Word Study, Daily Language, Back to School Night, OH MY!!

So...I had decided since last week was a short week, I'd wait and blog this coming weekend, however, I've had a few emails with questions, so I just decided to blog about some important items to help clear some things up!

Let's start with Word Study.

On Mondays (from now on) your child will take a pretest...this pretest will have a spelling pattern focus or affix (suffixes and prefixes) focus.  Then, based on the results of the pretest, your child will make his/her own list based on his/her own needs...the list is 10 words and it is put on a piece of paper called the "Word Study Contract."

Homework on Mondays is always "write your words" in your WORD STUDY COMPOSITION BOOK (in a few moments you'll understand why writing them in the composition book is so important)...they can write in bubble letters, write the words in rainbow letters, write the words in cursive, make a code for their words...any way that makes them think about the words and creates a copy of the words in their comp books.  

On Tuesday and Wednesday your child's homework is to write 10 MEANINGFUL sentences...5 a day, or if they choose, all 10 on one of the two days...I give them two days because I want them spending quality time writing fantastic sentences.  These sentences are turned in on Thursdays...in order to be considered "meaningful' they must use excellent word choice, be interesting, and use the word study word properly...you will see this develop as the year progresses.

On Thursday the kids are charged with studying...I would like them to do this any way they choose...but I will show them the website, "Spelling City" where they can type in their words and then play games and take a pretest...and I will show them the Zaner Bloser website where they can print out their words in cursive and practice them that way...however a traditional pencil and paper test at home is a great way to know which words need a bit more work!

On Friday the kids will take a test...they do this with a partner, since there are 20 different lists in the classroom...(and now the composition book part from Monday will make sense)...many kids leave their word study lists at home by accident...so if this happens, the composition book is the "back up list"!!

The process sounds crazy, but it is actually a very organized way for each child to have a list that is just right for them...please email me if you are confused on any night and I am happy to help!

NOW...to Daily Language.  

I assign 4th grade Daily Language for my third graders.  Daily Language is a combination of skills including use of punctuation, grammar, correct spelling, dictionary skills, analogies, etc.  They find the 4th grade level challenging...and this is a good thing...but for many of them, an uncomfortable thing.  I want them to become risk takers and learn to be ok with not always knowing everything.  They're so accustomed TO knowing everything that I want them to feel the struggle...and then feel good about learning and knowing the next time they will not struggle as much.

Each week there are new skills introduced and previous ones practiced.  If they come and ask me a question, I usually give them clues, but I want them to try to make sense of the different skills themselves.  Then on Fridays we spend about 25 minutes going over each of the five days, marking ones we got wrong incorrect, discussing the areas that students got wrong, and asking them what they LEARNED that day.  I love it when a kid says something like, "Well, I never knew that the end punctuation went INSIDE the quotation marks!"  I usually reply with, "And now you do, and I bet next time you see it, you might even remember how to do that!" with a smile.

At the end of the 25 minutes we count up the correct number out of 25 and we celebrate everyone...whether the child got 4 correct or 24 correct.  Then the kids set a personal goal...to improve their number correct.  Because isn't that what we want from our kids.  To do work and then reflect, and then do better?   Some kids do not admit how many they got wrong or they make it up because they're embarrassed...my personal goal is to have everyone in our classroom admitting their mistakes by the end of the year...I tell them that if they don't get things wrong, how on earth will I ever find things to teach them!!  I want them to take pride in their work...correct or incorrect, because incorrect means they have something new to learn.  And as I tell them, that's exciting to me because they come knowing SO much.

Again, if you have questions...don't hesitate to reach out.

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT

Parents are invited to meet teachers, learn about procedures, expectations and curriculum for the year.

Doors will open at 6:30pm to allow parents to sign up in the cafeteria for November conference times.

In Classrooms - 7:00-7:05 - Opening Remarks from Adminstration/PTA

 Session 1: 7:05 - 7:30

Session 2: 7:35-8:00

Two sessions have been set up for families that have more than one child.

This is an informational meeting for parents only. 

I copied this directly from the FIND OUT FIRST email that went out today...if you are not signed up on FIND OUT FIRST...you will want to do that.  Signing up takes about 3 min...and its well worth it...all school news is delivered in this manner.  If you need help signing up, I can help!!

At Back to School Night I will go over basic things...and the presentation is SO quick...so if you don't get a question answered that you are curious about, feel free to drop me an email that evening and I will get back to you the next day.

I am SOOOO enjoying your children.  They are truly a delight to teach and I'm so excited to see where we're headed!

What a Fantastic Week!!

The pictures I will be posting are of your children and the backs of their heads!! It wasn't until Friday when I received the last of the blog permissions, so next week you will see their smiling faces!!

We had such a great week. It's hard to believe that it was only five days. We had so many different routines to establish, pre assessments to take, activities to complete to get to know each other, and then of course...we had to do math, language arts, social studies!!

Your kids are AMAZING. They are good listeners and hard workers.  I can't wait to see what they are going to do this upcoming year. The opportunities are endless!!

I hope you enjoy these photos, and I really hope you enjoyed your family over the three day weekend! I sure did...hence the reason for this very late post.  My apologies. 

Interviewing each other to practice Purposeful Talk/Collaborative Conversations... 

Developing the rules for OUR kingdom...

Practicing our "Read for Stamina" time...

Our high school intern, Ms. Runkles...

Organizing classroom math data...

Here's to a super second week!! :-)

WELCOME!!

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

GOOD JOB!!

If you brought your supplies, don't forget to unpack them and put them in your desk!  I am really excited for the upcoming year and so glad you're in my class!

Have a great weekend and enjoy your families...

oh, and take a blue strip 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 students and families!!

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 22nd 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 couple 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 25th already having made a new friend. 

If you'd like to communicate with me BEFORE the 25th....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

What's Alivea up to?!

Liv's been having a good summer! She's spending time on their boat, went to two nature camps where she learned all kinds of outdoor survival skills, and is spending time with friends. She misses her school friends and hopes they are having a great summer! 

So long overdue....

Well...before I start to think about turning this over to my incoming class...I'm quite tardy in posting these pics, but better late than NEVER, right?

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer...it was fun to look back at all of these photos...I miss your guys, but know that they are ready for FOURTH grade!!

If you have any more summer updates, make sure to send them to me in the next two weeks...the second week of August I will be changing this to welcome the new magnet third graders...hope to hear from you all soon!!

-Mrs. Wills

 OUR AWESOME FIELD TRIP

First stop...Frederick News Post!

   We were so fortunate to have our own Justice Field's Mom, Lane Fields, give us our tour.  She is head of advertising for the paper, so we had a first hand perspective!!  Thank you, Mrs. Fields!  Justice's Dad AND Grandfather work there, too...we got to meet her grandfather, but Justice's Dad works the night shift, so we all gathered around his desk and took a picture to let him know we had been there!

We were very luck to see the Press in action...it is an amazing machine, but hasn't been active when we've been there before!

We learned a lot about the history of Frederick and the growth in technology over the past 100 years.  We also got to see interdependence and specialization in action...we were able to see so many economic principles that we had learned about!

Second stop...Mt. Olivet Cemetery!

We learned a lot about Francis Scott Key and the history of Frederick County while visiting here.  We also learned there are FOUR stanzas in the Star Spangled Banner!!  As a nation, we only sing ONE!!

Last stop...Frederick Keys Stadium!

Again, we were able to see all of the production that must occur for a baseball game to happen...specialization, interdependence...so many people involved!  We got to go into the dugouts and sit where the Keys players sit...we got to visit the press box (great view from there!!) And before lunch we were treated to a ride on the Merry-Go-Round!  

Overall it was a fantastic field trip!  Thanks to all of the parents who came with us!