Being a student (again) at Baker-Butler

Today was an exciting day for me (Mr. Saunders): I got to go back to third grade (again). I'd like to share a little bit about my time today as a student.

Ms. Eckerle and I both want to experience what school is really like from the perspective of some of our students, so we're both spending an entire day shadowing a class through their day at Baker-Butler. We believe that this experience will help us continue to improve our school as well as help us see Baker-Butler through the eyes of our students.

I started the day in my new third grade classroom as we began our specials' time first thing in the morning. Today we had Art for about 45 minutes. We had a great time learning about adding details to our quick sketches of a tree. The class will draw the same tree here at Baker-Butler throughout the year as it goes through the four seasons. This is a companion activity to a book they're reading in Music and Art and that extends the curriculum that they're learning about in Science class.

Ms. Purdon demonstrating how to add details to our drawing in Art class

After Art we returned to the classroom and had our Morning Meeting, which is a time when we sit in a circle, greet one another, and share something about ourselves. After our time together we started our 90 minutes of Language Arts.

Part of our Language Arts time was on our computers

Today we learned more about revising our sentences and then we read independently. One of our classmates suggested a book that she loved reading, so I read Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCarmillo. We then shared character traits from our time reading, and I got to share that Flora has the traits of being clever and hardworking since she thought of performing CPR on the squirrel who wasn't breathing after it had been sucked up by a runaway vacuum cleaner.

 We then worked on revising some of our stories into a cleaner copy and with more details.

Revising our writing.

After that we started our Science activities, when we learned more about why leaves turn different colors in the fall.

Some of the great artifacts in our classroom

 Then we got to go to lunch. I sat with our class in the cafeteria and got to eat a taco salad and fruit (with chocolate milk, of course). We then cleaned up our table and came back to class.

When we returned, we got to do our calendar math and weather activities together. After that, it was time for our math lesson. Today we did a scavenger hunt to find different shapes and line segments in the classroom (such as items with acute angles or congruent shapes). I was amazed at how creative our classmates were in finding these items in the classroom: light switch panels for parallel lines, ceiling tiles for intersecting lines, and slightly opened book covers for acute angles.

Next we had our Extended Learning Time, during which time we got to catch up on missing work, try enrichment activities, or work with Ms. Newman for some extra help. After our ELT time, we got to have recess for the last part of the day. Because of the rain, we spent our recess time inside today. I got to play checkers against another student, and many students played board games or other fun activities with their friends. After indoor recess we packed up and headed to the buses. 

Playing checkers. Guess who won?

Indoor recess games

I had a wonderful time today being a student in 3rd grade. It was another great reminder of how amazing our school and our students are and what an incredibly special community we have here at Baker-Butler. This was an exciting day for me, and I really had a great time seeing our school through the perspectives of our students.