Category Archives: 3rd Grade

Partner Book Club Reflection

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My favorite part about being in a book club partnership was sharing ideas because I really got to express how I felt about the book and sometimes if I was just writing in a notebook it didn’t feel the same as talking to a real person face to face.
The most challenging part was staying focussed because we could be talking about Matilda one minute and then the next we could be talking about Harry Potter, or if we were saying our jots after we are done we could just trail off of our book and start talking about something else.
My favorite book that we read was Matilda because it kept us interested with lots of surprises and was really funny and I thought it was really cute. My least favorite book was Penguin Days because it was really boring (it was one of those books that went like: Sally hurt her leg but the next day it was better, the end) and there were no exciting plot twists like there were in Matilda.
For my jots I think I can work on writing more and to explain and elaborate like if I was trying to prove that Sally is mean I would have to give more evidence than just say: Sally called Sara mean names. I think I could also work on trying new jots instead of just doing character traits, character traits, character traits, and character traits over and over again.
I think the most important part of working with a partner is not to get distracted because you will never really understand the book unless you talk about it and if you don’t you won’t understand it as well as if you did talk about it, like if I was just staring off into the distance I wouldn’t be thinking deeply about my book and would never really deeply understand why she did this or why he did that.
I learned during working with a partner that I like the author Roald Dahl and that I like how creative he is with the stories and how he really makes it feel like the characters are coming alive, or like I really know Matilda Wormwood. I really liked working with a reading partner and I hope I do it again.

Expert Book: Heathcote Traditions

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To come up with my idea I first listed a bunch of hobbies, sports, things I’ve studied before and collections I have. Then I picked the one I knew about best. I picked Heathcote traditions. I picked Heathcote traditions because I go to Heathcote Elementary school and I love it and all of its traditions. I have been in Heathcote for about four years so I knew a lot about it and all of it’s yearly traditions

I felt that editing was a bit difficult for me because whenever I thought I was done I always had to go back and edit somehow and change things. For instance, one time I thought I was completely done but I had to go back and edit my glossary, I had to link it, I had to make my colons dashes because my table of contents had dashes and I had to keep it consistent.

The part I needed the most help with was reading it over and checking it because sometimes when I’ve been staring at one piece of writing for a long time if there is something wrong I probably won’t notice it when or if I look over it, if there was a period missing I wouldn’t notice it at all and if nobody checked it I would end up publishing it with a bunch of mistakes.

My favorite part of making my expert book was searching for pictures because I got to get really creative with which pictures I could use and what captions to put with them. I got to edit the size and what I wanted to write inside the caption that would match which was really creative and fun for me.

I learned during this process that nothing is ever perfect. Nothing that I was writing would ever be perfect but that’s a good thing because nobody is perfect so I started to realize not to try to make everything perfect because it never will be and I’m trying my best and nothing will change that.

I learned that I like editing with google slides on the computer because I liked getting faster and better at typing, and I liked seeing what I wrote in my writer’s notebook come to life with pictures and everything on the big screen which was really cool and made it exciting for me.

I feel that my final project turned out amazing because looking back at what I wrote in my writer’s notebook and then looking at what it turned out to be was a pretty big difference and I worked really hard to make it as amazing as it is and I’m really proud of that.

This is my expert book.


Thank you for reading!

Maglev Reflection

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Our original train had 2 strip magnets on the edge, two disc magnets on the other edges and one donut magnet in the middle. Also for the train and track the were both facing north. For the original track there were 3 strip magnets, one in the middle one on the right and one on the left. Our first design did not work because the magnets attracted to the sides and it was not balanced. For the train we took out the donut magnet and both the disc magnets and just kept the 2 strip magnets. On the track we put on two more strip magnets to make it five.

 

For the final track we had 2 strip magnets along the edges with 2 stacked on each side and they were both facing north and had tape over the sides so that it would not attract to the side like it did before. The final train had 2 strip magnets going along the edges too, so that it was balanced and they were also covered in tape just like the track. I thought the train was successful because it was balanced with the track and it was not attracted to the sides and they were both north and north so it repelled. I thought during the creating stage it was really frustrating when it didn’t work and then we had to make a new plan. Working with a group was fun but it was very challenging. Sometimes my group didn’t listen to me or my ideas and it was very frustrating but it was also fun combining ideas.

 

Personal Narrative Reflection

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What I am most proud of about my narrative is my ending because I was able to add in an equal amount of thought/feeling and dialogue and I left the reader feeling something. For example, when I said “Cookies really do taste better with a little bit of love,” I think it would make the reader say “Aww,” I also really like how I stretched out my beginning and put tons of detail. For example, when I wrote, “I sprinted over to the staircase and looked up, nobody was coming down so I ran over to the fridge and plopped the dough on the table, by the time I did my mom was already halfway down the stairs.”

I thought paragraphing was hard for me because I struggled finding places when it was a change of setting or speaker but I think I have been improving bit by bit. Putting a balanced amount of dialogue and thought/feeling was a bit hard for me because I didn’t know if I should put dialogue in or thought/feeling in some places, but I am definitely improving. 

Cookie Drama

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Beep! Beep! Beep! “Mom the timer is going off!” I called. I sprinted over to the staircase and looked up. Nobody was coming down so instead of waiting I ran over to the fridge, got the dough out and plopped it on the table. As soon as I did my mom was already halfway down the stairs. 

“What shapes do you want, sweetie?” my mom asked “A rainbow,” she suggested.

“Yeah definitely,” I replied. This was going to be the best night ever! I thought.

My mom took out a rainbow cookie cutter, a heart cookie cutter, and last but not least a unicorn cookie cutter. I was jumping up and down excitedly. My mom took out a light brown rolling pin and placed it on the table while she hurried over to the cabinet to get parchment paper.

I wonder what’s taking so long? I thought.

When everything was finally set up I grabbed the rolling pin off the table and began to roll the dough.

“Great sweetie!” my mom said cheerfully.

The wind was howling outside. I gently placed the cookie cutter on top of the dough and softly pressed down.

“This is fun!” I told my mom. At least I thought it was until I heard footsteps and they were heading towards me.

“JAKE?” I yelled as he approached the kitchen. “ What do you want?” I said angrily.

 “Can I bake too?” he asked politely.

“Of course you can sweetie,” my mom responded.

My hands made a fist. Whenever Jake was baking with mom he would never include me, so why should I include him? I screamed at the top of my lungs, 

“That’s not fair!” I stormed out of the room with smoke coming out of my ears.

I curled up into a ball in the corner of the mudroom with my arms crossed, my mom following me.

“Honey, just try baking with him for a little,” my mom said.

“Fine,” I replied. I stomped back into the room with a frown plastered across my face. I ran over to the dough so Jake wouldn’t get any turns.

“Lucy, let Jake have a turn,” my mom muttered to me.

“Ok,” I moaned.

“Do you want me to get more cookie cutters?” Jake asked.

“Sure,” I responded wondering where he would get more cookie cutters. “Woah!” I exclaimed when Jake placed a metal basket filled to the tippy top with all sorts of cookie cutters like flowers and shapes and a mini elephant ( the elephant was so cute).

When I thought about it I was having an even better time than I would have had without him.

“This is a lot of fun, thanks mom,” I said

“I knew it would work,” she responded.

After the cookies were baked and Jake and I were frosting them I squeezed Jake tightly.

“Jake,” I said

“Yeah,” he responded

“ I’m so,  so, so sorry I was mean to you and I love you so much,”

“That’s sweet, I love you too but stop hugging me you’re messing up my cookie,” he said.

He could never let the moment last could he, I thought with a chuckle. I took a big bite out of one of my cookies and said,

“Cookies really do taste better with a little bit of love.”