Teacher wonders if we will ever have a normal day again!

We have had two half days, two days off, and now snow.  Hmm...  I'm not sure what we have in store for us the rest of the week, but I'm hoping we can get to a sense of normalcy again soon!

Please see the content tabs for specific information for the past few weeks and the upcoming weeks.

Rewards...

Although we had a "snow day," we were still able to enjoy time reading in tents, which was one of our classroom rewards.  They were so cute with the giggling and enjoying a change of pace.  The pictures speak for themselves...

We have been up to so much!

Everything from historical fiction to economics to computation has been in our lives the past few weeks!  Take a peek using the content tabs above!

Art Print was so much fun...for all of us, including me!  :)  Mrs. Driscoll showed us The Milkmaid, which Vermeer used a great deal of light in his painting.  We created a story based on what we see in the painting, then we darkened the windows and drew a cornucopia with oil pastels using artificial light.  Then we drew back the shades and drew the same thing, but with different light.  Many student's work had a lighter feel with the second drawing.  Did you see your child's drawing?

Analyzing The Milkmaid....

Creating a story...

The cornucopia...

 Drawing the cornucopia using oil pastels...

Look at how much fun we had!

There was so much going on this week that it is hard to recap!  Just take a look at all the tabs to get a glimpse!

An end to the first 9 weeks...

We ended our first 9-weeks with a BEE Boppin' Bang!  What a great week...outside of the super long assessment in Science.

A local author visited us!

So many interesting things happened last week!

We were thrilled to host local author, Lisa Martin, to 3rd grade today!  She shared many experiences with us about creating characters, researching information, writing and publishing a book.  What a pleasure to have an author read to us from her own published story!  We'll begin reading Anton and Cecil, Cats at Sea as a read aloud book very soon!

 Lisa worked on this book with her Aunt!  What a special way to write a book.  They shared ideas by email and Skype, since Lisa's Aunt actually lives in New York.

 Lisa's characters, Anton and Cecil, are based on her own cats, TJ and Albert.  We can all get ideas for writing from special things in our lives.

Stories aren't very interesting unless there is a problem!  Lisa talked to us about how to develop a problem in a story.

Lisa Martin's book will be on sale at 

Over The Moon Bookstore in Crozet 

Can you believe we are in our first week of October?

Hi everyone!  It is so hard to believe that we are already into October.  Whewy have we been on a roll!  Please read through the content tabs to see what's been happening in class this past week and what we will be up to in the upcoming week.

I will be going to Colorado for my nephew's wedding this week, so I will have a sub on Thursday and Friday.  I will prepare the students for this, but wanted parents to know as well.

I will NOT update my blog next weekend, so look for detailed notes on the blog this week that will cover the content for the next two weeks.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions that you have about the content, though.

Lastly, in lieu of a Halloween Dress-Up party, students are asked to leave their purchased costumes at home, but instead dress up as something we have studied, if they'd like to dress up.  Last year I had a student come with decomposers (worms and mushrooms) in her hair and glued to her cheek.  I also have had several maps and globes walking around during the day.  Please make these costumes yourselves, as they are more creative that way and it's a way for students to be thinking about all that we've learned this year! 

Check out these zipliners!