For Science Lovers..................

For you astronomy lovers, if tonight is clear.................

If you see a meteor flit across the sky tonight or tomorrow, it could be a piece of Halley's comet. Earth is crossing a stream of dusty debris from Halley and this is causing the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. You may see as many as 15 meteors per hour or less during the dark hours before dawn. Check out spaceweather.com for sky maps and more information.

Also the innermost planet Mercury is emerging from the glare of the sun and putting on its best show of the year. A good time to look is Tuesday Evening, May 6th, just after sunset when the crescent Moon glides by Mercury in the darkening western sky. A sky map and photos are available at spaceweather.com

Lastly, On Saturday May 17 at Island Beach State Park and on Sunday May 18 at the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium on Sandy Hook, you can learn seaside facts at the fifth annual Ocean Fun Days. Both days feature hands-on programs and exhibits, demonstrations, eco-tours and fun activities for children all about the beaches and bays of the Jersey Shore. You and your family can enjoy all this for free including admission into each part! For more information, go to the NJ Marine Sciences Consortium website at www.njmsc.org and look under "News and Events".

Math Madness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in our first annual Math Madness! I hope you enjoyed playing 24, The Greatest/Least, Domino Calculations and Muliplication War. These games are easy to play at home too. Let me know if you have any questions about anything you played on Friday!

Animal Research Has Begun!!!!!!!!!!!

The third grade is now in animal research mode! The animals have been selected and the kids have begun learning fun and interesting facts. Our research will end with our visit to the Bronx Zoo to see the animals up close and personal!

In Language Arts, we are practicing gathering facts and researching information about honeybees. Here are some fascinating facts we've learned so far. Did you know that bees have been around for millions of years? Did you know that only females honeybees have stingers? Did you know that honeybees have 5 eyes? You'll learn more about this cool insects when you read the fact booklet we are working on in class!

Have You Seen The Night Sky?

We are beginning our Astronomy Unit by taking a look at the night sky over the next week. We'll be describing how the sky looks on different nights of the week (the shape of the moon, where it is in the sky, stars, clouds, etc.) and drawing what we see in our "Star Light, Star Bright Journal". We are also going to do some "planet research" to find out a little more about our Universe! We'll keep you posted!

P.S. Thanks to everyone who posted comments on our very first blog posting! I look forward to blogging with you all again soon!

Freedom Train

Today the third grade at Southern Boulevard School went to the Morristown Community Theater today to see "Freedom Train", a musical about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. We learned a lot about how difficult it was for slaves to leave the south in search of freedom and how Harriet Tubman made many trips back down south to help bring people up north to freedom. The play was really good and we enjoyed watching it!

Our First Posting

Today we created a new blogsite. Hopefully we can include all kinds of cool information about third grade happenings like Black History, our haikus