Happy Friday!!!

WOW...what a week! You all have sent the most well-mannered, delightful children...and I cannot begin to thank you!! I know many of you are thinking, "Is she talking about MY kid?" I am. My 21 students are fantastic...they're good listeners, excellent discussion participants, and overall awesome kids!! I'm really excited about the upcoming year! I have so much to share, so let me get started.

SOARING WITH PRIDE
This is the theme for our positive behavior support system at Urbana. The students have reveiwed the expectations and have been informed how they will be rewarded (classroom stickers and star student stickers) and how they will be reminded/what consequences they will face if those expectations are not met. "Think Sheets" are one of the ways we're asking kids to think about their actions. A think sheet is given after a warning...a silent warning. In my classroom that silent warning is a "Thinkman" card...this is a picture of the same "man" that is on the Think Sheet...it is supposed to warn the student that "I've asked you to stop that behavior and now I'm leaning toward giving you a Think Sheet." (I will go over this more at BTSN.) Anyway...I'm happy to report that I didn't have to use ANY "Thinkman" cards this week!! This positive behavior support will bring consistency throughout our school...our entire staff is involved and we like what we've seen the first week!

Math
In Math this week we've been focusing on numeration and place value. We've been working on "really big numbers" and using many different ways to manipulate these numbers. The students have worked with a place value chart, had to read numbers aloud, shown their ability to write the numbers in expanded form, composed and decomposed the numbers, and put large numbers on a "human" number line. The kids also took a Quarterly pretest this week. The results of this test help me to structure the lessons and groupings for each concept in math. I will be scoring them this weekend and will spend the remainder of Quarter One covering fourth grade indicators and extending/enriching when appropriate.

Writing
I am so excited about writing this year. I was a participant in the Maryland Writing Project through Towson University this summer and I have SOOOO many wonderful things to share with the kids to help develop a love of writing (or in some cases in this class, support the love that already exists!) The kids spent all week making different types of entries into their "Writer's Notebooks." The concept behind this notebook is to give the kids a place to store their IDEAS...which happens to be the first writing trait we are focusing on. We are having so much fun putting different topics, lists, and memories into it! Some kids are writing full blown novels already!! Now that we have these notebooks set up, they are one of a few choices that kids have when they finish their classwork. Many kids are dying to take them home and work on them...I am allowing that...BUT please refrain from helping them "improve" their pieces. These pieces will be taken through all steps of the writing process and need to be their own work! Trust me, I know how hard it is to not help...but try not to, please!

Language Arts
I read a book this week called By My Brother's Side. It was a story written by Tiki and Ronde Barber and is about when they were young. It's a wonderful story that Mrs. Wright, our media specialist, recommended...we used it to discuss the Pillars of Character that our school recognizes: citizenship, caring, responsibility, respect, fairness, and trustworthiness. The kids worked cooperatively to define these six pillars, and then after the story, illustrated a pillar and defined it in their own words. They did a nice job. Next week we will dive into unit one which deals with reading strategies. We will be responding to literature and having class discussions... it's a great unit!

Social Studies
This week we focused on communities and being good citizens...the curiculum suggests we touch on this later in the year, but it seemed so timely as we worked on classroom rules and our behavior system. We have 21 FINE citizens in our community of learning and I'm proud to spend my days with them!

Miscellaneous...
Ok, so the good news is...I have SO many pictures to share with you!! The bad news is...last year I had a computer that the memory card fit right into the computer...this year, not so much. SOOOO...I will post pictures later this weekend when I can plug the card right into my computer. Gives you something to look forward to!

I hope you all have a great weekend with your families. My family is going to the Nationals/Cardinals game this weekend and we're very excited. It will be my first time at a Nationals game! It looks to be great weather, so enjoy the outdoors, and again, thanks for sending me such amazing kids...can't wait to see them Monday!

Welcome to Open House!

You must be on the back page of your scavenger hunt if you're sitting here reading the blog! Good job!

MAKE SURE that I take a picture of you today...if you have not had your picture taken by the time you're ready to go out for ice cream...come tell me that you're leaving and you need me to take your picture! Thank you for your help with that!

If you brought your supplies...feel free to organize your desk...or just leave them here and we'll organize on Monday.

I am really excited for the upcoming year and so glad that YOU are in my class!

Have a great weekend and enjoy your families...oh, and take a blue piece of paper with the blog address...when you get home, tell your parents to add it to their bookmarks or favorites, OK?

WELCOME to my new third graders and their families!!

WELCOME! This is the place where I will post information every week about the goings on in our classroom. I am guessing that since you have found this blog, you have received my letter!! If not, you should be getting it any day now.

I am so excited for the upcoming year...we are going to have a great time together while stretching our brains!!

I hope to get a chance to meet you all on Friday, August 20th from 3-4pm at the UES Open House...feel free to bring your school supplies and put them in your desks that afternoon...it will make the backpack a lot lighter Monday morning!! When you get to the classroom...look for your desk...on it will be a Scavenger Hunt to help you become familiar with the classroom and our surroundings.

We have a few new students to the third grade magnet program this year...make sure to introduce yourselves to each other so that you can start off Monday the 23rd already having made a new friend.

If you'd like to communicate with me BEFORE the 20th....maybe you'd like me to know what name you like to be called, or you'd like to tell me something interesting about your summer, or maybe you just have a question...please feel free to email me... karen.wills@fcps.org!

Enjoy the rest of your summer break...see you VERY soon!!
Mrs. Wills

Hello...and see ya later...

Hello and welcome to AUGUST...can you believe it's AUGUST? Me neither. I hope you have been spending your time enjoying yourself...and reading, maybe?!

My family just spent 12 wonderful days at the beach! We had amazing weather and spent tons of time outside...it was so much fun!

Now I am home and starting to think about the upcoming school year...do you have your school supplies yet? If not, the lists are on the school website, so you can print them off for your shopping trip! My kids did their school supply shopping at the beach, so they were excited to come home and get backpacks ready. Don't get me wrong...they are all happy they still have two weeks...but can you believe we start in only two more weeks?!

Since my last post I have seen a few more kids and heard from one other. I saw Neelam, Sammy, and Olivia at the Urbana Carnival...it was so good to see all of them! I saw John Bayley at church one Sunday...we didn't get to talk but we waved to each other! And I heard from Hoseok. He wrote me a long letter about his summer...he's had a great one! He is very happy to have Grace back home from Korea. He is looking forward to going into fourth grade!

Now here's the part that's hard...it's time to say, "See ya later..." I choose not to say goodbye because I will continue to see each one of you...however...the blog needs to turn over to the new class now...I am mailing their Welcome letters tomorrow and they will be checking out this blog soon...so their welcome message will be up mid week.

You all will always hold a special place in my heart...and I will see you at Open House.

Love,
Mrs. Wills

Happy Almost August!

Hi, everyone! I'm at the beach this week having a great time with my family! I have a few pictures to post, but I'm not able to do that here, so I will post when I return home next week!

I hope you are all having a great summer. We sure are. We've been down for about 5 days and we've been fishing, crabbing, swimming, bike riding...the kids have been on boogie boards and skim boards, and we've had fantastic weather! I just love it here.

I finally heard from one of our classmates by email! Allie sent me an email and filled me in on her summer...here is an excerpt...

I'm writing this from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. You'll be happy to know I've been learning over the summer. I am learning German and improving my Arabic.

How cool is that? She also told me about visiting her family and friends, going to a birthday party and jumping on a moonbounce!

Do YOU have any fun news or info to share? I only have one more post left until I turn this blog over to my new class, so send me an email pronto! karen.wills@fcps.org

I miss you all and hope you're enjoying your break. I look forward to seeing you at Open House in August.

Love,
Mrs. Wills

Happy July...

Hello, everyone!! I miss you guys...are you having a great summer? I would love to hear from you...drop me an email so I can share what you've been doing with the class. karen.wills@fcps.org


I have been in a class since school let out. I am part of the Maryland Writing Project and have been doing tons of personal writing, as well as learning lots of wonderful strategies to improve my writing instruction! It has been time very well spent...and I finish tomorrow!


I also have spent a lot of time on baseball fields...both of my boys' teams went to the State championship tournaments this past month! And both boys' teams did very well. Connor's team and Jake's teams placed THIRD in the State. It was a lot of great baseball.


I have also been to the pool quite a bit. Kate is swimming on the swim team for our neighborhood, so I work at the swim meets...its a lot of fun. I've seen Garrett and Zach during swim meets, I saw Farzad one day at the pool, I saw Nicholas at church, and I saw Hoseok one day this summer. But for the rest of you...I MISS YOU!

I will check back in during August...but would love to hear from you soon, so please send me an email. I hope you are relaxing and enjoying your families.

Love,
Mrs. Wills

WHAT WILL I MISS?

THESE SMILES...

everyday.

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(August 2010 - absent today)

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(August 2010 - absent today)

I am going to attempt to say goodbye to some of my favorite people ever this afternoon. It will be very sad for me...but I send them back to you knowing they are ready for 4th grade! I hope you and your families have a terrific summer and I look forward to hugging (or shaking the hand of) your 4th grader at Open House in August!!

Lots of love,

Karen