May 2-13

Hello Families,

The past two weeks have been filled with Portland Bridge activities and state testing!  In all, we have spent 3 days organizing ourselves around testing, and the rest of our time immersed in our Portland Bridge Studies, which has provided the perfect balance.  Here’s a recap of the highlights of the past two weeks!

 PORTLAND BRIDGES

Our unit began with a discussion what we already know about the Portland Bridges.

 And what we want to know more about:

It seems that we had a lot to say about this topic!

We had some of our questions answered within the first few minutes as we got acquainted with our new Big and Awesome Bridges textbook, authored by none other than a Sellwood resident, Sharon Wood Wortman. 

We took a book-walk to notice the interesting things the book had to offer.  We spent a great deal of time stopping, reading, and learning many interesting facts, as students called out page numbers and we took turns sharing what we thought was interesting.

We learned that there are three main types of bridges: arch, beam, and suspension.

We also learned that there are three main movable bridge types: the bascule, swing, and vertical lift bridge.

On page 24 it shows that the longest bridge in Portland is the Fremont Bridge at 382 meters long.
We also learned that the shortest bridge in Portland is the Steel Bridge at 64 meters long.

On page 186 a pictograph shows bicycle traffic on a few of the Portland Bridges. 

Some other interesting things we found in our book...

A map of the Portland/Vancouver area showing the location of all of the bridges...

Even the Tilikum Crossing Bridge is featured in our textbook.

Templates for building each Portland Bridge from popsicle sticks can be found in the book.

The students had a genuine interest in learning the information in the book and had a great opportunity to preview all that it has to offer us in this unit.

We continued our study of Portland Bridges the next day as we read about the 3 main types of bridges and then built a model of one type: the beam bridge.  Our model in particular, was a truss beam bridge made from triangles. 

Check out the pics of the students building their toothpick trusses.  

 It's all about the triangles!

Our initial introduction to bridge building continued beyond the toothpick truss bridge into the realm of suspension bridges. We first explored the idea of the suspension bridge in it’s simplicity, with the use of string and two textbooks.   

(photo from last year)

The students were expected to fashion a bridge that could hold the weight of a scissors, using a string and textbooks.

(photo from last year)

I then introduced a third material—masking tape. 

Using the tape, students were led to the idea of an "anchor" for their bridge.  This "anchor" gave our second bridge design much greater strength from the resulting tension.

The success rate of the load test improved dramatically with the addition of the tape as an anchor.

We discussed that the crucial element giving suspension bridges their strength was the tension created after securing the string to the book or desk. Within this discussion, we also recognized that the most tension was achieved when the string was pulled across the towers and secured to the desk.  This design gave stability to the towers and the most tension to the string.  We then made the connection between the parts of our model to the required parts of a suspension bridge.

Our next exploration in bridge building was the model of a beam bridge using the following materials—straws, tape, and penny weights for load testing.  

                                               
                                    

 After conducting the load tests of our beam bridge, we transformed our beam bridge into a suspension bridge by adding a new material (string) to the existing structure. 

We then load tested our new suspension bridge designs and saw firsthand how much strength was added by introducing a cable and tension to an existing beam bridge.  Some of our bridges could hold twice as much weight! 

Now that the students had a thorough knowledge of the basic types of bridges, it was time to explore the bridges we have right here in our own backyard.  

  

Pairs of students chose a Portland Bridge to research and report on.  They were expected to read about their bridge in our Big & Awesome Bridges Book, fill out a fact sheet, write a summary, and make a poster to illustrate their bridge.  

 

(photo from last year)

We will be finishing these up this week and then the students will begin presenting their information to the class in order to teach their classmates about each of the Portland Bridges.  We will also use these presentations to begin building a timeline of Portland Bridge construction.  I will post pictures of their Portland Bridges Posters next week.

                 PORTLAND BRIDGE FIELD TRIP

                                            

We had a great time on our Bridge Tour on Friday!  Our first stop was the ODOT command center where we saw firsthand, the place that keeps traffic moving across our bridges.  The students learned quite a bit about the Oregon Department of Transportation!

Down the hall from the command center is a small exhibit dedicated to the Portland Bridges. 

Here, our tour guide, Nathan Hoover, took a moment to show us some models of the Portland Bridges that are on display, as well as introduce the basic vocabulary that he would be using throughout the tour.  As you can guess, our class had a solid grasp on the vocabulary in question—the 3 types of bridge structures (beam, arch, suspension), the 3 movable bridge structures (swing span, vertical lift, bascule). The students had many opportunities to show off their knowledge of bridges!

When he was finished with his introduction, we had a few minutes to look around the exhibit which showcased early bridge models and artifacts.

Next, we began our walking tour of the Portland Bridges as we left ODOT and walked south.  The first bridge we examined was the Steel Bridge.  Here the class learned about it’s double-vertical lift span design and how it is the only one like it in the world, where one lift can move independently from the other.

We continued our walk south as we headed to the Morrison Bridge.  

Here we had the opportunity to see this bascule bridge in action.  

 

This was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

After witnessing the opening of the Morrison Bridge, we were led down to the pier under the bridge. Here, we were able to view the counterweights located beneath the bridge that provide the weight and strength to open the bascule draw-bridge.  The counterweights were almost unrecognizable as they were nearly disguised as a large wall.  We played I-spy until Nathan confirmed it’s location to us. 

Our Morrison Bridge Tour ended with a brief visit up to the control tower where we looked out over the river and learned how bridge operators open the bridge.  Did you know that ships need to call ahead to notify the City of Portland that they need to pass?  The bridge operator tower is not staffed 24 hours a day, so ships need to plan ahead so they can call the operators to come down and prepare to open the bridge.  

Next, we walked to the east side of the river where we walked south along the waterfront.  

                 

We stopped along the river near OMSI where we sat down for our lunch break.  While sitting there, we witnessed the Hawthorne Bridge opening and closing.  

After lunch, we walked south to the Tilikum Crossing.

Our first look at this magnificent new bridge was from underneath.  

Here Nathan shared with us some of the less obvious features of this bridge.

We learned about the whisper chamber located beneath both ends of the bridge.  This installation allows your whisper to be heard from across the river. 

We also learned that the bridge has intelligent lighting installed beneath it, which communicates the conditions of the river in it's color and projected angle.

Then it was time to head up to the deck of this beautiful suspension bridge. 

Once again, the Portland Bridge Tour provided a high point of our year!  Thank you Nathan, for being such a kind, knowledgeable tour guide.  

Our Portland Unit continues as we…

-Share our research on each Portland Bridge

-Build a Portland Bridge at home

-Portland Bridge Art

-Portland Downtown Skyline Art (in progress)

-Present our Portland Bridges to the class (June 1)

STATE TESTING

This Wednesday we will begin our Math portion of the Smarter Balanced Assessments. We will test for 2 days and then be done!

LITERACY

We will be completing two more big stories from our Reading Street Curriculum. 

MATH

We are multi-tasking folks!  Unit 5 concepts have been covered during morning work as they employ basic practice with adding and subtracting large numbers.  Unit 6 was fractions—check!  The Unit 7 concepts we are currently exploring involve double digit multiplication.  Currently our math practice is being conducted in the format of learning centers.  

Each afternoon the students spend 15 minutes at each of the six centers.  Each time they successfully complete a center, they earn a bead.

Each bead is strung onto a necklace each student is making, and our goal is 100 beads for an end-of-the-year party!

                      Family Bridge Building Project

                       DUE: Wednesday, June 1

As you know, part of our 3^rd Grade Social Studies Unit centered on Portland involves building a model of a Portland Bridge at home.  This project should be a collaborative project involving both students and parents.  Students and families are directed to choose any Portland Bridge and replicate it using any material you’d like, except LEGOS.  Please limit the size of your bridge to the following dimensions; 2’ x 1’ x 2’ (length x width x height).  Any variation in size less than the above dimensions is welcome. 

Starting this week, there will be no more daily homework.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Be creative and have fun!

KNIGHTING

Congratulations Avery, Elena, and Mairi for being recognized as bucket-fillers!

THANK YOU!

This was the best door decoration ever!  

I am so grateful for your support and kindness throughout this year.

                          

IMPORTANT DATES 

Monday, May 16-20:  Scholastic Book Fair -LIBRARY
Wednesday, May 18:  Late Opening 10:00 am
Wednesday, May 18:  Smarter Balance Math 
Testing begins
May 23-27- Spirit Week 
Monday, May 30:  Memorial Day Holiday, No School
Wednesday, June 1- Portland Bridge Models Due
Friday, June 3: Llewellyn Carnival

Tuesday, June 7: Field Day
Thursday, June 9:  Last Day of School