School Days: 3rd Grade Fourth Nine Weeks and Last Day {Riley}

I'm not gonna lie: third grade was hard. But Riley had a great year. He was challenged, he struggled at times, but he ultimately did very well. He ended the year with 9 A's and 1 B (darn handwriting!) and got Beta Honor Roll again. He also crushed his last AR goal and got 65.3 points, as well as third place in total AR points for the year. Kenny and I are so proud of him. 

A good chunk of the fourth quarter was devoted to preparation for their first ACT Aspire Testing in ELA, math, and science, but they eventually moved on and learned some new things. In ELA, they studied adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and elements of a drama. They also read The Wizard of Oz as a class and learned their lines for the play. 

In math, they learned about perimeter, area, geometry terms, and measurement, including time, capacity, and volume. They also discussed how to represent and interpret data. Riley really struggled with time intervals (he failed a quiz!), but he got a 100 on his final math exam. Boom.

In religion, they talked about Jesus growing in age and wisdom, signs and wonders, the Last Supper, Jesus giving his life for us, and offering gifts of love. They also participated in Stations of the Cross. 

In science, they learned about the sun and the Earth and the rest of the planets and about space exploration. They also completed a shoebox planet project where they had to research an assigned planet, design a shoebox display with facts about their planets, and construct a model of their planet. Riley had Saturn and built his model out of (shocker) Legos.

On March 26, the whole school celebrated Dr. Seuss Read Across America Day. I came into Riley's class as a surprise mystery reader, which was so fun. I read A Bad Case of Stripes and had Nopsi paint my face. 

On April 1, the third graders attended a performance of Mary Poppins Jr. at Ursuline, and I went too. We had a picnic lunch at Bright afterwards. It was a fun morning with my boy. 

On April 12, they took another field trip to the instrument petting zoo at Loyola University. This was a very timely outing since they are required to take band next year. Riley came home wanting to play the huge stringed bass!

On April 17, they had their class mass. Riley was chosen to read the introduction and did a wonderful job. They also did a fun Easter sand art project that afternoon.  

On May 6, they had their final choir concert. They sang two songs and sounded great. 

On May 7, they came to school dressed in costume as part of a huge Living Museum project in ELA. They had to read a book about a famous person of their choosing, take an AR test on the book, complete research notes, design a display board with pictures and facts, write and memorize a short speech about their person, and deliver the speech in the first person in front of the class. Riley chose to study J.K. Rowling. However, he told Mrs. Mouney that he didn't really want to dress up like a girl so could he be Harry Potter instead? She told him yes, but he had to speak as Harry Potter about J.K. Rowling. He was cool with that.

I borrowed everything for his Harry Potter look, and he even asked if I would spray his hair black. He looked so great! All of the kids did. A couple of others chose J.K. as well, and Michael even dressed up like her. Claire was Princess Diana, Ansleigh was King Tut, Jack was Steve Irwin. But Eli won the day as Freddie Mercury. Amazing. 

He apparently did very well with his speech. Ms. Paulin brought her class to the presentations and later told me he seemed so cool and confident and even threw in a fun fact. I loved hearing that!

On May 9, third grade participated in their last pep rally. They reached the finish line!

Their last day (morning) of third grade was May 24. They received their final awards and sang in the choir for mass, Dr. Speeg was honored for her service to SCR (she retired this year), and classroom parties and slideshows were the very last events of the year. They were done!

We gave Mrs. Mouney and Mrs. Devenport each a bottle of wine and a bag of Nola's cookies as a little end of the year gift. Those two ladies are hard yet wonderful teachers. Riley learned a lot this year, and I think he's more than prepared for fourth grade. Bring it on!

But first, summer.