ITBS Starts This Week...Google Earth....Blogging!

As the title of this post states, we will be starting our Iowa Tests of Basic Skills this week.  Our testing days this week will be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  We will take Friday off and finish up next week on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Please try your best to have your child be at school on those days as it is more difficult to reschedule testing times when students are absent.  If possible, schedule dentist and/or doctor appointments around these particular days of testing.  I appreciate your help and cooperation!

The school is providing snacks that I called "brain food" for each day of testing.  Along with this, please encourage your child to eat a healthy breakfast and get enough rest each night.  I have discussed these tips with the students in a way to hopefully not make them too nervous.  Being it is the first time your 3B child is taking the test, it is important to not get them worked up.  All we ask is they try their best!  That's it.  So please don't discuss the testing with them in the way that will cause anxiety.  I know they will be fine as we have discussed many testing tips that will be useful with any test your child ever takes.

So the week is fairly choppy due to testing.  I am going to try and wrap up a math unit on measurement, perimeter, and area this week if possible.  We will have to wait and see how the testing times go to determine that.  We will be jumping into our social studies book this week and discussing communities.  Look for an sheet to be coming home tomorrow explaining and activity about places the students have been and bringing in pictures, postcards, etc.  We will be using our own "touring" and personal connections to build a better understanding of the different types of communities in social studies so look for that tomorrow.  Last week I introduced "Google Earth" to the students-which they LOVED!  I have heard many of you have already downloaded it at home per your child's request.  It is wonderful access to places around the world.....a virtual field trip....that we will continue to use throughout the year!  For those of you who have downloaded it, I hope you are enjoying it.  For those of you who have not, it is a free download off the internet that holds lots of valuable learning.  I encourage you to give it a try.

Remember I will be increasing the amount of homework that is given this quarter.  Today I noticed that many students did not do their homework given last Friday of singing the "Perimeter Song".  Not a great way to start the week.  Remember we need to work together in trying to build each child's responsibility with homework as there will be LOTS more in 4th grade.

Students were very excited last week to also begin their own blog pages.  Wow....they think they are "big stuff" now! (which they are! :)  We just made a basic blog post last week in practicing getting to and from their blog pages.  This week I hope to have each of them make a post about a book they have been reading......we will probably go into next week to finish that due to conflicts in time with ITBS scheduling.  Remember that we love to have comments from parents and relatives on our blog pages!!!! (hint, hint)

Enjoy the week!  Hard to believe we are almost half way through November already!  Wow!

Trip Around the World Field Trip!!! We Love Google Earth!

The students left with so much excitement today that I had to blog about it!!! Today was proof that technology is, and can be, utilized in amazing ways in the classroom. Today in 3B we traveled around the world to the Great Wall of China (ended up at a few Chinese restaurants along the way), the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, Ground Zero, the Golden Gate Bridge, and many other places around the world using satellite pictures and actual visuals of the various places. One student said, "This is the greatest field trip I have ever taken!". What a great thing to hear!

You are probably wondering how we did this. Well, there is a great download called "Google Earth" that is quite amazing! I have only just begun to realize all of it's potential (I play with it on my iPod Touch all the time). We are currently learning about maps in Social Studies and I wanted to find a more interactive, interesting way to learn about how maps are made and what we can learn from them. With Google Maps, you can type in addresses or various places and the satellite image will zoom right into that place with a still shot. These can be places all around the world. You can set it so you see 3-D monuments, the actual monument, or just flat images. It is almost like having a video camera, only they are still shots. I think the favorite for the kids was changing locations and watching the satellite move across the world and continents as if we were flying, only a little further out in space than we would probably have been. We even put in a few student addresses and it took us right to their homes through satellite feed. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever. . . .and it is. . . . .for now. . . :) I can't wait to utilize it in more valuable ways as there are so many options of what to do with it.

So, if you are interested in downloading this on your computer at home, simple go to Google and search "Google Earth". Download it to your computer and there you have it. That's it. Pretty simple!

I think about what each child learned today in our 35 minutes of Social Studies, and this was so much more valuable than reading in a book or doing a worksheet about maps. As the students said, "This was awesome!" I agree!

Have Fun!