Great First Full Week!

I hope your 3B student shared all the great activities we worked through last week - mixing liquids, taking digital pictures, math stations. It was a busy week but great one! I am pleased with the routine the students are getting into and their attitudes about school. Wonderful! Keep it up 3B! I thought I would just comment on a few activities we completing last week.

As I just mentioned, students kicked off science with an activity looking at the inquiry process and what scientist do. We first started off with a question to solve, then made an hypothesis, which the students learned was an educated guess. After that, we decided the procedure of our experiment and then conducted it to make a conclusion. The first question I guided them through was if cranberry juice, Diet 7-up, and blue Gatorade would mix or layer if poured on ice. Many students were surprised to find that it layered. So the next part of the activity was for students to work in groups, set up their experiment and work through the process to determine if all liquids would do the same thing when poured on ice. It was super fun! We found that some do and some don't based on sugar content and density. While it was not important for students to totally understand the rationale, the meaning behind that activity was to help students understand what scientist do everyday. This will set the stage for the many hands on activities we will be doing throughout the year. As one student said, "This is cool!" I agree.

I will be sending a parent note home soon explaining the structure of our literacy. Look for that sometime in the next week or so. Thus far, we have had many mini lessons on what is reading, how to pick books, and what good readers do. If you ask your child what reading is, hopefully they stand on a chair and scream "Thinking". I hope that does not get them in trouble as we try to add excitement in as many areas as possible in 3B. The class has built their "Read to Self" stamina up to 11 minutes, which is fabulous, and I hope to see that continue to build. "Read to Self" is one of the components of the Daily 5, a part of our literacy structure. Ask your child to explain what "Read to Self" looks like. We have been reviewing what it looks like and doesn't look like. Funny how they love to volunteer to model the incorrect way to read to self. Quite a site! This week we will continue to build our stamina, do some assessments, and work into the component of "Work on Writing".

Our specials are in full swing. Remember to send tennis shoes with your child on Monday and Friday as well as return library books on Friday.

Students have also been shown some online math activities on my web page that they enjoyed last week. If your child is bored or looking for something to do at home, get on my web page and go to the math link. There are a ton of online games your child can play to reinforce his/her skills.

Thanks for a great start to the school year. Enjoy your week!

The Best Part of our Week

Rachel: I liked the math stations today.
Kacey: I liked the layering liquids science project
JD: I liked the stations today.
Emma: I liked the liquids in science.
Madison: I liked the group activity of "Where's My Chicken?"
Jada: I liked when we played the chicken game.
Matthew: I liked math stations
Lee: I liked science this week.
Austin: I liked sharing our paper bags and guessing who it belonged to.
Kailyn: I liked the bags also.
Hailey: I liked doing read to self.
Annaleigh: I liked recess.
Kryslynn: I liked science.
Jamie: I enjoyed PE
Angelina: I liked recess.
Colby: I liked playing Star Wars at recess.
Reece: I liked science with the liquids.
Erika: I liked the story about Wodney Wat.
Libby: I liked our group activity.
Alex: I liked math stations today.
Mrs. Kerian: I liked watching the students use the digital cameras to take pictures for math.
Miss Twetten: I enjoyed doing the paper bags and learning about something interesting about the students.

Hot Start to First Full Week

I hope that you enjoyed the weekend - even if it was extremely hot! Looks like our week will start out that way, but then it will hopefully cool off. I love hot summer days, but I'd be okay with the temperature dropping a little bit. Last week was the first week I have ever had students say they did not want to go out for recess because it was too hot! I'd like to think that maybe it was because we were just having too much fun in the classroom.....

I'm sure your child has told you about some of the activities we did the first two days of school. There are always those "expectations and behavior" activities you have to go through with the students, but I really think it is important to teach those in a way that involves the kids and mix it up with other team building activities. So, while we did have to go over some "beginning of the year" things, we did have some fun getting to know each other as well. I can tell that I am going to enjoy this bunch of 3B students!

Thank you to those parents who send snacks for us to "munch on" the first few weeks of school. The students and their tummies were grateful! It is a hard transition from summer to a full day of school so we do appreciate the extra snack in the afternoon. In connection to that, I thought I would comment about our lunch. 3rd grade students, in the past, have gone to lunch and noon recess with kindergarten through 2nd graders. This year, 3rd graders are eating lunch and having noon recess with 4th and 5th graders. Because of that, students in 3B do not eat lunch until 11:50/11:55. That is over a half hour later for the students than when they ate last year so it will take some getting used to. Just remember to encourage your child to eat breakfast in the morning as it will help he/she stay focused during the morning hours.

I hope you had a chance to enjoy the pictures from Open House and the first days of school on my previous blog. I showed it to the students and they were so excited to see themselves on the internet! I will continue to post more pictures and video throughout the year.

Highlights of the week to come involve getting into the Daily 5 for literacy, using digital cameras in math to explore numbers, exploring the inquiry process of science with a liquid layering activity, and building a deep understanding that we are ALL writers and authors. I am also going to try to introduce an online keyboarding activity for students to work on keyboarding skills so they can prepare to type on their own blog pages. As you can see, we will be busy as well as have fun along the way. More information will also be sent home soon to share information about the Daily 5 and our first math unit. Keep your eyes open for that coming home in your child's "Important Papers" folder. Remember that this folder goes back and forth between school and home each day.

Thanks for a great start to the year. Remember that if you have any questions or concerns, please email me or call me as we are a team.

Enjoy the week and stay cool.

Excellent First Day and Open House!

I was so glad to see everyone made it to Open House last night! I could tell when the night was over what a wonderful bunch of students I was going to have! I was so excited I could hardly sleep!

3B had a great first day of fun activities, laughs, as well as covering some of the "must do" discussions for the first day. We started out the day getting to know each other through an activity on the smartboard where the students actually go to throw a koosh ball at the smartboard....yes, THROW something at the smartboard! It was a fun way to get to know one another and start the day! We also put some "yummy in our tummy" by enjoying some Skittles. Little did they know, when they took their Skittles they would have to tell me something about themselves based on how many Skittles they had (for example, six Skittles meant tell me six things). Everyone loves a treat once and a while. The students went on a scavenger hunt through the room, which are included in some of the pictures, as well as ended the day with a quick activity with all 3rd graders. Each child should have brought home a copy of our "wordle" today in which they shared words and activities about our first day! As you can tell from the wordle, it was a fantastic day. (But I know many will be a little tired tomorrow.)

Enjoy the pictures of Open House and our first day! I am excited for our school year together!

Welcome Back To School

Hello everyone! It's almost time for school! Are you excited! I am very, very excited!!!!! This is where parents, family, friends, and students can look for information I post about our day or week, as well as share pictures! There is also a spot for parents, friends, and yourself to comment. So, if you would like, become a follower of this blog page and keep current on 3B events.

Can't wait to meet you at Open House! Don't forget to check out the book fair! I will be posting your pictures from Open House soon!