Building...Rethinking...Rebuilding 3-D Structures

Building our 3-D structures has officially BEGUN! Armed with only 15 straws, 5 pipe cleaners, and 3 feet of tape (because building materials are expensive in the real world!) we set out to make the strongest 3-D structures possible. The strength of our structures will be tested by stacking gram weights on top of a square of mat board that our structure MUST be able to support.

Henry and Ella thought about why their design
would be strong

Ginger and CJ's design plan

We're realizing that the original design plans we had need to be revised! Even though we know the triangle is the strongest polygon, it has still been tricky to figure out how to incorporate the triangle into our 3-D designs. Even though we used our whole Math Workshop today to build, many people still need to revise and rebuild their structures tomorrow. Building takes a lot of time!

You can see that Macy and Dylan have made
revisions to their original rectangular prism design

Ty'onte and Max have decided to build a triangular prism
instead of the rectangular prism they brainstormed

Mallory and Sam are making changes to their cube design

Building Polygons

This week we set out to find the STRONGEST polygon! Which would it be - the triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, or octagon? Many of us had different predictions...some thought the triangle because it was the smallest, others thought the octagon because it had the most sides for support. Check out Max's thinking below...

Max sketched each polygon as he built it
and wrote a few observations 

Kicking Off Book Buddies

This week Ms. Payne's class started meeting with Book Buddies. Buddies chose their books together and couldn't wait to start reading! Book Buddies meet two, sometimes three, times a week to read and think together. Having a conversation about your thinking with a Book Buddy is a huge step in third grade. Check back soon to see some video clips of our conversations!

Coral

By Ella and Kristina

Curvy bumps with an egg shell color. 

One inch of tall of roughness. 

 Tiny red in a secret spot.

 Very light sent of  sea water. 

Connected by a line of coral.
With it's  mute sound of wise flames of silents.
Reminding us of the  ocean sea.

Abalone Shell

By: Henry, Dylan, C.J.  

Round, smooth and dotted, 

moving along with the snail that owned it,

crashing of waves as it was washed up on shore,

black, brown, and white dots on the top,

it sounds like wind inside, 

it is

soft at the bottom.

Seahorse

 By Macy and Lainey

                                                                                                                           

Dirty brown- coffee colors, 

curled tale, 

straw mouth. 

Star shaped eyes, 

little squares, really tiny black dots.   

Hollow and mute. 

Dry spiky body. 

Mouth feels scaly. 

Smells like rotten smelly sea food and stink bugs. 

Taste like sea water and crunchy sand. 

Now lying on a table in a box.


By Ginger and Ty'onte

Dirty brown coffee colors
on its body.
Curled tail.
Star shaped eyes.
A straw-like mouth.
Tiny black dots and
a pattern of
squares on its body.
Smells like stink
bugs
and sea food.
Hollow inside and
sometimes
mute.
Dry, spikey and light. Mouth
feels scaly. I imagine tasting
it,
crunchy sand and spikes,
salty seawater.
Now laying in
the middle of the
table letting
everybody see it. 

Puffer Fish

By Samantha and Mallory    

Spiky, 

rushing through the cold water.

Spinning all around to get to other fish.

Puffs when its scared.

Brown stripes to make his color spark.

Now lying on the back table of room 21.