Good morning all! I just wanted to let you know that the January Scholastic book orders are coming home today. Like December’s book order, the orders will be completed online. If you would like to order books, please visit the scholastic website at http://pcool.scholastic.com/parentordering/login.jsp
The username and password is moy09/moy09. Please enter all orders by next week Wednesday, January 13th! Thanks and read on!
Good afternoon all! I hope you all had a wonderful winter break with lots of family, friends, and food! We are off and running in the new year!
Language Arts: We are starting our new theme of Incredible Stories this week. We will be concentrating on the fantasy genre with these stories. Our new Writing piece will be starting this week!
Our spelling will still correspond with the week’s story. The majority of you liked the use of spellingcity.com, while some of you liked the paper packets. The three third grade classes are trying a few different options for spelling to make it coincide with our 21st century learning skills, as well as trying to be more environmentally friendly. Our class will be combining the two options. Students will have the option of using spelling city to study their words or using the traditional paper packets. I will make a few copies of the packet each week. Students will be responsible for taking a packet IF they prefer that option. Otherwise, students will be responsible for studying their spelling words throughout the week using the spellingcity.com website. The test will still continue to be on Fridays.
The spelling list will be posted on the wiki assignment book. Some of you would like to have a hard copy of the words. The list IS printable so please feel free to use this option. I will also print a few copies if neccessary. We will check back in a few weeks/tests and see how this situation is working! Thanks for your flexibility as we transition!
Math: We are in the middle of unit 5 which deals with place value. We are currently working on the tenths and hundredths places and will be adding on the thousandths place next. This may be a difficult subject for your student. Please encourage them and practice practice practice! Students are still continuing their fact tests so please keep studying your mulitplication and division facts.
Science: We are moving onto our next unit of study: Electricity and Magnetism! Your students made some FANTASTIC insects as their end of the unit project. Please have them show it to you on their voicethread! A grade will be coming home soon.
Social Studies: We are moving on to our next unit that focuses on the arrival of the Europeans in Michigan!
Finally, we will soon be starting our Superbowl of Reading competition! Please keep your eye out for more information.
I hope everybody is ready for a fun-filled winter break! Just a few announcements before we send you off into 2010!
Our Winterfest party is scheduled for this afternoon. It will start around 2:15-2:30. You are more than welcome to join in on the fun!
As the winter cold and sloppiness comes upon us, I ask students to keep a spare pair of pants and socks in their locker in case they get wet during one of their recesses. Also, please remember to dress your children warmly as we they will continue to go outside unless the temperature (including wind chill) is 15 degrees or above.
Please have a fantastic winter break! Thank you for all your warm thoughts and holiday wishes. We will hit the ground running on January 4th with a new reading theme, a new writing piece, a new science kit, and a new social studies unit!
Happy December! I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and a great week back to school! Here are some ongoings in class…PLEASE read the spelling trial paragraph section!
Language Arts: Students took the Celebrating Traditions theme test this week and are starting a focus on genre unit of Trickster Tales next week! In Writing, we are working on revising our realistic fiction pieces of writing to draw in a reader. Students have completed their story mountains, learned about paragraphing, made a new strong lead to start off their writing, and are now learning how to add detail by using their senses. We will continue to revise, edit, and will publish our pieces in the next two weeks!
Math: Students will test on Unit 4 on Tuesday. ONE of the two review pages was sent home for homework this weekend. They will get the first page on Monday. I apologized that they were copied wrong and I didn’t notice until I was ready to hand them out! Please continue to practice math facts. We are onto 4′s next week if students are ready and have passed the 3′s fact family, otherwise they are working towards their 3′s. A fact test will be given each Monday and it is the responsibility of the student to get a study guide for the next fact from the classroom folder, or have their own way of practicing at home.
Social Studies: Students are beginning to work on a research project on Michigan Native Americans. They will be working in small groups to research one of the Native American tribes of Michigan (Ojibwa, Ottowa, Potawatomi, Huron, or Iroquois) and will be researching how they adapted to what is now Michigan. We are using the Wiki for our first big project!
Science: Students have been learning about insect life cycles and we now have milkweed bugs, mealworms, caterpillars, and crickets in our classroom! We learned about complete metamorphosis, incomplete metamorphosis, and direct development. Their assessment will be to create an insect and describe the characteristics and life cycle (a realistic insect of course!) of their creation.
Spelling change: For next week we are TRYING something new. Instead of a packet, we are asking students to go to spellingcity.com http://www.spellingcity.com/view-spelling-list.html?listId=2150059 and study the list of words already given to you. They are to choose TWO games or activities (or more) and use those activities to study for their Friday test. I will send home a parent signature sheet next week or you can simply print out the page and send it in. Please let me know your thoughts and if it works well, we can do this in the future!
Our Winterfest party will be on December 18th. We hope your students will be there, but if you are not going to be here any days before break, please let me know so I can tell the party committee for food and craft needs.
Wishing you all the best for this Holiday season!
Thanks to everyone who came out to conferences! It was great seeing you and talking about your child’s progress. We are on our way to Thanksgiving break and we have lots to do!
First, thank you for supporting us in the book fair to help us raise funds for our school! Our December book order is going out early in case books are on wish lists for the holidays! THIS time, however, you will be placing your orders ONLINE. Please go to http://clubs.scholastic.com/cool/login.jsp and sign in under the parent log in. The username and password are both moy09. Place your order using the flyers that are sent home! I will be placing the order after school on November 23rd. Also, if these are books you do not want your child to see, please let me know and I will email you when they come in and we can arrange to pick them up. Thanks again for supporting your child’s reading!
In Language Arts, we are wrapping up our Celebrating Traditions theme. We will be taking our theme test (sorry..you can’t study for this one! It is just a recap of the unit and to see how they are progressing) next week or when we get back from break. In Writing, students are now writing Realistic Fiction pieces. We are practicing how to write something meaningul to both the writer AND the reader, how to develop characters, paragraphs, the revision process, and how to write a controlled beginning, middle, and end. Your students are also working on their own independent free pieces. Those are completed on their own time (when they are done with an assignment, sometimes I give them a break from the class piece, etc) and those will come home from time to time as they finish publishing them.
In Math, we just finished catching up on math tests from last week so we will be moving on to Unit 4 tomorrow. We will be starting multiplication timed tests this week (we are doing a practice run with 1′s and 2′s) and will be beginning our 3′s when we come back from break. They will be moving at their own pace, with students being required to pass a fact family BEFORE moving onto the next family. They will be able to take study guides as needed.
In Science, we are learning about the characteristics of insects while observing our mealworms. We will soon be looking at caterpillars, crickets, and milkweed bugs. We finished our Sun, Moon, and Earth unit. The quizzes will be coming home soon. There are two grades on there, with the lunar phases grade not as heavily weighted as the rest of the quiz due to it’s difficulty. The object of the lunar phases was so students could start to see the patterns, not only of the visual moon, but of the moon names and shapes as well.
In Social Studies, we have moved into our Michigan books and are learning about the history of the land of Michigan. We will be learning about our first Michigan inhabitants soon!
Thank you for all of your hard work with your students! Keep working hard! I had a discussion with students that with the second marking period, the bar has been raised!
Good afternoon all! I just wanted to make a few quick updates regarding announcements and conferences.
Please sign up for a time (sign-ups are on the main hallway windows) if you have not done so already. Please write down your time!
Hello all! I hope you are doing well. We have made it through the MEAP unscathed (some of us at least!) and are now back in our routine. Here are a few happenings around the classroom:
Language Arts: Students are finishing their Personal Narrative pieces of writing. One is being brought home without a grade (they printed 2 copies) and a graded one will be sent home later. This may seem like a long time to spend on a piece of writing, but remember that students are writing “free pieces” in their free piece notebook constantly, as well as there are some days I just allow them to write in these notebooks. Feel free to have your students bring home their notebooks to show you what they do daily in class.
In Reading, students are in the new theme Celebrating Traditions. We have also been reading in small groups with our small books. Please help your student read out loud. It helps with fluency and decoding skills!
In Math, students are beginning unit 3 MEASUREMENT!!! While we work with rulers a lot in class, it’s always great to help students measure to the nearest half and quarter inch as they will need lots of practice with this!
In Science, we have started our sun, moon, and earth unit. We have done some research, and have learned about rotation/revoultion, and the reason for seasons and day/night. Students are asked to go to this website http://sites.google.com/site/sm12bps/Home/overview/rotation-vs-revolution by Wednesday. IF a computer or the internet is NOT available at home, please send in a note so they may do it in class!
In Social Studies, we are working with the geography of our community. We have moved on from map skills. Students should be able to measure map distances, as well as giving directions (N, S, E, W) and intermediate directions (NE, SE, NW, SW)
Finally, our Halloween party is this Friday! Students are asked not to wear costumes to school on Friday. Our parade and assembly will begin at 2:30, with our party immediately following. Parents are welcome to attend but please allow them to stay and help clean up at the end of the day with the rest of the class.
Have a spooky week!
Do I have your oldest child? Confused by the way Everyday Math adds, subtracts, muliplies, or divides? I spoke with students today saying that everybody learns math differently. Some methods work better for others. My rule is that I will accept both traditional and EDM ways of solving problems. I have to teach the EDM methods and every student needs to know HOW to do problems. But for many problems and for tests, they will be allowed to use whatever method (traditional included) works best for them. To see Partial Sums and the upcoming Trade First method of adding and subtracting, watch this video!
Yesterday, your students had their first look at Moodle, an online course management system. We will be using this throughout the year to have online conversations and to “tech-up” other class related work. I was amazed last year at how students’ responses to others grew over the course of the year! Your students’ homework assignment is to show you our Mulan Moodle post from yesterday. Students who need their usernames and passwords should now have them (memorize, memorize, memorize!) and some students already showed you! Please make sure you see this Moodle discussion forum so you can keep up to speed on what your students are doing in class!
Good afternoon all! I just had some quick announcements that I wanted to share with you!
Please help your student correct answers IN PEN ALONGSIDE THE INCORRECT ANSWER and then sign and return the test. Do not erase the incorrect answer please! This is to help students learn from their mistakes and so I know you saw the test.Have a great evening and stay healthy!
