We had a great day today despite the schedule change. Tonight's responsibilities are as follows:
Spellling.. study words for test on Friday
Handwriting...page 119
Math...6's multiplication quiz
Grandparent's Day and Special Friend's Day was a huge success. I enjoyed meeting and seeing everyone. The children were very excited to share their school environment and their work. It is always such a happy day for everyone!
Tomorrow we would like the children to wear Spirit wear. We are having a school wide picture made along with a pep rally around 1:45 tomorrow. We would like the children to stick with the white, yellow, or green colors for the spirit wear.
Thursday is our Field Trip to the Tampa History Center. Don't forget to pack a lunch if you did not request on to be made by Sage. We will leave Shorecrest around 9:15 and should return around 1:30pm.
The Native American projects are great! The children will be presenting this week and assessing how they think they worked together in their group. The grandparents were very impressed by the children's expertise.
This week in Math, I will introduce the lesson on decimals. This is traditionally a very hard task that take lots of practice before the children are comfortable with the concept. I also expect the children to master their 6's and 7's multiplication tables this week as well. We did not have time for the math quiz on Friday, so they will have the 6's quiz on Tuesday and the 7's on Friday.
Our spelling words this week include the prefixes un-, re-, and pre. We will be looking for words that contain these prefixes this week in our reading.
We have begun a class novel entitled Morning Girl. This is a story told through the eyes of two Native American children during the time period of 1492 -1500 and the European Exploration. This story is very insightful as continue with our Native American work in the Social Studies book and how the explorers change the lives of the Native Americans.
We will also conclude our work on Lesson 9 in Wordly Wise. There will be a test on Friday as well.
The Motion and Design lessons are moving along. The children have made their first car based on a technical drawing. If anyone, parent or friend, that is an engineer or someone who has worked with automobile design that would like to come and explain a little about their job, please let me know. I thought the children would enjoy seeing a real world connection to what they are doing in class.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Monday, January 28, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Wonderful Wednesday!
I realize that this is a short week and it's already Wednesday, but I had some important information to share with you to prepare for the coming days.
Tonight you will find a multiplication game in your child's homework folder. The directions are on the back and all one needs is 2 dice and some game pieces or chips. I even suggested that dimes and pennies could be used for game pieces as well. You can decide if your child wins, if they get to keep the money or not. It might be a good incentive to learn the multiplication tables. HA! I have reviewed the directions with the children, so I hope they will be able to teach you.
Please mark your calendar. Our field trip is Thursday, January 31 to the Tampa History Center. The children are going to love all the artifacts and interactive activities that the museum provides. I will ask the children to make sure they are neatly dressed on that day. I usually like my girls to wear their dresses and for the boys to make sure they have belts and long pants on with either a collared shirt or the polo shirt. We will probably leave school around 9:15am and return around 1:30. We do plan on having lunch at the museum. Thank you for returning the forms. Just remember that is you did not want Sage to prepare a bag lunch, that your child needs to make sure they have a packed lunch and include a a bottled water.
As you know, this Friday is Grandparent's Day. The children are very excited to have their grandparent or special friend visit our school. The children will share their Response Journals and their Native American projects. The children are also responsible for escorting their grandparent/special friend around the Lower School including the library if there is time. We will discuss a plan for the tour in school on Thursday. However, I need your help in making sure that your child knows the "plan" for dismissal. If you would like your child to leave with their grandparent/special friend, I will need a note indicating your permission. Your child must be checked/signed out if they do plan on leaving prior to dismissal. I would prefer to not be surprised at the last minute as to what your child needs to do at dismissal. There is a noon dismissal and I will escort the children to carline at that time.
It was intended that today was to be our Warm Up to a Good Book Day. The children were allowed to wear their bedroom slippers and bring either hot cocoa, hot tea, or hot cider in a thermos. Several of the children were not prepared today, so we have decided to extend the fun to tomorrow as well.
Please check your emails. I sent an email today regarding the Third Grade Program. It would be great if you can come next Tuesday, January 29, at 11:30 to begin planning for the big event.
The Native American projects are almost completed. WOW... the children have done a great job!! I will be taking pictures during the presentations and will post the pictures on the blog for you to enjoy.
We have completed our class novel, Stone Fox. The children really enjoyed the book despite the sad ending. Once we complete a couple of writing activities, we will move on to our next realistic fiction book, Sarah, Plain and Tall. The children will continue their partner work where they will plan their reading meetings and create their own goals.
We have moved onto Lesson 9 in Wordly Wise. The words are as follows: attitude, confess, defend, gradual, hint, individual, malice, misery, malicious, miserable, solution, and survey. The comprehension piece that accompanies these words is about Bullying.
We have successfully completed our review of all the letters of the alphabet both lower and upper case in cursive. We will spend another week reviewing the letters in isolation and then the fun begins. I will begin to require the children complete certain assignments in cursive.
We will begin to write our first Realistic Fiction piece during writing workshop. I wanted the children to have experience reading an example of a realistic fiction before we began creating our own.
This week the children do have a reading activity, The Smuggler, due on Friday. This week the objective is to recognize when a speaker changes in a story and observe how the writer demonstrates that change. This will help them later once they begin writing their own realistic story.
I hope everyone has a great rest of the week! Thank you for your continued support!
Tonight you will find a multiplication game in your child's homework folder. The directions are on the back and all one needs is 2 dice and some game pieces or chips. I even suggested that dimes and pennies could be used for game pieces as well. You can decide if your child wins, if they get to keep the money or not. It might be a good incentive to learn the multiplication tables. HA! I have reviewed the directions with the children, so I hope they will be able to teach you.
Please mark your calendar. Our field trip is Thursday, January 31 to the Tampa History Center. The children are going to love all the artifacts and interactive activities that the museum provides. I will ask the children to make sure they are neatly dressed on that day. I usually like my girls to wear their dresses and for the boys to make sure they have belts and long pants on with either a collared shirt or the polo shirt. We will probably leave school around 9:15am and return around 1:30. We do plan on having lunch at the museum. Thank you for returning the forms. Just remember that is you did not want Sage to prepare a bag lunch, that your child needs to make sure they have a packed lunch and include a a bottled water.
As you know, this Friday is Grandparent's Day. The children are very excited to have their grandparent or special friend visit our school. The children will share their Response Journals and their Native American projects. The children are also responsible for escorting their grandparent/special friend around the Lower School including the library if there is time. We will discuss a plan for the tour in school on Thursday. However, I need your help in making sure that your child knows the "plan" for dismissal. If you would like your child to leave with their grandparent/special friend, I will need a note indicating your permission. Your child must be checked/signed out if they do plan on leaving prior to dismissal. I would prefer to not be surprised at the last minute as to what your child needs to do at dismissal. There is a noon dismissal and I will escort the children to carline at that time.
It was intended that today was to be our Warm Up to a Good Book Day. The children were allowed to wear their bedroom slippers and bring either hot cocoa, hot tea, or hot cider in a thermos. Several of the children were not prepared today, so we have decided to extend the fun to tomorrow as well.
Please check your emails. I sent an email today regarding the Third Grade Program. It would be great if you can come next Tuesday, January 29, at 11:30 to begin planning for the big event.
The Native American projects are almost completed. WOW... the children have done a great job!! I will be taking pictures during the presentations and will post the pictures on the blog for you to enjoy.
We have completed our class novel, Stone Fox. The children really enjoyed the book despite the sad ending. Once we complete a couple of writing activities, we will move on to our next realistic fiction book, Sarah, Plain and Tall. The children will continue their partner work where they will plan their reading meetings and create their own goals.
We have moved onto Lesson 9 in Wordly Wise. The words are as follows: attitude, confess, defend, gradual, hint, individual, malice, misery, malicious, miserable, solution, and survey. The comprehension piece that accompanies these words is about Bullying.
We have successfully completed our review of all the letters of the alphabet both lower and upper case in cursive. We will spend another week reviewing the letters in isolation and then the fun begins. I will begin to require the children complete certain assignments in cursive.
We will begin to write our first Realistic Fiction piece during writing workshop. I wanted the children to have experience reading an example of a realistic fiction before we began creating our own.
This week the children do have a reading activity, The Smuggler, due on Friday. This week the objective is to recognize when a speaker changes in a story and observe how the writer demonstrates that change. This will help them later once they begin writing their own realistic story.
I hope everyone has a great rest of the week! Thank you for your continued support!
Monday, January 7, 2013
Marvelous Monday!
Today was a great way to begin the week! We are beginning our new year on the "right " foot!
In Social Studies we are completing our group projects. The children are given 20 to 30 minutes daily to work as a group. You may already now about the items and information that your child is responsible for bringing to class. If not, you may want to ask as a reminder for your child. We hope to have these projects finished by Friday.
In Science, we will begin our study of Motion and Design. The children will explore concepts related to the physics of motion and apply those concepts to technological design. They will explore forces that oppose motion as well as investigate both stored energy by using a simple rubberband and propeller. This unit will span over 14 lessons including an opportunity at the end for each group to design their own automobile based on all the skills that they have learned within each lesson. I know the children are going to have great fun!
We will begin our new class novel, Stone Fox. Please do not have your child buy or check out the book and read ahead. One of the skills that we will work on with this book is climax. The climax of this book is the end and it take away from the excitement if they know the ending prior to the end of the book. If you have an older child that has read this book in third grade, please ask them to not give any information away. It is a wonderful book that will help us understand more about Realistic Fiction. Our class read aloud for Realistic Fiction will be Because of Winn-Dixie. Another outstanding book which I know some have read before but some have only seen the movie. Again, please do not allow them to get ahead of the story if they have not read it before. And for those that have read the book, please remind them not to share any information. We will also be writing a realistic piece after we have had some time to understand this genre through our reading.
The Spelling words this week have either a ch or tch spelling. The children have another Get to 50 project to work on that is due by Friday. There will be a test on Friday as well.
We will begin our word work with Lesson 8. The words are as follows: contain, container, digest, finicky, habit, hinge, marsh, marshy, nursery, rely, reliable, spine, thrive.
In Math we are beginning unit 5. Some of the skills include: Place Value through Ten-Thousands and Millions, Ordering Numbers, and studying the US Census as a review of large numbers, and Decimals through the thousandths. This is going to be a huge concept and skill to master. The children must continue to study their multiplication and division facts. They will be tested on their 0-5's this week. They are coming home with a practice sheet tonight. Besides some workbook work, the children have two challenge word problems to work on independently. If they ask, you are allowed to help with the organization of the problem but not the answer. They are allowed to use the back of the paper if they need more room to work on the problem.
The Reading Comprehension activity is due on Friday. PLEASE don't forget to sign it after you child has read it to you. This is one avenue that I know you have listened to your child read to you orally once that week. Thank you !
The children have special thank you notes coming home today. But I would also like to thank everyone via this blog for all the kind and generous gifts that came my way prior to Winter Break. I LOVED them all. The children have even benefitted from the Barnes and Noble gift cards. We have several new biography books to read in the classroom. My hope is towards the end of the year, we will do a mini unit on Biography writing and these books will help tremendously. I almost have one book for every child in the classroom and will soon be able to complete the set.
In Social Studies we are completing our group projects. The children are given 20 to 30 minutes daily to work as a group. You may already now about the items and information that your child is responsible for bringing to class. If not, you may want to ask as a reminder for your child. We hope to have these projects finished by Friday.
In Science, we will begin our study of Motion and Design. The children will explore concepts related to the physics of motion and apply those concepts to technological design. They will explore forces that oppose motion as well as investigate both stored energy by using a simple rubberband and propeller. This unit will span over 14 lessons including an opportunity at the end for each group to design their own automobile based on all the skills that they have learned within each lesson. I know the children are going to have great fun!
We will begin our new class novel, Stone Fox. Please do not have your child buy or check out the book and read ahead. One of the skills that we will work on with this book is climax. The climax of this book is the end and it take away from the excitement if they know the ending prior to the end of the book. If you have an older child that has read this book in third grade, please ask them to not give any information away. It is a wonderful book that will help us understand more about Realistic Fiction. Our class read aloud for Realistic Fiction will be Because of Winn-Dixie. Another outstanding book which I know some have read before but some have only seen the movie. Again, please do not allow them to get ahead of the story if they have not read it before. And for those that have read the book, please remind them not to share any information. We will also be writing a realistic piece after we have had some time to understand this genre through our reading.
The Spelling words this week have either a ch or tch spelling. The children have another Get to 50 project to work on that is due by Friday. There will be a test on Friday as well.
We will begin our word work with Lesson 8. The words are as follows: contain, container, digest, finicky, habit, hinge, marsh, marshy, nursery, rely, reliable, spine, thrive.
In Math we are beginning unit 5. Some of the skills include: Place Value through Ten-Thousands and Millions, Ordering Numbers, and studying the US Census as a review of large numbers, and Decimals through the thousandths. This is going to be a huge concept and skill to master. The children must continue to study their multiplication and division facts. They will be tested on their 0-5's this week. They are coming home with a practice sheet tonight. Besides some workbook work, the children have two challenge word problems to work on independently. If they ask, you are allowed to help with the organization of the problem but not the answer. They are allowed to use the back of the paper if they need more room to work on the problem.
The Reading Comprehension activity is due on Friday. PLEASE don't forget to sign it after you child has read it to you. This is one avenue that I know you have listened to your child read to you orally once that week. Thank you !
The children have special thank you notes coming home today. But I would also like to thank everyone via this blog for all the kind and generous gifts that came my way prior to Winter Break. I LOVED them all. The children have even benefitted from the Barnes and Noble gift cards. We have several new biography books to read in the classroom. My hope is towards the end of the year, we will do a mini unit on Biography writing and these books will help tremendously. I almost have one book for every child in the classroom and will soon be able to complete the set.
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