April
Language Arts
The class finished their opinion writing pieces just before vacation. Here is a small sampling of the fine work the students did on this.
Dinosaurs
By Advaith Satish
If I was to go to the
time of the dinosaurs, I would see which animals lived with the dinosaurs. Were
they like the animals today? Do they behave like the dinosaurs? Right now, all
we know is that lizards, birds, turtles, and crocodiles lived with the
dinosaurs. But were they like the animals today? Scientists think that the animals
were very over-sized, but we don’t know much more than that. Scientists think
that birds came from dinosaurs! They think that because, they have found many
dinosaur fossils that include the feathers or/and wings of birds. By going back
into the time of dinosaurs, I could identify the birds that lived back then. If
I were to study the actions of these animals, then it might explain why all the
dinosaurs died out, and other animals, like lizards, still lived. If we knew
the answer to this, it would lead us one step closer to discovering how the
dinosaurs died.
I want to go to the time
of dinosaurs because, I could see why the dinosaurs died out. Was it because of
a comet? Climatic changes? Earthquakes, tornadoes, and storms? Or all? Some
scientists think the dinosaurs died because of climate changes. They think that
the temperature might have gotten too cold or hot. There might have been
earthquakes and major storms. But then why did the dinosaurs die out and other
animals, like lizards, live on? Other scientists agree with the asteroid
theory. This happened when an asteroid crashed into the earth. This caused a
big cloud of dust, smoke, and ash to form in the air, which blocked the
sunlight. Plants couldn’t grow so the plant-eaters couldn’t eat so they died
too! With no plant-eaters, meat-eaters didn’t have food so they died.
Scientists are still trying to solve this mystery of what killed the dinosaurs.
They have more proof that the asteroid theory is true. They think they have
found the spot where the asteroid landed! They found a huge crater in
the Gulf of Mexico. The crater is 120 miles wide and ½ a mile below sea level!
This crater is definitely caused by asteroids. Maybe even the asteroid that
killed the dinosaurs! (If there was one.)
Are you convinced that going back in time to the time of dinosaurs is important? In my opinion, it is very important. I hope you think so too! We could see how they acted, behaved, and looked. We could see what animals they lived with. We could even see how they died! I hope that you are really convinced now.
Explore the Arctic
By
Linna Gao
I want to go to
the Arctic to stop pollution and global warming. People in the world are using
too much oil. If there is an oil spill people can`t stop it from going into the
ocean and the oil kills the animals and destroys their environment. People
build a lot of factories. The factories make the pollution in the air. It warms
the air so it melts the polar caps and causes global warming.
I want to go to help the
animals from becoming extinct. The ice on the ocean is melting and the polar
bears use the ice for platforms.They need to swim from ice floe to ice floe.
Without ice they get so tired that they drown. The polar bears use the platforms
to hunt seals. Since the ice is melting the polar bears can`t stand on
the ice to hunt seals anymore. There is less ice so the polar bears can`t hunt.
I want to go to the
Arctic to study new animals. If we can find new animals in the Arctic we might
find out ways to keep them from being extinct. If we found a new animal we can
study it and find out if we can use them to treat diseases. We can study the
new animal and see if their ancestors lived a long time ago and how did they
survived different changes in their environment.
These are the reasons why I want to go to the Arctic. Would you like to go with me? You can help them from becoming extinct. It is important for us to stop global warming. You can study the animals and learn how interesting they are! I hope you want to go to the Arctic.
Dinosaurs
By
Zachary Gombotz
Would you like to go
back into the time of the dinosaurs? These are my reasons why I want to
visit the land of the dinosaurs. People could see what the dinosaur’s life was
like. There might be ways to find out why they became extinct. Wouldn’t you
like to know what the dinosaurs looked like?
I want to go back in
time to see what dinosaur’s life was like. People could see if dinosaurs
ate food, such as meat, fish, or if they ate plants. We could study and find
out how dinosaurs lived with other kinds of dinosaurs. People could find out
about the groups of dinosaurs, like meat and plant eaters. Maybe there were
other species of dinosaurs?
I want to go back in the time of the dinosaurs to see what the dinosaurs looked like. We could see what the color the dinosaurs were, such as red and green. They might have used camouflage to protect themselves from other dinosaurs or if they wanted to attack other dinosaurs. They might have protected themselves from their predators in ways we did not know. People could see how tall or small they were. People could see the dinosaurs living in the Triassic, Cretaceous, or Jurassic Period .
I want to go back in the time of the dinosaurs to see what the dinosaurs looked like. We could see what the color the dinosaurs were, such as red and green. They might have used camouflage to protect themselves from other dinosaurs or if they wanted to attack other dinosaurs. They might have protected themselves from their predators in ways we did not know. People could see how tall or small they were. People could see the dinosaurs living in the Triassic, Cretaceous, or Jurassic Period .
I
want to go back in the time of the dinosaurs to see the way they became
extinct. People could see if they became extinct because they got hit by an
asteroid or if they sunk in the water. We could find out if the theory of
changing climate was the reason the dinosaurs became extinct. Could a volcano
have erupted causing the dinosaurs to die?
These
are my reasons why I want to go back into the time of the dinosaurs. I hope you
would want to see how they became extinct. We could discover what their life
was like. You could find out what they looked like.
Science
Students are in the process of studying rocks and minerals. They learned there are three types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. They also have discovered how these rocks are formed.
Once these concepts were introduced, students started learning about minerals. They are performing various scientific tests to learn the different properties of minerals.
In addition to discovering the properties of minerals, students have found out minerals are used in our everyday environment.
Mathematics
Students are working on multi-digit addition and subtraction in this unit. They are learning many strategies to add and subtract.
For addition, students might use partial sums, take the number apart, or add on one number in parts. Below is an example of one of the aforementioned strategies.
425 + 288 =
400 + 200 = 600
20 + 80 = 100
5 + 8 = 13
_______
713
For subtraction, they might break the number apart or add up from one number to the ending number.
650 - 596 = 54
596 + 4 = 600
600 + 50 = 650
50 + 4 = 54
Students have learned there are different types of subtraction problems. There are comparison, missing part or removal types of subtraction problems. They were able to write these various types of problems in class. Here are some examples of these types of problems. The students, however, wrote problems with three digits.
There is so much more to do in third grade!
