look like. We also learned about using conjunctions to make compound sentences.
- Reading: Reading Workshop (reading expectations, taking notes while reading, writing reading reflections). This week, we mainly focused on sharing/talking about books after reading. Please encourage your child to share what they read (What they wonder, what they predict, how they feel about the book, how they can relate/connect, anything surprising, etc.)
- Math: Gather/analyze data and created graphs (bar graph, pictograph, dot plot). Talked about many-to-one pictographs, how to interpret graphs and data using keys and scales.
- Science: Explored Safety Tools, Started our unit about Matter (physical properties, classifying matter). Learned that matter can be measured and classified by physical properties such as weight, magnetism, temperature, texture, ability to float. Students enjoyed a hands-on activity on classifying matter.
- Social Studies: Government and Good Citizenship - this unit will extend throughout the first nine weeks,
Week 2 Update (8/20-8/24)
Announcements:
Upcoming Events:.
What's Been Happening In Class?
Announcements:
- This week was full of lots of fun, engaging and team building activities and we sure did enjoy our first full week.
- Our library day will be Tuesday and students may check out up to 4 items. Please remind your students to bring library books on Tuesdays if they want to check out new items.
- Headphones! Your child may need headphones or earbuds for our classroom. These can be purchased at Target, Walmart, HEB, etc. The headphones/earbuds will be left here at school.
- We go to specials in following order Art-PE-Music-PE. Next Monday will be PE.
- Parent info night coming up on August 28th from 6:30pm to 7:30pm (Elsa England Cafeteria)
- If you are willing to volunteer and help our class, please fill out a Volunteer Application and thank you for your support and help.
Upcoming Events:.
- August 28 - 3rd Grade Open House @ 6:30pm (procedures, STAAR, homework, curriculum, etc)
- September 3 - Labor Day NO School!
- October 8 - Parent Teacher Conference (Sign up here)
What's Been Happening In Class?
- Writing: Shared their 'About Me' bags, Completed whole class writing about 'Our Class',
- Reading: Reading Workshop (Choosing the right book, book nooks, independent reading expectations, using reading strategies)
- Math: Inspirational Math (Finding patterns, Developing number sense), Gather/analyze data and create a graph, 100 Face with Cuisenaire rods.
- Science: Safety in Science/Science contract, What is a Scientist?, Saving Fred (Hands-on), Marshmallow Challenge (Hands-on)
- Social Studies: PAWS Expectations, Established Social Contract,
Week 1 Update (8/16-8/17)
Announcements:
We had a great first two days of school. I am already amazed by all the energy and enthusiasm each student brings to the class. We spent the past two days doing a lot of 'Getting to know you' games and I am glad that I got to learn more about my students.
Homework for Monday (8/20/2018)
1. 'About me' bag with 4-6 items
2. A book to read in the morning
3. Stickers, photos(I can print them out for you), magazine cutouts, etc. to decorate their writing notebooks. We will also need a few rolls of clear packing tape if you are available to donate a roll to our class.
After we decorate our notebooks, I could use a few volunteers to come to school to cover these notebooks so the pictures and stickers don't fall off during the year. If you are willing to volunteer your time, please email be back and let me know when you're available. Thanks in advance.
Upcoming Events:.
What's Been Happening In Class?
Announcements:
We had a great first two days of school. I am already amazed by all the energy and enthusiasm each student brings to the class. We spent the past two days doing a lot of 'Getting to know you' games and I am glad that I got to learn more about my students.
Homework for Monday (8/20/2018)
1. 'About me' bag with 4-6 items
2. A book to read in the morning
3. Stickers, photos(I can print them out for you), magazine cutouts, etc. to decorate their writing notebooks. We will also need a few rolls of clear packing tape if you are available to donate a roll to our class.
After we decorate our notebooks, I could use a few volunteers to come to school to cover these notebooks so the pictures and stickers don't fall off during the year. If you are willing to volunteer your time, please email be back and let me know when you're available. Thanks in advance.
Upcoming Events:.
- August 20 - Stickers/photos are due for writing journal. 'About Me Bag' is due
- August 23 - Deadline to Order Membership Packages/T-shirts online: http://england.my-pta.org
- August 28 - 3rd Grade Open House @ 6:30pm (procedures, STAAR, homework, Class Dojo, etc)
- September 3 - Labor Day NO School!
What's Been Happening In Class?
- Writing: Completed a First Day Emoji Writing Activity.
- Reading: Started going over PAWS Expectations - "P" for Personal Best and "A" for Active Listening. Set reading goals for this year
- Math: Explored Math Tools, Created a bar graph and pictograph.
- Science: Many hands-on team building activities - Yank the Cup, Tilt A Cup
- Social Studies: Classroom Expectations and Procedures - My Mouth is A Volcano Activities and practicing our Hallway Expectations