I'm thankful for...

21 bright and smiling faces that make my job fun...

Check out the post titled, "2010 Science Fair" to see each one!

Their parents...21 sets to be exact,

I so enjoyed sitting and discussing your child this week...thats a fact!

My UES family full of students who are respectful and care,

and teachers with tons of experience, enthusiasm, and friendship to share.

My very own family both far and near...

who bring me such joy and that I hold so dear.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and enjoy your time,

I'll see you soon, time to end my rhyme!

Have a truly wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. I look forward to a few days rest and will see your kids Monday, November 29th!

Karen

PS...If I may...I would be REALLY thankful for hand sanitizer, clorox wipes, and kleenex...we're heading into winter and we're running low on these important supplies...thanks ahead of time for any donations!!

COUNTY Science Fair!

We had two friends take their science fair projects to the County Science Fair!!

Congratulations to Sanjana and Julia!

2010 Science Fair

2010 Science Fair

Happy National Education Week!

We had a wonderful week full of mystery readers, science fair projects, report cards, and finished writing pieces!! Read on to find out more!

This week was a bit different than most weeks...we spent two days enjoying the kids' science fair project presentations...WOW is all I can say...what a wonderful job your kids did on their projects!! This, of course, led up to Thursday's UES Science Fair...if you haven't seen the post previous to this one...take a look...I uploaded a picture of each student with proud grins in front of their projects...its a fun 2 minute video...enjoy!

This week we also finished two writing projects. The "Ella" stories are FINALLY finished...and I'm so excited to read them this weekend! I hope to share them with you at conferences...we'll see if I get them graded in time! The kids also finished a persuasive letter...it is to you about their bedtimes...the funny thing is...they don't want you to read them! Many of them knew that in order to provide evidence in support of their opinion, they needed to write about having you lengthen the amount of time they sleep or not change their bedtime at all...when really, they all want to stay up later!! They are wonderful letters, but I am here to tell you that they are not "for real"...so please don't hold your child to it!! ;-)

On Tuesday we celebrated education by putting a spotlight on reading...the kids enjoyed readers from our PTA during lunchtime and then we had three mystery readers in the afternoon. I had given them clues in the morning so they could guess which parents were coming and what book they were going to read...they loved trying to solve the mysteries!! Mrs. Wolcott, Nicky's mom, arrived first and read an exciting chapter from the first Harry Potter book, The Sorceror's Stone. Then Mr. Buchholz, Emma's dad, came to read a hilarious story called, My Cat, the Silliest Cat in the World. Then Mrs. Sobocienski, Sarah's mom, came and read the wonderful story The Giving Tree. We enjoyed all three mystery readers so much...I think we should make this a monthly event! If you are interested in coming into the classroom as a mystery reader...please send me an email. You can pretty much name the time...unless we're in specials or lunch, we'd LOVE to have you! You can choose the book or I'd be happy to suggest one, so just let me know!

On Wednesday we had CAREER DAY...it was SOOO fun! Each student had the choice to share his/her paragraph describing the career they were interested in, why, and how education will help them persue that career. Many of the kids dressed up as their chosen career. It was really neat to see and hear all of their ideas...a new favorite day of mine!!

Also this week we took the CSA's, worked more with fractions, took a Quarter Two Math pretest, found even more WORD NERD words, and took a two day break from homework! I got an email from a Dad who said that his son had come home and told him that we were taking a FIVE WEEK break from homework! I got a good laugh out of that one...so just to clarify...it was a TWO DAY break from homework. They needed it and so did I!

The next two days of school are crazy ones...please remember that on Monday the kids come to school FOUR hours late...so our school day is 12:30-2:30. On Tuesday the kids will be in school from 8:30 - 11:00...they are dismissed 3 and 1/2 hours early. I am looking forward to sitting with each of you and filling you in on your child's progress so far in third grade. Our conferences are limited to 15 minutes, so if I do not get all of your questions answered, we can schedule another meeting or communicate through email...whichever you choose.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend with your kids. See you next week!

Oh dear...I'm late!

Sorry, everyone...its that whole "balancing Mommy and Teacher thing"...and Mommy won this weekend...

We had a great week last week and I want to tell you all about it...but first...a quick look into the week ahead...it is National Education Week at Urbana Elementary School...

MONDAY - UES students will write "I Love UES because..." or "If I were Principal..."
TUESDAY - we celebrate Reading...the PTA will have parents reading at lunchtime and I have invited any of you who would like/are available to read to our class that day as Mystery Readers. I heard from three parents, so the afternoon is full, but I still have plenty of morning spots if any of you are interested...just send me an email! I will be giving the kids clues to guess who our readers are for the day!
WEDNESDAY - Career Day...kids are supposed to come dressed up as what they think they'd like to be when they grow up...my students have a writing assignment to go with it, they will receive the details tomorrow and share it with us on Wednesday.
THURSDAY - Science Fair Day! My students will tour the Science Fair during school and you are welcome to come that evening to tour it yourselves!!
FRIDAY - School Spirit Day - we will all be wearing school colors!

One more thing before I get to the past week...a big THANK YOU to all of you for helping your children stay on track for getting their Science Fair projects turned in on time...I can't believe how many kids turned their projects in on Friday for extra credit...and I can't wait to spend the next few days learning about all of their projects!!

Now to the week...

Language Arts
We finished our work with the Junior Great Books story, The Master Cat. I had two amazing discussion groups to culminate this story analysis. I split the class in 1/2 and led the discussion with particular questions. It was great to get inside their brains and hear the wheels turn! They are becoming very good at supporting their thoughts with evidence from the story!!

This week we worked on a persuasive letter. The kids read an article in their Time For Kids magazine about how much sleep children need. I told them that YOU, their parents, were considering changing their bedtimes and that they needed to convince you how to change the time or not to change the time...using evidence from the article to support their opinion. They are still in the first stages of this letter filling out the graphic organizer, so we will continue this work this week. We are also going to continue typing the ELLA stories...I'm really hoping to finish them this week!

Math
We have been working on fractions...finding the fraction of a group of things, finding equivalent fractions, and simplifying fractions. Your kids got to look at their scored Quarter 1 post-tests this past week. They were reminded of their pre-test scores, so that they could see the growth they made. I will share these with you at parent/teacher conferences next week. Your child will be taking the Quarter 2 pre-test this week. We will wrap up work with fractions right before Thanksgiving!

Science
We wrapped it all up this past week with a quiz, a fun movie about chemicals with Bill Nye the Science Guy, and a look at the Periodic Table. We will move into Social Studies this coming week.

We celebrated our 2nd set of 26 Soaring with Pride stickers!! The kids deserved this treat as we watched a movie in our PJs and snacked on popcorn. It was a fun time and I have pictures to share, but I left my camera at school (did I ever tell you I FOUND my camera!!) :-)

I hope you had a great weekend...I know many of you were working to finish up Science Fair Projects...breathe a sigh of relieft...you're done! I hope your child enjoyed the project...I can't wait to hear all about them!

PJ DAY TOMORROW!

OK...we've written it in our agendas...we've put sticky notes in our Take Home folders...and now its on the blog! I certainly hope I don't have any friends who are heartbroken when they get to school tomorrow without their pjs, their stuffed animal, and/or their blanket and pillow. Call me crazy, but we've wrapped it all into one big day...movie and popcorn, too. OK, you're right...I'm a softie...but only when its your kids who deserve to be rewarded. I work them really hard and they have earned 72+ stickers in two months time...that is awesome!! So, please help your child remember his/her stuff for tomorrow! Thanks!

A quick week...a quick post!

I hope you all have enjoyed the Fall Festival slide show and the wonderful commercials your kids produced (the two posts prior to this one)! I guess it just took a really long time for all of the commercials to download, so it wasn't a catastrophe after all...thank goodness!

We've only had three days, so I'll see if I can sum it up in three minutes...

In Math we are working with fractions. We will be exploring equivalent fractions, simplifying fractions, and working with mixed numbers and improper fractions. It is a fun unit and I'm so fortunate this group LOVES math...well, most of them! The others I'm still working on!! Today the kids took their Quarter 1 post test, and I'm excited to see the results when compared with the pretest they took at the beginning of the year. I use these post tests, along with other measures to guide my instruction.

In Language Arts we read a wonderful story called "The Master Cat" by Charles Perrault this week. This story comes from the Junior Greatbooks program. The students have been working with and analyzing this story and will be using their knowledge to participate in a Shared Inquiry Discussion next week...sort of like a discussion/debate where the kids use the information in the text to support their thinking...this group is going to LOVE it!!

Today the kids used their observations and data collection to identify the five mystery powders!! They were given clues and they had to match their data to the clues, in order to solve the mystery. This science unit has been loads of fun and I know the kids will be sorry to be finished. We will be doing a culminating activity for this science unit at the beginning of next week, and then we will head back into Social Studies.

As I type, your students are working in the computer lab to publish their "Ella" stories...they are not all master keyboarders, so we will use a couple different lab times to complete this task. I am anxious to share these stories with you at parent teacher conferences!

Speaking of Parent/Teacher Conferences...today your child is brining home the conference date and time that either you signed up for, or that you were assigned. Attached to the conference slip is a red sheet that I would appreciate if you would return when you return the conference slip. It will allow you to give me information or questions that you would like addressed, so I can best plan for the conference. I appreciate you taking the time to do this!

REMINDER: Early bird due date for the Science Fair project is one week from today! I look forward to seeing the work your kids have been doing!!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Fall Festival 2010

To enjoy many fun memories from Pumpkin Math and the Fall Festival click on the words "Fall Festival 2010" below. Enjoy!!

Fall Festival 2010

Experiencing technical difficulties...

I have just spent close to three hours loading your kids' commercial videos...and when I opened the blog to view, I can't see them...ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I will figure this out, but not today...no more time! So hold tight...

Chocolate Math...

The much anticipated commercials are here!

Enjoy!!