So Much to Do Before Christmas! Stockings Needed!

I hope everyone enjoyed the nice winter weekend! The students and I chatted this morning about how missing 2 1/2 days last week due to snow was so fun; yet, now we have so much to do before Christmas approaches. We all agreed to focus hard, be involved, and work intensely so that we don't have to come back to activities in the middle of a chapter in math, for example, after the holiday break. It is always nice to start out fresh after the holiday break. So. . . .we are pushing and working hard!!

The plan is to try and work our way to finish our chapter on measurement in math this week. We would then take the assessments next Monday and Tuesday, which there is really no studying for. I would also like to wrap up our unit in social studies on communities so be looking for study information about that to be sent home by the end of the week with the test being next week sometimes (either Monday or Tuesday). I hate to throw 2 assessments at the students before break, but they will really only need to study for the social studies assessment. I know they can handle it and will be ready!

As part of our holiday fun, I am asking each student to bring a holiday stocking from home by this Wednesday. The stockings will be returned the 23rd, next week, in time for Christmas at home. If you do not have a holiday stocking or don't want to send a good one from home, any long sock will work as well. The only requirement is that they are clean! (Don't need any stinky smells in the room. :) I have heard that a Christmas visitor may be stopping every night from this Wednesday thru next Wednesday delivering little Christmas gifts to the students with stockings/socks hung for the holidays in the 3B classroom. Could it be Santa? If you have any questions about sending a stocking with your 3B student, feel free to contact me.

Some students have asked about our December pizza reading calendars. Please keep them over the holiday break, as I hope some students take a little time to read those great books they may get for Christmas, and return them when the students return to school in January. I will then send pizza certificates. Thanks!

As mentioned before, we are working through various actiities on measurement in math. The students have worked with reading rules for whole inch, 1/2 inch, and 1/4 inch as well as whole centimeters, 1/2 centimeters and millimeters. We just started learning about perimeter and how it is the distance around something. Today, students will be creating a farmer's land, including buildings and fields, by measuring and recognizing the perimeter of each building, area, and field. They are so excited about it as it is a great activity that involves some creative planning, careful measuring, and a little imagination. Tomorrow we will be moving into area, which sometimes gets confused with perimeter. To keep them straight in our brains, I will be teaching the students short songs about perimeter (which we did today) and area (which we will do tomorrow). Hopefully that will help the students remember the difference.

I continue to be pleased with the improvement I am seeing in the area of literacy. Their stamina in all areas of the Daily 5 continues to build and or be maintained. We currently have 19 new vocabulary words we have learned from our read to self reading that students have "tuned into" and added to their individual "word collector" sheets. The "word wall worm" continues to grow across the classroom wall! This week the students are practicing their predictions while reading as Mrs. Hartberg and myself modeled/reviewed making predictions and reading to confirm last week. Our mini lessons will also move into the strategy of visualizing Within writing, Mrs. Hartberg and I were very impressed with the "author discussions" going on last week practicing assessing writing on the trait of "ideas". It was kind of cute because I think the students saw themselves as real authors for the first time and were so proud!

As a fun activity before the holidays, we will be doing one or two reader's theater presentations. Reader's Theater is a great way to build reading fluency as it involves many re-readings to practice. It also encourages reading with expression, which is important also. It is like a play in the way that there are different roles, but the difference is there is not any acting. Students focus on reading fluently, with expression, and having fun! My plan is to video taped them and put them on my blog page and/or web page for parents to view. Look for that during the Christmas break of last day of school next week.

So, you can see we are very busy! Be sure to check your child's take home folder every night as information about upcoming assessments will be sent home soon. Please remember to send your child's stocking or sock by this Wednesday also! Thanks so much and enjoy the snow!!

"Let it Snow! Let it Snow" Let it Snow" - Please NO!

Well, it looks as if winter is here and going to hit us hard the next few days. I don't know about you, but I am not ready for this. The kids were very excited to play in the snow, what there was of it. Many were bundled and ready for the coldness, but a few students were not. Please remember to send snowpants, boots, hats, and mittens on these cold days. It is also a great idea to send extra gloves and socks as the first pair usually ends up pretty wet by the last recess. I am not a fan of the snow, but I will admit it does look pretty the first snow fall.

I am finally sending home our latest math tests. All students are finished and returned from being gone. These do not need to be returned as I have copied them for my files. We will continue to work on multidigit addition and subtraction throughout the whole year as there are many steps - sometimes leading to confusion for the students. Currently, we are working on measurement and just started learning about perimeter today. I am very impressed with the background knowledge the students have with measurement! Super to see!

Sometime this week I will be sending a note home for a "caring project" for Character Counts. It involves sending packages of mini-candy bars to the troops overseas. Please look for that and consider sending something for this donation project. One of the pillars of Character Counts is "caring" and this would be a great way to show the troops we care about them. We will also be doing a short writing project for Buzz Miller to show him we care about him during his fight with cancer. There's no better time than the present, and around the holiday season, to show others we care.

Today we had a little fun talking about "rating" things. Mrs. Hartberg's husband made us some cookies to look at. (Thanks Mr. Hartberg!) Some were beautifully decorated, some were simple, and some were not decorated at all. The class made rating charts with cue words for each type of cookies that were appropriate and fitting for the rating, 3, 2, or 1, that they were given. These rating charts will be relied on and connected to our assessments we will be making in writing with the traits. Thus far we have the traits of conventions and ideas. Students will begin assessing their own writing according to rating rubrics we will introduce tomorrow. We hope that this will give them some ownership and continue to push them to better themselves as writers. So you may want to ask them about the cookies.. . . . oh, how they wanted to eat them! :)

The "Big Blast" for our fundraiser is coming up. The date has been set for December 22. I am looking for two parent volunteers to come in and help monitor the gym while we are in there celebrating. I am not sure what exact time it will be (morning or afternoon), but I will know that by this Wednesday. If you are interested in volunteering to help out, send me an email, note, or phone call, and I will get back to you with details. If there are many volunteers, I will probably just draw names out of a hat. Just let me know please if you are interested. Thank you.

Stay warm!

Almost December! Wow!

I can't believe it is almost December! Wow! Where does the time go? Hopefully you had an enjoyable break for Thanksgiving! I did! It was nice to have a little break after ITBS, but I did miss the students as well. We have a lot to do before the semester ends and the new calendar year begins. As always. . .we are busy . . . .having fun as well.

The students were excited to see that Mrs. Hartberg had returned from her maternity leave! We are all glad that she is back! She will be co-teaching some literacy and writing time with me so the students will be seeing her in the room more and more as the year goes along.

I will be posting pictures from our Character Counts celebration that was held last Tuesday. The new Character Counts mascots are already displayed in the hallway and look great! It was nice to see parents and students working together on something that is stressed in our school, good character. I hope that each of you had an enjoyable time also. Thanks to our parents who brought in snacks! Yumm! Our tummies thank you also! Be looking for the pictures either tomorrow or Wednesday (I can't find my camera cord to download them to the computer. :))

If your child did not return his/her reading calendar for the month of November, he/she may do so tomorrow. I will be sending home reading calendars for the month of December as well as pizza coupons for those that met their goal in November. I was very impressed with how many students read in October so I am hoping I will be amazed with the November calendars also! Keep it up 3B!

Today students in 3B turned in their effort coupons from ITBS towards something in my prize box. They have been waiting for this day. . . . so excited! This was just a little extra for students trying so hard on ITBS. Everyone needs a little pat on the back once and a while right? So, look for your child to bring his/her prize home today.

This week we will be moving into more measurement activities in math, more discussion on the types of communities with a tour of these communities through Goggle Earth, getting more students on Edmodo (which is a way of communicating about reading without opening mouth- also known on online chatting), reviewing nouns and noun types in writing, and working on more fluency and accuracy strategies in reading. We just wrapped up some great discussion and review of the comprehension strategy of "retelling" using shapes as our guide. Maybe ask your 3B student about what shapes we use to remind us how to retell something we have read.

Have a great week! It is suppose to be chilly by the end of the week so encourage your 3B student to dress warm for recess!

Short Week But Lots to Share

I hope you enjoyed your sunshiny weekend! The weather was so nice it was hard to believe it is the middle of November. It doesn't sound like the warm weather is going to stick around though so we had better enjoy it while we can. Please check with your child before he/she leaves for school that they are dressed appropriately to be outside for recess. It's better to have "too much" than "not enough" when it comes to being outside as the weather gets colder. Some students were already complaining about today's chill in the air, so please be sure they come prepared to be outside as the weather gets colder. Thanks!

Last week we had a visitor in 3B. Angela Meiers was here visiting as she is helping our school district look at our literacy and technology needs. She is familiar with our school district as she was involved in our last "literacy visit" a few years ago. I have taken some classes from her as well as maintained some contact via Twitter and the Internet. She's a wonderful person full of so much knowledge. Anyway, she stopped in our classroom last week along with Mrs. Sovereign and Mr. Brown, principal at Ridgeway, to see how literacy/Daily 5 was going in 3B. I was so pleased with the students! They were so well behaved (as usual for the most part) and respectful that I couldn't have been prouder. Students were busy doing a variety of things, book blogging, podcasting, reading to self, listening to reading, etc., that she was so impressed with everything she said she couldn't stop smiling. She had discussions with some of the students about what they were working on and what it means to be a reader. One group was working through "Edmodo" having an online disucssion with me about their reading, which she loved. She shared with them that she personally knows the person who created "Edmodo" and next time she visits, she wants the students to record a short video to him about what they love about the program. They were so excited! Anyway, point being, way to go 3B at continuing to be so well behaved while having fun in learning! I am so proud of you, as always!

You may have recognized a small bookshelf on the side of my blog page. I have discovered yet another great tool for reading called "Shelfari" (actually my 13 year old daughter and friends on Twitter told me about it so I really didn't discover it but you know what I mean). It is a great online site to post books, make recommendations, and comment about books you have read or would like to read. I have mine showing with not only student books but adult books as well that I read in my free time. Only a few show on the blog page with the rest being seen when you log on to "Shelfari". My plan is that I am going to set up a "Shelfari" account for 3B students. They will complete a form that includes a rating, comments, tags, and suggestions about the books they are reading and I will then post them on our class blog page and "Shelfari" class account. I would love for the students to each have their own but they need individual pass words for that so I am going to try a class account instead. I will be introducing this to students this week in hopes to get them pumped up to create our online "Shelfair" book shelf. They can then view this as a resource when trying to select a book to read or share books they loved with others. Look for this to show up sometime on our class blog page while my individual "Shelfari" account will remain on this blog page. Love it!!!

Just a reminder that we are having our first Character Counts celebration this Wednesday from 1:30-2:15. If you can not make it nor have a relative who can attend, please let me know so that I can find some one to work with your child. Remember that you and your 3B child will be creating a new mascot for Character Counts. We will be providing the paper/poster board. Your 3B child will have his or her markers, crayons, and colored pencils. If you would like to use anything else, such as glitter, feathers, etc., you must bring those materials from home. I also sent a letter last week to the parents who volunteered to supply snacks for the celebration. If you are unable to do so and received the letter, please let me know by Tuesday of this week. The students are excited, as am I! It's a great way to end the week and celebrate having good character! Your child is more than welcome to go home with you when your mascot is completed as it is also an hour early out that day. Hope to see you Wednesday!

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!

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!

Parent Teacher Conferences - Great Discussions

I am almost done with my last parent - teacher conference. Thank you to all the parents for taking time out of their busy schedules! It was nice to see everyone again (since Open House)! The discussions were great! Always remember that you, the parents, do not need to wait until conferences to chat with me about your child. My phone and email are always open to each of you! Anyway, thanks again for attending parent teacher conferences. I was very pleased with the turnout and wonderful "conversations" I had with many of you! Your children are wonderful, and I totally enjoy working with each and every one of them. The video that was showing while you may have been waiting in the hall will be continued the rest of the year by adding pictures. Each child will get a DVD of the video at the end of the year as a 3rd grade keepsake of memories. They know this and are very excited!!!

Even though we only had 4 days of school this week, it was a productive one! We started a keyboarding program called "Keybo" that we will be attempting to do each week. The students were WAY excited about starting! For the first meeting, we discussed posture and home row before starting to type. Their fingers were just itching to get going. . . . The reason we are starting this now is that it is a required part of the 3rd grade curriculum (usually I don't start it until later), and I feel it would help them with all the computer "stuff" they are doing, especially their book blogs. Which leads me to my next comment,

Book Blogs are going great!!!! Oh my! The students are so anxious to do their book blog that we can't get them done fast enough. Most students made one blog within the last week. I apologize that not all did, but because the students can't type real fast, the first blogs went slower than planned. I really like the aspect that students are sharing their thinking about what they are reading. This will help when we get into book clubs and have deep discussions about what we are reading. Our tech person is still trying to figure out why we can't comment through iWeb. Hopefully, as I said before, we will get that figured out and we can pose questions to the students about their blog post.

Our Luther podcast pals finally made a podcast giving suggestions to our 3B students. We didn't have time to listen to them today so that will have to wait until next week. The students will listen to their podcast suggestions, practice, and then make a new podcast of the same passage. Rereading is a powerful strategy to build fluency and expression so that is the purpose of rereading, applying the Luther suggestions, and creating a new podcast. I think when the students each listen to their first podcast (where there was no chance to practice) and then listen to this one (after practicing) they will notice a huge difference. I did apply for a grant to get some iPod Touches in the classroom to use for recording reading as well as listening to podcast so that the laptops we have are available for other activities (such as blogging). I don't know when we will find out who got the grants but cross your fingers!!!!! iPod Touches are becoming a very popular resource for education as they can be equipped with many "apps" to be used for educational purposes. They are almost like a mini computer which I think is exciting!

Moving on. . . .we will be starting social studies this week by looking at a map of Iowa and then moving into discussion on "Communities". With that, we will be taking a little break from science (I know, many of the students will be saddened by that because it is a favorite) but we will be back at it in a few weeks. In literacy, we will be learning about tracking our thinking while reading, summarizing, and various other fluency/accuracy activities in our mini lessons. There are always so many other things being covered in literacy as it is very individualized, but those are the main "mini lessons" we will be covering.

My last comment (yes, it is fairly long I know) revolves around ITBS. We will be starting ITBS this week, and I don't want the students to worry or get uptight about them. We have done various "test taking tip" activities and I know they are ready. The most important things you can do as parents is make sure your child goes to bed early enough every night and eats a good breakfast every morning. The school has supplied "brain food" for the students to have before the test, which is always very nice. Otherwise, all the students need to do is try their best. That's all we ask. Done deal. :)

Have a great 3 day weekend with your 3rd grader! Enjoy the sunshine - I heard it is suppose to be a great weekend!

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!!

Busy! Busy! Busy!

Wow! Where does the time go? I can't believe that tomorrow is Wednesday already. Gee! The days go by so quickly!

Hopefully you have had a chance to listen to our 3B podcast. The students were so excited last week to find out who their Luther podcast pal was and introduce themselves via a podcast! You can listen to your child's podcast, as well as other
3B or Luther podcast, by going to my web page. They are listed on the link "Podcast 09-10". The first podcast was meant to be an introductions. The next ones will all be 3rd graders orally reading and Luther students podcasting suggestions back and forth! Very cool!

We will also be starting our individual book blogs! They are so excited about this! Each student will have a blog page on my web page in which they will blog about books they are reading, share thoughts, and comments. Eventually, I hope to have the students also share some of their writing through their blogs but we go in baby steps. I will be modeling blogging about books before letting the students jump in, but you can look for some of their book blogs to be up next week! (I wish I was in elementary school to enjoy all this great stuff!)

Last week we jumped into Connections as a comprehension strategy while reading. We have learned about and discussed Text to Self Connections and Text to Text Connections. I think the students really love listening to various picture book read alouds and making connections with them. They come up with some great stories to share . . . . sorry Mom and Dads. hehehe Your stories are safe with me. Anyway, connections is one of the various comprehension strategies we focus on in 3rd grade. I am anxious to share some of their work with you at conferences. . . .which will be here soon! With literacy, we have also been working on "Tuning In To Vocabulary". Vocabulary always seems to be an area that our school district falls short of when it comes to standardized testing. So to work on expanding our vocabulary, students are "tuning into" interesting words that we can discuss and learn to increase our own vocabulary. Sometimes we pretend we have on binoculars and look for words by "tuning in" that way. The students love that! I have created a "word crawl worm" where we will add 2-3 words a week to work on. Each week, the worm will grow and grow with new vocabulary words that we have learned. I am anxious to see how far the worm gets by the end of the year! I haven't shown it to the students yet but plan on doing that tomorrow! The Daily 5 continues to be going very well. . . next week we will jump into "Listen to Reading" as the last component of the Daily 5.

We are almost wrapping up our science unit on Plant and Animal Populations. Today we did a great simulation of a food chain with aphids, ladybugs, and birds. Students were one of these and had to try and survive. I think it was the most concrete and beneficial experience the students had within this science unit thus far, and they totally enjoyed it! We have watched predator-prey relationships by watching damselfly nymphs eat daphnia and ladybugs eat our aphids. Gross but cool! I wish all activities were that awesome! Anyway, we will be wrapping up science with some activities this week, a project to be done at home, and preparing for the test set for next Tuesday - depending on how far we get this week. Look for study information to be sent home by Friday.

My last comment revolves around the new "Habitude" that we are discussing in 3B. Since school started, we have been conversing, reading, and writing about how important imagination is. Now we are moving into the habitude of "curiosity". I would love to see the students become so curious about something and set up an activity in which they can find answers to their questions. Think of the learning that could happen! I am part of a book club that discusses the six Habitudes that students of the 21st century need to possess. (written by Angela Meiers) It is really interesting to think about how we encourage students to use their imagination and explore when they are young, but that attitude seems to disappear as students get older and progress up the educational ladder. What happens? Not sure. My goal is for the students to understand how important curiosity is and to never let anyone stop them from being the curious one. . . . maybe they will come up with some great discovery or cure in the future from simply being curious and couragous! Wouldn't that be great!

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Snow in October? BRRR! It's Cold!

I was in for quite a shocker when I returned from New York City yesterday! It was in the 60s and 70s while I was in New York City and I came back to 30s in Iowa!!! Now snow!!! Not my idea of great weather to come home to but oh well. I am not a fan of cold weather, although I do appreciate fall. But I think we may have skipped fall and are headed right to winter. YUCK! Sorry those of you who are snowmobile fans. :) This cold weather brings me to a quick comment on attire for recess. It is cold, as we know, and students should assume they are going outside for recess unless it is raining or gets below 0. I had some students who were freezing today at recess asking for hats and mittens. I, not ready for winter either, had nothing extra for them. Please be sure that your child comes to school dressed for recess appropriately! Hats and mittens can always be taken off so it is better to be safe than sorry. Many students are outside before school, and it is much colder at this time. I suggest you send hats and mittens with extra layers (sweatshirts under coats) for added warmth while we endure this cold October and months to come.

Many people have asked how my trip to New York City was and it was fabulous!!!! I was confident that everything would go alright while I was gone, and it did, for the most part. The students were well behaved, polite, and had some fun with the Fall Fitness walk last Friday and Homecoming events. I was pleased to come back to positive comments from my sub. Way to go 3B!

Hopefully your child brought his/her new "Reading Calendar" home last week. This calendar is replacing the traditional "Book It" that has been done in the past sponsored by Pizza Hut. This year, students who reach their goal, which is written on the calendar, will receive a coupon for a free slice of pizza from Casey's. Each month from October thru March or April, a new calendar will be sent home. Record the amount of time your child reads and return the calendar at the end of the month. If he/she has reached or surpassed his/her goal, he/she will get a coupon for that month. At the end of March or April, all students who returned AND reached their goal EACH month will get a pizza party supplied by me, Mrs. Kerian. I am not requiring students to participate, but we all know how important reading at home is so I am expecting all to participate. So. . .get reading!!!

I still have one child who was gone all last week who needs to take the Unit 1 assessment test for math. Hopefully we can get that done in the next few days and I will be sending your child's unit 1 assessments home for you to see. We are currently working on adding and subtracting. It is vital that the students know their basic facts (both addition and subtraction) as we do not spend a lot of time on basic facts but jump right into adding and subtracting larger numbers. Knowing the basic facts will help out with these larger problems. I would appreciate you working with your child reviewing his/her basic facts at home if you have time. I also have many links on my web page that list some sites to go to for your child to work on facts by themselves during their free time. You will also notice that I will be sending more Home Links home with this chapter than I had in chapter 2. Please help your child build his/her responsibility by reminding them to complete their Home Links and return them. Thanks!

Book orders will hopefully be here this week. I sent them out a week after I received them so they should be here soon. I apologize for any inconvenience and not getting them out sooner. The students are anxiously waiting for them - as am I!!!!

I also want to apologize for not sending home your child's word study list to prepare for last week. I had them in the basket to go home with students but my substitute didn't think they should go home. Miscommunication. So I apologize. Look for this week's words, with /ar/ to be coming home tomorrow.

Homecoming! Go Cadets! New York City!

Can you believe it is October already! I can't! Wow! Time is going by so quickly. Soon it will be parent teacher conferences!

We have a very busy week with lots going on so I thought I would post everything. As you know, it is Homecoming week. To celebrate, students can participate in fun dress up days. Today was wear your favorite sports jersey or team. I had lots of kids in Iowa State colors! Yippee!!! :) Many in Vikings jerseys also for the big game tonight! Go Vikes! Tuesday is wear pink day for cancer awareness as the Crestwood Cadets volleyball team will take on Decorah in a battle to win as well as raise money for cancer research. Hope to see you there to support the Crestwood volleyball team! Wednesday is wear your favorite hat day. Thursday is wear athletic clothes (running pants, sweatshirts etc.) Friday is blue and white day . . .obviously. So we will be having a lot of fun with our dress up days to support the football team. Along with this, we will be having a pep assembly this Friday for Crestwood K-8 at 9:30 at the football stadium. The jr. high cheerleaders will lead us in cheers and activities to get pumped up for the big game.

On Wednesday, October 7th, students at Crestwood Elementary will attend a character counts assembly titled "Strength Training". This assembly will be held at the elementary school so no travel is needed. I'm excited to see what "Strength Training" will teach the kids about Character Counts as it is a large part of our guidance and behavior discussions!

On Thursday, the Crestwood K-8 students along with the high school students will participate in "Fall Fitness Day". This is a time set aside to encourage students to be more active. Our class will be matched up with a high school class that will lead us to different places/stations for walking and exercise. Thus the reason for "Fitness Clothes" on Thursday for Homecoming. We will be walking from 2:20ish until 3:00. The theme of this is "Keep a positive attitude! Keep your bodies moving! Have fun!" Being aware of food and fitness is a big push in education right now so I am sure this will not be the last of this type of fun activity. Please be sure your child wears tennis shoes on Thursday. Lucky us, it is a PE day so they should have them on anyway.

Friday, Homecoming, is a 3 hour early out. This is also the day of the Pep Assembly for Crestwood K-8. With the 3 hour early out, the hope is that students and family will have time to attend the Homecoming Parade at 2:30 then join the Cadets in cheering them on to a big win at Friday night's football game.

So you can see that our time will be choppy this week. I hope to send home Unit 1 math assessments by this Wednesday, but I still have a few students who were absent and need to finish. If you don't see them on Wednesday, they will probably not be sent home until next Monday. We will be moving into Unit 2, which is largely on addition and subraction of 2-3 digit numbers so please work on basic addition/subtraction facts with your child at home. I will be sending more Home Link activity sheets home as well with this unit for continued practice.

I am totally enjoying our days together and the students are in a super routine. I think a favorite time of the day has become our start, Morning Meeting, and literacy, which takes all morning. Students are excited to start literacy/Daily 5 and everyone is enjoying getting started at Guided Reading. We have built our "work on writing" stamina up to 22 minutes! Way to go 3B! Once we get to 30 minutes, I will introduce the last of the Daily 5, "listen to reading". Students are excited about this aspect of the Daily 5 as they will be using the computer and/or iPods to listen to reading. I am already seeing great progress since the beginning of the year in all areas!

On a final note, I wanted to let parents know that I will be gone this Wednesday, October 7th - Sunday, October 11th. I have a birthday this week so my sister and I are hopping on a plane and heading to New York City for a few days of fun in the Big Apple as a birthday gift from my husband. I have complete faith in my sub and have written everything out for her to the tiniest detail. My 3B students know I will be gone and also know that I expect them to be on their best behavior, like always. I will not be responding to phone calls at school so if you need something, leave a message with Linda and she will let my sub know. The other option is to send a written note for your child to give to the substitute. I always bring back gifts for your students when I take a trip so they are very curious on what they will be getting. . . . hoping they are the perfect angles that they are!!!! :)

Have a great week! Go Cadets!

Guided Reading and Strategy Group Instruction has Begun!

I am pleased to say, as the kids are so excited, that we have build enough stamina in read to self and read to someone that I can start guided reading groups and strategy groups! Yeah! I realize the importance of setting the foundation for routine and practice the first month of school, as it will make all the difference through the rest of the year, but it felt like we were never going to get started with guided reading. The students have been begging me and reminding me that we are ready, and I agree, they are! Not only will I be doing guided reading groups, but I will be trying to utilize strategy groups as well. The difference is that in guided reading groups the students are usually reading the same book at the same level. In strategy groups, you can have students reading different books at different levels focusing on one strategy for all of them. There is importance in both types and students will be involved in both this year.

We are working hard on getting our writing stamina increased. After just starting "work on writing" last week, we are up to 10 minutes. I am hoping to see our writing stamina increase a lot this week now that we are done with MAPs testing and can get back to business. Many students say this is their favorite so far of the Daily 5 - work on writing. Super! Having "choice" is an important component of the Daily 5 and it helps build enthusiasm and independence.

I hope your 3B students has filled you in on all of our wonderful science critters! We have aphids, daphnia, fruit flies, and ants all venturing to stay alive. So far the daphnia and ants have been unsuccessful. I'm not sure what happened to the ants in the ant farm - this is the first year they have died so quickly. We never have much luck with the daphnia, but at least they made it a few days for the students to observe and learn about. We have been charting the population of the different insects and thinking like scientist do. Why are some of the populations decreasing while others are increasing? What factors can contribute to this? We have had some great discussions! Next week we will have more visitors - the predators of these insects!!! Should be interesting!

Looks like we will be ready for our first math assessment at the end of this week also. I am pleased with the background each of the students has carried over from second grade when it comes to math concepts! They retained a lot so it has made this math unit of review go very smoothly! Our next unit is on addition and subtraction so start practicing those facts at home as I have noticed there is a little weakness in that area for many students in 3B.

Finally, it looks like summer is over and fall has hit. The wind was terribly cold today and many students were chilly at recess. Just a reminder to think about the weather when helping your child decide what to wear to school. Dressing in layers is the best bet as they can easily take off a sweatshirt if get too hot in the afternoon but can't do anything to stay warm without extra clothes. I am hoping it warms up a little bit in the next few days as I am not ready for winter! Yuck!

Have a great week!

Learning From 4th Graders in Virginia

Another great week has gone by. I am very pleased at how much we are getting accomplished, routines are going well, and students appear to be having a little fun along the way. :) We never seem to get everything done that I plan each day, but that's alright as I tend to overplan. Yesterday I had class all day revolving around the "Daily 5" that we are using to faciliate our literacy. It was nice to share questions, ideas, and thoughts with other elementary teachers although I would have rather been outside being it was a gorgeous weekend. I'm not going to lie about that.

There were many exciting events that happened this past week. One of them I need to give thanks to my "Twitter" PLN - personal learning networks. A teacher in Virginia had her students do a readers theatre about Constitution Day, which was Sept. 17th. She let those of us on Twitter know about it. I asked her if I could have a copy of the readers theatre and she said better yet, she would have her 4th graders recording of their readers theatre on her blog page for us to listen to. It was a story about some kids planning a camping trip and had to make decisions. They connected it to the way the Constitution was written and shared facts along the way. We, in 3B, thought it was such a great way to learn about the Constitution that we wrote some comments back to them on their blog page. Little did we know, we would be making friends with students from Virginia via the Internet. It was very cool, and the kids were amazed what they learned by listening to other students.

Our first set of "creatures" arrived this week for science also. The ants have made their home in our room in an ant farm. We will be watching them create a habitate and monitor how many of them exist throughout the next few weeks. Our seeds that we planted last week are growing, which is good. Our next set of visitors will be arriving this week. Wonder what they are. . . .

With literacy, we had our first week of word works - kind of like spelling but in a different way. The students have gone through the different routines and modes of learning and are set. I would have to say using Wiki Stix is a favorite. They could have played with those for quite a while. Next, we move into the area of writing with the Daily 5.

I am excited about writing as we have been talking about what writers do and the writing process. I wanted to try and find an author who would skype in our classroom, via the internet, and chat with the students about writing. After some time looking, I found a site of various children's authors that do just that! I can't wait ! I am working on getting it scheduled and arranged. The author will chat with the kids for 15-20 minutes free of charge. Very cool! The students will be able to have conversation with an actual children's author, asking questions and learning about what it is like to be a writer without leaving the classroom. Ahhh. . .the wonderful world of technology!

Here's to another great week of learning - for all of us!

3B's Respect and Responsibility I Chart

I forgot to put this in last week as I mentioned I would. Here is the "I Chart" that we came up with as a class as far as our expectations for our behavior and responsibilities. Hopefully you can see it. Sorry I forgot to post it earlier last week.

"Everything Would be Alright"

I am pleased to say that we had a very productive; yet fun, week! I am amazed that so much time has already flown by since the first day of school. Wow! Probably the highlight of the week for the students was listening to President Obama give a speech to students across the US about staying in school, setting goals, being respectful and responsible. We had a wonderful discussion about his speech afterwards and ended up setting goals for ourselves for the month of September. This is something we would have done anyway, actually each month, but fit right in with what he was sharing. Then today rolled around, September 11th. I can remember I was at school when I heard about what happened that day and ran down the hallway to call my mom because I have relatives who worked at the World Trade Center. Still gets me kind of emotional. I finally found a short video on the internet that talks about September 11th at a level that the kids can understand. They loved it! Our discussion afterwards was wonderful. We read different books, I showed pictures I had taken 1 week after it happened as I was there for a football game, they wanted to share what they knew. . . everything. I have some very curious little minds in 3B! Hopefully you will have time to discuss the events of September 11th with your child and connect it to some conversation about peace makers. Because the the book we read today said, "We knew everything would be alright."

Some other news is that we have increased our Read to Self to 30 minutes!!! Yeah! We have increased Read to Someone to 18 minutes and will be starting "Word Works" next week. I plan to have all facets of the Daily 5 in place in the next 1-2 weeks and then begin guided reading. I did finished assessing students on Dibels and will be doing one on one conferencing with the students this coming week, maybe doing some small group instruction also based on demonstrated needs. It is so great to see their faces when they finish reading a book they have enjoyed! They are so pleased with themselves. That's the great part of the Daily 5, you need to get better at reading by reading and that is what they are doing! Along with all of these "happenings", we have been busy with other mini lessons as well that have focused on reading the punctuation and coaching on what to do if stuck on a word. Our literacy time is all morning and that time goes by so quickly. I am very proud of them!

If you were not aware, Mrs. Hartberg did have her baby last week. She had a girl, Allison Elizabeth! She is adorable. Mrs. Hartberg will be out until sometime in November and her sub is Mrs. Becky Trautsch. The nice part is that a lot of the students know her as she has subbed a lot in our building. She will be coming in for 30 minutes every day to co-teach writing with me. So if your students talk about someone named Mrs. Trautsch, that is who they are talking about.

I couldn't end my blog for the week without encouraging everyone to cheer for the Cyclones tomorrow!!! Big game of Iowa vs. Iowa State! It's been fun to talk "sports" with some of the boys who are dedicated Hawkeye fans! :) Go Cyclones! Have a great week!

Progress in All Areas! Fantastic Friday!

I am writing this post on Monday, Labor Day, but it is a reflection of last week. (Just pretend I am writing it last Friday.) After our morning meeting today, we had a discussion on respect and responsibility. The students and I created an "I Chart" if what a respectful classroom looks like. Students did a wonderful job coming up with phrases to finish the statement "I show I am respectful/responsibility by. . ". They also thought about what the teacher does to show respect. I will take a picture of our chart to include in my next post. Everyone signed it in agreement that that is what our classroom will look like. (A teacher can never "assume" students know what to do all the time and review is constantly needed.) We hung it in the classroom so that we can always be reminded about our "job" as student and teacher. Great visual to have! On a different note, I was so excited with the progress the students made in our Read to Self and Read to Someone stamina!!! They increased their Read to Self stamina to 23 MINUTES!!!! Incredible!!!! They also increased their Read to Someone to 13 MINUTES! The students were so excited when I told them how long they made it! Way to go! In the afternoon we started some math stations in which students work in small groups applying math skills we learned in the previous lessons (telling time, measuring, calculator use, reviewing addition and subtraction). The students were sad when it was time to stop and have recess. . .some wanted to stay in from recess! Wow! It was too nice to stay in. During science, the hunt was on looking for living organisms outside by the butterfly garden. The sun was shining so it was wonderful to be outside. But no matter how much we rushed, we couldn't get our Friday podcast done. . .so stay tuned for it next week. The students love to do podcast!!!!

Punctuation and Full Moon?

The students did a wonderful job with "Read the Punctuation" this morning! It's great to listen to them read with attention to expression based on punctuation marks. I took pictures and will post them some time soon. Tomorrow we are podcasting the book Yo! Yes?, which we will apply reading the punctuation. Listen to it by going to my web page sometime after school on Friday (tomorrow). Hopefully you can tell what punctuation marks are at the end of each phrase/word by the way we read it.

I hope you are enjoying our daily blog. Students enjoy contributing to the daily blog either alone with our 8th grade typer, Ashley Haw, or as a large group. (Thanks to Ashley) We look if we have new comments or followers every day so I encourage everyone to become a follower-parents, grandparents, etc. I know some people are having difficulty getting the "follow" to work so I will be sending home a sheet that explains how to become a follower. Look for this next Tuesday.

Well. . . I think the students are in a good routine and feeling comfortable after 2 1/2 weeks of school . but today was a little rough when it came to respecting one another and listening. Yes, a day of setback is expected, as the students really have established a great morning routine so once and a while a setback may occur. For the first time, we didn't make our stamina in Read to Self. We fell a little short; yet we increased our "Read to Someone" stamina so that is a give and take. I am very pleased with our progress over the last week so keep it up 3B! Mornings are pleasant and wonderful as we work through literacy. Love it! I am surprised at the shift in behavior of some students, not all, when the afternoon approaches. Maybe when the students go out for noon recess they forget how to treat each other and listen??? Doubt it. If you get the feeling we had a difficult afternoon, you are correct. From 12:30-2:00 appears to be the challenging time of the day for 3B students. What to do? What to do? Well, we had a big class discussion at the end of the day today. Tomorrow we are going to do a few mini lessons on respect and what is a "student's job" in 3B. We will try various other "strategies" also, but I did want to bring it up for discussion. If you are reading this blog, as parents of 3B students, have a discussion with them how they feel the day went this afternoon. It's important to get their opinion of how they feel the afternoon went and the problems that occurred. Again, I stress, it was not all students. This is also common after a few weeks of school when comfort is established. So. . .we move on and focus on what we could do better and ARE doing better. Maybe there was something in the water because all teachers commented that students had a rough afternoon today? Full moon coming, that's for sure!
Have a great 3 day weekend and thanks for sharing your 3rd grader with me.

New Week, New Activities, New News

I hope everyone had a great weekend! It was a nice weekend to kick back and relax. The kids usually come back on a Monday a little tired, but that was not the situation today. The students came in anxious and ready - and a little chatty. But we worked through it. The hardest part of the first few weeks of school is building the routine and stamina that will come into play the rest of the year. Currently, with our Daily 5 in literacy, we have made our "Read to Self" stamina up to 11 minutes! Yippee! We started "Read to Someone" today and that was a little more challenging, so we will continue to build that stamina as well. The other three components of the Daily 5 are Work on Writing, Word Works, and Listen to Reading. We should be through all five in the next few weeks and set for the year continually building our stamina in all areas. The Daily 5 replaces the traditional "centers" your child may have done in kindergarten, first, and second grade. I will also be doing Dibels assessments this week which involve students reading for a minute and retelling their reading. This assessment is done three times a year.
We have also thrown in a new part of our Morning Meeting and that is "sharing". Students are assigned a day of the week in which they can share something. Classmates can then raise their hands to ask questions about the sharing and encourage discussion. Again the purpose being to create a classroom community. The students seem to enjoy and benefit from the Morning Meeting, as do I.
So, as you can see, every thing is going very well. Be sure to check the daily blog that the students post. We'd love to have more followers and comments! Thank you also for checking my blog, which would love to have more followers also. Have a great week! Oh yeah, thank you to those parents who sent snacks. Our tummies than you also!

Landslide by Fleetwood Mac - Stevie Nicks

Today was another great day! The students are really into a super routine and we got a lot accomplished. Here are just some of the topics/activities we covered today:
* We learned how to pick books based on purpose, interest, comprehension, and knowing the words. We can remember this by "I PICK"- P is purpose, I is interest, C is comprehension, and K is knowing words. Students will soon be picking new books for their bookbins as well as books to take home.
* We have built our read to self stamina up to 7 minutes. I think we can make it to 10 tomorrow if we try hard. :)
* Buzzing may be what bees do, but we also learned how to "buzz" as a way to discuss so that it is done quietly. Kids really enjoyed doing this to discuss books.
* The smartboard was again a hit in science with students going up to move digits to create numbers I would state as well as manipulating a number grid. Pages from our math journal are also scanned in and now can be used on the smartboard.
Those are just a few of the skills/strategies we are working on to lay the foundation for the year. A lot of time is spent the first month of school building muscle memory and routines to guide the rest of the year. Thus, we are busy establishing these routines. Next week we will learn "read to someone" as part of our literacy Daily 5.

I was shown this YouTube video at an inservice last week and fell in love with it. The background is that these kids in the video live in a very low income area. Many of their parents don't show up at their performances, parent-teacher conferences, etc. So their music teacher taped the students singing "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks as dedication to a teacher (you will see at the beginning of the video). To make the story short, Stevie Nicks herself heard about the video and saw it on YouTube. She invited the kids to her concert at Madison Square Gardens in New York!!! Not only did they go to the concert, they went up on stage and performed with her in front of thousands! Touching story. These kids or this school, PS22, have gone on to be on the Today show and sing various other songs on YouTube because of one teacher showing the world, through YouTube, how talented these kids are. Wow!

Thoughts from Today and "Welcome to the Future"

Well, we are back at it for a whole week! If it goes like today went, even for a Monday, we are on the right track! The students were very anxious to get going today, even though we have a few bugs to work out. I love to see their surprises when I tell them that it is almost lunch time and they say, "Already? Wow! The day is going by so quickly!" While so much has changed for them from 2nd grade to 3rd grade, a lot has changed for me also. I have restructured my classroom, getting rid of the traditional desk to create more of a "community" approach to learning. So far it is working wonderfully, and I think most of the students would agree. Many of us at Crestwood Elementary are restructuring our literacy to revolve around the routine of the Daily Five. Not throwing out the good of balanced literacy, but simply structuring it in a different way. The "Morning Meeting" has also become a great starting point for the day in 3B in making everyone know they are valuable and have much to offer! What is a "Habitude" you ask? Ask a 3B student from my room about imagination and what we have started to discuss about it's importance in all of us. Pull in the activities with our new Smartboard and stand back. . . a room full of learners, including the teacher! With all of this in place, the motivation to learn is contagious!

I wanted to include a video off of YouTube by Brad Paisley that I fellow "Twitter" friend of mine sent out, but it would not let me embed it into my blog page. So, if you have time, go to Brad Paisley's YouTube site and select/watch the video for "Welcome to the Future". The neatest thing about the video is that today, during our Morning Meeting, we discussed what imagination was and why even older kids, and adults for that matter, need to remember to imagine. The kids then shared something they imagine themselves doing when they grow up. The video is powerful; yet, I think it is most powerful for us, the parents and teachers of the kids of today. Sit back, click the link, and enjoy!

First Day Fun Pictures

Here are a few pictures of activities. Enjoy!

First Day Wordle

Wow! What a wonderful day! I am amazed at the talent, enthusiasm, and excitement I have in my class this year. It is going to be great! Today was spent mostly getting to know each other and doing various activities to start a routine in the classroom. We ended the day with me reading aloud First Day Jitters which leads the students to assume the character in the book is a student, but it is really the teacher on the first day! Cute book! The highlight of the day was when I had the students brainstorm words to describe the day and activities. I typed in the words and then created what is called a "wordle". I printed a black and white copy of the wordle but it looks really cool in color. If you'd like to see it, click on the following link: First Day Wordle The students were amazed and thought it was the best! I told them I would post some photos from day also. . . which I plan on doing tonight. Check in later. Thanks for sharing your kids with me!

Open House Success

It was wonderful to meet my new 3rd graders this evening at Open House! Looks like I will have a super bunch to work with this year, of course!! :) Thank you to the parents who took the time to bring in their child to meet me, drop off supplies, and help their child become acquainted with the classroom. It makes the transition much easier so thank you very much! One comment, on my letter about parent school communication I have listed my school webpage. Well, it is listed incorrectly. 3B's webpage is http://www.howard-winn.k12.ia.us/kerian/3BsWebSite. Sorry about that. It is written correctly on your magnet though so look there for contact information, webpage address, and blog addresses. Now I need to go over my plans for our first day tomorrow! Very, very excited!!!!!

New Web Page for 3B - CHANGE with Frustrations!

Wouldn't life be sweet if when you are sitting in a tech class everything goes as planned? Yeah, well not for me today! I am sure I could be tearing my hair out, but I guess that is with everything. Along with learning comes frustrations to work through and solve. There has been a lot of that today! We are using iWeb to create or update web pages. My previous web page was created on Adobe Go Live through a "Windows" machine. Not anymore! I'd like to introduce 3B's new web page: http://www.howard-winn.k12.ia.us/kerian/3BsWebSite. It is in the "production" stages as I am transferring activities and information from my old webpage and working on adding the new. The frustrating part has been when viewing the web site through various search engines, some pages are perfect while others mix up. Hence, my frustrations! So, if you notice some things "off", bear with me! Otherwise, explore the web site and visit frequently!

Thank You to Donaldsons Corporation

I just wanted to send a quick thank you out to Donaldsons for granting my classroom $2500.00! With that grant, we are able to purchase a Smartboard, a new Elmo, and another new laptop! YIPPEE!!!! Your support for education is once again commendable and I thank you so much from 3B at Crestwood Elementary!! (I know the students will thank you also. . .)

Back to Reality and Summers End - for Me

I am sitting here at our family cabin enjoying the morning sunshine thinking about what tomorrow brings. . . .a class and return to school to prepare for a new year! Am I excited? Yes. Am I sad to see summer end? Yes. Even though we, as teachers, have a summer vacation, I doubt any of us would say school is never on our mind during the break. With classes to take and books to read, there is really never a break for a teacher in my mind. I am excited about this upcoming year as I have been building my "learning" this summer and will be trying various new activities, techniques, and structures with my class of 3rd graders. Four of the many professional books that I read recently are The Morning Meeting Book, Habitudes, and The Daily Five/The Cafe. Each with wonderful ideas and messages in them about various aspects of education. The other component of education that I am very excited about is the use of technology and all it has to offer! As you can see, I have ventured into blogging and love it! The students in my class this year will be blogging through a "bloggers cafe" I plan to set up in the classroom, hopefully blogging with other 3rd graders around the US or world. We will also utilize a "Blogger of the Day" to blog about what's happening in our classroom for parents and friends to read and follow. Exciting! We will continue using podcast as well, with the hope of using videocasting (cross your fingers we figure that out). I am also eagerly hunting for different grants to apply for as I would love to get some iTouches for the students to use in the classroom. There is just so much out there that it is an exciting time to be in education! And yes, truth be told, I am a "twitter" junky- but there is so much information out there to be shared among PLNs! Love it!

So, as I sit here watching my children on the lake (delaying cleaning the cabin and finishing the laundry), I am teary eyed to see the great week we have had at the family cabin come to an end but am motivated and excited to start a new school year! It has been a superb summer and I know it will be a wonderful school year. Enjoying every moment - that's what life is about!

The Power of Imagination

I was shown this video in a class I took this summer. Although in a foreign language, with English subscripts, it is very powerful on the importance of imagination! While imaganation is encouraged in primary grades. . .what happens to its importance as students get older? Think about the videos message and encourage imagination.