Sunday, March 7, 2010

A Great Olympic AR Party!!







This week was our AR reading Party for the past 6-week grading period. We had a great time. The third grade classes rotated around to different rooms and participated in Winter Olympic games. We has the Skeleton, Hockey and snowball blowing. A wonderful time was had by all. The next deadline for AR goals in April 14, 2010. The students have all reviewed and help set their goals. We will have a Harry Potter Pizza Party with Magic Tricks. Hope to see you all there.




Housekeeping:


This week is another shortened week because of Parent Teacher Conferences. We hope to see you all there so we can chat with you about your child's progress.




  • Wednesday, March 10th: Evening Conferences


  • Thursday, March 11th: Daytime and Evening Conferences


  • Friday, March 12th: No school


Language Arts:



This week we begin our Research Papers on an animal each student has selected. The report will be sent home at conference time. We will review the rubric with you and let you know of our expectations. We have already copied off some facts and gotten some books from the library. Please help your child with this report. It will be a big part of the writing grade.





Spelling:



There is no spelling list this week because it is a short week. We are reviewing high frequency words and will have a quick test over these words on Wednesday.



Math:



The students have just finished up a short unit on telling time using a digital and analogue clock. We will take a test on Monday. Our next unit will start multiplication facts for 6, 7, and 8. It will take us about a month to get through the next unit. Please continue to study the multiplication facts at home.



Science:



Water Cycles should be coming in sometime this week. We have discussed the water cycles in class and drew a picture of the water cycle. The students should create a 3-D exhibit of the water cycle and bring it to school to display. Be creative.



The Iditarod started on Saturday. The students will be tracking their mushers out on our Iditarod walls. It is a very exciting event. We should have a winner in about 10 days. It is a 1,000 mile race across Alaska.



Question of the week?



List 3 of the famous people we learned about last week when we read their Biographies:



Sunday, February 28, 2010

Tomorrow we have a Field Trip

Hello Boys and Girls, we hope you had a fine and relaxing weekend. Last week marked the ending of our fourth 6-week grading period. Following is a schedule for the next week's activities:
  • Monday, March 1, 2010: Beginning of Fifth 6-week activities
  • Monday, March 1, 2010: Field Trip to the Water Department
  • Thursday and Friday, March 4th and 5th: 2 hour early release.
  • Wednesday, March 10, 2010: Wednesday Evening Parent Teacher Conferences
  • Thursday, March 11, 2010: Thursday Day and Evening Parent Teacher Conferences

Language Arts:

This week is a Genre study. We will be focusing on Biographies. We will study and learn about many famous Americans. Some are athletes, some are pilots, and one is an artist.

Spelling words concentrate on final y changing into an i befofre addind -ed, -ing, or -est.

puppies

flies

stories

skies

driest

candies

pennies

cried

ponies

bunnies

happier

funniest

tried

babies

easier

busiest

Math:

This week in Math we will finish up multiplication of 0's, 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, 9's, and 10's. We start a new unit and finish up multiplication starting this week.

Science:

On Monday we will be on a field trip. The students do not need to bring a lunch. We will be back right before lunch is served. The field trip is to the Water Department in the city of Pocatello. It is a great field trip and teaches the students about recycling and being smart with earth's natural resources. We continue studying the earth's resources throughout the week.

Question of the Week:

What are the processes in the Water Cycle?

Monday, February 22, 2010

Last Week of the Fourth Six-Week Grading Period

Good Morning Boys and Girls, just a couple of housekeeping notes before we get going:
  • Thank you for all of the lovely Valentine treasures. Mrs. Shore and I loved them!
  • Monday, February 22, 2010: Early Release: PLC
  • Friday, February 26, 2010: No School--Record Day
  • Wednesday and Thursday, March 10th and 11th 2010: Parent Teacher Conferences

Language Arts:

This week our two reading stories compare and contrast the differences in a desert. The first story is a fictional piece: Alejandro's Gift. The second story in non-fiction: The Living Desert. We will review all of the skills we have been working on for the past 6-weeks. These include syllabication, base words and prefixes and suffixes, irregular verbs, and forms of the word "be". Please continute to bring your Reading Log each day so we can check it.

The spelling list focuses on a word review from the past 6-week period:

pair unhurt grinning air smiled sadly care retell babies

bear unlike cared scare hopeful parties pear remake

chopped bare unhappy joking chair friendly carried helper

Challenge: farewell flair moving libraries silently

Math:

Keep practicing your multiplication facts: We have covered: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 The students need lots of practice. We have also covered these individual facts:

  • all of the 0's
  • all of the 1's
  • all of the 2's
  • 3x3=9, 3x4=12
  • all of the 5's
  • all of the 10's

We will continue working on multiplication for the next 6 weeks and then start reviewing for the ISAT exam.

Hooray! Science!

We finished our Arctic/Inuit Unit and have started learning about the earth and its resources. We have a field trip planned to the water department next Monday morning. We leave at 9:00 and will be back by 11:35 just in time for lunch. Please don't forget to bring back your permission slip.

Question of the Week: What is a renewable resource? Please list at least 4 of them.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Happy President's Day

We hope you had a restful and enjoyable weekend. Thank you for all of your wonderful Valentine's gifts and treasures.

Housekeeping:
Thursday, February 18, 2010: Tears of Joy Puppetry presentation: "Rumplestiltskin"
Tuesday, February 23, 2010: Title One Math Night. Come play some games with your child at the school at our Title One Math Night
Friday, February 27, 2010: No School: Record Day
Thursday, February 26, 2010: End of 6-week grading period

Language Arts:
This week we are working on the Lion's Club Essay. We will concentrate on correct use of paragraphs and indentation and very neat penmanship. The students have already written a piece using colorful adjectives and a "grab your attention" opening sentence. It is always good to incorporate these writing conventions into a writing piece, we are just adding one more.

Spelling words for this week concentrate on frequently misspelled words:
  • girl
  • they
  • want
  • was
  • into
  • who
  • our
  • new
  • would
  • could
  • a lot
  • buy

Challenge Words:

wouldn't

world

through

while

Math:

Continue working on Math Multiplication facts for:

2's 3's 4's 5's 9's and 10's

Inuit Test will be given on Wednesday afternoon. We will start a new Science Unit on Earth's Resources.

Question of the week:

What is the gun called that shoots and animal and has special medicine to put them asleep?

What should you do if you find a baby bird out of its nest?

Sunday, February 7, 2010

HAPPY 100 DAY










Thank you to all the students who
participated in our 100's day activities.
Matthew was able to write his first and last initials the most time
in 100 seconds. Kelsey was able to form the most words out of "Hundred Day" in 100 seconds. We found partners in the morning with our number shirts to count up, multiply, divide, or subtract to 100. We had a great day, and our 100 item posters turned out so cute!!
Housekeeping:
Monday, February 8, 2010: 1 hour early release. PLC day
Monday, February 15, 2010: President's Day--no school.
Wear your scout shirt to school some day this week. It is the 100 years of scouting celebration.
Next week we will begin our animal research report. These will come home to be polished and perfected before they are graded.
Language:
Our story this week is "Two Days in May". It is about some hungry deer who travel down to the city to find some food to eat. The neighbors have to come together and decide what should be done with the deer. The spelling skill and language skill we are working on is prefixes and suffixes. A prefix comes before a base word. A suffix comes after a base word. Sometimes the spelling is changed when we add a suffix depending on what the suffix is. Following is a list of the spelling words:
  • helper
  • unfair
  • friendly
  • unhappy
  • remake
  • careful
  • hopeful
  • unlike
  • retell
  • sadly
  • farmer
  • unhurt

Review and Challenge Words:

have said unimportant silently

Math:

We love multiplication. Multiplication is repeated addition. These are the facts we have covered and are working on at this point: Multiplication of 5's, 2's, 9's 10's. This week we will start on the 3's and review the ones we have already started working on.

Social Studies:

This is the last week of the Arctic and Inuit Unit. The students have learned so many facts about our neighbors in the North. The Inuit people know how to respect land and animals as they need both to survive the sometimes very harsh conditions.

Question of the Week:

What does the word horizon mean?

What are the next three numbers in this number pattern? 15432154321543215___ ___ ___


HAVE A FABULOUS WEEK!! WE LOVE TEACHING YOU!!






Monday, February 1, 2010

Did you love the Pufflings?


If you loved Nights of the Pufflings, you will really enjoy Seal Surfer; but first a few housekeeping items:


Wednesday, February 3, 2010: 100th day of school Celebration. The students will be participating in some activities throughout the day. They will also be bringing home a 1/2 sheet of construction paper to glue 100 items on. These will be displayed per classroom.


Monday, February 8, 2010: Early Release PLC day


Monday February 15, 2010: No School President's Day


February is Scout Month! Wear your shirt to school for one day!!


Language Arts: The story for the week is Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman. This is a wonderful story about a boy and the new friend he makes, a seal. The spelling words for the week focus on base words with -ed, -ing, and -es endings.
cared
babies
chopped
saving
carried
fixing
hurried
joking
grinning
smiled
wrapped
parties
Review and Challenge Words:
making
stopped
moving
libraries
Math:
The students have already enjoyed advancing into multiplication. We will work on multiplication facts the entire month of February and into March. Please practice at home. We just completed multiplication by 5's and by 2's. Practice, Practice, Practice. Congratulations Mason Birdsall for advancing to Multiplication Math Facts on the Fastt Math Program. You Rock!
Social Studies:
The students will complete their Inuit/Arctic Unit this week. We have been making a booklet full on interesting Arctic facts.
Question of the week:
Find the range and mode and median of these numbers:
1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 10



Sunday, January 24, 2010

Theme 4: Animal Habitats

We are starting our new Reading Theme: Animal Habitats. We will be reading about puffins, seals, dear, and animals in the desert. Each student will choose an animal that interests them for our Animal Research Paper. We will work on some of this in the classroom and some of it at home. This week our story is about an amazing little bird called the Puffin. They live mostly in the northern areas of the world. The puffins we are learning about live in the country of Iceland. Did you know not very much of Iceland is covered with ice? They have four seasons just like us. I think you will love the story.

Our spelling list focuses on the vowel + /r/ sound you hear in bare, bare, hare, hair, etc...



hair
care
chair
pair
bear
where
air
scare
pear
bare
fair
share
buy
could
flair
farewell

Keep Reading and bringing in your Reading Logs.

MATH:
We are finally there!! We finished our quick unit on repeated patterns; turns, flips, and slides; and building onto a pattern. Now we are ready for Multiplication or repeated addition!! The students have been waiting for it all year. It is a long unit. The students will be practicing and repeating multiplication through the 10's. This is required on our State Standards and will be tested on the spring ISAT.


Social Studies:
Study of the Inuit people their customs and ways of life.

Housekeeping:
Monday, January 25, 2010: Early Release PLC
Wednesday, February 3, 2010: 100th day of school!
Monday, February 15, 2010: President's Day

Question of the Week:
Please use a thesaurus and list 5 synonyms for the word "say"