Grade 3 Summer Theme = Change!
Have each child create and keep a science journal or science folder to collect their notes, observations, and reflections over the course of the summer!
Week One: June 30- July 3
Topic: Growth and Development
ELA Priority Standards:
R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from text.
W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Math Connections:
MD.3: Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters. (Done through conversations only.)
MD.9: Generate measurement date by measuring lengths of several objects to the nearest whole unit, or by making repeated measurements by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in whole number units.
Science Connections:
3-LS1-1: Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
Student product/assessment:
The students will write and illustrate an informational text about the life cycle of a plant.
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Read aloud The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. Discuss the trip the seed takes and talk about things that can help or hurt the seed during its journey. Complete the activity worksheet attached (The Tiny Seed).
2. Plants & Flowers Pocket Chart along with Life Cycles leveled readers
3. Watch online video of a plants’ lifecycle captured in macro time-lapse
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/plant-time-lapse_n_3582027.html4. Access to Brainpopjr: Plant Life Cycle, Parts of Plant, Measurement.Add website: www.siemenscienceday.com/activities/my_plant.cfm
5. Students will go into the garden to look at what stage the plants are in their life cycle. The students will discuss estimation of the length of the plants. Students will measure different plants to the nearest whole unit. As a whole the class will create a line plot graph about the different plants that were measured.
6. Have students start their own seeds. They can draw a diagram to estimate how long it will take for their seed to grow to particular stages.
Literature Connections:
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
Field Trip: Pineland Farms (From Seed to Harvest program)
Materials We Need:
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
LakeShore: *GS-163 Science Vocabulary Readers- Life Cycles $79.99, one per grade
Materials We Need to Create:
Graphic organizer for video observation
Graphic organizer for garden observation
Week Two: July 7-11
Topic: Survival
ELA Priority Standards:
R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from text.
W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Math Connections:
Science Connections:
3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
Student product/assessment:
The students will write and illustrate an informational text about the life cycle of a butterfly and the habitat necessary to support that life cycle.
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Introduce butterflies by reading Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons and Butterflies and Moths by Nic Bishop.
2. Have students learn about, diagram, and write about the life cycle of a butterfly using a graphic organizer to support writing.
3. Have students use the LakeShore kit to begin a butterfly nursery. Or use the Monarch Rearing Kit located here.
4. Read A Place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart and introduce the school garden as a butterfly habitat.
5. Have students use a graphic organizer to observe and track butterfly sitings in the school garden. Have them discuss why they are seeing (or not seeing) butterflies. They can also track sitings of other insects as comparison (link back to your core science standard this week).
6. Visit the Discovery Education Website for more activities.
Literature Connections:
Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons
Butterflies and Moths by Nic Bishop
A Place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart
Field Trip: York Center for Wildlife (Animal Adaptations Program)
Materials We Need:
Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons
Butterflies and Moths by Nic Bishop
A Place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart
LakeShore: LC-66 The Butterfly Nursery $39.99, one per classroom
Materials We Need to Create:
Graphic organizer for butterfly observation
Week Three: July 14-18
Topic: Migration
ELA Priority Standards:
R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from text.
W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Math Connections:
Science Connections:
3-LS4-4: Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changed and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
Student product/assessment:
Students will work in teams to create a mini-documentary that informs and offers a potential solution to the disappearance of the monarch butterfly. The creation of this project will span two weeks.
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Introduce the concept of migration by reading An Extraordinary Life by Laurence Pringle and Monarch and Milkweed by Helen Frost. These books follow a monarch butterfly's route from Massachusetts to Mexico.
2. Have students simulate the migration experience using this Reader's Theater piece from the National Wildlife Federation.
3. Have students listen to this WGBH news report (click the play button under the photo to listen) and this PRI radio broadcast on the disappearance of monarch butterflies. Discuss how changes to the environment have contributed to this change in the butterfly population.
4. Have students research the creation of a butterfly garden. Discuss how creating butterfly habitat in our local environment can help butterfly populations to survive.
Literature Connections:
An Extraordinary Life by Laurence Pringle
Monarch and Milkweed by Helen Frost
Field Trip: Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (pollinators program)
Materials We Need:
An Extraordinary Life by Laurence Pringle
Monarch and Milkweed by Helen Frost
Flip video cameras for video project (one per student group)
Materials We Need to Create:
Graphic organizer for note-taking from radio podcast
Graphic organizer for note-taking on butterfly garden research
Week Four: July 21-25
Topic: Human Impact
ELA Priority Standards:
R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from text.
W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Math Connections:
Science Connections:
3-LS4-4: Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changed and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
Student product/assessment:
Students will work in teams to create a mini-documentary that informs and offers a potential solution to the disappearance of the monarch butterfly. The creation of this project will span two weeks.
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Read The Prince of Butterflies by Bruce Coville and discuss their role in efforts to conserve and protect butterfly habitat.
2. Using their research from last week, have students create their butterfly garden.
3. Have students story map and create their documentary videos.
Literature Connections:
The Prince of Butterflies by Bruce Coville
Field Trip: Broadturn Farm (this site is a model for sustainable agriculture)
Materials We Need:
The Prince of Butterflies by Bruce Coville
Plants for butterfly garden
Flip video cameras for video project (one per student group)
Materials We Need to Create:
Story map worksheet
Week Five: July 28-August 1
Topic: Cooking
ELA Priority Standards:
R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from text.
W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Math Connections:
Science Connections:
3-LS1-1: Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
3-LS4-4: Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changed and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
Student product/assessment:
Students will create written reviews of various grocery stores, markets, and other community resources where Lewiston residents access food. They will publish their reviews in A Guide to Healthy Food in Lewiston (co-created with the 4th graders).
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. In their research about butterflies, students gathered information about various farming practices, including GMO crops, organic farming, etc. Have them use this information to create KWL chart with the information gathered so far in the KNOW column. Then, in the WANT TO KNOW column, ask them to develop questions that they will ask during their Lewiston food tour on Wednesday. They will record answers to the questions in the LEARNED column.
2. Have students compile and practice their interview questions. Discuss their hypotheses regarding the differences between the various locations you will visit. Which locations do they anticipate will have organic offerings?
3. Watch this interview with 14 year old food activist Rachel Parent. (Cue the video to 2:02 to skip the intro). Then watch What's On Your Plate?: Kids and their Families Talk about What they Eat and Why it Matters by Catherine Gund.
3. During the Lewiston Food Tour on Wednesday, have students fill in their KWL chart. Discuss their findings.
4. On Thursday and Friday, have students draft and workshop written pieces based on their Food Tour experience. Students can work in groups based on different locations. They are creating a review of their assigned location based on the information they gathered through their KWL investigation.
5. Stage a community celebration where students show their documentaries and distribute their guidebook???
Literature Connections:
Seed, Soil, Sun: Earth's Recipe for Food by Cris Peterson
What's On Your Plate?: Kids and their Families Talk about What they Eat and Why it Matters by Catherine Gund
Field Trip: Lewiston Food Tour (Hannaford/ Save Alot/ downtown grocery store/ farmers market/ Good Shepherd)
Materials We Need:
Seed, Soil, Sun: Earth's Recipe for Food by Cris Peterson
What's On Your Plate?: Kids and their Families Talk about What they Eat and Why it Matters by Catherine Gund
Materials We Need to Create:
KWL Chart
Have each child create and keep a science journal or science folder to collect their notes, observations, and reflections over the course of the summer!
Week One: June 30- July 3
Topic: Growth and Development
ELA Priority Standards:
R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from text.
W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Math Connections:
MD.3: Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters. (Done through conversations only.)
MD.9: Generate measurement date by measuring lengths of several objects to the nearest whole unit, or by making repeated measurements by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in whole number units.
Science Connections:
3-LS1-1: Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
Student product/assessment:
The students will write and illustrate an informational text about the life cycle of a plant.
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Read aloud The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. Discuss the trip the seed takes and talk about things that can help or hurt the seed during its journey. Complete the activity worksheet attached (The Tiny Seed).
2. Plants & Flowers Pocket Chart along with Life Cycles leveled readers
3. Watch online video of a plants’ lifecycle captured in macro time-lapse
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/plant-time-lapse_n_3582027.html4. Access to Brainpopjr: Plant Life Cycle, Parts of Plant, Measurement.Add website: www.siemenscienceday.com/activities/my_plant.cfm
5. Students will go into the garden to look at what stage the plants are in their life cycle. The students will discuss estimation of the length of the plants. Students will measure different plants to the nearest whole unit. As a whole the class will create a line plot graph about the different plants that were measured.
6. Have students start their own seeds. They can draw a diagram to estimate how long it will take for their seed to grow to particular stages.
Literature Connections:
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
Field Trip: Pineland Farms (From Seed to Harvest program)
Materials We Need:
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
LakeShore: *GS-163 Science Vocabulary Readers- Life Cycles $79.99, one per grade
Materials We Need to Create:
Graphic organizer for video observation
Graphic organizer for garden observation
Week Two: July 7-11
Topic: Survival
ELA Priority Standards:
R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from text.
W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Math Connections:
Science Connections:
3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
Student product/assessment:
The students will write and illustrate an informational text about the life cycle of a butterfly and the habitat necessary to support that life cycle.
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Introduce butterflies by reading Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons and Butterflies and Moths by Nic Bishop.
2. Have students learn about, diagram, and write about the life cycle of a butterfly using a graphic organizer to support writing.
3. Have students use the LakeShore kit to begin a butterfly nursery. Or use the Monarch Rearing Kit located here.
4. Read A Place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart and introduce the school garden as a butterfly habitat.
5. Have students use a graphic organizer to observe and track butterfly sitings in the school garden. Have them discuss why they are seeing (or not seeing) butterflies. They can also track sitings of other insects as comparison (link back to your core science standard this week).
6. Visit the Discovery Education Website for more activities.
Literature Connections:
Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons
Butterflies and Moths by Nic Bishop
A Place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart
Field Trip: York Center for Wildlife (Animal Adaptations Program)
Materials We Need:
Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons
Butterflies and Moths by Nic Bishop
A Place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart
LakeShore: LC-66 The Butterfly Nursery $39.99, one per classroom
Materials We Need to Create:
Graphic organizer for butterfly observation
Week Three: July 14-18
Topic: Migration
ELA Priority Standards:
R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from text.
W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Math Connections:
Science Connections:
3-LS4-4: Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changed and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
Student product/assessment:
Students will work in teams to create a mini-documentary that informs and offers a potential solution to the disappearance of the monarch butterfly. The creation of this project will span two weeks.
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Introduce the concept of migration by reading An Extraordinary Life by Laurence Pringle and Monarch and Milkweed by Helen Frost. These books follow a monarch butterfly's route from Massachusetts to Mexico.
2. Have students simulate the migration experience using this Reader's Theater piece from the National Wildlife Federation.
3. Have students listen to this WGBH news report (click the play button under the photo to listen) and this PRI radio broadcast on the disappearance of monarch butterflies. Discuss how changes to the environment have contributed to this change in the butterfly population.
4. Have students research the creation of a butterfly garden. Discuss how creating butterfly habitat in our local environment can help butterfly populations to survive.
Literature Connections:
An Extraordinary Life by Laurence Pringle
Monarch and Milkweed by Helen Frost
Field Trip: Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (pollinators program)
Materials We Need:
An Extraordinary Life by Laurence Pringle
Monarch and Milkweed by Helen Frost
Flip video cameras for video project (one per student group)
Materials We Need to Create:
Graphic organizer for note-taking from radio podcast
Graphic organizer for note-taking on butterfly garden research
Week Four: July 21-25
Topic: Human Impact
ELA Priority Standards:
R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from text.
W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Math Connections:
Science Connections:
3-LS4-4: Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changed and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
Student product/assessment:
Students will work in teams to create a mini-documentary that informs and offers a potential solution to the disappearance of the monarch butterfly. The creation of this project will span two weeks.
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Read The Prince of Butterflies by Bruce Coville and discuss their role in efforts to conserve and protect butterfly habitat.
2. Using their research from last week, have students create their butterfly garden.
3. Have students story map and create their documentary videos.
Literature Connections:
The Prince of Butterflies by Bruce Coville
Field Trip: Broadturn Farm (this site is a model for sustainable agriculture)
Materials We Need:
The Prince of Butterflies by Bruce Coville
Plants for butterfly garden
Flip video cameras for video project (one per student group)
Materials We Need to Create:
Story map worksheet
Week Five: July 28-August 1
Topic: Cooking
ELA Priority Standards:
R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from text.
W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Math Connections:
Science Connections:
3-LS1-1: Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
3-LS4-4: Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changed and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
Student product/assessment:
Students will create written reviews of various grocery stores, markets, and other community resources where Lewiston residents access food. They will publish their reviews in A Guide to Healthy Food in Lewiston (co-created with the 4th graders).
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. In their research about butterflies, students gathered information about various farming practices, including GMO crops, organic farming, etc. Have them use this information to create KWL chart with the information gathered so far in the KNOW column. Then, in the WANT TO KNOW column, ask them to develop questions that they will ask during their Lewiston food tour on Wednesday. They will record answers to the questions in the LEARNED column.
2. Have students compile and practice their interview questions. Discuss their hypotheses regarding the differences between the various locations you will visit. Which locations do they anticipate will have organic offerings?
3. Watch this interview with 14 year old food activist Rachel Parent. (Cue the video to 2:02 to skip the intro). Then watch What's On Your Plate?: Kids and their Families Talk about What they Eat and Why it Matters by Catherine Gund.
3. During the Lewiston Food Tour on Wednesday, have students fill in their KWL chart. Discuss their findings.
4. On Thursday and Friday, have students draft and workshop written pieces based on their Food Tour experience. Students can work in groups based on different locations. They are creating a review of their assigned location based on the information they gathered through their KWL investigation.
5. Stage a community celebration where students show their documentaries and distribute their guidebook???
Literature Connections:
Seed, Soil, Sun: Earth's Recipe for Food by Cris Peterson
What's On Your Plate?: Kids and their Families Talk about What they Eat and Why it Matters by Catherine Gund
Field Trip: Lewiston Food Tour (Hannaford/ Save Alot/ downtown grocery store/ farmers market/ Good Shepherd)
Materials We Need:
Seed, Soil, Sun: Earth's Recipe for Food by Cris Peterson
What's On Your Plate?: Kids and their Families Talk about What they Eat and Why it Matters by Catherine Gund
Materials We Need to Create:
KWL Chart