Chaos!

This is the word of the day!!! Our SMART Board is fixed!! We started the morning with double specials, went straight to the AR assembly, and finished the day with AR rotations! It was a blast.

Morning Journal: If I were an astronaut I would...

Double Specials: Media and PE

AR Assembly: We paraded down the hallway and showed off our awesome vocabulary. We were recognized for everyone being above 90% correct average and then got to dance our way out of the assembly.

Science: We took our phases of the moon test and got our moon tracking book stapled in our science journals.

AR Rotations: The students got to choose between movie, art, game, and dance rooms and were able to do two rotations and we had a great time. I was in charge of the art room and it looked like a glitter bomb went off in there. The students did a good job of cleaning up the paper, but the glitter was a little more difficult.

I look forward to next week and getting to use the SMART Board again for our lessons.

Ways to Help Bullies!

Today's morning meeting was all about ways to help bullies. We discussed the reasons we think people might bully others and how bullies can help themselves to change these behaviors.

Morning Journal: A snowball hit me in the back of the head and I...

Morning Math: We practiced rounding to the nearest 10, 100, and 1000. We looked at solving a problem with a picture and ways to solve a problem once you get stuck.

Math: We reviewed over right, acute, obtuse, equilateral, isosceles, and scalene triangles. The students created each type of triangle with manipulatives. We also practiced recognizing each type of triangle and some students got to practice on the computer (aaamath.com).

Imagine It: We took the test on "The Moon Seems to Change". Everyone then created a moon phases flip book to practice for their test on the moon phases tomorrow.

Science: We took a practice test on drawing and labeling the phases of the moon for tomorrow's test.

The AR assembly is at 10:15 tomorrow. We will have rotations tomorrow afternoon to celebrate their reading accomplishments. Please join us at the AR assembly if you are available tomorrow.

If I went to the moon...

Today for our morning journal we wrote about if we took a trip to the moon, what would you do? Most of the students would bounce around and explore and some of them decided they would go moon surfing. Sounds pretty interesting if you ask me.

We took our SS district formative this morning and it only had sixteen questions on it. This test will help me to create lesson plans for my class that is geared towards their needs and the NC Standard Course of Study.

Morning Meeting: Today we discussed lying and how it makes us feel and how we think it effects others when we lie. I will put out an "Issues Can" for the students to put in suggestions on the issues that they think we should discuss in our morning meeting. I am hoping that this will help with the issues that we have going on in our classroom.

Math: Today I introduced the six types of triangles and they are: right triangle: one right angle, acute triangle: one acute angle, obtuse triangle: one obtuse angle, equilateral triangle: all three sides are equal, isosceles triangle: two of the sides are equal, scalene triangle: none of the sides are equal.

Imagine It: We identified cause and effect relationships in our story "The Moon Seems to Change". We also compared and contrasted the different phases of the moon and the sun and moon in a Venn diagram. The students created a moon phase hat to practice for our test on Friday. We will take the Imagine It test tomorrow.

Science: We reviewed over the phases of the moon and the order that they move. The test on the phases of the moon will be on Friday.

AR Assembly is at 10:15 on Friday. Please make sure your child creates their vocabulary hat. I am excited to see all the great words they create.

Bullying Behaviors!

I am going to do my regular post about what we do in class each day, but before I go into that I want to describe to you the bullying behaviors we have going on in our classroom. Every day I have students writing each other notes telling each other they are stupid or ugly, cursing each other out (I don't know about you guys, but when I was in third grade I didn't know these words.), they threaten to beat each other up, and steal from each other. I have tried to create a classroom where the students can open up to each other and me, but instead it seems that they have gone the opposite direction. I am going to start a daily classroom meeting, where we talk about all the things that are going on in our classroom and how it is making them feel. I have got to put a stop to all of these bullying behaviors. The problem is that even when Mr. Sid from the Respectability Foundation comes into our classroom, the students are still disrespectful and do not want to listen to the lessons on anti-bullying. Please discuss with your child the importance of being accepting of everyone around them. Bullying is not tolerated in CMS and especially not in my classroom. If your child tells you about a situation where they are being bullied, please encourage them to come and talk to me or you can stop in yourself and speak to me about it. Thank you for your support in this important life lesson.

Morning Journal: What do you do on our days off from school? The morning journal must now be 10 sentences long and I am looking for detailed sentences, not a list.

Morning Math: We reviewed over basic addition and subtraction problems with in/out box patterns. I will review this concept the entire week and we will test on it Friday.

Math: I went over the morning math test and the geometry terms test from last week. I wanted to make sure that the students fully understood these concepts before moving on to types of triangles tomorrow.

Imagine It: I went over the reading formative about Beverly Cleary from last week. I showed them exactly how to find answers in the passage and to eliminate the answers that don't make sense. We finished reading "The Moon Seems to Change" and filled in our moon phases chart. We will have a test on this Friday. We will take our regular Imagine It test on Thursday.

AR: We have set new goals for the third quarter. Ask your child what their new point goal is for the third quarter.

Science: We watched a Bill Nye the Science Guy on the phases of the moon. This video does an excellent job of showing exactly how the moon moves around the Earth and creates the phases. The students wrote ten facts from the video and this will be a science test grade. Please make sure you have them study the moon phases sheet.

The following tests came home today: Morning Math Week 17, reading formative (Beverly Cleary), math test (point, line, line segment, parallel, perpendicular, right, acute, obtuse), heritage project grades.

No Test Came Home!!!

I know many of you are asking, "Where are your tests?" I have the answer to that question. I was unable to get them graded and sent home today, due to meetings that I had to participate in. I will try to get the tests sent home on Tuesday. You should expect your child's: Heritage Project grade, timed multiplication test, morning math test, Geometric Terms test, and reading formative test.

We will have the Science and SS district formative test on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. The AR assembly will be on Friday at 10:15 am. We will have our vocabulary walk, with all the students participating. I will send more information about creating your child's vocabulary hat through e-mail.

Yesterday's morning journal was: What do you think about when you are trying to go to sleep?
Today's morning journal was: I wish I had a million... Of course most of the students said, "A MILLION DOLLARS!" They would buy some pretty interesting things with their money. Ask your child what they wanted to get.

Today we took our morning math test and these will be coming home on Tuesday. Please review over any concepts that your child struggled with on this test.

In math, they completed their right, acute, and obtuse angle pictures. They had to explain why these pictures showed each of these type of angles. STUDY THOSE MULTIPLICATION FLASH CARDS!!!! We will have a timed test on Tuesday.

In Imagine It, the students completed a reading formative. This was the last reading formative that I will assist them in unpacking the questions. They need to continue practicing this strategy each week and will also prove their answers in the passage. This is a very important skill on the EOGs.

All but one student made their AR goal!! I am excited for the Vocabulary Parade next Friday at 10:15. I hope to see you there.

In science, we watched a video on the phases of the moon. This is a Bill Nye video, which does an excellent job of describing how the moon phases are created. There will be a new moon in the next couple of days. Ask your child what this means.

NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY!! See you Tuesday.

WAXING or waning?!

I can not for the life of me remember what today's morning was for the students. I will look it up tomorrow and tell you both tomorrows and today's journals. In morning math, we worked on place value, patterns, reading a pictograph, and probability.

During Science lab, the students learned a phases of the moon song. They try to align the science lab curriculum with whatever we are doing in science. This was a great preview to our science lesson today.

In math, we went over last night's homework and the three types of angles. We reviewed right, acute, and obtuse angles. We took our quiz on the geometric terms we have learned and then began looking through magazines for examples of right, acute, and obtuse angles. We are going to paste them on a sheet of paper and describe how the picture shows these angles.

During Imagine It, I had to go observe a lesson and the students worked on their second quarter writing. They had to write about a time they forgot something and how they handled the situation. It could have been forgetting an object or something on a test. They could write about anything. It had to be three paragraphs with 5-7 sentences in each paragraph. I will use this writing to compare to the beginning of the year and the first quarter. This will tell me if they are making progress with the writing process through journaling.

Almost everyone has made their AR goal. Most of the students only have a few books left to make their goals. Tomorrow is the last day to make goals. Encourage your child to read, read, read!!

In science, we looked at the phases of the moon and discussed how the moon is in the shape of a sphere. We discussed how it never actually changes shapes, it just looks like it does. We looked at how the moon reflects the sun's light. We also discussed why it would be impossible for us to live on the moon without specialized equipment. We practice figuring out how to know whether or not a moon was WAXING (getting bigger) or waning (getting smaller). Ask your child to show you how we remember which one is which.

The Moon Seems to Change!

Today's morning journal was: What do you think the world will be like when you grow up? I know that if I look at the movie Back to the Future I am supposed to be driving around in a flying car and we are all supposed to be floating on hover crafts. The students came up with some really creative ideas and some very practical ones. Ask your child what they said in today's morning journal.

On our morning math, we had greater than and less than problems, subtraction with re-grouping, kilograms, and place value. Many of the students are still struggling with subtraction with re-grouping. Please practice this concept at home with your child.

Today was a day three, so we had double specials. The class had media and then our favorite special PE!

In Imagine It we read "The Moon seems to Change". After reading this story, some of the students realized that they had a lot of misconceptions about how the phases of the moon are formed. We practiced making connections to our story and summarizing what we have read. We will continue our study of the phases of the moon in both Imagine It and science tomorrow.

In math, we reviewed: point, line, line segment, ray, parallel, perpendicular, intersecting. We completed our flip books and the students brought them home tonight to study for a quiz on these concepts tomorrow. I introduced right, acute, and obtuse angles. A right angle measures exactly 90 degrees. An acute angle measures less than 90 degrees. An obtuse angle measures more than 90 degrees. We played a "Simon Says" game with our three angles, so the students could practice these concepts.

Please start looking at the moon outside when you have the chance and ask your child which phase is showing that day. Today it is a waning crescent. We could see it early this morning!