Gotta Have Courage!

I thought I would make a quick post to share some "upcoming events" and what has been happening lately in 3B. The students continue to be my little angels and working so hard that I couldn't be prouder! They amaze me every day, and I think they amaze themselves as well.

First I must give "applause" to our three stars from the play this weekend of The Wizard of Oz. Trista, Alison, and Emily were Munchkins and did a fabulous job in a great production of the famous movie! I know there were a few other students in 3B who had tried out to be in the play. I hope that they, and others, continue to try out for other school and community productions! I am very proud of all the students who tried out, whether they were in the play or not! As we talked about, it takes a lot of courage to try something new (just like the Cowardly Lion from the play). Being in productions like that can be valuable learning experiences, as well as build confidence! Anyway, great job girls!

I am sending home an invite for our first Character Counts celebration. This celebration will be held next Wednesday on the early out before Thanksgiving. Parents are invited to attend as 3B students will be working with parent(s) to create a new mascot for Character Counts. It should not be a mascot that already exist for a team or anything. Try to be creative and come up with a mascot and a saying to go with it that connects to Character Counts. Please read the information immediately as there is another activity that involves writing a "Respect and Responsibility" recipe. Directions and a short example are given on the information sheet. This has been a favorite activity/event in the past so we hope to see you there. If you can not come, maybe ask a grandparent, older brother/sister, or other relative. If no one in your family can attend, I will make arrangements so that your child does not work alone. Please let me know if you are unable to attend so that I can make those arrangements ahead of time. Those parents who volunteered to supply snacks for this event will receive a separate letter/reminder with information by the end of the week. If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact me. Otherwise, hope to see you next Wednesday!

We will continue, and hopefully finish, ITBS testing this week. Our schedule looks something like this: Tuesday - Math Concepts and Estimation, Wednesday - testing practice test from state, Thursday - Math Problem Solving, and Friday - Science. I want to thank everyone for trying to stay healthy and not miss any school. Thank you! 3B has done a wonderful job as we haven't had any absences for illness or appointments, which means no make up test. Yippee! Please remember to make sure your 3rd grader gets enough rest the night before the test and eats a healthy breakfast. I can speak for all of us that we will be glad when we are done with the tests and can get back to normal, but I commend each 3B student for working hard and trying their best.

Remember that tonight is the pick up night for fund raiser items. You should have received a phone call last night reminding you to pick up your items tonight between 3:00 and 6:00.

Book blogging continues to be going at a slow pace but going well. Students are focusing on recording their thinking while reading to self (we call it using "reading tracks") and these tracks then help them complete their book blogs. Podcast are also going well and we will be putting up a new reading podcast this week for our Luther students. Hopefully you have had a chance to listen to their suggestions and compare our first reading to our second. You can tell that there is great importance in practicing reading and the second podcast was done after practicing. Hopefully our 3rd podcast will be up this week and there will be many different passages read by different students that are appropriate for his/her reading level. This week I hope to start some students on an online discussion through "Edmodo" (which I talked to some parents about at conferences) as well as continuing to build reading strategies, moving into "summarizing".

Enjoy the sunshine while it last!

End of Busy Week of Blogging, Podcasting, and Just Plain Busy

The students just left to go out for a quick recess so I thought I would try and get my blog for the week done today. I am extremely pleased with all of the activities and learning that has taken place the past week, especially considering that Halloween is tomorrow. The students have been real troopers and working hard with everything I put towards them. Great job 3B!!!!

I wanted to share a few reminders about events coming up just in case you forgot. Please remember that if your child is going to be participating in the new reading incentive of reading at home and earning a free slice of pizza, he/she should return his/her reading calendar by Monday, November 2nd, for the month of October. I will then fill out a Casey's coupon for those students who return their calendars. Remember that students who return their calendar every month will earn a pizza party from me!!!! So keep reading and remember to return the calendars. I am sending home the November calendar today so that your 3rd grade student can get started recording his/her reading on Sunday. I did make a mistake in not redoing the calendar from October and just changing the month. . . so while the dates are off but the idea is the same. Sorry about that.

Parent-teacher conferences are next week, and I am excited to meet with each of you! Report cards were sent home yesterday so we will be going over those as well as sharing information from MAPs test and Dibels results done this fall. If something comes up and you are unable to make it to conferences, please call the school and let us know. Hopefully we can all stay "sick free" and have some great conversation next Tuesday and Thursday. I have lots to share!!!

We plunged our way through the science assessments. I could really tell who studied at home and who did not. I will be sharing the assessments at conference time as well as going over them with the students on Monday. I still have a few more to correct as there were three parts to the assessment.

Book blogging is going well; yet kind of slow due to our lack of experience with typing. That's alright though. Hopefully by the end of the week next week, every 3B student will have a book blog posted. They are totally enjoying posting their own blogs, and I am enjoying reading them. I still haven't figured out how to enable the "comment" section through the iWeb program we are using, but I am working on it. I would love to be able to comment to the students and have a "digital discussion" with them about their books. Always something to do. . . :)

Our most recent podcast are up also. We haven't heard back yet from our Luther Pals but will hopefully have some reading suggestions and responses from them by next week. The students are anxiously waiting as they check all the time to see if their partner has posted a podcast response. Let's cross our fingers for next week.

Have a safe and enjoyable Halloween weekend!

Exciting News!!! Book Blogs Have Begun

I am excited to say that the students have started their book blogs!!!! Shane, Alison, and Emily wrote short blog post about the books they are reading during Read to Self. You can check them out by going to 3B Student Blogs and clicking on their names. Due to our lack of typing, don't expect very lengthy post at first, but we will get there. I encourage the students not to type their blog post like book reports. Instead, share a few events from the book and then share your thoughts about it. This could include connections, questions, favorite parts, etc. I am using iWeb for their blog pages and at this point it does not allow for me, or anyone, to comment about what they have posted. I am looking into how we can change that because I would love to pose thoughts and comments to each student about the book blog they post. It would be like an online book discussion. So, students are schedule to book blog once a week! Better than an old fashioned book report I'd say!!!

We have also made a recent podcast post to share with our Podcast Pals from Luther. For this reading, students were all given the same passage and had to orally read and retell the passage without practice. The Luther students will be podcasting back suggestions and comments for their 3rd grade pal to apply, practice, and record the same passage again, hoping there will be improvements in various areas. After that, students will be recording readings of passages at his/her guided reading levels. The goal is to make an oral reading podcast weekly, give and take some weeks with vacations, building not only reading fluency and word attack, but comprehension through retelling and responding. So far we have been doing them right on the computer using a program called Garage Band, but we will also start recording our readings and retellings on iPods. I have to say, I was very pleased with the students and their ability to get started on their podcast, record, and save without a lot of help from me. Next week. . . .they should be able to do it all on their own! Yippee!!