C4T #1

Third Grade with Mr. Capps

Comments For Teachers Friday! Clouds, Dog-Races, and ToonDoo
Post by Mr. Capps on January 18, 2013

Mr. Capps's blog post was an assignment for his third grade students to read the article Girl will race dogs in Alaska. After students completed their reading they were asked to answer the critical thinking question at the end of the article. The students were allowed to write their responses in their journals or on a blank sheet of paper. The article is about a very hard working sixteen year old girl, Taylor Steele, who decided to follow her dreams. Taylor is a dog sled racer who was influenced by the movie "Snow Buddies." The article talks about her journey, and her plans to finish school and leave for Alaska. At the end of the article is the critical thinking challenge: "Why are clothing and equipment so expensive? Why doesn’t Taylor get her supplies at Walmart?"

I commented on Mr. Capps's post by letting him know how much I enjoyed the article and the critical thinking question that followed. I also commented on how I believed his class blog was such a great tool for his students.I loved that this article was a great motivational story with an assignment to better students critical thinking and writing skills.

Science: Earth's Landforms
Post by Mr. Capps on February 5, 2013

This week Mr. Capps's assignment for his students was to explore the links he had provided, choose one link, and write down the main idea with supporting details. The links he provided contained pictures and videos of mountains, valleys, and plains on Earth. He described the pictures on one of the websites as "stunning" and they truly were! To help students decide which topic to choose he added questions before the links such as: "How do plants and trees adapt to live on mountains?" Following the questions student would have a "click here to find out" option.

I explained to Mr. Capps that I was a previous Geology major and that even I learned something new. I told him that this was such and exciting and creative assignment. It allowed students to work on researching and writing skills while learning about the Earth's land-forms. I explained how closely related Geography and Geology are, and that it is interesting to see evidence of Earth's land-forms shifting right here in Alabama!