Programs and Projects

Mr. Reynolds’ Readers

 

Third grade is such an important year in your child’s development!  It is in this year that students make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn.  I have been a teacher in the Corvallis School District for eleven years.  I taught a first/second grade class for the first six years of my career.  For the last five years I have taught third grade.  I have extensive experience in teaching students to read and read well. 

In my class we read a lot!  I provide a balanced reading program in which students are actively engaged in read-a-louds, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading. I orchestrate my classroom routines to allow me to work with small groups or individual students to best meet their individual reading needs.

The Salmon Project

 

 

             Each year in October my class receives 500 Chinook salmon eggs.  We monitor the pH and temperature of our 20 gallon aquarium to provide just the right conditions for the eggs to hatch.  Once the eggs have hatched we continue to monitor and adjust the conditions of the water.  The newly hatched “alevins” then begin absorbing their yolk-sacs.  By the second week of December the yolk-sacs will be completely absorbed and it will be time to go out to the South Santiam River to release the “fry.” 

             This project provides us with high-interest opportunities to read, write, calculate, speculate, and imagine.  It also provides a point of reference for the students to begin understanding some of the complex water/fish/human issues we are surrounded by in the Pacific Northwest.