Pen Pals in Taipei, Taiwan!

Our students have been learning cooperatively with elementary students from Taipei, Taiwan. We are waiting to receive our second batch of letters from our new friends and could not be more excited! The students are learning about many different aspects of living in a different country. The students have learning about are the architecture of buildings in Taiwan, the weather, favorite Chinese/Taiwanese foods, and what our pen pals like to do in their free time. We are very excited to continue this learning experience and friendship. We are getting ready to send letters back to the students in Taipei.  ~Here is a link in case you would like to visit our friends' school in Taipei: http://www.columbiaenglish.com.tw/chinese/home.asp

  

Here is where our pen pals live!!  This building is the largest building in Taiwan.  The name of it is Taipei 101.  Many of the students from Taipei described this humongous building to our students.

Important Dates

 Please visit the Durango School District academic calendar to stay updated on any important dates!

http://www.durangoschools.org/calendar%2010%2011%20academic.pdf

Tuesday, May 18th, 12:30pm-Share Fair for Community Projects. Join us at 11:45 if you wish to eat lunch with your kiddo before the Share Fair.

Friday, May 21st- Walking Field Trip to the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College

Monday, May 24th-Field Trip to the Public Library

    May 27th- Last Day of School.

 

 

 

What We Are Working On

Math- This last week we worked on positive and negative numbers and worked on partner and group cooperative division activities with money.

Science- We just finished up with our water unit and have been studying rocks and minerals.  While studying water, the students learned about the process of the water cycle, explored different properties of water, and used the scinetific process to determine more characteristics about water. The students became professional water conservers and can tell you ways to help save water. Some of our scientists performed a Water Reader's Theatre to our buddy class, Mrs. Owens' kindergartenters.

Social Studies-The students are working diligently on their community projects. The students are using social studies, science, reading, writing and math concepts to create their own sustainable community.  These "community designers" will be thrilled to see and share their final projects at our Share Fair on May 18th.   

Reading/Writing- We are working on our last batch of letters to our pen pals and new friends in Taiwan. I hope some of the third graders will continue a correspondence on their own with their new friend across the world.  Furthermore, these wonderful writers have all recently had the experience of writing a fiction narrative.  In reading we are working on monitoring our comprehension through inferring, reacting to our reading and activating our minds when encountering new learnings.   

 

 

Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde Field Trip-

The students had a fantastic experience at Mesa Verde last week. While visiting our neighboring National Park, the students learned about how the Ancestral Puebloans sustained themselves 1,400 years ago.  The amount of intense and constant labor required to live was a mind-boggling concept to the third graders. The students asked great questions and worked hard inferring and drawing conclusions to the many unanswered questions regarding these ancient people. See photos below. 

 

 

Photos