Time to say Good-bye

I was pleasantly surprised on the last day when I was handed this poster board of signatures with a pocketful of comments.  Kaleigh created this project and made sure everyone was a part of it.  It is a moment I will treasure.  Here are some of the comments

Rock you down, shake you up like a volcano read to erupt. Watch out world here we come.

Ms. Musters is #1!

Your the best teacher!  We had a great year together!

Thank you for helping me grow!

You are an AMAZING teacher.  Can you be a 4th grade teacher?

I like you because you taught me the strategy that made me improve.

All of our learning is because of you.  You have made my life better. Thank you.

Thank you for helping me soar into 4th grade!

Thank you Soaring Pilots!

 

One of 12 Finalists!!

After being elected as Mark Twain's teacher of the year the next step was district finalist.  I had to write essays and submit photos to be considered for HISD's teacher of the year.  Each district chooses one teacher to represent them and I won for my district!  The twelve district finalists are then asked to write additional essays (seven in all) about different aspects of education.  

It required the help of many! 

 Thank you to all my family, friends and co-workers for coming out to support me. 

A special thanks to my principal helping me through the process!

  It was a wonderful evening filled with love and support.  The best part was coming to school the next day and my students telling me I won third place because they called my name third! 

 I will gladly take that position. 

 It was an honor to stand with those amazing teacher finalists from all over the district.

Scavenger Hunt

Here is one group of students with Liz (Creator of the project) trying to decipher the clue.

The Scavenger Hunt

Jack's mom came up with a brilliant idea to tie in all our work together in third grade:  A Scavenger Hunt.   We split the class into small groups with one parent helper.  Everyone was given several clues.  You had to find the answer and then take a picture of your group with the answer.  We all came back together and downloaded the pictures to review together! 

Thank you Liz and all the other parents who helped with this project. 

What an amazing way to end our year in third grade.

The End is Here!

The Soaring Pilots had an amazing time at our end of year party. 

Thank you to all my parents for creating such a craft filled delicious party. 

Awards!!

Adwards Day

Awards day was a little different this year.  Third grade classes had them in their classrooms. This gave The Soaring Pilots an opportunity to create the awards program.  We had presentations, plays and power points.  Mrs. Gee came by and gave out awards for writing.  It was all very exciting!

Friends

As the year draws to a close, The Soaring Pilots have become the best of friends.  We continue to meet every day in our Morning Meeting to great each other, share news and do a fun activity.  It has been a great way to start everyday of third grade.

Camping in the Classroom?

Here is what camping looks like in the classroom!  We continue to explore our last unit of inquiry from our new rebuilt community.  The Soaring Pilots are doing a great job working from this new habit!  Together they are learning about structures from the past and buildings that have become famous all over the world.  We looked at the curvature of the Earth from the top of a building and we discovered how Frank Lloyd Wright built a house that looks like a waterfall.

Finally...

The Memory Boards are finished and The Soaring Pilots get to read their postcards.   Everyone was so excited to share the memories of our third grade year together.  I hope they will bring lots of joy in the years to come.  When students look back at  their third grade year they should be so proud of all that they have accomplished.  Way to go, Soaring Pilots.  You definitely soared this year!

Here are some of the memories...
Remember when we had our first field trip?  We went to the Sam Houston Park!  p.s. I had lots of fun with you...wish this was the beginning of the year

The program was so much fun!  My favorite song was Interplanet Janet.  All of our T-shirts dazzled with creativity.

Remember the first day of school!  You gave us our tickers.  Everyone was like WOW! Then you introduced Morning Meeting and I was thinking WOW! Look at this stuff!  I never thought I could learn this much about everything in only one year!

I love how you invented our strategies! I can't do good without them! I really appreciate you making these strategies for you.  I thought it was very generous of you to share the idea with other teachers.

Do you remember when it was the first day of school and I came in the class.  Do you remember when you gave us marshmallows. You made me a superstar!  Thank you so much, Oh I forgot that you made me smile when I came in the classroom.

Remember when you first taught us our strategies.  Now looking back, I realize how helpful those strategies were.  Thank you so much for teaching us them!  You truly are a STAR!

Memory Boards

The Soaring Pilots are working hard every night writing memory postcards for their friends. 

Principal of the Day

Catelyn was quite excited to take over the job of principal.  She even granted us extra recess!  What could be better than that!.  Catelyn did an excellent job and even made a few announcements.

The Tower Challenge

After dismantling the room to prepare for Tent City, The Soaring Pilots had plenty of open space to try the Tower Challenge.  Using what we know about how buildings are built students had to create the tallest free standing tower possible.  The catch - you only had two sheets of newspaper and a ruler!  Take a look to see what a great job all the teams did!

Camping in the Classroom!

We are camping in the classroom!   The Soaring Pilots are creating a new classroom community with tents!  We are very excited about this new adventure.  Instead of working and studying from a desk, we will be working in cooperative groups in our tents.  As we continue our inquiry into architecture, The Pilots will be completing their assignments nestled in a sleeping bag! 

Architects in Third Grade?

Thank you to our special visitors!  We certainly loved having TWO architects come to visit us and explain what it is they do.  We saw blueprints, front elevations and small models of buildings from around the Houston area.  One plan was for Reliant Stadium! 

A House for A Mouse?

The Soaring Pilots are learning about the process and steps an architect would take in order to create a building based on his client's wants and needs.  However, we had a special client, a mouse.  Our client, the mouse wanted some very specific things in his house.  Number one priority was of course a cheese room!  Students create a bubble map and then a floor plan to show the layout of the rooms in the house.  The last step was to create a front elevation that would be enticing to our client.

Dream Houses

We have officially begun the last planner of our third grade year!   Our unit of inquiry will be looking into architecture past and present.  The first assignment:  design a dream house.  The Soaring Pilots studied how shapes are used to build buildings and developed an understanding that buildings have a purpose.  Then the creativity began!!  Our neighbors across the hall came by to judge the various projects based on different criteria. They were given the opportunity to discuss the purpose and function of the buildings with the creators.   

Teacher of the Year

So excited to report that I was voted as Mark Twain's Teacher of the Year!  What an honor to have your peers vote for you in this manner. All my students were cheering for me when Mrs. Patin made the announcent.  I received this card from one of my students in recognition!  I now have to write seven (more) essays and provide photo documentation to be considered a district finalist for Teacher of the year.  My students have been encouraging me every day to do a good job!  Great teaching moment to show them how I have to work on my writing and revise to make it better.

Human Rights

 

Meet all the Human Rights activists that we studied.

Human Rights Speeches

Here is a video of short clips of all the students giving their speeches.

Human Rights Speeches

The Soaring Pilots have been studying human rights.  To conclude our unit of inquiry, the students choose one individual to portray.  The students researched this person to find out what obstacles they encountered in their life and who inspired them to take action.  This project culminated with speeches to help us understand what the activists believed and how they made a difference in the world.

The Soaring Pilots land on Mars

Experience first hand our exciting adventures in Space!  The Soaring Pilots had a great time completing their mission to Mars.  All Pilots had to complete applications to apply for the jobs needed on the mission.  Everyone did a great job and now you can experience the mission too!

The Soaring Pilots in Space

This picture slideshow generated with Smilebox

Memories In My Pocket Part III

The Soaring Pilots share their thoughts on this project.  We have been writing postcards to each other for the month of May.  The last week of school we will get the opportunity to read them and share our memories of our amazing third grade year!

Memory Boards Part II

After creating the memory boards with the help of our friends, we will write postcards to each friend detailing a third grade event.  Students will be required to read thru their blog researching and remembering the great times we've had together this year.

New Homework

The STAAR test is over and May is upon us.  Third grade is coming to an end for the Soaring Pilots! We will change the homework for the month of May.  Students will be working on creating postcard memories for their friends.  I call this project Memories in My Pocket.  First we began be creating a poster board representation of ourselves. 

Adaptations part II

Here is a sample of the work we did on adaptations.  Each students had to develop how their animal would survived including what they would eat and how much water they needed. They also develop physical adaptations based on what was available on their planet.  Great Job, Soaring Pilots.

Adaptations

This week and next week our science focus will be on adaptations. .  The science concepts we are focusing on are: behavioral and learned adaptations.   I found  a fun way to incorporate our space planner with this concept!  Each student received a description of a planet.  Including details regarding the habitats found on the planet.  The Soaring Pilots had to develop an animal that could live on this planet and describe the adaptations they would need in order to survive.  The students created amazing  scientific drawings showing the animal and the adaptations.  I was very impressed!

Imagine my surprise when I arrived in the morning to find this lovely display on my door!   Thank you for creating such a wonderful day for me.  My students were so excited to add flowers to the display.  What a unique and special gift.  I definitely feel appreciated!!

In addition, I recieved the following heart shaped messages:

Thank you for the first day of school when I first saw you.

Thanks so much for giving me intelligence in my mind. 

Thank you for begin a great teacher this year. You have taught me a lot of new things.

Thank you for being a nice teacher to me Ms. Musters.

Dear Ms. Musters (aka the best teacher in the world),  You are nice, smart, and a great teacher.  I love how you teacher.  I love how you always want us to give it a go.  Thank you for everything!

                                                                

You are the best, Ms. Musters