Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Ch-Ch-Changes!

We have made changes to our Tuesday and Thursday morning work.  We are no longer doing number of the day.  Now, the students will complete one math word problem and have one sentence to correct.  As a grade level we have noticed weaknesses in students word problem solving, so we will practice this skill for the remainder of the year.  We will continue to write morning journals, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Writing Workshop:  We practiced correcting some mistakes that students had made in their writing.  We are finishing our small moment stories to share on Thursday night.

Reading Workshop:  We continued to practice with the "Make A Boomerang" passage.  Today we began unpacking the questions.  We are looking for key words that will help us to find the answers better in the passage.  Ask your child what a "Right There" question is. (Hopefully they can tell you.)

Math Workshop:  We took our test on odd and even outcomes and multiples of 10, 100, and 1000.  Tomorrow we will begin division.

SS:  South Carolina has seceded from the Union was the big discussion today.  We also had a debate on being in the North versus the South.  There were good arguments for both.

Science:  I did not get to science today.  We will catch up tomorrow.

**Report cards came home today.

**This thursday at 6:00pm is our parent night.  I hope to see you here.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Busy, Busy!!

After being out for most of last week and then us going home early on Friday, this week will be very busy!!!

**Report cards will come home tomorrow!!!**

**Parent night is this Thursday night at 6:00pm!**

Morning Journal:  It is the anniversary of the Challenger explosion.  If I could be an astronaut, I would...  (Must be 7 sentences this quarter.)

Writing Workshop:  We will continue to practice sentence corrections for the PASS test.  We are working on our small moment stories and we will finish these by Wednesday.  All stories will be in the hallway for you to view on Thursday night!

Reading Workshop:  We are working on the /j/ sound, spelled ge and gi_, the /s/ sound, spelled ce and ci_, and long vowels a and e.  This week I am introducing the process of reading a passage and correctly answering the questions.  Today, we just focused on reading the title and introduction and making a prediction.  These strategies will help the students understand how questions are asked on the PASS test and all future tests.

Math Workshop:  We reviewed over odd/even multplication combinations.  I introduced multiplying by 10's, 100's, and 1,000's.  We will review this again tomorrow.

SS:  We are discussing the events leading up to the Civil War.  Right now we are focusing on the North's and South's views on slavary and how this began to separate them.

Science:  We watched a Magic School Bus video all about Animals and Their Habitats.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

MLK and Barack Obama

Yesterday was a day of celebrations!  We celebrated the wonderful life of Martin Luther King Jr. and the president was inaugurated yesterday as well.  I was neat to watch how these two celebrations came together as one.

Number of the Day:  2, 222  (next odd, next even, in words, using place value blocks)

Writing Workshop:  We are beginning to practice for the writing portion of the PASS test.  The students will have to be able to identify sentences that are written correctly and incorrectly in a passage.  We will practice this every day over the next couple of months.  We are continuing to write our small moment stories.  Those students that are finished are getting the opportunity to write a make-believe story.

Reading Workshop:  We looked at "Notices" and "Connections" as we read a story today.  Ask your child to show you some notices and connections as they read their story tonight.

Math Workshop:  We finished our multiplication centers and we will take a test tomorrow.

Science:  We are looking at how animals must adapt to their environments and how different animals becoming extinct can mess up a habitat.

SS:  We discussed the similarities and differences between the different ways of life in colonial times.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

If I were a star...

Morning Journal:  If I were famous for one thing it would be...

Writing Workshop:  We are continuing to work on our small moment stories.  These stories will be displayed on our bulletin board in the hallway.  Some students will be creating e-books to share with you as well.

Reading Workshop:  What is a noun and how can you tell?  We have been working on different kinds of nouns and where they can be located in a sentence. 

Math Workshop:  Ask your child to show you the 12's trick.  We will have a test on multiplication on Wednesday of next week.

SS:  We took a quiz on the three branches of the government. 

Science:  We played a review Jeopardy game on animal life cycles.  We will have a test on this tomorrow.

**No school on Friday this week for students.  No school on Monday to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The Three Branches of the Government

Please drill in your kids head the three branches of the government.  Have them sing our song to you and then make them explain what the parts of the song mean.

Number of the Day: 167 (next odd, next even, 100 more, one more, one less)

Writing Workshop:  We are focusing on adding good details to our stories that will make the reader interested.

Reading Workshop:  We took a mini assessment in reading.  The students are practicing proving their answers and looking back in the passage for the correct answers.

Math Workshop:  I taught them the 11's trick.  Ask your child how we remember 11x11 and 11x12.

SS:  Three branches of the government!!!!

Science:  We are moving the test on animal life cycles to Thursday!

**No school on Friday for students.  No school on Monday for everyone!!  Please remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and all of the wonderful things he did for our country.

Monday, January 14, 2013

How was your weekend?

My weekend was great.  I really enjoyed getting out and enjoying the beautiful weather and soaking up some Vitamen E.  I went fishing on the lake with my family on Saturday and spent most of the day sitting on my balcony on Sunday.  Here we are on Monday with our dreary January weather.  The students seem to be forgetting that there is not to be talking when I am teaching or when they are working on individual assignments.  I try to make sure that they have plenty of time to socialize during the day, but when we are supposed to be learning they need to focus.  Please remind your children of their very important job here at school.

Morning Journal:  Have you ever won an award?  If yes, explain what you have won the award for? If no, explain what you would like to win an award for?

Writing Workshop:  We discussed all of the different types of nouns in a story and the ways to use them appropriately.  We are continuing to work on our small moment stories which will be displayed throughout January.

Reading Workshop:  We are reviewing our long vowel sounds and /j/ spelled j and dge; /s/ spelled s and cy.  The students are continuing to practice all of their reading skills and strategies, but this week's focus is main idea.

SS:  "There are three branches of the government.  There are three branches of the government.  Legislative makes the laws. Executive carries them out.  Judicial makes sure the laws make sense."  Have your child sing our song to you today.

Science:  We are looking at animals and their life cycles.  We will have a test on animal life cycles on Wednesday.

**No school for students on Friday for a teacher work day.  No school on Monday to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Monday and Tuesday

Monday Morning Journal:  This is national bird feeder month.  What can you do to protect the environment?

Tuesday Number of the Day:  807 (next odd, next even, 10 more, 10 less, 100 more, when is it big, when is it small)

Writing Workshop:  We are once again talking about the Donald Crews books Big Mama's and Short Cut.  The book Short Cut is a small moment story from the story of Big Mama's.  The goal is to get the students to narrow down their stories to one small moment that happened in their lives.  Instead of writing about the whole Christmas day, they need to write about walking down the stairs and seeing their presents for the first time or opening up that one special present.  I want them to put a lot of detail into these stories to really get the reader to understand the feelings they felt during this moment in their lives.


Reading Workshop:  We have started new reading groups and the students have new levels.  We are continuing our study of the phonics sounds and sound spelling.  This has been really successful this year and the students continue to improve in both their reading and writing skills.

Math Workshop:  We are continuing to practice the multiplication strategies of drawing pictures, arrays, and using repeated addition.  I am introducing the "tricks" for each of the factors this week.  We are also singing some fun skip counting songs to help them remember how to skip count with all of the numbers.

Science:  On Monday we took our test on seeds, plants, and seed dispersal.  These will come home next Tuesday.  The students did well overall.  Today we began our study of animal life cycles.  We watched a short video about the life cycles and we will create one of the life cycles on paper tomorrow.

SS:  We have started studying the organization of our government with the three branches of government.  We are looking at our local and state government and how things are run on a daily basis.

**Third grade will be hosting a parent night on January 31st at 6:30pm.  I hope you can attend.

Friday, January 4, 2013

We're back!!

Morning Journal:  What is the best thing you did over the holiday break?

Writing Workshop:  The students had a lesson from our Bearcat Buddy, Mr. Travis.  He taught them how to write an autobiography.  He read them his autobiography that he had written and then described to them the process of writing his paper.  The students then wrote their own autobiographies.

Reading Workshop:  We practiced locating small details within a passage and found the main idea from a passage.

Math Workshop:  I taught the students the 11's trick.  It works up to the nines!  You pretend that you are multiplying times one, two times.  For example: 8x11=  Think 1x8=8 and 1x8=8 for the answer 8x11=88.  We practiced solving problems using arrays and repeated addition.

SS:  We took our test on the perspectives of the Patriots, Loyalists, Native Americans, Slaves, and Women.

During Science time, some of the students worked on their small moment plans, others worked on acrostic poems, others played Sushi Monster on the ipad. 

Have a great weekend.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Happy New Year and Welcome Back!!

I am so excited to be back at school.  I know that sounds strange for a teacher to say, but I truly am glad to be back.  I had a wonderful holiday break with my family and I hope that you guys did as well.  We are hitting the ground running and are off to a great start.  My new years resolution last year was to blog every single day for the parents in my classroom.  I am pretty happy with how well I did on this goal.  I didn't necessarily make it every day, but who can say they pushed away every piece of cake and cookie?  This year's professional goal is to get my students involved in blogging and to implement ipads in my classroom at least three times a week.  Thank you so much for your support the first half of the year and I look forward to the rest of the year being just as great.

Number of the Day:  1,333 (100 more, 10 more, 10 less, next odd, next even)

Writing Workshop:  We are continue to focus on writing a small moment story.  We practice this every day in our morning journal writing and also throughout the reading curriculum.  Ask your child to tell you a story and when it begins to draw out over longer than a five minute story, have them narrow it down.

Reading Workshop:  We are finishing up our study of biographies.  Tomorrow is the last day for our Bearcat Buddy Travis and he will be teaching a lesson on how to write an autobiography.  I know the students and I will really miss him.

Math Workshop:  MULTIPLICATION!!!  Get out those flash cards and practice!  Today we learned the 10's trick.  Any time you are multiplying by 10, write down the number you are multiplying by and then write a 0.  It always works.

Science:  Do you know how plants make seeds?  Well, your child should know.  Ask them how this happens.

SS:  We reviewed over the different perspectives of Loyalist, Patriots, Native Americans, Slaves, and Women in the Revolutionary War.