Mapping Our Neighborhoods & a Virtual Fieldtrip

"Don't go to my house until I get back from the bathroom," Liam said as he rushed out the door. Confused? Well, today we had the chance to visit everyone's house in our classroom thanks to GoogleEarth. Using this program we flew over Stony Point and then got a bird's-eye view of where we all live. We noticed that Ms. Buchholz lives in a urban area, Charlie and Henry live in more suburban areas, while the rest of the class pretty much lives in rural areas.

Before we got to fly over and see where everyone lives, each of us drew a map of what we thought our neighborhoods looked like. The drawings you see here are the work of (from top to bottom) Ryan, Will, Zach, Anna Grace, and Clare.

The Other Way to Listen (Making a Sound Map)

Today (Friday, August 28, 2009) we went outside and sat down and listened. We recorded what we heard on a map of the area. We were inspired to do this after reading the book The Other Way to Listen by Byrd Baylor. In the book she says nature is always talking even if you're not paying attention. Today we took the time to pause and listen to the sounds right oustide our room. Take a look at some of the things we heard in just 15 minutes:

• hum of electricity coming from the building
• bird that sounded like it was saying "come here, come here"
• crows yapping, like they were saying, "get out of here"
• Liam talking
• birds mating
• Aiden's feet brushing against the grass and bonking against the fence
• airplane zooming and vrooming
• Mr. Wells talking
• birds chirping
• water dripping from a trailer, pitter patter
• kids stomping their feet
• thunder
• howling wind
• crickets chirping
• insects talking to each other
• animals moving in the woods
• frogs croaking
• birds chirping, sounded like "hello, how are you?"
• branch cracking
• cars flying by
• bees buzzing
• cardinal singing, "hi, hi"
• fence crackling

Being a Cartographer

With a little research we found out the the word "cartographer" means a person that makes maps. After that we had a chance to try mapping the area outside our classroom. The mysterious "snack-napper" left us a map of the area yesterday, but we realized that he/she had left some things off. Each of us tried to make our own map today with as much detail as possible. We realized how challenging it is to figure out what size to make things. In each of the maps you'll easily identify the three "learning cottages." We will continue making maps over the next few weeks so we'll hopefully post those too. The map above was created by Charlie. The maps below belong to Caleb, Tenley, and Kenley.

Hopes and Dreams

Today we took some time to think about what our hopes and dreams are for third grade. We wrote our own individual lists first and then some of us shared with the whole group. This conversation about our hopes will help us talk about the rules we think are important later this week. We need to think about what will help make our classroom a place that is safe and friendly where everyone can learn. Take a look at our hopes and dreams:

• I hope that I meet new friends.
• I'd like to finish Harry Potter 4.
• I hope that I can do a project on whatever I want.
• I hope we do lots of writing.
• I hope that I pass the SOLs.
• I really want to get better at math and art.
• I hope we go to art lots of times.
• I'd like to learn more about electonrics.
• I hope we learn multiplicaiton.
• I want to learn about the presidents.
• I hope to be a better artist.
• I hope we do science and history, especially acienct Rome.
• I hope to be better at reading.
• I hope to be better friends outside of school.
• I hope to do more writing than I did last year.
• I hope to learn all about animals.
• I hope I can make funny stories at writing time.
• I hope we play challenging games in PE.
• I hope I get some new friends!
• I want to get very good at singing.
• I hope we get to make pots in art like ancient Rome or Greece.
• I hope we play volleyball in PE.
• My dream is to be a photographer.
• I hope we draw more.
• I hope to make more friends this year.
• I hope we don't learn about BORING history.
• I hope I learn to type fast on the computer.
• I want to learn computer science.
• I hope we don't have to watch Spanish videos.
• I hope we only do math problems that don't involve strategies.

So many ideas! It makes me excited to think about spending the year with students who are motivated to accomplish so many things.