Grade 3 Category
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 3) – Poetry in Practice
Jun. 29, 2016—Sometimes it can be challenging to generate subject material for poetry, so this morning we turned to music as well as randomly drawn topics to create new poems from our imaginations. We then practiced employing revision strategies, that poets at all levels use, to help make improvements to our poems. We are learning to use iambic pentameter–one...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 2) – Chemical Spill
Jun. 28, 2016—We had a fun second day of SAVY studying Chemical Spills!, complete with lots of hands-on experiments. Today we discussed a spill of sulfuric acid on an interstate in Florida. In order to understand the chemical (sulfuric acid) involved in the spill, we learned some fundamental properties of acids and bases. We learned both the...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 2) – Poetry in Practice
Jun. 28, 2016—Great poets turn to the world around them for inspiration, so we turned to our Vanderbilt campus to inspire us in our own poetry. We walked around campus listing and writing descriptions of the campus buildings, trees, wildlife, and people to use in our poems. Then, we turned to the work of poet Tomas Transtromer...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 1) – Chemical Spill
Jun. 27, 2016—We had a fast-paced first day of SAVY studying Chemical Spills!, filled with lots of class participation. I’m gearing up for a full four more days of learning, stimulating conversations, and fun! We started the day by brainstorming about the different kinds of chemical spills that we encounter—everything from household chemical spills to spills that...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 1) – Poetry in Practice
Jun. 27, 2016—Gregory Orr writes that there are four temperaments in poetry. These four elements don’t have to all be present in a poem, but several should be to make a good poem. Today we learned what these four temperaments are–story, structure, music, and imagination–and we examined poetry that uses these elements. We read poetry by Emily...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 2, Day 4) – Looking into Language
Jun. 23, 2016—Today we delved further into morphology. We talked about what morphemes are (the smallest bit of sound that has meaning) and the different kinds of morphemes (free vs. bound, content vs. functional). We also explored how morphemes can be combined to make words or to change them. We continued the game we began yesterday, which...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 2, Day 4) – Genetics II (Mrs. Jones)
Jun. 23, 2016—Every day your kids amaze me. Seriously. With every new topic I introduce, I think, “Surely this will be the one that stumps them.” But every time they prove me wrong. I am constantly blown away with their ability learn such complex topics and how much progress they have made in such a short amount...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 2, Day 4) – Genetics I (Dr. Zeiger)
Jun. 23, 2016—Today’s class was a fast paced day of genetics After learning about mutations, students mutated their Crazy Creatures to survive a new predator, the Frightus Catus. Ask your student about our mass extinction and about the real life ice fish that has antifreeze running through its veins! Students then learned about how geneticists specifically alter...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 2, Day 3) – Looking into Language
Jun. 22, 2016—Today we worked more with phonology, and we were introduced to morphology–how words are made and used. In the morning we had a Mystery Hunt in which students worked in teams to find clues based on instructions written in the IPA. Along with their adult chaperones, students ran all over Peabody’s campus, having fun and...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 2, Day 3) – Genetics II (Mrs. Jones)
Jun. 22, 2016—It was another great day in Genetics! Your students continue to amaze me with their ability to comprehend the various topics we are working through. Before I delve into what we learned today, I want to take a moment to explain one of the key learning tools we are using – we call them “Crazy...