Tuesday, February 23, 2016

You've Heard of the Oscars...........Now Get Ready for the Solars!



All of the third grade classes have been participating in a month long Solar System research project.   At the beginning stages, each student was put into a specific planet group based off of their interest.   Using websites and books, each planet group researched information about their planet and posted their notes into Googledocs.   

Afterwards, each planet group chose two Solar Award Categories that they felt their planet could win. The Solar Award Categories are:

  • Strangest Atmosphere
  • Wildest Temperature/Weather
  • Best Name
  • Most Earth-like Planet
  • Most Interesting Moons
  • Scariest Planet
  • Most Beautiful Planet
  • Most Unique Planet
Once the categories were chosen, each planet group had to write a persuasive paragraph that proved why their planet should win that specific category award.  All paragraphs will be submitted to an award selection committee.  

Next week, together with the entire third grade, students will be divided into specific selection committees that gathered in the Commons.   (Ex.:  The Strangest Atmosphere Committee).   Each committee is responsible for reading the persuasive paragraphs and narrowing down each category to the top three planets that they feel deserve to win that specific category based off of the evidence that was given to them.   

Back in the classroom, the top three persuasive speeches from the third grade classes for each category will be read aloud.   After the speeches are read, the students will vote online into a program called Survey Monkey for the planet they believe deserves to win.   All of the third grade votes will be tallied. 


For the last part of the project, the students will walk down the red carpet in the Commons for the Solars Award Ceremony on Thursday where the winners will be revealed by our guest emcee, Mr. Walton.