I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

On Friday we had a really fun day called Diffendoofer Day! This was a day of celebration since the students worked so hard on their ISAT tests this week. We read the book called Diffendoofer Day by Dr. Suess and had fun creating our own diffendoofer teacher! We also discussed a poem by Dr. Suess and the students worked cooperatively in small groups to present the poem in a song or rap. I recorded them all and made it into a podcast for everyone to enjoy. The link is below:

http://www.archive.org/details/DiffendooferDay Click on 2.3 MB to play.

On Friday your child also got their 2nd trimester report card. Enclosed in the envelope was a review of the units and concepts we studied throughout the trimester. Also there was a note about portfolio conferences that will be help on March 21. I am having these conferences early since I will be out for a few weeks due to a surgery. Please return the signed envelope and Communication Folder this coming week.

This coming week we will get back into routine and start Lesson 22 in Reading. We will review the focus skills sequence and author's message. Then in Lesson 23 and 24 cause and effect, prefixes, and homophones will be studied. Throughout all of Theme 5 (Lesson 21-Lesson 25) verbs are studies. By the end of the Theme, students should be familiar with main and helping verbs, present tense, past tense, and future tense verbs.

On Monday we will start unit 8 in Math. This unit is all about fractions. Equivalent fractions, word problems, comparing fractions, and mixed numbers are introduced to the students in this unit. Please continue to help your child practice their math facts at home. In unit 9 the students will learn how to multiply numbers such as 123x4 and 23x45. Knowing their basic multiplication facts will be very important to be successful in this unit.

During the next three school weeks, we will cover our regions unit. The students will travel to a different 3rd classroom the first two weeks and then the last week is in their homeroom. The students will learn more about the northeast region, midwest, and southeast region during these 3 weeks.

Our final unit in Science is all about the human body. The students will become familiar with digestive, skeletal, muscular, nervous, and circulatory system. We will cover the most important organs of each system and the function of each system. The students will love our writing piece which will connect to the digestive system. They will be writing from the perspective of an animal cracker going through the digestive system.

What is the worst hurricane that has hit the United States?

We will be culminating Unit 7 in Math this week. Below you will see the link for the extra Math review. If your child would like to complete this review please have it completed and turned in by this Friday, the day of the Math test. Thank you.

The podcasts are ready to be listened to!! Be sure to turn your volume up!

At the Restaurant: (Click on 2.9MB )

Lights, Camera Action: (Click on 3.1MB )

Backstage with Chris and Casey: (Click on 3.0MB )

Listening in at the Orchestra: (Click on 1.7 MB)

Thank you to all our room moms for a fun and organized Valentine’s Day party! The students had a lot of fun and enjoyed themselves. Also thanks to Mrs. Lungin for a great Art Awareness lesson. The students loved making the creative cards.

Reading

We started discussing our new focus skill this week, sequencing. We practiced this skill the last few days with this fun internet game. Please encourage your child to try a few games at home.

http://www.quia.com/pages/sequencingfun.html

This week we will also finish up our reader’s theater and I will post them into podcasts. Please note that with the next two weeks being four day weeks, we decided to spread our reading and spelling lessons over two weeks. Lesson 21 spelling words went home this week. The spelling test will not be until Friday, 2/24. Also, the Lesson 21 vocabulary quiz will be on Friday, 2/24 and the comprehension quiz will be an open book quiz also on Friday, 2/24.

Math

We are continuing our study of multiplication, factors, and products. Recently we discussed parentheses and how the problem in parentheses must be done first in order for the answer to be correct. In this unit we are also practicing division and multiplication word problems. The students also enjoyed playing the game called Multiplication Bingo. Their only homework over the long upcoming weekend is to play a game or two of Multiplication Bingo with a parent, sibling, or friend.

At the end of each Math unit the students take a multiplication 3 minute timed test. The most recent multiplication timed test went this week. Please be sure you observe how your child did. By the half way mark of the school year your child should be getting into the 30’s or higher out of 50 problems. If your child is below 30 multiplication problems in 3 minutes please be sure to increase his/her studying time. Please be sure you vary how they are studying so they are getting some time to play games and use flash cards/fact triangles.

Social Studies

We are coming to the end of our first explorers rotation. The class has been traveling to Mrs. Tomlinson’s classroom to learn more about land explorers like Christopher Columbus. The next rotation will be to Mrs. Strandberg’s room where they will learn about space explorers.

Science

Last week we finished our 5 day long study of the water cycle. The final project to show what they have learned was making a comic strips of the water cycle. These turned out very cute so be sure to look for them in the hallway next week. For those students that were gone last Friday this is still something they will make up this week. Our next topic in our current unit is weather. The students will be recording the weather forecast next week. We are asking that they use different resources such as the internet, radio, TV, and newspaper to record their findings. The directions for this activity will go home this Thursday. Below is a link to a fun water cycle song!

You will need to download this first and then open it.

BONUS QUESTION

Write the number model with parentheses so it equals 30. Then come up with another number model using parentheses that equals 30.

11 x 2 + 6 + 2=30

Here is the link to the extra math review. Please click on Unit 6 Questions for the review. All reviews should be turned in by next Tuesday, the day of the test.

Reading

In Theme 4 the students are learning about compare and contrasting and looking for the theme in a passage. Each week we focus on different skills and strategies to enhance comprehension. This week the spelling words have suffixes and in our literacy stations the students will do an activity to reinforce using suffixes to decode words. Each week we have small guided writing or reading groups to provide small group instruction. This allows for more individual feedback specific to each child’s learning needs. This Friday there will be a quiz on the vocabulary words and comprehension questions from the story.

Writing

The students have been very busy writing some great stories. They began the New Year writing about their New Year’s Wish for 2012 to make the world a better place. The students started with brainstorming ideas, filling out a story organizer, editing and publishing. We will assemble their final draft with a decorated New Year’s hat! We will also celebrate their hard work by letting them share their story with a partner who will give them positive feedback. Hearing their stories is a great way for the class to learn about each other and build community.

Math

Unit 6 covers many geometry concepts that include lines, line segments, rays, and properties of polygons. The students are encouraged to use rulers, be careful, and neat. The endpoints on the lines, line segments, and rays need to correctly written and the lines correctly labels. Please continue to practice math facts.

Social Science

We celebrated the end of the unit, “My House Has Stars” by having children decorate stars and put them under the home from the around the world that they thought was most interesting. Currently, we continue to work on the “We Are Alike and Different” unit and the class did a fabulous job creating and presenting their Cultural Heritage dolls to the class. It was really fun learning about all of the different countries and their family’s traditions. The test for this unit will be next Wed., February 1. The study guide will go home this coming weekend. In addition to your child's study guide, I will also include a paper copy of the answer key in the mid trimester report card envelope that goes home on this Friday.

Click for full-size image

Science

In the “Earth Systems” unit, the students have learned about minerals, rocks, and the rock cycle. The students are enjoying the video clips on the rock cycle. Yesterday we created a book about Carla and the rock cycle. The book tells a story about how Carla starts as a shell, but by the end of the story she is a limestone statue. Next, we will be singing a song to remember the steps of the water cycle. To reinforce the steps of the water cycle, the students will be making a comic strip that will show each step. It will be a great way to integrate writing, art, and science. The students enjoyed

the following video clips.

Music Show The third and second music show will be Thursday, Feb. 2 at 6:30pm. Please bring your child to school by 6:10 and have them to their classroom. The students will also present the program to the school at 9:15 on that day. Mrs. Guest said they have worked hard and sound super. I’m excited to see their performance. Other Information Mid-Tris will go home on Friday. Please sign the report card cover and send it back. ISAT testing will be the week of March 5. The students will be working hard this week so I encourage them to get a good nights sleep, eat a healthy breakfast, and get to school by 8:55 since we begin school right at 9:00. Thank you for your support!

BONUS QUESTION: COMPARE AND CONTRAST A PARALLELOGRAM AND A SQUARE. EXPLAIN WHAT THEY COULD HAVE IN COMMON AND DIFFERENT. LIST AS MANY IDEAS AS YOU CAN.

Please enjoy listening to the reader's theater from this week. Each student participated in one of the two reader's theaters. Just click on the link and enjoy the expression and fluency in their reading:)

Sport Kid Answers Back: Click on the 3.1 MB and then the sideways triangle (play symbol). Please be patient and be sure your volume is turned up.

Ask the Experts: Click on 2.8 MB and then the sideways triangle (play symbol). Please be patient and be sure your volume is turned up.

Next Tuesday the students will have the Unit 5 Math test. Below is the link for the extra math review. This review is an optional review and is extra practice. We will review in class next Monday, a review will be sent home for homework on Monday night, and the test will be Tuesday.

Click on the Unit 5 Review for the questions. Be sure to use the answer key to check the answers.

Happy Holidays to everyone! We had a fun week filled with hands-on activities and hard work.

We started our new Science unit which is all about Earth Systems. We looked at the Earth's crust and all the layers of it. We also compared it to a hard boiled egg!

In Social Studies we read My House Has Stars. This book taught the students all about other people's natural environment, their homes, and their county. The students took notes on all the different homes and then created their own star about their home. These are in the stairwell for all to see! In January, we will start our Cultural Heritage unit. The students have a project to start over break. They are creating a doll that represents them and their culture(s). The directions are attached to the doll and many examples were shown to the students this week. I can't wait to learn more about each of their cultures.

We continue to work on our Math unit on place value and decimals. The concept of tenths and hundredths place is new to the students so we have spent a few days learning the idea. We will continue discussing decimals when we are back from break. Please have your child continue to study their addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts over break.

Place Value video:

Math Games:

When we return from break, we will have a review week in reading. We will review the main ideas from Theme 3 which include author's purpose, pronouns, plot, context clues, and different types of nouns. We will also complete a Reader's Theaters that will be made into another podcast.

Pronoun Song:

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break. Thank you for all the amazing and generous gifts. I feel so fortunate to have each child in my classroom. They are a wonderful group of 3rd graders.

Here is a copy of the Answer Key for the Social Studies review.

Our unit 4 Math test is next Tuesday, Dec. 6. Here is an extra review that can be completed for extra tickets. You will click on Unit 4 Questions for the review and Answers for the Answer Key. All reviews are due by Tuesday, Dec. 6th!

In Reading we have been discussing context clues a lot lately. We even played these games that the students can play at home.

Bonus Question:

What is the difference between a renewable resource and non-renewable resource? Also give me one example of each.

Parents,

Please ask your child what we played today to review for our Science test. The students had so much fun while reviewing for the test that's tomorrow. Be sure to ask your child about it:)

Students,

You can post a comment to the bonus question from Math today: What is the answer to a division problem called?

The third grade teachers are asking each child to bring in about 12 pictures for a special Cultural Heritage project. The pictures will be return to you, but they may be altered. Along with the pictures, please fill out the green sheet that was sent home which identifies the background information about the picture. We would like to have these pictures by Monday, 11/21. Thank you very much for your help with this upcoming project.

Reading

This week we started discussing a new skill, plot. While reading our weekly story, “Loved Best” the students had to come up with the character, setting, problem, events that tied to the solution, and the solution. In grammar the students started learning more about when to use an apostrophe in his/her writing. It was really emphasized that we only use an apostrophe when talking about ownership or possession.

On Friday, 11/18 we will have our lesson 11 spelling quiz and a lesson 11 vocabulary quiz.

Social Studies

This week we will be beginning our next social studies unit that looks at how the physical environment affects how people live. We begin by reading a book called “William’s House” which tells the story of how William had a house in England and how he designed his house differently when he traveled to the New England. His house in New England was built differently to accommodate the different climate.

Math

We kicked off the new math unit this week and it teaches multiplication. The students begin by looking at numbers multiplied by 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10. The students will answer word problems using multiplication and begin looking at how division is related to multiplication.

Just a reminder that we will have our Science test on Force and Motion this Thursday. The review went home yesterday for the students to start studying. Below are some games that will help review simple machines. Students be sure to play one or more of the games and leave a comment on what you learned or liked the best.

Congratulation to Alyssa on getting the most votes for her monster picture. What great details and descriptions you used to help others visualize your monster.

Today we also did a fun egg drop activity. Please have your child explain this project and the outcome of his/her egg after it was dropped. Niki's and Dylan's egg was one of the few that didn't crack open. You can see a picture of their design below. Nice job Niki and Dylan!

Lastly we reviewed simple machines by playing a game in the computer lab. Below is the link so the students can start studying for the Science Test. The review for this test will go home on Monday, Nov. 14 and the test will be next Thursday, Nov. 17.

Have a nice long weekend!!

Last week we completed a writing activity that focused on using details and adjectives in writing. The students got to be creative and design a monster. The students had to be very descriptive when telling about the monster's characteristics. They described what it looked like, sounded like, acted like and what the monster did for fun. We then switched description papers and another classmate had to draw a monster with only using the adjectives and details that were written on the paper. Today we walked around and looked to see which pictures matched the best due to the use of explicit details. Below you will see the top 3 the class picked. Please cast your vote by adding a comment and we will announce the winner on this Wednesday

First I just would like to thank all the parents for attending their child's conference this week. I enjoyed speaking to everyone and found our time to be very beneficial for your child.

Our class performed two reader's theaters today. During guided reading this week we read a leveled reader's theater. The students were then assigned a part that they practiced. We worked on fluency, expression, and speaking with a loud voice. The students had fun presenting their 1/2 of the reader's theater to the rest of the class. Please enjoy hearing your child read his/her parts of the story. Also please leave a message on the blog or on the podcast website if you listened to it.

The first reader's theater is called Sherry Holmes and the Case of the Missing Necklace. Below you will see a link to this podcast!

The second one performed is called The Mother Goose Detective Agency. Below you will see a link to this podcast!

This week in Math we used straws and twist ties to form triangles, squares, rectangles, parallelograms, and trapezoids. After creating the shapes the students had to find the perimeter of each shape. The students were also introduced to isosceles, scalene, and equilateral triangles and the properties of a parallelogram. They LOVED the video we watched with a singing parallelogram. I love how excited they are when they can learn and have fun at the same time! I uploaded this video below! We also had another fun hands-on lesson where the students performed an experiment in which they determined the likelihood that a block will land on an edge when tossed.

Today we also finished our last lesson in our Math Unit 3. We learned all about diameter, circumference, and radius. The students enjoyed measuring circles and coming up with the diameter and radius by using a ruler and using string and a ruler to find the circumference. The vocabulary from today's lesson was new to all the students and they enjoyed the hands-on experiences to get familiar with them. On Monday we will complete the unit review. The review will go home on Monday night so they can study for the test which is on Tuesday. Below you will also see a link to an extra review they can complete or partially complete for extra tickets. This is optional, but always helpful when preparing for a test. Any reviews should be completed and turned in by Tuesday.

Please click on Unit 3 Questions once to this page:

Just a few last announcements:

We will not have spelling or introduce new vocabulary words next week due to the 3 day week.

Remember no school on Thursday and Friday for your child.

Here's a few new websites that review common and proper nouns and singular and plural nouns.

Don't forget to leave a comment about your favorite game!

BONUS QUESTION:

We have been busy at school with many new ideas and concepts. We just completed our third week of Reading stations. This is where the students rotate to different activities/stations while I pull small groups to the front table. Having stations allows me to differentiate instruction that is delivered in my small group. This past week the students worked hard on learning about common and proper nouns and fact and opinion statements. We read the story Aero and Officer Mike which taught the students all about K-9 police dogs. We even watched a few short informational videos that discussed K-9 training and the different abilities of K-9 dogs. This topic was very interesting to the class. Be sure to ask your child what was the most interesting fact that they learned about K-9 dogs. Below is a link to the youtube video we watched. (Sorry it's too big to upload without youtube.)

youtube k-9 video

Noun song-sing it before we watch it as a class this week!

Common and Proper Noun games:

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/basketball/index.html

http://www.quia.com/ba/39705.html

http://www.quia.com/cz/50478.html

http://www.ezschool.com/Games/NounSort.html

Next week we will focus on a new skill. The students will become experts on main idea. Reading will look a little bit different since we are going to take the skills of main idea and use it to guide a small research project on kangaroos. On Monday and Tuesday the students will be using books, websites, and encyclopedias to find some interesting facts about kangaroos, the animal we adopted at the zoo. This is a great way to teach about main idea and connect it to our field trip on Friday. Since we will restructure Reading this week we will not have a vocab test or comprehension test on the usual story. However we will still have a spelling test. The spelling test will be on Thursday instead of Friday due to the field trip.

In Math we have just completed Unit 2. The review will be on Monday and the test on Tuesday of this coming week. In unit 3 we will look at the ideas of area, circumference, diameter polygons, personal references, and the U.S. customary system and metric system. There will be a letter going home on Monday that explains more about the unit.

Here is a link for an extra review for Unit 2 in Math. Students that complete it or even part of it will earn extra tickets!!!

Please go under Unit 2 and click on Questions. You can check your child's answer by clicking on Answers.

Unit 2 Math Review

We had an exciting lesson in Science on Thursday. The students got to make paper airplanes and fly them. I know you are thinking, how is that related to the science curriculum. Some key words that were introduced were air resistance, drag, streamline, and fluid friction. After everyone made a few paper airplanes, we flew them and had a mini-contest to see which ones went the furthest. We then took the top 3 airplanes and studied them. We discussed how they were more streamlined, had less drag, and had less air resistance. The students worked hard and behaved very well even though it was a super fun and hands-on activity. Here's a few videos I showed with the lesson!

We are coming close to the end of our Social Studies unit on Maps and Globes. We have a few more mini lessons to cover. The review for this quiz will go home next Monday the 24. The quiz will be on Oct. 27.

Due to great classroom behavior, the students are SO close to earning an extra reward. After they get just a few more scoops of popcorn we will vote to see if they would like an extra gym, extra recess, or some other special activity. I am very proud of how hard they are working during Reading stations and throughout the day. I can’t wait to give them their extra reward.

A few reminders:

Library is rescheduled for Monday due to Discovery Science on Friday.

Field trip to Lincoln Park Zoo: Friday, Oct. 21. Please have a sack lunch for your child to bring. Please don't send money since we will not be stopping to shop. Please have your child at school by 8:45 that day so we can leave by 9:00am. Also be sure to dress your child for the weathe.

Bonus Question:

Map Scale: 1 inch=50 miles

If it was 4 inches from Chicago, IL to Kokomo, IN on a map. How many miles in real life would that be? Use only the information given. Please do not use an actual map.