Lions, and Tigers, and Bears. Oh my!

    If you had been able to step into my third grade classroom this week you would have been blown away by their animal research projects. Each one of my students recently became an "expert" on an animal of their choice. Using post-it notes to aid their research, they had to explore various book/internet sources and take notes on their animal (making sure to give the authors credit for the information that they took). Their post-it note research was subsequently transformed into a five paragraph research report. This report was bound into a published book and includes an introduction, conclusion, sources page, table of contents, glossary, and illustrations on every page. To accompany the report, each student had to create a 3-dimensional sculpture of their animal. Finally, they each presented their information on their animals in front of their parents on Wednesday (from memory).

This picture was unfortunately snapped at the exact moment that the fire alarm suddenly went off (hence all of the confused looks on my students faces). I never had the opportunity to retake a group picture...bleh

A few noteworthy highlights from presentation day:
     *One student made an incredible parrot sculpture using a mango as the body. It was actually very creative and well-constructed. Unfortunately...the sculptures were required to be brought to school on Monday and presentations were not until Wednesday afternoon. Therefore, when I saw her sculpture for the first time on presentation day it had already started to rot, smell, and fall apart. Oops.
     *The shark sculpture is able to actually digest paper fish, and then puke them back out bloody. Impressive? I thought so, too.
     *Part of the Orangutan's speech: "Gentleman, you can look like an orangutan if you grow out your beard very long."
     *One mom was so pleased with how I have supported her child in class recently (with this project in particular) that she gifted me with a very beautiful, albeit expensive, Cacharel watch, fancy restaurant purse hook, and an injection pen. I was very appreciative of such a gift, but I would have helped her son regardless. I love the challenge of trying to get that boy to smile and love school again. :)

    Even though there is still 2 more weeks of school, I think it's safe to say that my first year of teaching third grade was a huge success. I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching this year and I'll be sad when it comes time to say good-bye to these kiddos. They are truly amazing!

-Nicole