🎨 The Third Grade Times, September 2026 Edition Part 2 🐸
International Dot Day 2026
St. James Lower School celebrated Dot Day!
Framing a student's dot artwork is a classic International Dot Day tradition inspired by the pivotal moment in Peter H. Reynolds' book The Dot, where Vashti’s teacher proudly frames her simple dot in a gold swirly frame to inspire her.
First, we read the book, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and discussed creativity, bravery, and making your mark.
Secondly, we made a small mark: The students drew a single dot on a piece of paper.
Then we Transform It: I encouraged the students to turn their dot into a larger "not-a-dot" masterpiece using markers and/or crayons.
Finally, I Framed the Masterpiece: We finished drawings inside a gold decorative paper frame to mimic the famous classroom display from the book.
🐸 Life Cycle of a Frog🐸
3 weeks ago, we walked to our campus pond and adopted 8 tadpoles to keep in our classroom as we learned about animal life cycles and metamorphosis. To our surprise, over the weekend, one of the tadpoles transformed into a froglet!! 4 strong legs have appeared from one of the tadpoles! Sadly we said goodbye to 2 tadpoles, but good news…..there are still 6 alive and thriving!
We will check back in, hopefully with 6 adorable little frogs, once the tadpoles complete their life cycle!
Update: Fast forward to this week……one morning we walked in to the classroom, and to our surprise, our cute little froglet made it to the final stage of metamorphosis and we found an adorable tiny frog!! We named him, Kermit!
Then it was time to release him in our school pond. Although for some of us it was difficult to let go of our little amphibian, allowing it to thrive in its natural environment was best!
Live long and prosper, Kermit! 🐸
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
Our Wordly Wise curriculum provides direct academic vocabulary instruction to develop the critical link between vocabulary and reading comprehension.
Last week our class read and studied, Up, Up, and Away, a nonfiction passage that highlights vocabulary and facts about the world's largest balloon event held every October at Balloon Fiesta Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
While learning new vocabulary and reading comprehension strategies, students learned how the local wind patterns, sometimes called the "Albuquerque Box," allow balloonists to navigate and make round-trip flights.
In addition to learning about the Albuquerque balloon festival, we put our creativity to the test and made our own hot air balloons using a paper mach’e mix of flour and water. This art piece will be a keepsake and a memorable time of how learning can be fun!
