Early Cinema: the Zoetrope

This year, the school´s theme and motto is "Lights, Camera, Action!" All year students are participating in different activities to celebrate this theme.This term, students are making their very own zoetropes in class to learn how early animation began before films were invented.

What is a zoetrope?

A zoetrope is a device that was invented before film animation existed. It creates the illusion of a motion in still photos by using pictures that show a motion in many small phases or steps.

Here you can see how the steps students followed to make their zoetrope in class and how it works.

How to Make a Zoetrope

Our Model City

Following the last unit on maps and globes, the two 3rd grade classes are now working together in English and Social Science to learn about cities and towns and how to give directions. The two classes are working to build a large model of a town that we will display in class to practice using maps and giving directions. We still have work to do, but the model is looking fantastic with streets, buildings, and even a park. Below you can see some photos of the construction and later we´ll add photos of the town when it´s finished!

 Building our city.

Our city is finished!

Comparatives and Superlatives

In our current unit in English students have been learning how to compare things based on characteristics. They can say that one animal is faster than another or that one student is taller than another student. In addition, we´ve also been learning the superlatives. We use superlatives in English to say that something is the most of a characteristic like: cheetahs are the fastest animals or Mount Everest is the highest mountain.

To compare 2 things we use the comparative to say something is more of something. We do this by adding -er to the end of the adjective, example: taller, rounder

The superlative is used when comparing 3 or more things to say that one of those things is more of a certain characteristic than the others. We form the superlative by saying something is the (superlative form of the adjective). If the adjective has 1 or 2 syllables we add -est to the end of the adjective, ex: the fastest, the smartest. But, if it has 3 or more syllables we don´t change the adjective, we say the word"most" before it. Example: the most beautiful, the most delicious.

With both the comparative and the superlative, if the adjective ends in "y" we have to change it to an "i" before adding -er or -est.

We´ve included some fantastic web pages with activities and games so your kids can practice comparatives at home with fun games. Click on the links below for the games.

http://www.learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-games/comparatives_and_superlatives

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/comparativessuperlatives-esl-grammar-nature-world-geography-vocabulary-fun-game/

Adverbs of Frequency

Here in class we have just learned how to say how often we do something by using adverbs of frequency. The students can now say if they always, usually, sometimes, or never do something or go somewhere. For example, we hope our students always come to school!

We practiced the adverbs of frequency by talking about someone´s schedule by using a calendar. Students also talked about themselves to say what they do during the week or where they go. Some students always play football and others who don´t like football never play. Most students sometimes go to the shopping mall and others usually go to the park.

Today, students have just taken their exam about the adverbs of frequency and we hope they have
studied very hard and did well on the exam!

Welcome to Our New Blog

Hello! We´re happy to introduce you to the brand new blog of Garcilaso de la Vega´s Third Grade class. We´ve been working very hard all year, but we´ve also been having a lot of fun with many different activities.

So far in English we´ve been learning many new things such as adverbs of frequency, present simple, and present continuous. The students are also quickly learning new vocabulary about describing hobbies, animals, and places around town.

In Science the students have learned about different types of maps, how to classify animals, and how to talk about the weather, all in English!

We´ll continue to update the blog with information and photos of the students´ work and activties so that you can see what we´re learning in our class.

Welcome to the Garcilaso Third Grade Class Blog!