Saturday, June 11, 2016

Our Final Days of 3rd Grade

Hello Everyone!

Our final days of third grade came and went in a flash!  What a year it’s been!  I want to thank all of you for your support this year --your kind words, your generous gifts, your help with supporting your child's success, and for sharing in the experience and excitement of third grade.  It has been an absolute pleasure working with your children. I will miss them and wish them all well in fourth grade.





                MORE PORTLAND BRIDGES


On Monday, we finished up our fabulous Portland Bridge Model presentations. This project was definitely a highlight of the year and an appropriate way to close our 3rd grade studies. 

Here are the final fab 5!
            Hazel with her St. Johns Bridge


Brooks with his Tilikum Crossing Bridge



                Lily with her St. Johns Bridge


         Jackson with his Tilikum Crossing Bridge


  Mairi with her Tilikum Crossing Bridge






FIELD DAY
We lucked out with a morning field day session on Tuesday, so we didn't have to contend with the afternoon heat.  This made for a very pleasant day!


















ART

During our last week of 3rd grade we spent time doing art each day!

On Monday, I introduced the students to a whimsical art project which involved making small paintings on the pages of a book.  We'll just call this series...booklover's art.

Our first painting of the booklover's series was a watercolor flower with a tempra paint border, like the one below.


On Tuesday, we completed a second painting in the series, of an owl in a tree, resembling the one below.



On Wednesday,  the students were allowed to go in any direction they wanted, and were given the freedom to play around and experiment.  Some suggestions were as follows...

Choose words or phrases on the page to highlight, while painting an image that relates to the words.


Since we were using the pages from my Harry Potter Book that was falling apart, I suggested that one option could be to draw and paint a character from the story.
                                                
                   (sample character, not from Harry Potter)

Finally, I encouraged students to continue with the tree and flower themes which allow them to play around with the positive and negative space on the page, using the words for visual texture on the tree or in the background.        
         


Be sure to look through your child's art portfolio that came home, to see what their unique booklover's painting turned out to be!

This art project has so much potential.  I strongly encourage you and your child to take one of your old books from home, and create more booklover's art this summer.  This whimsical art form has endless possibilities.





BITTER SWEET
This concludes our year together, and it's always a bitter sweet time of year.  I have grown very fond of your children, and all of you.  Thank you so much for tuning in for weekly updates, I wish you all a fun and safe summer!  See you around the playground next year.


All the best,


Stephanie Cranley




Sunday, June 5, 2016

May 31 - June 3

Hello Everyone!

I am so proud of the hard work the students and families put into their Portland Bridge Models!  They are fantastic!!  






















The students began presenting their bridges on Wednesday afternoon.  During their presentation they were supposed to discuss the following:
Most had a chance to present last week, but we still have 5 fabulous bridges to present tomorrow.  This means the students are free to take their bridges home this Tuesday.  Please help arrange for the safe transport of your child's bridge back home this Tuesday, or at the latest Wednesday.

Check out the pics of the students with their bridges. Their pride and joy are evident in their faces.

 Alex with his Steel Bridge

 Riley with his Tilikum Crossing Bridge

 Paisley with her St. Johns Bridge

 Nina with her Fremont Bridge

 Lola with her Tilikum Crossing

 Tai with his Burnside Bridge

 Charlie with his Ross Island Bridge

 Amy with her Morrison Bridge

 Avery with his Tilikum Crossing Bridge

 Elena with her Hawthorne Bridge

 Thatcher with his Hawthorne Bridge

 Gigi with her St. Johns Bridge


 Max with his Steel Bridge

 Mattie with her Tilikum Crossing Bridge

Willa with her Fremont Bridge 


              Elijah with his Rainforest Bridge

Jeremiah with his Tilikum Crossing Bridge 

Connor with his Steel Bridge 

            Ceiba with her Tilikum Crossing Bridge 

I will post the 5 remaining students and their bridges later this week.

Thank you for making this project such a success for all of the students!




ART

In addition to our Portland Skyline Art piece, we also completed a Portland Bridge Silver Pencil Drawing, on a black tempra background.









The students did a great job!




IMPORTANT DATES

Tuesday, June 7: Take Bridge Models Home
Tuesday, June 7: Field Day
Thursday, June 9: Last Day of School