Category: 3rd Grade

Apr 03 2017 April 3, 2017 May 5, 2017 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Animated Water Cycle

Posted in 3rd Grade, Science

Third graders at Varina Elementary have been learning about the water cycle (SOL3.9), so today students in Ms. Cathcart’s class created animated water cycles using ABCYa!Animate. Before we got started, we reviewed the parts of the cycle and what was happening in each part: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff. On the first frame of our animation we painted a scene with water and land and typed the title. We duplicated the scene with the copycat button and added some evaporation. I pointed out that evaporation is actually invisible, but we had to show it somehow. On subsequent frames we continued adding parts to the cycle until we finished with water runoff from the land back into the sea. We clicked the Looping button so our animation would play repeatedly, then exported it as a .GIF file using the orange Export button. To share our animations, we uploaded them to a Padlet that you can see here.


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Mar 28 2017 March 28, 2017 April 17, 2017 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Goods & Services Websites

Posted in 3rd Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies

Third graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about goods and services in Social Studies (SOL3.7) and main idea/summarizing in Language Arts (SOL3.6f,g,h). So today students in Ms. Edelblut’s and Ms. Howard’s classes practiced these skills by creating their own websites. First, we reviewed main idea/details using a web. The main idea is the center of the web, and the details are the branches. After several examples, we determined that knowing the main idea helps you summarize. Next, the students decided whether they wanted to make a website about goods or services. We used Popplet to make a main idea/details web for planning out our websites. We wrote a summarizing sentence about goods or services in the center, then provided examples of specific goods and services in the branches. I showed them how to change the colors of the bubbles and even draw images inside. We saved the diagram as a .JPG image (Gear > Export > As JPG File). Then we went to their Google drive and clicked New > More > Google Sites. We created a new Google Site and wrote the title, “Goods” or “Services” and their names. We uploaded our Popplet diagram, then typed a paragraph about our topic, using the diagram for guidance. We made sure the first sentence was the main idea or summarizing sentence. Then we wrote additional sentences for the details. Finally we added images of our specific examples (the details) and published our websites. We shared the links on Google classroom, but you can see them all here.


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Feb 23 2017 February 23, 2017 April 17, 2017 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Coding with Cycles

Posted in 3rd Grade, Science

Third graders at Trevvett Elementary have been learning about cycles (SOL3.8): the lunar cycle and plant and animal life cycles. Today students in Ms. Smith’s class used basic coding skills to create animated diagrams of a cycle of their choosing. First we went to the Scratch website and created an account. Scratch is a programing language developed by MIT to teach children about coding. We started a new project and clicked the Stage button. Then we clicked the paint brush icon to create a new stage. The students used the paint tools to draw a diagram of one of the cycles. Next we right clicked on the default sprite (the Scratch character) and deleted it. I showed the students how to choose a new sprite from the sprite library. Now it was time to write some code. The students positioned their sprite where they wanted it to start. They chose “When the flag is clicked” Event to begin their code and added a “go to x-y” element from the Motion library. Then they added a “say _ for _ secs” element from the Looks library and typed the first step in the cycle. For each subsequent step, they moved their sprite to another part of the cycle, added a “glide 1 secs to x-y” Motion element and a “say _ for _ secs” Looks element until all the parts were identified. Testing the code is the most important part and provides an excellent opportunity for logical thinking and problem solving when the animation doesn’t work out as planned. When the students’ projects finally worked, they pressed the “Share” button and pasted the links to Schoology. You can see all their projects here (be sure to press the “See inside” button to take a look at their coding).


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Feb 14 2017 February 14, 2017 April 6, 2017 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Valentine Machines

Posted in 3rd Grade, Math, Science

Third graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about simple machines in Science (SOL3.2) and adding and subtracting money in Math (SOL3.8). Today students in Ms. Whittaker’s class created their own Valentine machines with a money math problem for their classmates to solve. First I made a copy of a blank Google slideshow for each student in Google classroom. I showed them how to click the Background button and choose a background color. Next we moved the “Title” textbox to the top of the page, and the students typed a title for their machine. We moved the “Subtitle” textbox to the bottom of the page, and the students typed in a money math problem about their machine (adding two amounts together or calculating change). We did the written part first because that was the most important part, and I wanted to make sure it was finished. I showed them how to change the font, size, and color of their text. Then it was time to draw the machine. I demonstrated how to use the Shapes Tool to create a machine that would deliver Valentines. It could be just one simple machine, or it could be a compound machine, made of several simple machines. After the students drew their machines, they labeled the machine parts with text boxes. Finally we published them to the web (File > Publish to the web) and pasted the links to Google classroom, so we could solve each others’ problems. You can see them all here.


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Jan 23 2017 January 23, 2017 April 3, 2017 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Elapsed Time Comics

Posted in 3rd Grade, Math

Third graders at Varina Elementary have been learning about elapsed time in one-hour increments (SOL3.11b). Today, students in Ms. Long’s class created comics to show their own elapsed time math problems. First we discussed different situations that take several hours, like a sports game, a special event, or traveling. Each student thought of an idea, then we opened a 3-panel comic in StoryboardThat. I showed them how to add a background scene to each frame and how to use the “Edit Scene” button to change things in the background. Next we added characters, customized their hair and skin colors, and changed their poses and facial expressions with the “Edit Pose” button. Finally we added speech bubbles to each frame: the first one told the starting time, the second one told either the ending time or the duration (like 2 hours), and the last one asked a question about the elapsed time. We took a screenshot of our comics and posted them to Google classroom. Students answered each others’ questions in the comments. You can see all their comics here.


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Jan 19 2017 January 19, 2017 April 3, 2017 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Matter Animations

Posted in 3rd Grade, Science

Third graders at Trevvett have been learning about how matter undergoes physical and chemical changes (SOL3.3). Physical changes don’t change the type of matter, like breaking, cutting, or melting. Chemical changes change the type of matter, like burning, cooking, and rusting. Today students in Ms. Robinison’s class used ABCYa! Animate to create animations showing physical or chemical changes. First we brainstormed different types of changes they could illustrate so that we had a variety. I showed them how they could add a background image if they wanted. Next we used the paint tools and the “Images” library to create our first picture. I explained how to group objects together so they would move. Then we copied the frame and students added motion. Some showed change by adding additional parts or erasing parts of their first image. We continued copying and changing the frames until we had a complete animation of the process. Finally we uploaded our animations to an album in Schoology, and the students added comments to each others’ pictures, identifying the type of changes. You can see all their animations here.


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Jan 03 2017 January 3, 2017 February 21, 2017 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Temperature Predictions & Comparisons

Posted in 3rd Grade, Math, Science

Third graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about the motions of the Earth in Science (SOL3.8a) and temperature in Math (SOL3.13). Today we predicted, researched, and compared temperatures from around the world, and then discussed reasons why they were so different. I gave each student a copy of a blank Google slideshow, and showed them how to create the title slide, “Temperature.” I also showed them how to change the theme. Then we added a new slide and titled it “Richmond Weather.” Before looking up the current temperature, I asked them to predict the temperature based on what they saw and felt this morning. We used this interactive thermometer to show the temperature. I like how it displays the temperature in Fahrenheit and Celsius and provides a representative photo for different temperatures. We took a screenshot and added it to our slide. Then, we did a Google search for “Richmond weather” to find the current temperature and added the actual temperature to the slide. Many of the students’ predictions were very close. Next, we wanted to see what the weather was like in some other part of the world. The students could pick a city or country of their choice. Holladay has students from all over, so many of them picked their home countries–China, Vietnam, Mexico, El Salvador, and more. When they typed the name of their city/country and “weather” in a Google search, they found the current temperature and time. We talked about why the time and weather were different (because of the rotation and tilt of the Earth). They adjusted their interactive thermometer to display that temperature, took a screenshot, and pasted it to a new slide. We also added an image of the city/country to the slide (click the image button > Search). Finally we published our slideshows (File > Publish to the web), and pasted the link to Google classroom. You can see them all here.


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Dec 15 2016 December 15, 2016 February 9, 2017 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Graphing Plant Growth

Posted in 3rd Grade, Math, Science

Third graders at Trevvett Elementary have been studying plants (SOL3.5), measurement (SOL3.9a), and graphing (SOL3.17), so today students in Ms. Hufnell’s class learned how to graph their plant measurements using Google sheets. Over a 4-week period, they have measured and compared the growth of kale and brussels sprouts in the Trevvett Learning Garden. They had their data, and now they were going to analyze their data. I gave them each a blank Google sheets template in Google classroom. Before they recorded their data, we discussed how it should be organized. Should we put the plants in Column A and the dates in Row 1 or the reverse? (Most put plants in Column A). Would that affect the way the graph looked? (It didn’t, necessarily, because of the customization features under Chart Types). I explained that they would need to put their units of measurement as a label on the graph instead of in the data cells, otherwise the graph wouldn’t recognize the numbers (for example, put 5 instead of 5cm). After entering our data, we highlighted it and clicked the graph button. I showed them how to use the Customization tools to change the title and labels on each axis. Then we inserted the chart into our spreadsheet and moved it so it wasn’t covering up our data. Finally, the students clicked the bars to change their colors (use the paint bucket button). The graph made it easy to analyze and compare the plants’ growth. Which plant grew fastest? Which plant grew tallest? Why did the kale not grow at all for 3 weeks? What might be the reasons for the differences since they were both in the same garden with the same sunlight and rainfall? We published our spreadsheets and pasted the links to Google classroom. You can see an example here.


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Dec 13 2016 December 13, 2016 February 7, 2017 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Measuring the Colosseum

Posted in 3rd Grade, Math, Social Studies

Third graders at Holladay Elementary have been studying ancient Greece and Rome in Social Studies (SOL3.1) and measurement in Math (SOL3.9). Today students in Ms. Middleton’s class practiced measuring the Roman Colosseum using Google maps. I previously taught a lesson on measuring the Parthenon, but I wanted to show them the new 3-D feature, so we looked at the Colosseum today (the Parthenon isn’t in 3-D yet). First we found Italy on the map and discussed its shape (peninsula) and the Mediterranean Sea that surrounds it. Then we zoomed into Rome and looked for the Colosseum (it’s called “Colosseo” on the map). Once we were close enough to see its circular shape, we switched to Google Earth view (click the button in the bottom left corner) and clicked the 3-D button on the right. I showed the students how to hold down the CTRL key and click and drag to rotate the view. They were amazed that all the buildings and terrain were in 3-D! It’s a great way to show students the hilly landscape. It also helps develop map skills (SOL3.4). Now it was time to measure the Colosseum. We discussed what unit we should use, and we made an estimate on Padlet. Then we right clicked on one side of the Colosseum and clicked “Measure Distance.” When we clicked the other side, it automatically gave us the distance across. We used the Snipping Tool to take a screenshot, and we uploaded our screenshots to the Padlet. You can see them all here.


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Oct 20 2016 October 20, 2016 December 14, 2016 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Create a Holiday Logo

Posted in 3rd Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies

Third graders at Trevvett Elementary have been learning about being a good citizen and celebrating national holidays, like Veterans Day (SOL3.11). Students in Ms. Robinson’s class created their own national holiday, and today she asked me to help them make a logo to represent their holiday. First we talked about logos. They are easily recognized symbols with simple designs and just a one or two colors. I showed them a few logos to see if they could recognize them (Apple, T-Mobile, Xbox, Android, Playstation, Olympics, McDonalds, Domino’s, etc). Some logos even have hidden symbols (like the arrow in FedEx, 31 in Baskin Robins, two people sharing a chip in Tostitos, the letter g/face in Goodwill, and the kiss in Hershey Kisses). I explained that the logos they create for their holiday needed to be simple and easily understood, but they could also have hidden messages or surprises. I gave them each a copy of a blank Google doc in Google classroom and showed them how to type the name of their holiday and change the font, size, and color. We discussed the importance of fonts in logos and realized that the most important thing was that it was easy to read. There are not many cursive fonts in logos (Coca-Cola is a famous exception). Next we went to LogoMakr to design our logo. This is a great site for any kind of illustration because there’s no login, it has a huge collection of clip art, you can customize the colors, and your art is quickly downloaded as a PNG file with a transparent background. After students created their logos, we imported them into our Google doc (Insert > Image > Upload from your computer) and wrote about the holiday. Finally we published our work to Google classroom. You can see all the holiday logos here.


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