Everything is Going Awesome!

Just wanted to touch base with everyone and let you know that things in 3B are going wonderful!  We have been busy already this week with various activities and jumping into curriculum.  Here are a few of the activities we have been working on:
     *  We are well into our Morning Meeting routine.   I will be sending a parent not home soon that tells about the Morning Meeting and how it builds class climate and "belonging" within a classroom.  We start our day every morning with this routine, and it usually becomes the students' favorite part of the day.
     *  Today we will be looking at our first "mystery object" in science as introduction to our plants and animals unit.  The students are anxiously waiting for more "bugs" to arrive that we will be observing and learning about.  There are obviously a lot of "science lovers" in 3B!
     *  Our first chapter in math is a review chapter over concepts in 2nd grade.  Yesterday we reviewed making a bar graph from data gathered.  Today we will be reviewing "name collection boxes".  Students are working very hard in math and loving all the games and challenges that go along with it!
     *   We had built our "read to self" stamina up to 16 minutes last Friday but feel back a little yesterday to 11 minutes.  (Students were tired Monday morning).  This week we will continue to work on building our stamina, doing some assessments to start guided reading, as well as various mini lessons on book selection, what is reading, and starting "work on writing".
     *   Our "technology focus" this week is on podcasting.  I have shown the students how to use a program called "Garageband" to record their reading (and do other things).  Today we did a reading of a book titled How I Spent My Summer through a podcast.  Students will be making their own podcast this Friday.

Remember that there are various online activities on the right side of my blog page (one titled "Give a Dog a Bone") and others on my webpage that students can use to build their skills while having fun.

Those are just a few of the activities we have been working on.  It has been a great start to the school year!  The students are considerate and doing a nice job "filling each other's buckets" instead of "dipping into them".  I am very proud of each and every one of my 3B kiddos!!!!

Have a great week!

3B's Favorites of the First Full Week

Katia:  The liquid experiment in science
River:  Math
Lauren:  Learning keyboarding
Morgan:  Keyboarding
Kassie:  Going to art
Christian:  The liquid experiment
Nicole:  going to all our specials
Alyssa:  The liquid experiment
Connor:  Learning keyboarding
Karissa:  Liquid experiment
Jasmine:  Recess
Summer:  The liquid experiment
Taylor:  keyboarding
Dylan:  the WHOLE week
Trey:  The WHOLE week
Carter:  Taking pictures with digital camera in math
Dameon:  PE
Haylee:  Music
Mrs. Kerian:  watching all the students "fill each other's buckets"

Great week!

Scientific Method - Mixing or Layering Liquids

I am sure your 3B child has chatted with you about our introduction activity in science.  I posed a question to them as to what cranberry juice, blue Gatorade, and Diet 7-up would do when they were poured on ice.  This was the basis for our question about liquids layering or mixing.  The students made a "hypothesis" about what they thought would happen and observations along the way.  To test other liquids, the students brought in their own to test with small groups.  They were beyond excited and it was super cool!  Now we need to find out why some layered and some mixed....that will be our discussion today.

I wanted to share some pictures of the students' findings.  I received some emails from parents last night saying how excited their child was to discuss the activity!  That is awesome!

Numbers All Around!

Today in math the students were not only mathematicians, but they were photographers as well.  They were each given a chance to walk around the school taking pictures of various places there are numbers.  I thought I would post a few here to show what photos were taken by the students in 3B.  They did an excellent job and had a lot of fun in the process!

A Full Week Ahead! YIPPEEEE!!!

It's 10:30 PM and I am planning for our first full Monday tomorrow.  There is always so much to do in 3rd grade!  We have had a lot of fun the first few days of school, and I know that will continue!  While there are still a few "basic routines" we have to finish, we are jumping into a lot of subject areas this week.  I know the students are anxious to start math, science, and literacy as they have asked when we are going to get rolling.   So let's get to it!

Some of the activities that are coming up are exploring the scientific method through a great liquid activity, using the digital camera to find all the different ways numbers are used in the world and in our building, and jumping into the Daily 5 as well as our district's new literacy program.  I am also going to be showing the students how to practice their keyboarding skills (this is currently something the district expects 3rd grade students to begin) through an online program that the students can access anywhere anytime via the internet.

I am sending home a sheet today that I meant to send home last week.  It is giving permission for your student to utilize the internet and for me to post pictures etc. on the internet of our class.  I apologize that I did post pictures from the Open House without parental permission, even though no names were given in the pictures.  It was purely overlooked and a mistake on my part.  Sorry about that!  Please know that if you do not want to have your child's pictures etc. on the internet, they will be removed immediately! Please sign and return the sheet as soon as possible.

I also sent an email the other day to the parents who gave me their email addresses.  Some of your addresses are not working and therefore the email was sent back to me.  I will be contacting some of you to verify the email that you gave me is correct so that we can continue to chat and keep communication open between home and school!

Again, thanks for sharing your child with me.  They are getting into a great routine and have wonderfully big hearts!  We have had a lot of discussions on how this is "OUR classroom" and we work "TOGETHER" to make it a great year!

Meet the Stars of 3B!

Favorites of First Two Days

Here are what the students each had to say about their favorite part of the first two days:

Dameon: Recess
Morgan:  Going to Art
Lauren:  Recess
Carter:  Recess
River:  Loved the whole two days!
Katia:  Lunch
Connor:  Skittles Activity
Summer:  Recess
Karissa:  Doing all the activities
Kassandra: recess
Taylor:  sorting our materials
Nicole:  Recess
Dylan:  Everything on both days
Haylee:  Art
Jasmine:  Recess
Christian:  Art
Alyssa:  seeing my friends
Mrs. Kerian:  meeting all my new 3B students!

First Day Wordle......Fabulous Day!

Our first day was amazing!  I know it is going to be super year!

Enjoy the Wordle the students made about our first day together! (click on it to make it larger!)