Lights! Camera! Fashion Show!

Friday night was the night for our Van Winkle students to "strut their stuff!" We held our annual Van Winkle Fashion Show, and it was a huge success! All the students looked fantastic in their sporty, casual, or dressy attire. Special thanks to Mrs. Torrey and all the other teachers who helped to put this night together.

Jendaya modeling her basketball uniform

Selicia and Sherrina modeling their dressy attire

Jameel on the far right lookin' good!

Nareuna modeling casual wear

Lyric strutting down the walkway

Jaylin striking a pose in her casual wear

All of our students looked so cute in their regular clothes! Mrs. Johnson is used to seeing uniforms. This was a nice change. Great job class!

Here's the Scoop...Reading is Cool!

One of the great things about being a third grader is the opportunity to work with Junior League of Jackson. Each year, the Jr. League gives every student in our school free books multiple times throughout the year. They also work exclusively with us - third grade! Each classroom has two volunteers who read with some of our students twice a week. These ladies donate their time to help us learn to read more fluently, and they help instill a love of reading. We look forward to their visits each week! Thank you Junior League of Jackson for all you do to help our students!

As their time with us came to an end this year, they prepared a fun surprise! We had an ice cream sundae party Friday afternoon! It was so fun!

Some of the volunteers serving ice cream

We were so excited!

Charles and Alric are dying for some ice cream!

Yummy!

Mr. Graves even had some ice cream!

As if reading with us, giving us free books, and throwing an ice cream party was not enough...the ladies also brought gifts for all our teachers! Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Hicks, and Mrs. Jierski were given beautiful pitchers and a bright dish towel. They were so happy!

The teachers with the chairperson of this Jr. League project, Mrs. Lisa.

Thank you, Junior League! Your service has proved to be effective in many ways. Third grade reading test scores are evidence of your hard work. Our teachers love to see us reading on our own initiative also! You helped to encourage our love of reading! We wish you could work with fourth grade next year so we can read with you again!

Easter Egg Hunt

Thursday was our last day before Easter break. Mrs. Johnson and Miss Greenwell had a fun day planned for us. First, we worked in centers ALL morning. We love centers! Then, for math, we worked on adding and subtracting four-digit numbers. But, our teachers planned a fun way to do this. We worked some problems on eggs. When we finished our work, we decorated our Easter eggs. It was fun!

Tyrell working on decorating his egg

Antasia, Brindarius, and Charles showing off their eggs

Kadajah, Selicia, Jaylin, and Lyric look like they had fun!

After lunch, we had our own Easter egg hunt! We brought plastic eggs and candy to school. We all helped to fill the eggs. Then, Miss Greenwell and Mrs. Johnson hid the eggs while we went to counseling. It was SO much fun! We were screaming and laughing the whole time. Mrs. Johnson said that it took them 40 minutes to hide all the eggs, and it only took us 4 minutes to find them! We moved so fast, Mrs. Johnson only got a couple of pictures.

Selicia even brought her own Easter basket.

Sharnecia found an egg in the tree.

Thursday was lots of fun! We hope everyone has a great Easter! See ya Tuesday!

How To Make A Windsock

In preparation for the MCT2 coming up in May, our class has been practicing with various reading passages. Today, our passage was titled "How To Make A Windsock." It gave directions to making windsocks. Mrs. Johnson pointed out the text structure of the passage: steps in a process, or simple procedure. Simple means "easy." A procedure is "something you do." So, Mrs. Johnson told us Simple Procedure is "something you do that is easy." It is easy because the passage gave us step by step instructions to make our own windsock. In order to make reading more fun, Mrs. Johnson let us follow the instructions to make our own windsock. After all the steps, there was a paragraph that told how windsocks work. After reading that, Mrs. Johnson let us go outside in our courtyard and fly our windsocks. It was so much fun! It was a perfect day because it was so windy!


Maybe after this fun activity, we will remember what simple procedure is.

No Bones About It...Science is Fun!

This week, in science, we learned about the skeletal system. We learned, among many others, that our head is actually called a cranium, our thigh is actually a femur, and our fingers and toes are called phalanges. Phalanges is Mrs. Johnson's favorite! She just likes to say the word! For the finale of the unit, we made Pasta Skeletons. We talked about the real names of the bones as we added the pasta. How much fun!

Sharnecia is placing her cranium on her skeleton.

Look at Charles' finished skeleton!

Dwinesha admiring her work!

He should have a name, don't you think?

Physical Changes

In science last week, Miss Greenwell talked to us about the difference between chemical and physical change. She showed us a piece of notebook paper and asked us if we thought she could walk through the piece of paper. We thought about it. Some suggested we cut a hole in the middle. Well, that hole wouldn't be big enough to fit our whole body through. Miss Greenwell gave us each a sheet of notebook paper and scissors. She explained that we were all going to walk through the paper by PHYSICALLY CHANGING the paper. Look and see!

Lyric steps through her paper.

Sharnecia is stepping through!

It's still paper. The physical appearance just changed.

Shanora, Alric, and Ja'Von had way too much fun!

Science is so much fun!

Prepositions Chant

How Big Is A Foot?

During our study of measurement, we read a funny book titled, How Big Is A Foot? This book explained how different people's feet vary in length. So, how do we measure in feet? It was a good explanation for why we use standard units.

Miss Greenwell let us try to measure using our own feet. It was so much fun! First, we all traced one of our feet on a piece of construction paper and cut them out.

Charles tracing his foot

Next, we measured our feet in inches.

Lyric carefully measured her foot.

Then, we measured each other in our own feet. After we found out how many of our own feet tall we were, we converted that into inches using our measurements from earlier.

Dwinesha measures Alric using his own foot.

Brindarius, Shanora, and Charles showing their feet.

At the very end, we lined up across the room in order from shortest to tallest. We used our measurements to determine the order.

Happy Birthday, Charles!

Charles's mom stopped by with a little surprise for his birthday - cupcakes for everyone!! Charles turned 9 Wednesday! He is such a delight, and we are so glad Charles is in our class. He is always helpful and really funny (even when he doesn't mean to be!). Did I mention that he LOVES football? That is probably why his mom had his cupcakes put together to look like a football field! Thank you for sharing your birthday with us! Happy Birthday, Charles!

Measuring Perimeter

The finale for our unit on measurement was a week measuring perimeter. We learned that perimeter is a skill we will use often in our daily lives. We pretended to be architects this week, planning for tiling a bathroom or putting up a fence. In order to know how many tiles or how much fence we need, we must find the perimeter. To practice, we created shapes on our classroom floor around tiles. We counted the tiles on each side and found the perimeter. It was so much fun learning to measure perimeter by taping the floor! Mrs. Johnson would never let us do this on any ordinary day!

Lyric, Jendaya, and Arrion are adding all the sides to find the perimeter.

Kadajah, Ja'Von, and Selicia have to make sure their tape is straight.

Alric, Dwinesha, Brindarius, and Charles made huge objects!

This rectangle has a perimeter of 14 units.

One side is 4 units long.

Miss Greenwell taught us a "rap" at the end of our perimeter lesson. The song helps us to remember HOW to find perimeter. Listen and learn!!

The next day, we learned how to find the perimeter using rulers. We actually measured each side to the nearest inch and centimeter, added all the sides together, and found the perimeter. This was a great review of measuring with rulers!

Shanora, Antasia, and Sharnecia measure carefully!

Lyric makes sure she gets the exact measurement.

Sharnecia and Shanora measure again just to be sure.

We have really enjoyed learning about measurement! It's a good thing because measurement makes up 31% of our third nine weeks test! And, guess what! The nine weeks tests are in only 2 weeks!!! WOW!

Units of Measurement

During our study of measurement, Mrs. Johnson taught us two different systems of measurement: Metric System and Customary System. We discussed each system, sorting units of measurement into length, weight, and capacity. Mrs. Johnson provided manipulatives to demonstrate each unit. For example, in the metric system, a tape dispenser is about one kilogram and a paper clip is about one gram. We passed these objects around so that we could experience the feel of a kilogram and gram. Mrs. Johnson allowed us to participate in two activities where we chose which unit of measurement to use for a given item.

A couple of weeks ago, Mrs. Johnson guided us in creating circle maps for both the Customary System and the Metric System. Then, we cut and pasted the appropriate unit next to a given object.

Our circle maps

This week, we participated in a rotation to various objects around the room. Mrs. Johnson had pictures of various objects set up all over the room. She let us choose a partner and gave us a clipboard. We walked around the room with our partner to the various objects. Once there, we had to choose, from a list of choices, which unit of measurement was appropriate. As we walked around the room, we justified our opinions to each other in order to decide on the appropriate unit. We enjoyed working and thinking together to make these decisions. When we finished with all seventeen objects, Mrs. Johnson checked them as she went over each object with the class. The group with the highest score was Sharnecia and Jameel! We had a great time!

Arrion and Antasia try to decide whether the iced tea should be measured using quarts or cups.

Would a slice of apple pie weigh ounces or pounds?

Selicia and Brindarius think hard.

Antasia and Jaylin know that a sack of potatoes would be measured in pounds.

Sharnecia and Jameel

Lyric and Dwinesha discuss which unit should be used to measure the weight of a pumpkin.

Charles and Alric figure it out!

Our class certainly exhibits the motto of our school: "We have fun while we learn!"