AR Goal deadline on Friday, February, 24th

Congratulations to the first students to reach their AR Goal:

Kaleb

Sydney

Ian

Way to go!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE"S DAY!!

This is going to be a really quick blog, because my Internet Service has been down all week, and I just got reconnected.

Housekeeping:

Monday, February 13, 2012: PLC Early Release

Tuesday, February 14, 2012: Valentine's Day Party

Thursday, February 16, 2012: Class Pictures

Monday, February 21, 2012: Penny Wars Start

Friday, February 24, 2012: End of 4th Six-Weeks

Friday, February 24, 2012: AR Goal Deadline

Spelling Words:

cared

babies

chopped

saving

carried

fixing

hurried

joking

grinning

smiled

wrapped

parties

Question of the Week:

What are some materials the Inuit People use to build their homes?

Get Ready for a Research Project!!

Housekeeping:
Monday, February 6, 2012: Early Release, PLC
Tuesday, February 7, 2012: Special Visit by the Pocatello/Chubbuck Superintendent.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012: 100's Day....Wear a number shirt, you can bring a poster of 100 things, get ready to disco for 100 seconds. We will have 100 seconds of silence, and write Ellis as many times as we can in 100 seconds.
Tuesday, February 14th: Valentine's Day. We will send a list home with the kids. Please, only use first names on the Valentine's.

Language Arts:
This week we start Reading Unit: Amazing Animals. We start off by learning about the cute "Little clowns of the sea: The Puffins". We will then read a story about a pretty amazing seal, a couple of deer and finally some animals from the desert. Also during this theme, we have the kids write a research report about an animal of their choice. They can choose any animal. So be thinking about what you would like to learn more about. The research report will include a picture, citation page, and important information about the animal. We will help the students in class and then send the piece home to be edited and revised. Thank you for your help on this project.

The spelling words this week are:
hair
care
chair
pair
bear
where
scare
air
pear
bare
fair
share

Math:
We have become well acquainted with facts for 2, 5, 9, and 10. This past Friday, we introduced multiplication with 3 as a factor. Remember, multiplying is just REPEATED ADDITION!!

Science:

On Friday, we wrapped up our Arctic Unit and took an assessment on the information. For the next couple of weeks we will be studying about Earth's resources, learning about the Water Cycle and making a model of the Water Cycle. The kids just love this activity.

Question of the Week:

Give me 3 facts about a Polar Bear, the "Bad Boy" of the North.

Write a multiplication word problem for 3 x 4= 12

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!! THANKS FOR POSTING

Thanks for Coming to Conferences!!

Housekeeping:

• Monday, Jan. 29th: PLC Early Release


• Feb. 7, 2012: School Board Visit Room #1


• Feb. 8, 2012: 100's Day


• Feb. 17th, 2012: Muffins with Mom


• Feb. 15th 2012: Spring Class Pictures

A big thank you to all parents who were able to attend our Parent Teacher Conferences and came to enjoy the students' Presentations they have been diligently working on. We had a wonderful turn-out in Room #1. We have such a wonderful classroom of students and GREAT Parents!!

Language Arts:

The story this week is a comparison story about Dinosaur Bob and Fugitives on Four Legs. It is the last story in Theme 4 (Incredible Stories). We will be working on skills we have already learned this past 6-weeks such as using verbs in the Past and Present; Commas in addresses, dates, and a series; format of a friendly letter and using prefixes. There is a big spelling test at the end of the week which addresses all of the spelling patterns we have been learning over the past 6 weeks:

word sound clear also soft crown crack lawn girl knew here turn dark

north orange her skin hear squeeze gym second jeans our hour knew

Technology:

The PowerPoint Presentations were a huge success. Students in Harry Potter Room #1 are going to start back up with FasttMath and Compass Learning. We would like all students to have mastered their addition facts by the end of the year and well into their subtraction facts.

Math:

We continue to learn our multiplication fact patterns. So far we have learned multiplication with 0, 1, 2, 5, 9, and 10. We practice a lot in between. Please practice at home with your child. A good website to visit is math-drills.com. Their are a variety of worksheets for all math computation skills available on this site.

Social Studies:

We would like to finish up our Arctic Unit this week. We have been learning about our friends in the North and their way of life. We have learned what kind of clothes they wear, what kind of food they eat, the type of transportation they use, and their way of life. The Unit Exam will be on Friday.

Question of the Week:

Look at the following words:

reappear, unfortunate, disloyal

What is the prefix in each word?

What is the base word in each?

What does each word mean?

Write a multiplication word problem to represent 5 x 3 = 15.

THE IRI WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!!! WAY TO GO ROOM #1

Housekeeping:

• Monday, January 23, 2012: Early Release/PLC


• Thursday, January 26, 2012: Parent Teacher Conferences/Open House Conferences are after school, and the Open House begins at 6:00 pm. Come and see what your child has been working on.


• Hundreds Day: February 8, 2012


• Muffins with Mom: February 17, 2012


• Visit from Superintendent in our classroom: February 7, 2012

Language Arts:
The story of the week is another Fantasy story from our Incredible Stories Theme. The name of our story is The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg. Skills we will work on are: Prefixes, use of verbs in the past, present and future tense, Mountain Language skills, and a new AR reading goal.

MATH:

The third graders at Ellis School have started multiplication. We have taught them that multiplication is just repeated addition. We started with multiplication using 5 as a factor. This week we will relate division to multiplication and start multiplication with 1's, 2's, 0's, and 10's. To learn multiplication, we do a lot of worksheets to reinforce the concepts. The best thing yet is to memorize them....but until then, use the strategies!!

Technology:

This past week our students inserted class pictures into their PowerPoint presentations. They are looking very original! The students have done a great job. Get ready to be entertained when you come to conferences.

Social Studies:

I made an error last week in reporting we had started our Science new Unit. Instead we started our Arctic Unit. We worked on it last week and will be wrapping it up this week. In March we will start a mock Iditarod Race with all the third grade students. It is one of the highlights of their third grade experience. We assign them each a racer and we track the actual racers as they travel across Alaska.

Question of the week:

Irregular verbs in the past tense.

Use these verbs in the past tense in a new sentence.

Example:

I eat my breakfast every morning. (eat)

I ate my breakfast yesterday morning.

• swim


• dig


• hear

End of 6 Weeks!!!

Housekeeping:

We are in for a busy week this week....

Tuesday, January 17, 2012: Back to School

Thursday, January 19, 2012: Winter IRI!!

Thursday, January 19, 2012: Technology Night at Ellis (6:00 pm)

Friday, January 20, 2012: End of 6 weeks. AR Goal Deadline

Friday, January 20, 2012: AR/Matilda Party and Class Auction. Fabulous prizes for everyone in the class.

Technology:

Last week, the students in Room #1 put clip-art on their PowerPoint presentations. This week we will show them how to insert photos and save to their personal H drive. We invite all parents to come with their child to Parent Teacher Conference Evening on Thursday 26, 2012. The conferences start at 6:00 pm. Hope to see you there.

Language Arts:

This week are story is Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolen. This is a great story about a little girl who lives on a farm and discovers a dragon egg. Our students will keep working on identifying comparatives (words ending with -er....the horse was bigger than the cow) and superlatives (words ending with -est....the lion was the strongest of all the animals).

The spelling words concentrate on the /j/ sound ad the /k/ sound and the /kw/ sound:

judge

gym

skin

quick

picnic

park

jeans

crack

orange

second

squeeze

Math:

This week we start multiplication. Keep working with your children on identifying and filling in number patterns. For example:

__, __, 7, 10, 13, 16

5__, 11, 14, __, 20

Science:

We are wrapping up our Martin Luther King Unit and starting our Science Unit on Earth's Resources. We will continue with Science for the next 3 weeks.

Question of the Week????

Put these words in ABC order:

cannon, crying, camera, crane, cringe

What are the missing numbers in the pattern? What is the rule for the pattern?

1,___,___,10, 13, 16, 19,___

2,___,____,14, 18, 22, ____

2 Weeks Left!!

Congratulations to Jaxsen and

Carlos for participating and do

so well in the Reflections Contest

at Ellis Elementary. Way to Go

Boys!!!

Housekeeping:

Monday, January 9, 2012: PLC Early Release

Monday, January 16, 2012: Beginning of the Winter IRI

Friday, January 20, 2012: End of Midterm

Friday, January 20, 2012: AR Goal Deadline

Language:

The Story of the Week is another Incredible Story from the country of Italy. The story is called The Incredible Giant of Barletta. It is a folktale. You will learn about a small city that is being invaded by a large army and how the problem is solved. You may also learn a few Italian words on your journey through the story.

The spelling pattern is vowel + r words:

girl

her

clear

turn

dark

work

smart

word

hurt

serve

north

third

Technology:

The students in Harry Potter Room #1 are working on slide shows to present to their parents at parent teacher conference. Conference date is Thursday, January 26, 2012. You are all invited to come and attend. They have been working hard. This week they will add in pictures and transitions and animations to their slides.

MATH:

The students in Room #1 just completed a Unit Test on Unit 5. This week is a quick unit on number patterns and shifting, turning, and flipping of geometric shapes. There will be a Unit Test on Friday 13, 2012 over Unit 6.

Social Studies:

This week we will be doing some exciting learning activities about Nobel Prize Winner:

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We celebrate his birthday in the month of January. Get ready to try out some fun new computer skills as part of our Martin Luther King Unit.

Question of the Week:

Where do I put the comma in these three examples:

a. Chubbuck Idaho

b. March 17 1965

c. Sincerely Mrs. Graham

At times, we use the suffix -er to compare two or more things. For example:

Mrs. Shore is shorter than Mrs. Graham and Mr. Hall.

We use the suffix -est to show that one thing is superior over all. For example:

Mrs. Graham is the tallest person in Room #1.

When we use -er it is called COMPARATIVE.

When we use -est it is called SUPERLATIVE.

Use the word kind in a comparative sentence and a superlative sentence.

WELCOME BACK!!

Welcome Back Students in Harry Potter Room #1. We have missed you over this Holiday Break and can't wait to get back to see you and continue learning and having a great time. We want to thank you for all of the Christmas Treasures you gave to Mrs. Shore and myself and hope you had a wonderful Christmas and very happy New Year.

Housekeeping:

Tuesday, January 3, 2012: Start back up after Christmas Break

Monday, January 9, 2012: PLC Early Release

Monday, January 16, 2012: NO SCHOOL Martin Luther King Day

Friday, January 20, 2012: End of Third Six Weeks

Friday, January 20, 2012: AR Goal Deadline

Language Arts:

This week is a writing week. First of all we will focus on writing a summary. Mrs. Graham will introduce a writing score sheet or rubric so you will know what we are looking for when we grade the summary. Each class member will write a summary on the story "Dogzilla". We sure loved your Newspaper Headlines you wrote before the Christmas Break.

A New Homework Take Home Folder with the Spelling words for the week will come home today. You will also receive Homework, a cursive page and the new Spelling Words. Homework is due back on Friday and you will also have your Spelling Test.

Math:

The class will continue to work on Unit 5. We will have a Unit Test at the end of the week. These are some of the things you will see on the assessment:

• Rounding


• Multi-step word problems


• Table and Graphs


• Bar Graphs


• Picto-Graphs

Science:

One more week of learning about Matter and Energy and Forces. Next week we will have a one-week Unit on Martin Luther King before we start back up on our Social Studies Unit.

Technology:

Our class is working on a PowerPoint slide show for Parent Teacher Conference. Currently, the students are changing Font size and color. Next week we will begin to work on transitions between slides and then add pictures and music. They are doing a really great job and enjoying the process!

Question of the Week:

Analogies:

Farmer: Field as Nurse:___________

Potato: Vegetable as Cherry:___________

What Kind of story was Dogzilla?

A) Fiction

B) Non-Fiction

C)Fairy Tale

D) Fantasy