Third Grade Superheroes
  Third Grade Superheroes
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  • Home
  • INCREDIBLE Info
    • HERO Alerts
    • NewsFLASH
    • CAPTAIN Calendar
    • Hero Homework
    • Wish List
    • MARVELous Sites
  • SUPER Students
    • Hero of the Week
    • SUPER Snapshots
    • Hero Hideout
  • Communicator

 Superheroes at work And Play

CLASS OF 2022 - 2023
January 29, 2023
Third quarter is in full swing in Hero Headquarters. We continue to progress in all our subject areas. This week, I want to highlight some of the work the students have completed. The third grade artists completed snow scenes for our winter bulletin board. They even received a compliment on their work from a school visitor! The long lanky snowmen show off multiplication and division fact families. Our hall table displays the robots created in our Droid Depot room transformation. These robots house facts and opinions. Lastly, but probably the most challenging, are the three-paragraph stories hanging on our walls. The students wrote a creative piece entitled, “The Day I was a Snowflake.” Once the story was edited and published, some students moved to the final stage and cut a free-hand snowflake. (I will add these pics tomorrow!) The “hero hallway” is soaring with super work!

January 22, 2023
This week started third quarter in third grade. The mini heroes need to stay on top of their studies. I always feel that this quarter is the most challenging of the year! We have started adverbs in English, ‘bossy r’ words continue in Spelling, and timelines are still the focus in Social Studies. The students are progressing in our robot stories in Reading. Along with the typical comprehension and vocabulary lessons, our stories helped us with the new skill of ‘point of view.’ Math was the highlight of this week. The students learned how to graph on a coordinate plane. They also learned that the Cartesian Coordinate System was developed by Rene Descartes. The fiction story Fly on the Ceiling tells how this system was developed. We used the premise of the story and made it a game. The students played (while practicing this skill 😉) several rousing rounds of ‘Fly on the Ceiling’ (like the game Battleship). However, the true stars of the week were our Dash robots. Using the robots, Math and coding joined forces. The students coded their robots to find a particular point or object on a huge treasure map. This provided a lot of fun learning for the students. We do have a few technology glitches that we need to solve to make the next robot learning adventure even better. I must also say, we have the coolest robots in town. Check out the picture of our bots in their new “Bot Mobile.” It was made possible by auction donations to the third grade wish list. Thanks!!

January 15, 2023
          Beep! Clang! Zoink! Robots have zoomed right into our classroom. All reading groups have started fictional robot stories. One read aloud this week, Facts vs Opinions vs Robots, helped us review identifying facts and opinions. The students then read a nonfiction piece on robots and highlighted an important fact in each paragraph. We used those facts to create robots. On Friday afternoon, our classroom was transformed into “Droid Depot” (a la in Galaxy’s Edge/Walt Disney World). Here’s a little video that I shared with the students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbYmsqJYol0. Since we were in a robot factory, the students wore aprons and hard hats to work in the factory. They got a tray and moved down the table as the conveyor belt moved robot parts waiting to be selected. Once all selections were made, students used their tools (scissors, pencils, and glue) to assemble their very own robot. The robot body encases important intelligence: facts and opinions 😊
          Our remaining subject areas are also keeping us quite busy. Geometry is a fun unit, but it has a huge amount of new math vocabulary. We are still working on adjectives in English, but we took a break from the text lessons to use adjectives in a three-paragraph essay: The Day I Turned into a Snowflake. We started timelines in Social Studies and will use that knowledge along with some research to create a timeline on a ‘super’ historical individual: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. My superhero squad continues to fly…until next time.
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January 8, 2022​
Third grade soared into 2023 with a KAPOW! The highlights of our week centered around melting snowmen and pie. Our third graders were turned into snowmen—via a Math escape room activity—and had to use division facts to prevent themselves from melting. (This was tricky since the weather was so warm 😊) The students worked very hard on this activity! By the conclusion (almost 2 hours later – yikes!), we had a 75% success rate and only a few slushy snowmen. English introduced us to adjectives, while Science culminated in a simple machines graded activity. Additional frosty activities included making a snowman fact family for Math and artistic snow scenes for our hall bulletin board. In Reading, we focused on the skill “author’s purpose.” This uses the acronym P.I.E., which stands for persuade, inform, and entertain. We dressed as pie chefs while searching for examples of books to identify their purpose and worked on an author’s purpose group activity. The grand conclusion of the week was enjoying a very small slice of (real) pie! Needless to say, the students were as happy as pie (pun intended)!
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January 1, 2023
     Prior to Christmas break, we were able to wrap up a few units. The verbs unit in English was completed with an in-class assignment. We finished our practice on the 6 – 9 multiplication facts and took a sneak peek at division facts. Most importantly, we concluded our Home Alone STEM project. In the pictures below, the students are working on building simple machine traps in their “houses” to catch the bad guys. Additional holiday activities were sprinkled into our busy days!
     Parents and students, I just want to take a minute to express my sincerest gratitude for the Christmas gift you all put together. I love the bag and all the goodies included inside (many of which have already been put to good use)! I hope all of you had a joy-filled holiday!
​     We will be kicking off the New Year in true third grade fashion – with a few activities. I am looking forward to getting back to our routines as we inch closer to becoming fourth graders! Happy New Year!
     PS - Make sure you have seen the Third Grade Christmas card (emailed to you) that featured eighteen "Candy Cane Cuties!!"

December 18, 2022
​​HO! HO! HO! It’s time for the show! So, while we forged ahead in our subject areas, we were also very busy with show rehearsals. Thanks so much to Ms. Alexander for all her help and guidance with our
performance routine and practices. Please make sure you have seen the attire requirements (check HERO Alerts). We have also made time for other Christmas festivities. We are busy with our “Home Alone” STEM project that focuses on simple machines. Time was finally made to decorate our group Christmas trees. Several students assembled our Lego advent wreath. We will use that to make a comparison between the advent wreath and the kinara used during Kwanzaa. The students made a “Legend of the Candy Cane” craft to adorn our hallway. Candy canes have certainly been important for third grade this year (this is a show hint 😊). Concluding our week, the students enjoyed a holiday donut that was given to us by the winner of our nativity set. She really appreciated all of the work put into the set and loved it so much that she wanted to show a little appreciation to our third grade artists. That was such a sweet and yummy compliment for the students!

December 11, 2022
This is your last chance to grab this special item from the auction. Your students worked extremely hard on this project. Just look at those adorable paintings! Happy Advent!
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December 4, 2022
December has certainly arrived in HERO Headquarters! We have started several new subject units: verbs in English, multiplication in Math, and a Kwanzaa study/comparison in Reading. We have also started a force, motion, and simple machines unit in Science, which will lead to one of my absolute favorite STEM projects of the year! While in the midst of our studies, we made advent calendars for each of our seating groups. Thanks to Mrs. Estrella and Holland for sending those to us! The third graders have started
practicing their song for the Christmas show. Check out the most recent newsletter for show attire requirements. We also started a “secret” project: the third grade artists completed a STREAM project that actually started before Thanksgiving. Many thanks to my daughter for taking time off work to help the mini heroes wood burn and paint their individual piece of this project. Mr. Flores completed the math and some engineering of this project for me at home (measuring and cutting wood). Teaching in a Catholic school is a family affair! I have given you a sneak peek into this project with some pictures below. The completed set will be in our school’s auction starting this week. You don’t want to miss this one-of-a-kind project! 



November 27, 2022
Prior to Thanksgiving break, my little turkeys were busy! We concluded our subtraction, spiders, and nouns units. With the help of the book How to Catch a Turkey, we wrote sequences on how to catch the infamous “St. Columba Turkey” (from a couple of years ago). The students assembled a turkey to house their completed sequence. We also used that book to build turkey traps for STEM. The book Our Table led
into a second Thanksgiving STEM project. Using dominoes and popsicle sticks, students had to build a table big enough to hold all their Thanksgiving dishes. Of course, none of the dishes could hang off the table or touch. The builders quickly found out this challenge was not as easy as it originally seemed. To conclude our short week, the students and I enjoyed time outside watching and snacking at the annual seventh and eighth grade football game. I hope everyone had a restful and blessed Thanksgiving. It’s now time to embrace “Christmas Chaos.”  :-()



Happy Thanksgiving!
from Mrs. Flores and the Third Grade Artists
November 20, 2022
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November 13, 2022
We were blessed with a week of nice November weather. The students so look forward to playing outside during recess! In Headquarters, we are moving right along in our subtraction practice and map skills lessons. On Thursday, eight random students were tasked with solving and explaining a subtraction problem to the class. I sat with the other students and “took a break.” They did such a great job!! The stories shared to explain regrouping were priceless! It was like watching a “mini-me.” I told myself, “They
have been listening to you teach!” 😊 During one explanation, a couple of the students even disrupted the “teacher.” Okay, yes, it was me--just keeping it real. Anyway, this little activity made my heart so happy and provided us a little fun!! In English, we have concluded nouns. Again, we participated in an exciting game of Connect 4 to help us review. Spider stories will come to an end with a comprehension test, and we will move to Thanksgiving stories. These stories will need to be completed outside of class time. More information to come in the near future. However, the highlight of this week was our guided drawing lesson. There are a few photos of the third grade artists hard at work on their masterpieces for our bulletin board and a few sneak peeks of finished pictures. Enjoy!

November 6, 2022
Warning! If you suffer from arachnophobia, stay out of our third grade hallway. Spiders—of all varieties—are on the loose. Black widows, tarantulas, brown recluses, and even a peacock spider (to name just a few) have been spotted crawling around the hallway. Luckily, during the school day when the students are around, we have good little spiders who like to sit on the table and be admired by onlookers. The students did a nice job with their spider projects! A SUPER thanks to Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Humphrey for our Halloween party. The students enjoyed all the yummy treats! Be sure to check us out as we are featured in the November edition of the school’s newsletter. We have soared right into second quarter with new adventures ahead. Until next time….
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October 30, 2022
My goodness, it is almost November! Hero Headquarters continues to be laser-focused with learning. In Math, we are concluding addition and moving onto subtraction with regrouping. This often needs a lot of practice: please be sure to work with your student on this skill. We are almost finished with our spider stories in Reading. The students also used their iPads to research spider facts for their project. English has us learning about nouns. We enjoyed a rousing game of Connect 4 to review plural nouns! We continue to explore communities in Social Studies. Vowel sounds will continue to be our focus in Spelling. Through the month, we have enjoyed several good Halloween stories. Halloween is definitely in the air in Headquarters. I am looking forward to seeing the superheroes step out of their capes and don other costumes. 😊 Happy Haunting!
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October 23, 2022

 Extra! Extra! Read all about it:
Superheroes Become STC3 News Reporters!
October 19, 2022 The third-grade superheroes at St. Columba School took on an additional role as news reporters this week. That’s right, you heard it here first! By reporting the news, they learned cause and effect skills. They also used their acting skills and found a good use for all of that “eight-year-old drama” stirring inside them. 😊 Be sure to watch the video clips of this riveting reporting. You will find out the scoop on several current events: what happened when Alexander went to sleep with gum in his hair, or what happened when the wolf got sick and sneezed, or what happened when the mosquito told a lie, or what happened when people made fun of Chrysanthemum. I have also included some footage of smaller events in and around our community. Be sure to watch this must-see tv over on our NewsFlash page! For the best viewing, you will need to pump up the volume. Below, you will find a few photos of the reporters hard at work while preparing their stories. Enjoy!



October 16, 2022
The mini heroes were very happy to have more outside time this past week during PE and recess. Inside of headquarters, we were busy progressing in our subject areas. In Math, we have started an addition unit, English has us practicing nouns, spider stories and related skills continue in Reading, and we are exploring communities in Social Studies. Our three-minute multiplication test proved to most of the third graders that multiplication facts NEED to be studied on a regular basis. To conclude the week, the students worked in their groups to decorate the group pumpkin. Those pictures are below. Also pictured below are a couple of pics from our new October centers. The students have the option to write a scary story at the writing center or put “Bonaparte the Skeleton” back together at this Science and Math center. October will be over before you know it! Take time to enjoy the nice weather.

October 9, 2022
We survived three days of indoor recess this week thanks to the rainy, dreary weather! However, we did not let that slow us down. The mini heroes completed two units of study–place value and sentences. We spent a lot of time discussing how to study during the week. Please continue to work with your mini heroes on improving study skills. We are moving right along in all our other subjects as well. Our weekly newsletter shows a snapshot of those topics. The highlight of our week was the reopening of “Hero Hospital.” The mini heroes suited up and transformed into surgeons to save our patients (sentences). The surgeons used their scalpels (scissors) to dissect sentences into subjects and predicates. They used tweezers, liquid stitches (glue), and sponges to accomplish this task. Our big back table is the recovery room, the lunch cart is the patient transport, and our tv is the heart monitor. All in all, the surgeons did a pretty good job–only one or two patients ended up on the floor! Enjoy the pics and video clip (scroll to the LIVE section)! 
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October 2, 2022
​Once again, HERO Headquarters was busy with mini heroes learning. We are settling more and more into our new third grade routines as the weeks come and go. The students will be concluding two units–Math and English–this week. It is time to start teaching your third grader how to study. These are lessons that will pay off down the road of their education. I will also be giving them pointers on how to study for these upcoming tests. (We have already discussed how to study for Spelling–please do not skip the study time.) Learning to study will be extremely important as the students transition to letter grades next school year, so start now! Last week also brought the conclusion to potato week. We read and shared many fiction and nonfiction selections on potatoes as we worked to distinguish the two. The students enjoyed learning about a 17-pound potato and the pros and cons of genetically modified potatoes! They even got to see Farmer Flores harvesting potatoes. By week’s end, we took our official superhero portraits! The additional pics show the students working on a fiction/nonfiction sort and a little sneak peek into the artwork for our new October bulletin board. Enjoy!

September 25, 2022
Happy Fall, y'all!! It's hard to believe that October is just around the corner! Potatoes invaded Hero Headquarters last week! We read several nonfiction and fiction selections on potatoes. We are using those readings to compare fiction and nonfiction. The fiction selections helped us identify the story elements and continue to examine how characters change. The nonfiction selections are helping us begin our exploration of nonfiction text features. We also incorporated potatoes into our Science studies. We discussed diagrams and their purposes. The students practiced making diagrams by using a costumed “Mr. Potato Head.” Then, using magnifying glasses, we observed a real potato and potato skin. The students used the five senses while making explorations as they documented and diagrammed their findings. To conclude the week, we read the story Potato Pants, which led to our STEM project. The students had to make a pair of pants for a real potato! Who knew that potatoes could be so much fun?!

September 18, 2022
The mini heroes conquered our first big mission of the year – standardized testing (the first couple of pics). We have now concluded our tests and will return to our normal schedule this week. Hopefully, I will be able to share more on these tests by conference time in November. We are all learning about these new tests together!
During the week, we completed a mini-Science unit on the five senses. Now, we are using that information to apply our senses to writing, reading, and making observations. On Friday afternoon, we wrote a five senses poem using a great topic – POPCORN. We used our senses to brainstorm a list of sensory words to describe popcorn and then used those words for our poems. Of course, we munched a little popcorn along the way for inspiration! So far, only one poem is completely done (see the pic). We will finish up this coming week. I will display these tasty treats in the hallway.

September 11, 2022
During our second week in headquarters, we soared right into our content areas. The mini heroes conquered blends in Spelling, started place value skills in Math, made connections in Reading, and mastered kinds of sentences in English. Miss Johnson has started Religion lessons with the third graders. Also, we have now attended all of our “specials” classes. On Thursday and Friday, we spent time discussing our new standardized test that we will tackle this coming week. We even got to use our new iPads to complete some practice tests prior to the “real thing.” St. Columba’s theme this year is “Be the Light.” This week’s pictures feature our bulletin boards. The students also made lightbulbs for our smaller bulletin board. Last, but certainly not least, all of the students chose superhero names during our first week of school. I use these names when calling students to participate in various activities. I created a word cloud with those names. Try and find the name of your mini hero!
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September 4, 2022
This week, Hero Headquarters welcomed 16 new recruits. The mini heroes are learning their new routines and procedures as we begin our yearlong mission of conquering third grade. The first activity for the students was sharing something they did over summer by using Play-doh. Later that day, we discussed teamwork. First, the mini heroes had to work together to build a skyscraper without talking to each other. Next, we made a second attempt at the skyscraper with talking. Then, we compared which was easier
and why. The next day’s discussion focused on using unkind words. The students used toothpaste to learn the lesson that unkind words hurt, and we shouldn’t use them in the first place. On Thursday, each student designed a pair of Lego glasses to tell all about him- or herself. That same afternoon, we made a huge spiderweb out of yarn. The web taught us the lesson that, as a class, we are stronger and better together. We concluded the week with Mass and our very first (escape room-style) superhero mission. Almost all of the week’s activities, lessons, and discussions were supported by read-aloud books. We had a busy but very productive week. I hope each student saw the lights of their superhero bracelet shining bright over the weekend!

August 28, 2022
WELCOME new superhero recruits! I am so happy you have joined STC's Hero Headquarters this year for third grade. I can't wait to meet you on August 30! We are going to have a super year! 
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June 18, 2022
To my Dear 2021 - 2022 Third Grade Superheroes,
There is only one thing left to say:
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June 10, 2022
I am so proud of my Third Grade Superheroes. They practiced all week on delivering and presenting their Reading Fair presentations. They were ready and excited!! The heroes also received many compliments. After the fair, the students were treated to a “Book Buffet” to celebrate all of their accomplishments during our year together. Thanks to all of the volunteers and students who visited our classroom to listen to their presentations and offer advice. A special thank you to my daughter (my mini me) who took the
day off of work to help us set everything up for the fair. This week, the students also met their “Mary Poppins” themed Spelling challenge with enthusiasm! Last, but certainly not least, the heroes enjoyed their McDonald’s lunch. One student shared that he ate so fast that he had heart burn! They loved it! Enjoy the photo dump and be sure to check out the new videos posted on our NewsFlash page!! The end is in sight -- Hero Headquarters will be closing soon. ☹

June 5, 2022
This was an exciting week in HERO Headquarters. The mini heroes sent home their McDonald’s lunch flyer – Kapow!! We commemorated that moment with a class pic –  Flash
!! They were even more excited to learn that their lunch would be free – Zap!! Later that day, we opened the STC Superhero Cafe and made edible landforms and bodies of water. This helped us review our Science lesson. In Math, we calculated supply costs and profits for our lemonade stands. The students are enjoying the read aloud book, The Lemonade War, which accompanies this Math project. We are *nervously* looking forward to the upcoming Reading Fair on June 10. Don’t forget, the doors open to third grade parents at 1:40 (until 2 pm). The students will not be dismissed until regular time that day, so please don’t plan on taking them early: yes, there is a reason! 😊 This coming week, we will delve into the world of stop motion animation. There’s never a dull moment in headquarters!!
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May 29, 2022
Time is just flying by as we set our sights on the end of the school year. We are working on our big I Survived reading finale in class. Students should also be working on it at home too. You will see from the pics that we continued to work on our gem excavation: all gems have been found! We also did a soil observation using a cellular device microscope that magnified 30x. As always, the mini heroes are learning and exploring. We have exciting news on our McDonald’s project from earlier in the year. However, more on that later...stay tuned!

May 22, 2022
YAY, we met our fundraising goal in the Fun Run!! Thanks so much to all of the parents, students, grandparents, relatives, friends, and ALL who helped! We should have a donut party coming in the near future. Also, a big "thank you" to all who participated in our annual Walk for Education. In class, we started our I Survived books. I will be sending display boards and directions home (hopefully) this week. Students
have reading packets to help them take notes and remember the important events in their stories. We also went on a “Gem Excavation” this week. While we had good intentions, our schedule only allowed a couple of people to dig this week, but it will continue this coming week. The students had a great and hot field day!! It was good to break our normal routine with some outside time. The last two pictures show my mini heroes posing in Egypt. This is based on one of the chapter books a group just finished reading. They were so eager to show me the setting and story that they brought to life!! (However, I think Egypt has since been invaded and is now ‘The Lounge,’ but it was great while it lasted.)                                        Way to go, Superheroes!
😊​

May 15, 2022
Once again, last week proved to be a busy yet productive week for the mini heroes. All reading groups finished up their chapter books! We read some great books this past month or so! These books also provided a good challenge for the students. Now, we are moving on to survive the end of the school year
with the I Survived series and our reading fair. Please make sure you have read the email sent this past Wednesday, May 11. We are touching on some quick topics in Math to prepare for our end of year Scantron. Those tests are this week. Please make sure your student eats a good breakfast and is rested. Of course, all students need to be on time to school. It just makes for a smooth morning before we transition to our testing session. IXL is a good source of review for English/Language Arts and Math topics!! Our week concluded with the mini heroes coding their robots to meet various challenges. Prior to the coding session, we enjoyed a mini STEM session to build a bulldozer attachment for the Dash robots with Legos. Check out the pics to see the students and robots in action! I have also posted a few pics from our hall bulletin board, “STEMories.” There are many pics on this bulletin board that show our STEM carnival student engineers at work. Additionally, my third grade photo booth photographers’ pictures are posted. They did a nice job with the pics!! This week coming up, we conclude with the Fun Run and Walk for Education. Also, if you need service hours, please see our Class Wish List. Info on the events and wish list can be found on our Hero Alerts page on this website. 

May 8, 2022
        OMG, third grade superhero parents!! I am so very appreciative and humbled by the cards, flowers, and gifts. Your thoughtfulness and generosity just made my day! My giraffe flowers are still beautiful, and I have enjoyed a Starbucks coffee and chips (not together though). I used Amazon and Target cards to get surprises for the students at a later date. Since it's been so chilly, I have used the throw from the basket. It’s just been SUPER--thanks again!
          During the week, May 4th was one of our favorite days! The force was definitely with us as we celebrated Star Wars Day. We weaved Star Wars themed academics into all areas of our day. However, a coding challenge with our droids (Dash robots) was a highlight. You can see from the pics that our robots even got in on the Star Wars fun with their crowns. We concluded the day with mini light sabers. See the short video clip on the NewsFLASH page. 
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May 1, 2022
Superman states, “I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” As we returned from spring break, we were able to do just that: persevere and endure. We started the week by getting back into our routines and schedule, and by Thursday, we were ready to perform surgery! The students were tasked with operating on words to form contractions. Only “scalpels” (aka scissors), tweezers, and band-aids were allowed in the operating room. I think our scalpels may have been a little rusty. Out of 17 patients, we only managed to save 10. Oh my ! That same afternoon, one of my reading groups enjoyed a special group of visitors. That group is reading a fiction book that has ties to Shakespeare. A group of 8th graders came to share their experience in reading and viewing a Shakespeare play. It was wonderful chatting and sharing with those 8th graders!! They brought so much enthusiasm about Shakespeare to our reading group. Of course, my other reading group listened in on the discussion. The 8th graders and I couldn’t help but do a little reminiscing about their time in 3rd grade. I (and the students) even remembered where they sat in my 3rd grade class 😊. Many thanks to Mr. Schroeder and the 8th graders for the visit! To conclude the week, we enjoyed the goodness (Dash robots) on that little blue cart (see pic). I made sure I sat that cart out earlier during the week to pique the curiosity of my mini heroes, and they could hardly wait!! During May, we will use those robots to learn and practice coding skills during our STEM time. We had a great time with the robots!

April 14, 2022
Have a SUPER fabulous Easter break! I will see you on April 25th rested and ready to soar.
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April 9, 2022
Last week began with a wonderful trip to the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Usually, the students attend this trip in second grade, however that was not possible last year. So, Mrs. Galbreath and I collaborated to make it happen this year. The students attended a very informative guided tour of the facility. Many thanks to Mrs. Galbreath and our chaperones for making the trip a reality! Later in the week, we attended our school’s first ever STEM Carnival. The students thoroughly enjoyed playing the games their schoolmates created as well as working our own events, Photo Booth with props and SUPER Frisbee Toss. I walked away from this event feeling SUPER proud of all of our St. Columba stemgineers!! 

April 3, 2022
It was a whirlwind of a week in HERO Headquarters. Lots of extras factored into our schedule that kept us
super busy! We have been busy planning, creating, and building “events” for our STEM carnival. I posted a few sneak peek pics below. The mini heroes are excited to see “their stuff coming together” as they put it. The students took the Faith Knowledge Assessment for the first time (it starts in third grade). Then–on short notice–we were asked to sing for the Cardinal’s visit. The “hero choir” only had 3 sessions to practice. They did a terrific job! I even got a little teary-eyed during one song as I thought to myself, “Look at my babies singing their little hearts out. They sound so nice!” What was even nicer was watching that little choir hug and congratulate each other when they were all finished. They were so nervous but were complimented by many! I tried to get a pic of them too. Please keep a check on our calendar: several adjustments have been made or will be made for uniform requirements as we march into Spring break. Thanks!

March 27, 2022
On Friday, March 25, the mini heroes and I closed out third quarter. It is hard to believe that our time is quickly coming to an end. Until then, we will keep working hard! This week, in a nutshell, we worked on suffixes, fractions, pronouns, new chapter books, and concluded the weather and world units. I realized that I never shared the last big writing project we completed. So, the pics from this week highlight the students’ “Magical Boxes of Chocolate.” Prior to writing, we set the scene: each student went into a candy shop and purchased a magical box of chocolates. The box had to be set up with wishes made for someone else in their life. Each chocolate represents one wish that person would enjoy and why. You will see from the pics that someone in our STC family was granted a new gaming system, vacation, and robot 😊 Enjoy!

March 20, 2022
The mini heroes steamed into last week full speed ahead. We had a mobile STEAM museum visit our school. The students enjoyed exploring, trying out, and investigating the items in the museum. During the week, we continued our studies. We will be concluding long division soon–practice, practice, and practice! The students learned about theme in reading. Some of our pics show students meeting in groups and reading a picture book. Then each group had to find the theme of their story. Once again, they are doing a nice job! We started pronouns in English and continued to track the weather in Science. We also finished our “Limitless Luck” STEM project. The students learned that the stem project centered on probability. This was a fun way to sneak in a little more Math 😊 We also decided that we are going to use part of this project for our schoolwide STEM carnival. But, of course, it will be superhero themed!

March 13, 2022
Top of the morning to you! I hope everyone remembered to “spring forward” this weekend. Speaking of which, our mini heroes have done just that – sprung forward! It’s so wonderful to see the leaps they are taking in their studies. The students are doing a nice job with long division (please practice at home). We made anemometers this week and are now tracking the weather looking for trends and patterns. We have completed our Reading chapter books and will be moving on to new books. The students are writing more: they are learning and practicing paragraph development. We played “Trashketball” to review for our Unit 5 English test. If you answered your review questions correctly, you got to crumple it up and try to make a basket! The students were a little nervous when Mrs. Patton walked in on us shooting paper balls everywhere but she knows to expect the unexpected when superheroes are involved. She took it all in stride…whew!!  Moving on, English will bring our last new ‘parts of speech’ unit. This past Friday, our theme for the day was “luck.” We were so lucky to have witnessed our upper-wing students lead the Stations of the Cross. The older students did such a wonderful job, and our third graders were so moved by stations! They said they can’t wait until it’s their turn. It’s been two years since we have all been together in the church for stations. That in and of itself was encouraging and inspiring. Also on Friday, each Reading group read a selection that had something to do with luck. We discussed bad/good luck superstitions and charms. This led to our “Limitless Luck” STEM activity. The students were tasked with making a four-leaf clover frisbee/coin. The challenge is to make sure your frisbee/coin always lands face-up. During this process—I just want you to know—I was deemed a good luck charm by Rocco. How blessed am I 😊 This activity will continue this coming week - stay tuned!!

March 6, 2022
The students celebrated Reading this past week. It is crucial that our mini heroes are always reading. Be sure to talk to them about their reading to check for understanding. Many have developed into fluent readers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are understanding the words they are calling. Reading discussions will also help you get a good feel for their reading interests and preferences. Family read-togethers are super ways to encourage reading!! Some of the pics below show mixed reading groups comparing and contrasting their carnival stories. Each group read a book that centered on a different type of carnival. Our stories and discussions will also give us a few ideas when we need to plan and build for our future STEM carnival. The students did a nice job with their Venn diagrams. We took a huge step in Math this week--the dreaded long division is finally here!! To divide, the students must know their multiplication facts. I can’t say this enough: the students must know those facts. Long division takes practice, so please help your third grader by setting aside some practice time. Our super quotes (complete with lightning bolt quotes and commas) have been displayed in our hallway. I have included several pics. It is definitely looking like spring in our hallway! Now, we just need the weather to cooperate.

February 27, 2022
It’s hard to believe that March is right around the corner. Our mini heroes are getting ready to soar into fourth grade before we know it! The Guardians of Kindness struck once again by making a welcome kit for a new STC student in the upper wing. During the week, the students continued working in all subject areas. They turned in awesome African-American scrapbooks, and I can’t wait to read through them. We practiced our multiplication and regrouping skills, which included an exhilarating game of Hulk Smash! Be sure to check out the video. The students continued reading our “Carnival” stories. It has been so fun to see the third graders so engaged in these stories. We have had some super discussions and revelations as we read together! On Friday, we made superhero masks. Then the superheroes donned their capes and newly made masks and wrote “super quotes.” The mini heroes cast lightning bolts for some of the punctuation!! Since we were already dressed in our superhero garb, we decided to remind the rest of the school that superheroes are in their midst. We did this with a little parade--it was just a little Friday fun!! Be sure to see the video on the NewsFLASH page!
February 20, 2022
This week in Headquarters started with a super Valentine’s Day party. Again, thanks to our room-moms for all they do for us. The Guardians of Kindness (our kindness club) made and put Valentines on the windshields of all of our teachers. Hopefully, this small act put a smile on the teachers’ faces! The week continued with our typical routines…with one exception. The mini heroes were so sweet and supportive while helping me problem solve. We were able to put our reading skills of making inferences to good use. They even put on plastic gloves to evaluate evidence (just like detectives, according to them). We found clues, took notes, made conclusions, and wrote letters all in an effort to help me out. They were so engaged that they worked all Friday afternoon! 😊 The students also found that the discussions on nutrition with Mr. Barnhardt throughout the week were very helpful in making their inferences. I am thrilled to report that all of their hard work has paid off. I am feeling so refreshed and energized! THANKS, mini heroes!!

February 13, 2022
Our mini heroes had plenty of mission objectives this week. We completed our geometry unit and started multiplying 2-digits with regrouping. Our new English unit has us refining our capitalization and punctuation skills. We jumped back into our world unit in Social Studies. In Reading, we continued our carnival stories while practicing context clues. Indiana Flores made an appearance in the film short The Temple of Zoom to help us with context clues. The Guardians of Kindness (our new kindness club) worked on a little secret project to be revealed on Monday. Last, but not least, we worked on (but didn’t finish) a three-paragraph writing craftivity called “The Magical Box of Chocolates.” After the picture overload from last week, I just have a few pics to show our ‘happy seating groups.’
😊

February 6, 2022
We had an awesome Catholic Schools Week in HERO Headquarters! On Monday, we used Legos to practice area and perimeter. That afternoon, we built adventure, fantasy, or realistic stories using Legos. Tuesday afternoon brought us the challenge of the domino rally. This was a lot of fun for the whole school. Of course, since we’re superheroes, we set up our section a little differently. Be sure to check out our video. After open house on Wednesday, we got our furry friends and slipped into our slippers to enjoy a little flashlight reading. The third graders definitely brought their “A-game” all day long on Thursday. We started the day playing geometry Jenga. During indoor recess, the students played traditional board games. During reading, we played reading skill games. To conclude the week, we dressed our best for Jesus while attending Mass. That day finished with the mini heroes playing geometry Hedbanz and Bingo! In our pictures, you will also notice all of the different “dress-up” days the students participated in during the week!! Whewwww! What fun!

January 30, 2022
This week, HERO Headquarters was alive with learning. I was secretly waiting for Friday–one of my favorite days of the year. Once Friday finally arrived, we celebrated “International Lego Day!!”
Our mini heroes transformed into Lego Master Builders. The builders donned their hard hats and got to work building their favorite animals. We then used our Legos to learn about perimeter in Math. The builders made ornaments for our Lego tree (something I wanted to set up for years!!). During lunch, we enjoyed a bit of the Lego Movie and ate Lego brick brownies. Our festivities were cut short by the early release announcement. I promised the builders that we would continue on Monday! Until then, enjoy our pics and Leg godt!

January 23, 2022
It was a short week in HERO Headquarters: we reassembled and reviewed our objectives as we aim to complete our third grade mission successfully. We continued our studies in our subject areas. On Friday afternoon, we tested our snow shovels. Our tests helped us draw some new conclusions in snow shovel construction. The pictures this week show our multiplication and division fact families, mini polar bear projects, and the snow fun division facts. Wait…what’s that picture of the white tree all about??? Stay tuned!!

January 16, 2022
As they say in showbiz, “That’s a wrap!” We have concluded our distance learning, and we’re moving onward to being together again in Superhero Headquarters. The students accomplished a lot over the last two weeks: they identified and used three new types of adjectives; learned division facts, multiplication/division fact families, delved three lessons into our new Geometry unit; explored blizzards, polar bears, problem/solution, and main idea in reading; deepened their new knowledge on blizzards in Science with tools needed for blizzards including how salt works; they started our timeline and Dr. King unit in Social Studies; and studied two new units in Spelling; we even drew polar bears! On our last day together, we shared books, and the students masterfully escaped from a main idea escape room. Phewww! I am so proud of the students for their hard work. We didn’t let a little distance keep us from progressing. Thanks to you too, Superhero Parents! I will see everyone bright and early in Headquarters on Tuesday, January 18. 

January 7, 2021
Well, here we are again --- in a virtual learning setting! The students and I are making it work. I want to thank Mother Nature for sending us some snow and a snow day! The snow helped set the mood for our week of activities. (It was 60 degrees when I planned the week.) We spent our time together working on division facts, multiplication and division fact families, adjectives, long e words, and blizzard facts. The students ended the week with a STEM activity. Their challenge was to create a snow shovel out of the given materials. We will test the shovels with rice and marshmallows once we return to school. The pic below shows their shovels in the making.

December 19, 2021
Wow!! What a week for our mini superheroes! They did a super nice job with their song and Principal presentation!! I am very proud of the third graders! Also, THANKS to all superhero parents for encouraging, supporting, and dressing your mini hero!
Hopefully, you will receive our song video soon. The pop of red in their outfits and the white gloves really brought our video to life!

Mrs. Patton and Mrs. Vickers were VERY impressed with the McDonald’s presentation. They commented on the professionalism of the students and the excellent quality of their work. The students were nervous, but the STC3 Partners worked as a team to deliver. They were definitely dressed for success! They are eagerly awaiting Mrs. Patton’s decision after Christmas break. A BIG thank you to Mrs. Lauren Downs for twice giving up her planning period to watch us rehearse and offer feedback.
At the beginning of the week, we used our iPads and QR codes to find a Kwanzaa site for research
purposes. Then later in the week, the students worked together to complete a Lego advent wreath. We will use the wreath to compare and contrast it to the Kwanzaa kinara.
We are also busily working on our Home Alone project. We will conclude it on Monday with presentations of the simple machines, aka “bad guy traps.”
Christmas excitement is definitely in the air! I hope you all have a wonderful and restful Christmas break! (Be sure to check out all of our pics!)
Until next year--


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December 12, 2021
Well, it was another busy week in headquarters. The students are working hard on their Christmas song and McDonald’s presentation. The dates I sent in the email are correct – so it’s all going down this week! Remember to send us all the positive thoughts and good vibes 😊
In Religion, the students discussed the Feast of St. Nicholas. On December 6, the students celebrated by placing their shoes out in the hall in the hopes of a quick visit from St. Nick himself!! After lunch, we all found yummy treats in our shoes. THANKS, St. Nick!!

December 5, 2021
We returned from Thanksgiving break and went straight to work. In our studies, we are learning multiplication, map skills, long and short “u” sounds, verbs, and concluding our Reading stories. While completing our studies, we needed to begin our Christmas show song rehearsals and continue developing our McDonald’s presentation. To end the week, we glittered stars for the December bulletin board. Whew!!! Unfortunately, we were so busy that I forgot to take a lot of pictures. However, I do have one of Julie and her ‘hat’ makerspace project and a pic of Lorris’ show and tell. Be sure to check out and share our Classroom Angel Wish List: our third grade superheroes picked out the Lego set and books for our classroom, like Judy Moody and Mr. Penguin titles (to be purchased with the Amazon gift card). ‘Tis the season to be busy!!

November 25, 2021
Even though we had a short week, the third grade turkeys were quite busy! To review for our subtraction test, we completed a Turkey Trot Mathsgiving activity. The students had to roam the room to find their problems. By solving the math problems, the answers revealed the letters to solve a Thanksgiving riddle. The next day we concluded the subtraction unit. We listened to the story How to Catch a Turkey, and the students created booklets, which detailed their own plans on how to catch a turkey. We also listened to the story Our Table, and the students created tables using dominoes and popsicle sticks that had to hold five dishes without overlapping or hanging off the table. This proved to be a challenge! Hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and break. See you soon!

November 21, 2021
     This past Tuesday, Mrs. Galbreath arranged to have Farmer Sharon come to school with her pet turkey. Luckily, she invited us to attend the Farmer’s presentation. We learned so many new turkey facts. The students were also allowed to pet the turkey! Many thanks to Mrs. Galbreath!
     During conferences, I mentioned to a few of you that our classroom makerspace was now open. Makerspaces provide hands-on, creative ways to encourage students to design, experiment, build, and invent as they engage in science, engineering, and tinkering. I have included a few pics of student creations. The Lego tree was created by Rocco, Maggie created a calavera, and Gen created a turkey! Some students choose to use a personal STEM bin to create, some students use this time to play a math game, and other students are planning and designing their own projects. This is definitely one of the students’ favorite times of day!
     Our class wish list is now on this site. Donations to our makerspace – for service hours – will certainly help us out! Thanks!!

November 15, 2021
It was nice chatting with all of you during conference time. The third graders got to enjoy some extra outside time during St. Columba’s most popular sporting event of the year: the 7th and 8th grade football game. Congratulations to the 7th grade!


November 7, 2021
Over the last week or so, the third grade superheroes have been flexing their creative muscles! They made masks in Spanish for Día de los Muertos. Spider models were created to complement our spider research books. We also completed our first guided drawing of the year. Turkey scenes were drawn and colored. They are now displayed on our bulletin board for the month. Enjoy this sampling of project pictures!

October 31, 2021
Oxon Hill, MD--Superheroes take some time to relax and party for Halloween. That’s right, you heard it correctly. Over at St. Columba School, sixteen superheroes reunited to celebrate. They donned their capes and masks and had fa-boo-lous celebration. One hero I interviewed wanted to thank Commissioner Graham and Commissioner Contreras for organizing the event.
           In other news, the superheroes held their last Lego Masters competition. The heroes had to design a creative and detailed haunted house room. It was quite a nail-biter. However, in the end, seating group Fidem ran away with the final prize packages!
          It’s hard to believe that November is coming to HERO Headquarters! Report cards will be issued shortly and conferences will be held. Please make sure you have signed up for a time slot. Reference the email sent on Oct. 19. Happy Haunting!

October 24, 2021
**Spoiler Alert! This post contains spoilers for STC Lego Masters episode 3. First, go watch our video trailer over on our NewsFLASH page and then come back 😊 The mini superheroes are soaring right along in our studies. We have a Math test (Chapter 2 – Addition) coming up this week: be sure to complete some practice problems. Remember, any time spent on teaching study skills to your third grader is time well spent! We had a great time in the Science Mobile Lab this week. The students studied the “Wetlands” and “Oil Spills” with hands-on activities. This Thursday not only brings Halloween festivities, but it also brings the conclusion to our STC Lego Masters competition! During the first two weeks, we tied in writing with our builds, and this past week, we tied in estimation. The groups had to build a decorative candy container for Halloween. They then estimated how much candy I had for the trials and how much candy their container would hold. Thanks to our guest judge, Mrs. Vickers. Let’s congratulate the seating group Imperium for the overall win this week.  What will this upcoming week bring?? Don’t forget that this week is Spirit Week! Make sure your student joins in the fun! Lastly, check out the first pic below. It is an opportunity for your third grader to meet Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. However, you need to act fast!! (Here is the link from the pic: Tickets)

October 17, 2021
We are moving right along in our subject areas. In Math we are regrouping while adding large numbers, English has us making plural nouns, creepy crawly spiders is the topic of our Reading stories, and Science has us visiting the Wetlands. In other news, we completed our second STC Lego Masters challenge. The students had to build a silly monster. Congratulations to the seating group, Viribus, who earned the Golden Brick this week! Be sure to check out our pics! See you next week. 

October 10, 2021
October brings new activities to HERO Headquarters. We have started our spider unit, which includes literature, research, and STEM. We have started several new units in our other subject areas too. The school’s football tradition continues this Friday (an out of uniform day: sports teams theme). A school spirit week will happen at the end of the month. For my third graders, the most exciting activity has been starting our very own version of Lego Masters! Each week will bring a new challenge and writing assignment. This week’s challenge was for each seating group to create a “Fall Scene.” Each student wrote a description which included a hook to catch our judge’s (Mrs. Vickers) attention. Congratulations to the “Animo” seating group for winning our first Lego Masters challenge! Currently, they are now the proud owners of the “Golden Brick!” Check out the pics below.

October 3, 2021
The Third Grade Superheroes completed another busy week in headquarters. We are becoming more and more comfortable with our new routines and studies. During the week we used pictures to solve word problems. The students worked in their groups to create a poster for their word problem and then made presentations. However, the highlight of our week was subject and predicate surgery! It was our final review before the English Test. The surgeons in training suited up and got right to work--all patients made it to the recovery room! With this group of surgeons, I don’t even think any patients fell on the floor. 😊 Enjoy the pics (below) and video (on our NewsFLASH page). To conclude our week, we designed names for our name projects. Those pictures will come at a later date. Enjoy the Fall weather!

September 26, 2021
Happy Fall, y'all!! It's hard to believe October is just around the corner! With that said, our first English test is upon us. Make sure you are teaching your student how to study. I will give a few pointers to the students during the week. That time investment will pay off down the educational road. In other news, last week was “potato week” in third grade. We read several nonfiction and fiction selections on potatoes. One article shared that scientists are trying to figure out how to grow potatoes on Mars! To conclude the week, we incorporated science into our studies. Using magnifying glasses, we observed a potato, potato skin, a regular potato chip, and a Pringles flavored chip. The students used the five senses while making explorations, and they documented their findings. The students also made a detailed “diagram” (one of our Science and vocab words) of a Mr. Potato Head. Finally, we read the story Potato Pants, which led to our STEM project. The students had to make a pair of pants for a real potato! Check out the last pic for the winning pair of pants! Congratulations!! Who knew that potatoes could be so much fun?!

September 19, 2021
The mini heroes did a nice job focusing on their Scantron tests this week. We continued our lessons in all of our subjects, and we had our first Spelling test. Spelling homework is “routine.” Your student should be
working on Spelling Monday through Wednesday and studying on Thursday. The third graders did ‘okay’ this first week, but I’m sure next week will be even better. During the week, we used base ten blocks to represent numbers in the thousands – pizza style! This past Friday, we used our Play-doh to create the story elements found in Memoirs of a Goldfish. I’ve included a few pictures below: the first one shows the main character and setting (fish and bowl). The second one shows the problem in the story (bowl becomes too crowded), and the third shows the conclusion (the fish realizing he misses everyone from his bowl). I thought the students did a pretty great job with this 😊 Lastly, we have finally started to present our summer STEM projects. Some of these projects are just wonderful! I have included a few pics of our summer projects (protecting sea turtle eggs and board games). I had a few students show SUPER effort in their summer work, so thank you parents for assisting them.
PS – We said ‘goodbye’ to Ashton this past Friday. It is now safe for him to return to his home in Louisiana. We will miss him!
September 11, 2021
​The second week of school is now under our utility belts. The mini heroes are adjusting to their new third grade routines. In reading, we read some great stories that helped us practice text connections and story elements. Math had us working on place value while English led us to the four kinds of sentences. Our vocabulary lessons centered on synonyms. This week’s pictures were taken on Friday. We wrote 7-up sentences (7 words in a sentence) and completed a little taste test, if desired. The read aloud was Rosie Revere, Engineer. We watched a brief video on what exactly an engineer does. Then we identified the story elements and made a text connection. Lastly, each seating group was given a kitchen utensil. They had to identify it and explain its function. (Of course, I tried to find unusual ones in my kitchen to make this activity even more fun.) Then the groups had to think like creative engineers and come up with a whole new and different use for their utensil. For example, the groups found that a tea infuser could also be used to mold clay balls and a potato masher could also be used for gardening! There you have it!
September 3, 2021
Superheroes are in the house! That's right: a new batch of St. Columba School third grade superhero recruits zoomed into HERO Headquarters. It was so nice to have all of my mini heroes in-person. We quickly got busy and started our superhero training program. My students have discovered their true superhero identities and have taken a superhero pledge (they have a bracelet to prove it). During the week, we read a couple of superhero stories that proved children have super abilities, created Lego glasses to learn all about each other, used Play-doh to tell about our summers, conquered antonyms, and participated in a Spiderman-inspired web activity that demonstrated to us that we are stronger together. We are hoping for many more SUPER adventures to come.

CLASS OF 2020-2021 ARCHIVES

CAMP MEMORIES - June 2021
June 8, 2021
Today, in Camp Read-a-lot, the campers were quite busy. The day started with prayer then silent reading. The campers then participated in camp/animal yoga, learned about animal tracks and tried to identify a few, explored constellations and created an original constellation out of marshmallows and toothpicks -- all before lunch! After enjoying camp vittles, the campers played camp bingo, participated in book buddy talks, devoured a snow cone, went on a starlight constellation walk, and ended the day with flashlight reading. Also, throughout the day, the campers also listened to a few camp read alouds. Phewww! It was quite a day. Enjoy the pics!
June 7, 2021
WELCOME to Camp Read-a-lot!! After checking every camper's registration, they were invited into our third grade campsite. So far, we have enjoyed independent reading, read alouds both live and virtual, flashlight reading, a smores snack, making bookmarks, and completing a few pages in our camp journals. Enjoy the pics!
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