The third graders were very excited to begin their research report this week. Each child selected an animal, and learned how to use both print and electronic sources to gather information about their animal. This multidisciplinary project incorporates reading, writing, and science. The students will also gain many new technological skills while researching and working on their report. This week we worked on the skill of summarizing nonfiction texts. We discussed how important it is to identify the main idea and the most important details provided by the author when summarizing nonfiction. Here are pictures of the students working together to determine the main idea and supporting details they want to include in their summary. Our written responses are improving! Check out some of theses terrific responses students submitted with their reading log. We continue to read and analyze nonfiction texts. This week we have been working on identifying the text structure used in nonfiction texts. We will continue with this difficult work next week!
The students are completing their letters to the Mars company. They are hoping their letters will help persuade the company to switch from chemical to natural food dyes in their candies. Our class has been working with Mrs. Wright to understand the similarities and differences between artificial food dyes and natural dyes. The students worked with M&M's to remove dyes and use them as paint. the students learned how much better natural dyes are for us. Through a taste test, they determined that there wasn't a noticeable difference between natural and artificially dyed M&M's. Most of the students agreed that the naturally dyed M&M's tasted better, because they knew they weren't putting chemical dyes in their body when eating them. The students also had the opportunity to create some dyes using natural ingredients such as red cabbage, spinach, turmeric, to name a few. Next week, we will write persuasive letters to the Mars company explaining what we have learned about artificial food dyes, and telling why they should switch to natural dyes for all of their candy products. |