We have returned refreshed from April break ready for more great spring weather! In the two weeks leading up to vacation, we’ve had quite a bit of fun! We started the month off with April Fool’s Day, where we made brown E’s for our third graders. They were so excited for a chocolatey treat until they receive the letter “e” cut out of brown construction paper. It was all in good fun and everyone had a laugh. Some third graders even went and played the same prank on other groups!

We also hosted our third grade family night that week, where we painted clay pots and planted various vegetables and flowers in them. We had an amazing turn-out, it was great to connect with everyone who came! We wish your seedlings the best of luck this growing season!

On the Wednesday before break, we finally had our marble jar reward party. Our third graders voted to once again have an indoor neon dance party, and this one did not disappoint! Everyone had a fantastic time tearing it up on the dance floor. We even had some group dances that got everyone synchronized to the same sick beat!

Spring is finally in the air at the Lawrence school. The third grade group has made the most of the nice weather when we’ve had it, and has made the best of the rainy days too! Outside, we started having Around the World basketball tournaments which put our third graders’ shooting skills to the test.  

Our art projects have really made a splash during rainy days. Allison introduced paper stuffy making, which was inspired by the second grade group. Our kids absolutely loved it and wanted to make stuffies almost every day for two weeks! We also did watercolor pointillism paintings of spring scenes, using Q-tips to make colorful dots on the paper.

Outside of planned activities, we’ve found various other ways to have fun. In the cafeteria, we have solicited the services of DJ Cat to spin sweet jams for us while we eat snack. For some reason she really just prefers to play Taylor Swift. We’ve also celebrated April Fools day by making brown “e’s” for our kids, which consist of a baking tin full of brown construction paper cut into the letter “e.” 

As far as upcoming activities, we are excited for our first family potted plant paint night on April 2! We will also have our marble party on Wednesday, April 10. Our third graders loved the neon dance party last time so we will have a repeat of that event with some new and exciting activities!

The time change and recent weather heralds the start of spring! Here in the third grade group, that means our schedule is changing back to the way it used to be, with projects happening in the cafeteria and the group spending the rest of the afternoon outside! Hopefully this change will allow more third graders to participate in our art and science projects!

While we spent most of the past two weeks outside enjoying the sun and the warmth, we have made time for a few fun activities. We experimented with making puffy paint using shaving cream and glue to create solid, three-dimensional abstract art. Our kids have also started designing their own trading card game which has proven to be a great consistent downtime activity that many of our more active member even choose to do over going to the gym!

We’ve had a fun February in the third grade group! Candle-making has been a hit, so we continued the activity into this month. Another thing we’ve done is introduce our third graders to a variety of instruments, ranging from percussion to string. We discussed the concepts of rhythm and melody, and then allowed them to jam out and write their own songs. If you have any instruments at home that your child would like to bring to LEDP and show the group, we’d love to give them the spotlight during our meeting time!

We’ve also made Model Magic Food Monsters as an art project. The original idea was to sculpt our favorite food with the different colors of clay, but then someone put eyes and hair on their hamburger and the rest of the group followed suit by giving life to their crafted snacks.

Now that we are in the last week of February, you can start to expect to see mid-year reports for your child. Be sure to check with Sam or Allison at pick-up to receive them!

We’ve had an eventful two weeks in the latter half of January. Our third graders loved making candles so much that they asked for it again! It will likely be a regular rotating activity for us. We’ve celebrated the first real snow of the year by making snowmen and snow forts. For art, we made oil pastel and watercolor resistant snowflake paintings. We made a musical mad lib of Dancing Queen by ABBA. Our version is titled “Gloopy Queen.” Allison made handprint flower bouquets with some of our friends in the group, as well. Beyond that, we have a new card game that everyone loves to play. It’s called “Kawaii Crush” and it’s been a real hit in 3rd grade!

LSA programs have begun, and a bunch of our members are participating, which means that some folks will be missing homework time once or twice a week. Also, progress reports are coming along and you can expect them closer to the end of February.

We kicked off the new year in Third Grade in style! Our kids have earned their marble party and it was an absolute rager. We decided to have a neon dance party in the small gym with Shirley Temples and popcorn for snack. Our third graders danced to their hearts’ content and decorated the walls with neon tape. They also decorated each other with neon face paint! It ended up being one of the most fun parties we’ve had in LEDP. 

In terms of activities, we played another round of Jeopardy! this week. I’ve included a link to the questions, in case you want to play at home! Allison began making candles with our kids, using many of the same techniques we use to make soap. Our students absolutely love it. Irene and the 4/5/6 mentors led our group in a birch tree painting project, which resulted in us having a rather beautiful display board. 

https://jeopardylabs.com/play/ledp-january-jeopardy 

We have been up to some great activities this month in Third Grade! We have turned soap-making into a monthly tradition and this time we’ve added dried flowers and fruits to the mix! Allison made really cool snow globe paintings, which our kids absolutely loved! On top of that, we’ve been really passionate about watercolor painting, which has caused us to go to Michael’s almost weekly to replenish our stock of paper! We’ve also reintroduced Jeopardy to the group and it was definitely a hit! 

We have done many other activities, including making alka-seltzer lava lamps, Pokemon holiday cards and abstract pattern leaf drawings. 

As the year wraps up and the evenings comes earlier, we have had to change our schedule to accommodate outside time. We now begin the afternoon with thirty minutes of reading and homework, followed by snack. We then go outside from 3:15 to 4:00 to capture the last bits of daylight. After that, we come back inside to the LEDP room to have our meeting and activity centers. It is important to note that if your child has a 2:40 LSA, they will miss our homework time. If they want to do their homework during our centers time, they are welcome to, but we cannot guarantee that an LEDP teacher will be available to help them or check their work.

We are also going to begin our LEDP progress reports starting in January! Unlike classroom assessments which evaluate academic growth, we are observing our members’ social and emotional skills, friendships, and interests, as well as work ethic, perseverance, and self-discipline. We hope you find our insights valuable and we look forward to giving the reports to you in February and March!

Third grade has been up to some spooky stuff this month! We’ve continued our acidic science projects by gory fruit foam reactions. For art, we made origami ghosts, skulls, bats, and cats.

We played the harrowing group mystery game of Werewolf multiple times, and the third graders kept requesting we play again, even though it sent shivers down their spine! We tested their knowledge of Samhain with Halloween Trivia. And finally, on the final day of the month, we made spooky eyeball and spider soap!

November will kick off with a harvest theme, beginning with a sugar skull activity for El Dia De Los Muertos. We look forward to continuing the year with fun activities in the Third Grade Group!

We dove straight into spooky mode this month in the third grade group! Our afternoons have been packed full of ghoulish and ghastly projects.

We made spiderweb sun catchers out of tissue paper scraps and contact paper, bat silhouettes against oil pastel moons, glue and salt relief paintings of candy corn and spiderwebs, spooky watercolor tree silhouettes using a straw to blow the wet paint. And one-point perspective towering forest canopies.

Stuffed in between these bone-chilling art activities we have played spooky trivia games, performed alchemical sorcery with fruits and baking soda, and built haunted mansions out of magnet tiles.

Stay tuned for more maleficent machinations as the month moves on in third grade!

We’re up to some great things in the third grade group! We finished the enchanted forest owls, which turned out incredible. I am so proud of our kiddos for working so hard over multiple weeks to create these masterpieces!

Last week we combined with Second Grade for centers and made Q-tip pointillism watercolor paintings. Allison ran a really fun science experiment involving baking soda reactions with various fruit acids. Through the activity, we learned about acids, bases and how they interact with each other.

Finally, to cope with the poor weather of last week, the third grade played a fun and whimsical trivia game show in the cafeteria. We were thinking hard about tough questions while dancing around to the upbeat game show music. 

That’s a wrap on September! We’re looking forward to getting up to some spooky shenanigans in October. Stay tuned for bats, aliens, and ghouls this month!

The year is off to a momentous start in the 3rd grade LEDP group! Most of our friends were in the 2/3 group last year and remember the same routines, so settling in this year was seamless. 

We’ve made the most of the nice weather when we’ve had it by going outside and playing on the playground. We’ve also begun some fun art projects. Our new teacher Allison kicked things off with coffee filter color diffusion butterflies. She also conducted a wild science experiment that showed food coloring going off like fireworks in oil and water. 

This week Sam started a multi-day enchanted forest art project. The students began by crafting and painting clay owls which they will eventually house in a three-dimensional forest diorama. 

Stay tuned to the next newsletter for the final result! Going along with the enchanted forest theme of this month, we had a gym challenge in the gym where the children had to follow a secret path through a forest to retrieve bread and cake from a little old lady’s cottage. If they took a wrong turn, the trickster faeries in the woods would send them back to the beginning! We are off to such an amazing start and are very much looking forward to what the rest of the school year has in store!