Updates from Grade 3B

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Benjamin Franklin

Unit of Inquiry

To understand the correlation between the sense of smell and taste, students inquired about how they are connected  while having breakfast. In addition, they further studied the different parts of the nose and tongue. The class performed an experiment to understand the role of saliva in tasting what they eat. They were made to dry their tongues with a clean paper towel and try a few samples of salt and sugar and were thrilled to discover that for us to savour taste, chemicals from the food must dissolve in saliva.

Integration with English  ‘Procedural writing’, started with the ‘perfume experiment’ where students learned about the structure and functioning of the nose to sense the aromatic whiff. Further they learned about the composition and purpose of different parts of the skin as they labelled a diagram of the same. A discussion was then held on ways to take care of  skin and keep it healthy.

Our tongue and nose

How the nose works

How the skin works

English

Students read chapter three of their novel study and revisited pronouns. They were introduced to procedural writing through a listening activity where samples were read out, which led to a discussion on how they could be used in different situations. They enjoyed doing procedural writing using the bus stop activity where each group selected a topic related to a different bus stop. They referred to the checklist given to ensure their writing was correct. Integrating the unit on ‘Senses’ with language, the class revised the journey of light through the eye and the flow of sound waves through the ear. This was followed by procedural writing in the correct format for these sense organs.

Mathematics

Students practiced word problems with multiplication prior to which they were assessed on their understanding of the same. They focused on symmetry where they were given cut outs of different shapes and asked to fold them down the middle/horizontally/vertically. They were then asked to reflect on their understanding through the visible thinking routine ‘I see, I think, I wonder’. Symmetry was then introduced and discussed in detail by making real life connections  to where it could be found in nature. The class watched a pesentation on Rangoli designs and enjoyed trying their hand at creating symmetrical displays with dots as guidelines. This helped enhance their creative thinking skills as they chose their own arrangements and coloured them. As an integration to the unit on senses, they made a symmetrical human face with special reference to placement of eyes, ears, nose and lips.

Lines of symmetry

Rangoli Design

Hindi

Students  were made to watch a documentary on Mother Teresa  and Sunder Rajan Pichai in order to enhance their critical thinking and listening skills. They discussed reasons for migration.  The class enhanced their speaking skills through ‘Bas Ek Pal’ activity on the topic of sense organs and their care. Knowledge of spellings was self-assessed through spell bee riddles.

Mother Teresa

Sundar Rajan Pichai  

Hindi ab-initio

To enhance their reading skills students studied words with chhotee ‘e’ ki maatraa.  They participated in a spell bee of words with ‘e’ maatraa and then used them in sentences. They watched and recounted the story of ‘Char Brahman’ in Hindi to enhance their speaking skills. The class played a Bingo game with words containing ‘e’ maatra.

French

The objective of the French lesson was to peer-assess the knowledge acquired on numbers given in homework. It encouraged learner involvement and participation as the students engaged in thoughtful discussion while correcting their fellow classmates’ assignments under the supervision of the facilitator. They developed their thinking skills by applying their acquired knowledge and were caring and appreciative towards their associate’s achievements.

Spanish

Students learned the cardinal numbers from 1 to 50 and ordinal numbers from first to tenth. They were taught how to pronounce cardinal numbers and their difference in application to ordinal ones. Students also learned the uses of both kinds of numbers  with their application in daily lives. 

Library

Children were given information on DDC (Dewey Decimal Classification) system, which was created by Melvil Dewey in 1876.  The Dewey Decimal System is used to arrange books by subject and is the standard method of categorizing volumes in libraries across the world. It places the books on the shelf by content, using numbers from 000 to 999.  Children were informed how DDC plays a vital role in classifying books and their arrangements found in any library across the world. Students were acquainted with the categories that come under 000, 100, 200 and so on.

PHE

Introduction to circuit training is a fun and interactive way for children to be physically active. Fitness courses consist of setting up several stations with different events for students to rotate through in short periods of time. These include jump rope, hop scotch, throwing balls, shuttle runs, hula hoop, relay races, jumping jacks and dashes. Students engaged in various activities towards this end.

Art

Students read a poem on senses and reflected their understanding by creating a layout of an illustration for the verse. Some of them created their final work incorporating the given feedback on the arrangement.

Dance

For better flexibility, students were made to stretch their bodies to challenging limits through warm ups and exercises. Jumping, spotting, kicks and plies were practiced to improve posture.

Music

Students were divided into groups and were asked to create their own beats and note patterns. They enjoyed the activity and performed their own rhythms and melodies. The class was assessed on the basis of their individually created pattern and knowledge on the basis of Note Values. Students also learned and sang the first verse of the song ‘Octopus’s Garden’.

ICT

Students constructed merge cube which was used to view a 3D model of sense organs made in Paint 3D. They also learned to upload 3D items on the app: ‘miniverse.io’. The ‘object viewer app’ was also used to view articles on merge cube thereby enabling the students to experience augmented reality by designing their own models.

Social and Emotional Learning

The aim of the activity conducted this week was to promote the importance and relevance of kindness, compassion, and resilience. The students were empowered to identify and draw differences between these terms by sharing a few examples and discussing the links attached below. They were able to relate to the topic and were motivated to share a few examples related to kindness, resilience and compassion.