ISATS are finished!!!

We finished the Math ISAT test with a bang. Our percentages were really great. The number of students who scored ADVANCED was significantly higher than previous years. Way to go students!! This Tuesday we take the IRI state reading test. We are hoping for great reading scores:
House Keeping:
Tuesday, May 3, 2011: IRI Reading test
Tuesday, May 10, 2011: ISU Children's Choir Assembly
Friday, May 13, 2011: Individual Class Talent Show

Language Arts:
The story of the week is the last in our Reading Series. It is Romona Quimby, Age 8. Next week we will begin our Magic Tree House Series book studies, complete with activities and fun learning. The three books we study this year are:
Afternoon on the Amazon
High Tide in Hawaii
Tonight on the Titanic

The spelling list for this week goes as follows:
I'm
he's
aren't
couldn't
won't
o'clock
wouldn't
weren't
she's
wasn't
shouldn't
I'd

MATH:
We will review for the rest of the year. We are going to show the third graders how to set up math problems on lined paper. Because we have been working in a consumable book all year, they haven't got the chance to learn this skill. It takes a few good times to do it correctly.


Science:
We will continue our study of the Life Cycle and Living things.

Question of the week?
What is the Math Order of Operations? Or what comes first in a chain of operations? Addition? Multiplication? Division? Subtraction?

WOW!! On the Reading ISAT

Congratulations to all of the students who completed the Reading ISAT testing. We will conclude this week with our Math ISAT on Thursday, April 28, 2011. Also a BIG THANK YOU to those parents who have brought in snacks for the testing. This gives our brains a big boost. There was a lot of reading on the ISAT this week. Way to go students!!! Thank you also for coming out to Parent Teacher Conferences. We had a wonderful turnout and the students loves sharing their slide shows with you.

Upcoming Schedule:

• Wednesday, April 20, 2011: Last 6-week grading period begins


• Thursday, April 28, 2011: Math ISAT test


• Wednesday, May 3, 2011: Sping IRI testing window


• Tuesday, May 10, 2011: ISU Children's Choir Performance


• Wednesday, May 11, 2011: Yo-Yo Assembly


• Friday, May 13, 2011: Individual Third Grade Class Talent Show

Language Arts: Poppa's New Pants

Everyone wear something plaid this week. We are going to read a great story!!

The spelling list concentrates on words that begin with the first syllable /a/ or /be/:

began

again

around

before

away

about

alive

ahead

because

between

behind

ago

Math:

This is it......this is it.....The last ISAT is this Thursday. We feel our students are so prepared for the Math portion of the ISAT testing. We work on it so hard all year long. And we have some amazing Math students in our class. This next week will be a review week for many important curricular areas in math. After ISAT we will review addition/subtraction, rounding, regrouping, multiplication, and measurements.

Science:

Our last Unit of Study will be The Amazon Rain Forest and Life Cycles of Living Things. These last two subjects are two of the most memorable activities we do in the 3rd grade.

Questions of the Week for anyone who wants to post their answer:

How many teeth does an Adult have (if all of their teeth were there?)

What is the order of Math Operations we learned in class?

LANGUAGE ISATS........AWESOME SCORES!!

Just to let you know, our class did great on the Language ISATs. Our percent proficiency was very high. Thanks for being great students and great parents. We have two more ISATs to go and then the IRI.

Dates to remember:

April 19th-29th: Parent request for teachers are available in the office

Tuesday, April 19, 2011: End of Fifth 6-Week grading period

Ongoing popcorn fundraiser

Thursday, April 21, 2011: Reading ISAT

Thursday, April 21, 2011: 5:30-7:30 Parent Teacher Conference Open House

Friday, April 22, 2011: Earth day field clean-up as a school

Thursday, April 28, 2011: Math ISAT test

Wednesday, May 4, 2011: IRI

Friday, May 13, 2011: Individual class Talent Show

Our Literature Selection of study this week is Pepita Talks Twice.

We are excited to have a new student in our class who used to live in Mexico when she was a little girl. It will be great to have her help us with some of the Spanish Words in the story. She speaks Spanish very well.

Spelling list focuses on words ending with /er/ or words ending with /le/

summer

winter

little

October

travel

color

apple

able

November

ever

later

purple

Math:

We are finishing our Unit on customary and metric lengths and measurements. We will finish the this Wednesday. We will then start reviewing for the Math ISAT test. These are some really great things to be working on at home:

rounding

subtraction over zero

multiplication

basic addition and subtraction

associative property

commutative property

customary lengths and measurements

multiplication

subtraction over zeros

subtraction and addition with

regrouping

money

time

***Did I mention subtraction over zeros and multiplication???????

Science:

This week will also conclude our study of health and nutrition. We will end the year learning about life cycles and even grow butterflies in our classroom from a kit.

Have a lovely week!! (Exclamatory sentence)

Questions of the week:

Why was Jay Berry finally able to catch the monkeys in Summer of the Monkeys.

Name a story we studied that is non-fiction (one that really happened)

CHECK OUT THOSE SCIENCE WATER CYCLES!!

Our students brought some outstanding Water Cycle Models into the classroom this week. We so much enjoy the creativity that each student brings when they present their Water Cycle to their classmates. Above are just a few of the the wonderful samples brought into class this week. Thanks for all of your hard work!!

Weekly Housekeeping:

• Monday, April 4, 2011: Early Release/PLC


• Thursday, April 14, 2011: Langugae ISAT for our class

Language: Our story this week is Trapped by the Ice. This story is a true account of an exploration down to Antarctica. The students which view some actual pictures taken during the journey and learn the fate of the explorers.

The spelling list concentrates of the VCCV (vowel, consonant, consonant, vowel) spelling pattern.

• Monday


• sudden


• until


• forget


• happen


• follow


• dollar


• window


• hello


• market


• pretty


• order

Math:

We just finished up our Unit on multiplication and using 6, 7, and 8 as a factor. Please keep practicing these things at home; you will see then again on the ISAT test. This week we will start to learn about fractions and parts of a set.

Social Studies:

Our class continues to study about communities and what makes a good community. They will learn how they can be better community members.

Question Of The Week:

What are the four parts of the Water Cycle (Since you are such experts!!!!)

How was Spring Break??

This is a picture of Mrs. Shore and I sitting down at the Memorial at the Pentagon. It was a beautiful Memorial built to remember the events of 911 that happened at the Pentagon.

Mrs. Shore and I had a great time back in Washington D.C., New York, Pennsylvania, and Boston with our kids. We learned so much about the beginning of our country. We got to visit so many amazing places. We both really liked Fort McHenry where the Star Spangled Banner was written during the War of 1812 with the British. Now we are back to school!!

This is a picture of the Changing of the Guards at Arlington National Cemetary. The guard got angry at one of the visitors who was too close to the walking plaza. The guard told the vistor to move. It was fascinating to watch.

Just a few things to go over in Housekeeping to make you aware of things that are going on in our classroom and at Ellis Elementary:

• Monday, March 28, 2011: Early Release PLC


• Monday, April 18th, 2011: Teacher Request Forms available to parents


• Thursday, April 21, 2011: Parent Teacher Conference/Open House


• Friday, April 29, 2011: Teacher requests end


• ISAT testing begins:


• Shore/Graham Language ISAT Thursday, April 14, 2011


• Shore/Graham Reading ISAT Thursday, April 21, 2011


• Shore/Graham Math ISAT Thursday, April 28, 2011


• May 3-5th Idaho Reading Indicator

Language:

Our new Literature Theme for the next 5 weeks in Voyages. The first story is about a small girl from America who visits her grandmother in the country of Korea. We will learn about the culture of Korea and some of the traditions of the Korean people. The story is titled: Yunmi and Halmoni.

The spelling list has the short /o/ sound as in:

caught

thought

bought

laugh

through

enough

fought

daughter

taught

ought

cough

brought

I can't wait to hear all about your Spring Break in the "Weekend News" this week.

Keep reading!!! We have already completed 2 weeks of our AR goals. We have 4 weeks left.

Math

In Math, we are completing Unit 9 and taking a Unit Test at the end of the week. Please practice your 6, 7, and 8 multiplications. Make sure you know what an equation is and how to use an array to solve a multiplication problem. The Unit exam will be on Friday.

The Iditarod is over. John Baker was the winner. The kids really liked the race. We have completed Women in History and will start learning again about communities in our nation.

Question of the week? About how many slaves did Harriet Tubman help to make it to the North?

Congratulations Readers!!

Congratulations to the first two students to reach their AR goal in our class this past 6 weeks.
The first girl was Kelsie Bloxham. The first boy was CJ Quick. Keep reading. The next 6 weeks has already started. We only have 5 weeks left to read.

House Keeping:

• Monday, March 14, 2011: Class Field Trip to the Pocatello Water Department. The bus leaves at 9:00 AM and gets back at 11:50
• Spring Break: For some of you, Spring Break starts after school on Friday, March 18th. Have a great and safe Spring Break.
• Monday, March 28, 2011: Back to School from Spring Break.
• Mid April: ISAT testing window begins. We will test on Reading, Language, and Math

Language Arts:

This week our focus of study is on Biographies. There are a lot of activities planned for the week. The students have also started their Personal PowerPoint Presentations. They will work on these during their computer rotations. The spelling list for the week concentrates on the final /Y/ plus an ending.

skies

flies

stories

puppies

driest

candies

pennies

cries

ponies

bunnies

happier

funniest

Math:

This week we are practicing more comparison problems using multiplication and division and practicing our math multiplication facts on the 6s, 7s, and 8s. Keep working on those facts. You are doing a great job. Remember the strategies we have taught you in class. Remember those little stories we have taught you in your small blue books.

Social Studies:

Our class is participating in the Iditarod Race. We will probably have a winner as of Monday or Tuesday. As of this morning, John Baker is in the lead!!! Go John go!! We are also studying Woman in History this week. We will include them in a few of our biographies as well.

Question of the Week:

Why was the Iditarod originally started? What event does it replicate?

SHORT week!

Happy President's Day!!

Language Arts:
It is a short week this week. This week is the beginning of our Reading/Writing Workshop. We will be working on our Animal Research Reports. A folder will be coming home this coming weekend with the requirements. For all of you that read the BLOG--these are the requirements for the Research Report:
1) Choose an Animal
2) Create an Illustration of your animal in its habitat (to be done in class--please use full page).
3) Hand written report between 2-3 pages. Write every other line for ease in grading. We will be looking at spelling, punctuation, grammar, and coverage of topic. There will be a grading rubric attached to the folder your child will be taking home. (Report will be completed at home).
4) Inspiration Web with imported picture of animal and fact bubbles (to be done in class).
5) Picture of Animal, Name of Animal, and 5 interesting facts (Computer generated: to be done in class).

**Please refer to the folder for the due date of this report. (Friday, March 4th)

Math:
We are starting a mini unit on time this week. The Unit Test will be on Friday. This Unit covers time, elapsed time, and clock angles.

Science:
On Tuesday, we will make mini models of the Water Cycle. After the Animal Research Reports have been completed, the students will be making a representation of the Water Cycle at their homes and bring back to class to share with the students. These water cycles will be on display in the Library and in the classroom. Last year we even had a cake water cycle. We liked looking at it--but we really enjoyed eating it.

The class will continue to study Earth and its Resources.

Question of the Week:
What story helps you to remember the Math Fact 6 x 6 = 36?