Saturday, October 2, 2010

Fun times in third grade

 We have started using a classroom economy.  Students receive credits and debits throughout the day.  They keep track of these in their “checkbooks.”  They also earn a “salary” for completing their classroom jobs. Different jobs earn different amounts according to difficulty.  They rotate jobs each week so that every child has a chance to try various things.   At the end of each week, students bring their checkbooks to me, and I write their “paycheck.”  They take their check to the classroom bank, where it is cashed, then head over to the classroom store to shop.  We are learning all about the economic principles of saving, spending, and giving this year.
Here is a picture of our classroom bank...



Our fall fundraiser had an interesting motivator.  The winner of the weeble wobble race won a gigantic red snake.  And the winner of the gigantic snake is...


The Gallik boys



Mrs. Vicki teaching about the parts of the flower




 Kathryn brought her puppy in to share all of the tricks that she has taught him.


Our class loved Bailey, the puppy.



We are memorizing the Preamble to the Constituition.  We took white paper and soaked it in tea for a few hours.  Once it dried, we were able to make our own Preamble on parchment paper.







Maycee brough her state quarter collection to share with the class.

We are working on a classroom book, which we will have published.  Here are the students working diligently on their first drafts.





Grocery Shopping

Recently our third grade class went "grocery shopping" without ever leaving the classroom.  (Special thanks to our neighborhood grocery store, Gardner's in Corinth, who donated the bags and advertisements)
 Since we are learning to add and subtract money, we decided to do a little "real-life" math to practice.  Each student had a grocery list, a grocery ad, and a grocery bag.  They were instructed to find the items on their list, cut and glue them to their bag, and figure out how much they spent.  After they totalled their amounts, they had to figure out how much chage they would receive if they had taken $50.00 to the store.  Here are a few picture of the students working...













The finished product