Happy Friday!!

Hip Hip Hooray...we had a full week of school!! And boy did we fill it well...read on...

Language Arts

This week in Language Arts we have been very busy, we have written persuasive essays, read chapters from our novel, worked with vocabulary from our novel, and participated in MSA practice activities.

The kids' persuasive essays are wonderful! On Monday the kids were informed that the administration is "pondering" taking recess in order to regain instructional time...the kids formed an opinion and completed a graphic organizer using three reasons with details to support their opinion. Then, with the help of that organizer, the kids wrote their five paragraph essays. After meeting with a peer to focus on organization, voice, and word choice, the kids wrote their final drafts. I am really impressed with their work!

We read chapters 5 and 6 from King of the Wind this week. The kids have been using sticky notes to mark vocabulary words that they are unsure of...this week we made lists of these words and went to work attacking meaning. First the kids found the word in context, read the surrounding sentences, and then discussed what they thought the word meant. They then went to my good friend, the dictionary, and verified the meanings...I loved this assignment...they worked well together and found new meanings to words they had not known before. Take a look below at the triads working on vocabulary.

We have also been doing some "practice" MSA activities...all of these activities focus on indicators we have previously covered, but are set up similarly to the MSA. I introduced the online stopwatch so they are accustomed to watching the time count down as they work. We made connections with the testing tips they read about to the actual activities. Your children are VERY well prepared!!

Math

This week has been all about division. We worked on long division with dividends in the hundreds and thousands...some children even worked with two digit divisors...we used compatible numbers when estimating, and we discovered rules of divisibility...the kids have been very enthusiastic about this unit and I can't tell you how many kids have said, "Long division is fun!" Music to my ears! Next week we will be focusing on elapsed time and measurement...and we will have a quiz on division at some point.

Science

Science got pushed to the back burner this week, but we will be returning to science next week...I promise!

Cursive Handwriting

I am beginning to require a bit more in cursive...many kids are ready...some are not. There is a link on the blog to Zaner Bloser...you can print worksheets with words the kids can choose. If they are motivated by legos, let them type in "lego words" to make a worksheet...if they are motivated by sports, let them type in "sports words" to make a worksheet...but if you see your child is having difficulty...please give them practice at home. Thanks!

THIRD GRADERS and THE DANCING BEAR!?!?

Please come out to see your child's classmates perform the wax museum this weekend! Two performances will showcase 12 famous people who impacted America. We'd love to see you!

Dancing Bear

12 N. Market Street

Saturday, February 27, 2010
Two 45 minute showings - 2pm and 4pm

REMINDER...your child's Power Point Plan is due on Wednesday of next week...we will be going to the computer lab ON WEDNESDAY, so please make sure it is completed by then. I have had LOTS of kids without homework this week...or late homework...I am very reasonable and always allow an extra day...but for the PP plan, it needs to be timely...thank you for your help with this.

one last thing...

next week UES is having SCHOOL SPIRIT WEEK...here is the run down in case your child would like to participate...

Monday - Crazy Hair Day

Tuesday - Sports Team Day

Wednesday - Mix Match Colors Day

Thursday - Pajama Day

Friday - School Spirit Day

Have a great weekend!

DONUTS WITH DADS POSTPONED...

Due to the possible inclement weather, Donuts with Dads is postponed until NEXT Thursday and Friday...March 4 and 5. Please make a note of this.

CAN YOU HELP!?!?

For our wax museum this weekend, at the Dancing Bear toy store, we have 11 students signed up for the 2pm time slot, and only 3 or 4 for the 4pm time slot. Is there anyone out there who can switch from 2pm to 4pm? I would love for the groups to be more even...and it will be a very tight fit for 11 students (its a small store)...but most of the 2pm kids put 4pm as their THIRD choice and I didn't want to just put anyone at that time...I'm wondering now that the date is closer, maybe some of you know that 4pm might work.

Please email me tonight...I would like to send out the confirmation letters tomorrow if I can. And I totally understand if you can't change...just looking for a couple kids who may be able to change.

Thanks so much! It's going to be a very fun day!!

Mama Mia...

Hi, everyone...happy to be blogging again because that means we're back in school! The title is "Mama Mia" because I don't know how on Earth I will ever fit it all in!! But for two delayed opening days we got a ton accomplished...here's the quick run down...


Math
We are working on division...we spent Thursday talking about and working with estimation...I introduced the term "compatible number" and I want to take a minute to explain it here so that we are "all on the same page"! :-) If you have the problem 229 divided by 4...in order to make a quick and easy estimate the kids are told to find a "compatible number"...240 is very compatible with 4 as it is a multiple of 4. So they change 229 to 240 and find the estimate...60. Rounding in estimation works sometimes, but not often, so its important for the kids to see that finding a multiple of the divisor makes estimation so much easier. We will keep working on this concept...but today we moved into groups and began the task of learning long division. I have three groups going in the classroom...we have a small group of kids who came into third grade knowing how to long divide, so I am not teaching that group the algorithm, they are practicing it and extending that concept. We will continue to work on division next week.


Language Arts
We read from our novel this week...but not enough (so say your kids!) We are discussing character traits and character motivation with the main character, Agba, in King of the Wind. We also began the process of writing a persuasive essay. Thekids were notified that the administration is considering taking recess away in order to make up instructional time. They were to formulate an opinion about this decision and come up with reasons to support their decision. Next week we will continue with this writing assignment...they are pretty fired up


The kids were assigned a project today. This project ties into the Language Arts unit "Reading Ancillary Materials" and has three short assignments. For one of the assignments they need a website. I have added this website to the Language Arts section of links and it is titled "Puzzle Maker". If you have any questions, feel free to email me.


Yesterday the kids came home with a letter about MSA testing. Please read the letter in full...I will adding "my two cents" in next week's blog about how you can help your child succeed. Keep in mind...the MSA is not about WHAT the kids know...your kids know A LOT...its about SHOWING what they know...taking time to write the best answers and do their best thinking...there is a big difference and I need the kids to understand the difference!


As always...I just love teaching your kids...I really missed them. Have a good weekend.

Wills Wax Museum - 2010

This video is way better! Enjoy!

This is "snow" ridiculous...when will I see your kids again?!

Hi, everyone...hope you have power and lots of food...looks like we're going to be stuck inside for awhile!


First...the movie that is in the post below did not turn out exactly how I wanted it to...I'll be trying again later...I attempted to put clips in it, but they didn't last very long, so I must have done something wrong...also, I tried to put one picture per kid, and deleted duplicates, but that didn't work either...so forgive me as I try to figure it all out!


We had a terrific week and this crazy snow worked in our favor for our Wax Museum. Neither the delay earlier in the week nor the early dismissal in the latter part of the week hurt our performances. We performed three times on our dress rehearsal day...for all third graders and the second grade magnet classes...your kids were wonderful that day...almost as wonderful as they were for you all on Thursday! I was so very proud of them...and am so glad that so many of you could attend.


But, believe it or not, we did other things this week, too...read on...


Language Arts
We started a novel unit this week...King of the Wind...this is a book that your kids are all going to enjoy...while we're reading we will be focusing on vocabulary, as well as author's tone, character's motivation, and much, much more. I will be requiring all students to look into the book for examples to support their thinking...this is extremely important! Although I know through our literature discourse that your child understands, an MSA examiner will not, and the only way your child can "show what he/she knows" is to use details from the text to support their answers in a written answer. (OK...I'll get down off my soapbox now.) :-)

We are also working on using quotation marks correctly in their writing. We are finding examples, writing conversation, and next week we will be viewing famous people's quotes to complete our work with quotation marks.

We have moved our focus in writing to the trait of "voice"...this really goes hand in hand with "word choice" and most of my students use a very distinct voice when writing! We will be analyzing pieces of writing for the trait of voice and scoring them so that the kids can see great examples and not-so-great examples...helps them to identify their own "voice" in their writing.

Math
The kids took their Quarter 2 post test this past week...these documents are "secure" so I cannot send them home, but I have shared them with the kids...they know what they got on the pretest and what they go on the post test...every single kid made improvement. If you are curious about these scores, I am happy to share them with you.

We are moving into division...and again, I will be grouping the kids based on their pretests...some of our students know how to long divide, but most do not...all of the students need to learn how to estimate when dividing...the strategies change with this operation. PLEASE continue to have your child work on his/her math facts...without the multiplication facts, long division is even harder! (and it looks like they'll have some extra time for facts this weekend...so please encourage (or require) this!!)

Science
We will be continuing our study of rocks...this past week we conducted scratch tests to determine the hardness of minerals. The kids worked with four different minerals and could put them in order using a fingernail scratch test, and a penny. After the fingernail scratch test, they were able to determine that talc and graphite were both SOFTER than a fingernail. After trying to scratch the minerals with a penny they were able to determine that the calcite was SOFTER than a penny...and then when they turned the mineral ON the penny, they found that feldspar was HARDER than the penny as it left a scratch on the copper penny! They were introduced to MOH's scale of hardness and know that rock scientists use this as a measure of hardness for minerals.

Please check out the important dates in the post from last Friday...and hopefully I'll see your kids sooner than later...we have SNOW much to do! :-) Stay warm!

Wills Wax Museum 2010