Telling Fibs in Third Grade

We discussed number patterns in third grade, and I introduced the kids to the Fibonacci sequence, named after a mathematician who lived during the 1200s. In the sequence, each number is added to the previous number to get the next number: 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 and so on.

Author Greg Pincus invented the “Fib” form of poetry, in which each consecutive line has the same number of syllables that appear in the Fibonacci sequence. Since it's National Poetry Month, we practiced writing our own poems. Here are some of the students' examples ... feel free to share one of your own in the comments!

Room 116 Class Poems: 

Being Loud
Shout
Talk
Ruckus
Yelling out
Obnoxious screaming
Tremendous mess, annoying, loud


Being Sick
Gross
Flu
Vomit
Throwing up
Strep throat, runny nose
Staying out of school each day now


Room 116 Student Poems:

Cats
Cute
Nice
EPIC
Very soft
So adorable
Sometimes mean, but mostly nice cat
- L.N.


Wolves
Paws
Cute
Furry
Hunting den
Alpha, omega
Pack, starry dark, epic and nice
- M.C.


Gold
Horn
Colors
Unicorn
Rainbows are pretty
Unicorns walk on the rainbow
- V.N.


Dab
Yeet
Dance
EPIC
Great for sure
Michael Jackson BOOM
It is an amazing dance Whoo!
- A.L.


Books
Read
books
Very fun
Read all day
Read at home silent
Reading is fun anywhere. Yay!
- J.P.


Being Bad
Mean
Bad
Not nice
Being mean
Being very rude
Go in time out when being bad
- A.A.



Room 117 Class Poem:

Alaska
Cold
Ice
Mushers
and dog sleds
Fluffy husky pets
Running through snow, a race to win


Room 117 Student Poems:

Dogs
Cute
Fun
Fluffy
Cuddly
Like to play with toys
Awesome and cute when they're puppies
- G.J.


Baseball
Base
ball
is fun.
Hit the ball
and run to first base.
On the field, get the ball and throw.
- M.M.


Chicken Nuggets
Warm
Yum
Crunchy
Delicious
I like any kind.
Yummy to eat with sauce on side.
- M.B.


The Park
Fun
Run
Sliding
Running there
Swinging on the swing.
Running around the park with friends.
- J.B.


Football
Catch
Catch
Tackle
I caught it:
a 50 yard catch.
Get a touchdown to win the game.
- D.S.


Oh
Wow
A dragon
is flying
in the air at night.
Give it fish to eat every day.
- C.T.

In Other Words ... with Grade 4

Fourth graders are practicing their paraphrasing skills. First we worked together to come up with synonyms and ways to recast a sentence.

ORIGINAL: The automobile that went by very quickly was maroon. It went through a big puddle and splashed us.

NEW Room 118: We were splattered with water when the large purplish car sped down the road into the puddle.

NEW Room 119: A dark red car zoomed through a puddle and got us wet.

ORIGINAL: The educator removed the unruly student from the learning environment because of the sounds he was making 

NEW Room 118: The teacher got rid of the student because he was making weird noises and being obnoxious.

NEW Room 119: The teacher kicked out the disrespectful student because he was distracting the other students.

ORIGINAL: In the metropolis, the recreation area was dilapidated. Youngsters received injuries when they attempted to utilize the equipment.

NEW Room 119: In the city, children were at a broken-down playground and fell down and got hurt.  

Then they worked on an individual assignment, putting the following sentences into their own words:

During my earlier years, I experienced much conflict with my male and female siblings who were born before me. Now that we are more mature, we have overcome some of our differences and have the ability to interact pleasantly.

Here are some of the new sentences the students came up with:

In my past, I argued with my brothers and sisters and over the years, we have learned to not argue. - B.G.W.

A couple years back, I had a lot of fights with my two older siblings. Now we're over and done with. - G.P.

A long time ago I argued very much with my older brother and sister. Since we are older, we put our differences aside. - S.L.

Now that I am older, my older brother and sister that I used to fight with, don't fight with me and I don't fight with them. - P.S.

What Ms. Moore Read in January and February

here are some of the most recent books I've read and recommend for my students. They're all available from the public library, but any donations towards getting them into our collection are most welcome! Cover images and descriptions are from Goodreads. 

Picture Books

From ant to butterfly to caterpillar . . . to zebra and then back again, Animalphabet is an entertaining puzzle as well as a gorgeous alphabet book to treasure.

Who can slither better than a rabbit? A snake! Who can growl better than a snake? A tiger! There are clever hints and peekaboo holes within the artwork that will amaze and delight young children as they learn to use the alphabet. 

Easy Readers

Winner of the 2019 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award. Fun-loving, mischievous Fox wishes he were a tiger. Tigers are big and fast and sneaky. So he decides to become one! Soon Turtle and Rabbit are joining in the fun. But will Fox want to be a tiger forever?

In Fox the Tiger, this winning trickster character and his animal friends learn that the best thing to be is yourself.

Middle Grade Fiction

For nearly a century, Victorian London relied on "climbing boys"--orphans owned by chimney sweeps--to clean flues and protect homes from fire. The work was hard, thankless and brutally dangerous. Eleven-year-old Nan Sparrow is quite possibly the best climber who ever lived--and a girl. With her wits and will, she's managed to beat the deadly odds time and time again. 

But when Nan gets stuck in a deadly chimney fire, she fears her time has come. Instead, she wakes to find herself in an abandoned attic. And she is not alone. Huddled in the corner is a mysterious creature--a golem--made from ash and coal. 

The Breakfast Club meets middle school mystery in this story of six very different seventh graders forced together in the aftermath of a vandalism incident.

When Theo’s photographs are vandalized and trashed beyond all recognition, there are five kids at the scene: The Nerd, the Princess, the Jock, the Weirdo, and the Screw-Up. All anyone will say is “It wasn’t me.”

Theo doesn’t care who it was, he just wants to stop being the victim. The sooner the school forgets the whole humiliating thing, the better. But his favorite teacher is asking the six of them to spend vacation week together “learning to trust” and getting to the truth. She calls it a Justice Circle. He calls it his worst nightmare.

Mock Caldecott Results

The American Library Association awards the Caldecott Medal to the artist of "the most distinguished American picture book for children." This year, first- and second-graders voted in the Garden City Mock Caldecott after I read them a dozen titles. The winner: Niblet & Ralph by Zachariah O'Hora. Here are some reasons why the kids chose it they did:

Grade 3 FICtion covers

Third graders are learning how to use the online catalog and convert call number listings into shelf locations. Right now we're working on the fiction section. Every fiction call number has "FIC" as the first line, and then the first three letters of the author's last name as the second line.

For example, if I wrote a book, the call number would be

FIC
MOO

What would YOUR call number be?

Students figured out the call numbers for a list of books and and then created their very own for a fiction book they "wrote." Here are some of their book covers: