More On Apps: Third-Grade Faves

With all that “love” already on everyone’s mind, it seemed like the perfect time for those of us in 3^rd grade to share a few of our favorite classroom apps with parents and friends!

“Explain Everything”, one of our more frequent go-to tools, is a whiteboard app into which typed text, pictures, self-made drawings, videos, and self recordings can be imported into and then used to explain a specific topic.

This particular app was one of several we employed as part of our app smashing when constructing our plot comic strips. First we used an app called “Comic Life” which contains all of the major elements found within a plot, and then we called upon “Explain Everything” to help us explain our comic strip to Miss Schmit.

The advantage to using an app like “Explain Everything” is that it reinforces the concept being taught while also allowing the students to demonstrate exactly what it is that they know about the chosen subject matter. It is especially useful in Science, because students can videotape an experiment that is being conducted in class and then later, after importing the video itself, they can further explain, on an individual basis, what they actually observed.

“Nearpod” is another favorite app of ours. It is highly interactive and can be used by students during class presentations, allowing each student to watch the presentation independently and at their own individual pace. It can also be rewound, if necessary, and watched again. This app is also great to embed quizzes in and has the built-in added bonus of being able to provide immediate feedback to each student as well.

The third-grade class, as a whole, absolutely loves the app called “Kahoot”, which we also use in quiz situations. In this case, a given question is projected onto the whiteboard located at the front of the room. Students then use their own ipad at their desk to answer the selected question. While doing this, the amount of time it takes for all of the students in the class to submit their answers as well as the total number of students who answered the question both correctly and incorrectly--without openly disclosing individual student answers--is projected in real time on to the whiteboard, so everyone can track the class’ progress. Once all answers have been logged in, we follow up with a short class discussion and review before moving on to the next quiz question.

“Kahoot” is a great motivational tool, which always generates a lot of classroom excitement and energy, with each student trying as hard as they can to answer the posed questions correctly. Honestly, they cannot wait to use this one and request it almost on a daily basis! Of course we don’t use it every day, but when appropriate, it is a fantastic resource that meets our needs in a fun and exciting way.

We have also used the “I Movie” and “Yak It” apps in conjunction with a couple other classroom projects as well. We have engaged the former to put together book trailers and the latter to make our Santas come to life and talk. Both were a resounding success that left all the students clamoring for more!

February Marks "I Love to Read" Month

We LOVE to read!

With thoughts of Valentine’s Day already stirring the air long before its scheduled date, Sleepy Eye Elementary students and staff decided to put all those warm, fuzzy feelings to good use with a month-long celebration of their own love for reading.




School-wide acknowledgement started off with students (K-6) decorating brown paper bags, donated by Schutz Family Foods, with individually crafted “I Love To Read” slogans. Once completed, the bags were then returned to the store and randomly shared with and distributed among its customers throughout the month of February.

Other in-school activities included four separate dress-up days to further demonstrate our shared love for reading. “Dress as Your Favorite Character Day” encouraged students and staff to share their favorite book character with classmates by donning the appropriate costume or style of dress of that particular person and/or thing. A great job was done by all, with a very strong showing of Things 1 and 2 among staff!


“Reading Rock Stars” was an equally dazzling event that saw everyone decked out in their best rendition of their own favorite iconic rocker and/or current pop star. “Read and Relax Day” had all the makings of a down-home, comfy sort of day, with its participants sporting their favorite pair of pjs during the day. Lastly, was “Dress In Your Finest” with all involved, sporting their own “best” signature look and sense of style!


We culminate our month-long “I Love To Read” campaign with Literacy Night on the 26th of February. So, if you haven’t already, please mark your calendars today. See you there!

Hard Work Pays Off with Group Ice Time

We took a few spills.

Loads of laughter, tons of fun, that’s what Sleepy Eye students, kindergarten through sixth grade, found during their second Sleepy Eye Pride Reward Points Party. Once on the ice, it was good times all around, with students zipping around on single-edged blades, during our school-wide outing. And whether it was racing one another, playing crack the whip on skates with a long line of friends and fellow classmates, or simply squaring off for a rowdy round of tag, all enjoyed just “chilling out” together, knowing first-hand that hard work really does pay off!

Skating fun!

Congratulations students for a job well done both off and on the ice!

Annual Third-Grade Wax Museum

3rd Graders in their Wax Museum garb.

“Who Are You Again?




Surely was the question of the day when 3rd graders trooped into class dressed for the final portion of our biography/autobiography genre Wax Museum project. As part of this annual event, the students select a person of historical significance to research, using various media sources. Once the investigative portion of this process has been completed, they then write a speech from the first-person point of view, acting as if they are in fact that very person they’ve been researching. As a closing act, the students dress up as the person they’ve been researching and perform their speeches in our own 3rd grade class.

As always, this tends to be one of the students’ favorite units. This year was certainly no exception to the rule!

Great job students, with your research and historical portrayals!

Spirit of Generosity Drives “Giving Tree” Success

Tis the Season for Giving!

Given the magnitude of success seen with this year’s annual “Giving Tree” food drive, the weeks in December leading up to Christmas might just as well been renamed the “Giving Season”! Both our school as a whole as well as our 3^rd-grade class achieved their pre-set goals when it came to collecting individually donated food items.

Goofy Alien Children

As a class, we collected a total of 108 separate food items to meet our 100-item goal, and were rewarded as a result with an in-class movie. As a school, we exceeded our 1,000-item target, collecting over 1,500 individual food items! In recognition of the students’ resounding efforts, the entire school celebrated by singing Christmas karaoke in the school gym and because everyone went well above and beyond in meeting our overall set goals were treated to watching our principal, Mr. C. getting pied in the face!

Santa Goes “High Tech”

Using technology in order to transform the learning process is an ongoing goal in 3^rd grade this year. One of the most common ways to accomplish this is through the use of apps—self-contained computer programs or pieces of software that are designed for a specific purpose, especially when downloaded by mobile device users. For this particular project, we used multiple apps, a technique called app smashing, to bring a one-dimensional, paper image of Santa to life.

Students were first asked to disguise a printed-form of Santa in a way so that he wouldn’t be recognized as himself. Once we’d finished with our decorations and/or embellishments, we then learned about persuasive writing, with each student writing a persuasive paragraph to convince their reader that their colored image of Santa was, in fact, not Santa. Next, we applied an app called “Yak It” in order to make our disguised Santa figures talk. The video outcome of this was then created as an overlay to their actual Santa image, using the “Aurasma” app. When engaged with this particular app, each individual Santa was brought to life, speaking to the listener as he—the disguised Santa—presented his argument, in the voice and written words of its corresponding paragraph author—as to why he is not the actual Santa but, in reality, someone else!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star: A Visit with the Night Sky

Science all around!

Ever spent an evening under the stars, an afternoon contemplating all of the various nighttime constellations? Well, that’s exactly what the 3^rd graders did during our trip to Southwest Minnesota State University’s planetarium in Marshall, Minnesota.

As part of our “Sun, Moon, and Stars” science unit, we spent some time studying the constellations in a contained night-sky setting. Not only were we able to view the constellations in our own night sky, but also, some of the 3^rd graders own favorite star groupings that we ourselves can’t see from our own geographical location as a result of the sun. We were also treated to a movie on our solar system as well as a holiday light show before we took a hands-on side trip to the university’s Museum of Natural History where we had some time to interact with the many exhibits displayed there.

What’s especially nice about this trip is that even though Sleepy Eye isn’t located next door to a big city, we still had the chance to take in all of this without having to make a two-hundred mile round trip to the nearest big city where other venues such as this one are usually found.  Instead, we were dazzled by the stars just a mere two-hour drive away from our own hometown!

Halloween Happenings

Halloween is always a lot of fun for the students. The excitement of getting dressed up as your favorite super hero or the latest pop star or movie icon when added to the prospect of having access to all of the candy you could possible ask for our want, and you have the perfect combination for a howling success of a holiday!

Lots of Halloween fun had by all!

Since we in 3^rd grade like to pride ourselves on living up to all of today’s current standards, all that excitement and the expectation for a fun-filled Halloween classroom experience were in full swing by the time the holiday actually arrived! Not only was our day filled in part with a fall-inspired art project, but we also managed to pack in some super fun Halloween games and activities along with a few tasty snacks as well. Of course, no Halloween party is ever complete without a healthy assortment of candy, so we made sure to also have plenty of that on hand, too! 

Dodgeball Mania

Sleepy Eye Pride reward day in action!

How often were you ever rewarded for good behavior by pelting your teacher with a dodgeball? Never? Well, that’s exactly how elementary students (grades K through 6) spent their first well-earned Sleepy Eye Pride reward party, pummeling the school’s teachers with an ample supply of handy dodgeballs. Aside from a few aches and pains afterward on the part of the teachers, all--students and teachers alike--had a great time. Great job showing your Sleepy Eye Pride 3^rd grade!

Sleepy Eye Holds A Lot of History

Each fall, the 3^rd graders take a walking tour of Sleepy Eye, and this year was no exception! Judy Beech does a wonderful job showing us the important sights that are a part of our history. We learned about the W.W. Smith Mansion, Berg Hotel, and Chief Sleepy Eye.

We started at the City Building where we learn about government at the local level. Mark Kober and Mayor Jim Broich answered questions that the students had, and we also received a small gift--Mrs. Finstad, who works for the city, supplied us with cookies!

Our tour also took us to the statue by the Post Office and finally to Chief Sleepy Eye’s burial site by the museum. While in the museum, we learned about the flour mill and its history as well as other historical stories about Sleepy Eye.

Although we have an unusual city name, it now makes sense to all of our 3^rd grade students. Sleepy Eye, a wonderful city to life in!

Technology Lends a New Twist to Annual Homecoming Walk

This year’s walk around the lake took on a slightly new “look”, with our 3^rd graders toting along classroom iPads for a slightly different outdoor experience than that of previous years. The idea was to present an opportunity for technology to transcend learning by encouraging students to document their own personal thoughts and activities while actually on the walk itself. Once back in the classroom, those recordings, in combination with the creative writing process. where used to construct individual paragraphs. Those paragraphs—a creative means by which each student expressed their own thoughts and experiences—were then shared with the world via an app called Photocard, which transformed their written work into a postcard that was shared with teachers, school administrators, and parents alike!