Great "Caring and Sharing Celebration"

I have posted some pictures from our first "Care and Share" celebration.  The students had a super time creating magnets that were shared with friends in all three third grade sections.  I was very impressed at the creativity of the students, as well as how prepared many of them were bringing in their ideas and crafts needed!  Nicely done.  I may be bias, but I think 3B had the most creative and neatly done magnets!  :)  While the students worked, they enjoyed great munchies sent in from parents as well as had the chance to walk around in the two other 3rd grade classrooms to take a look at their classmates' magnets.  Since we ran out of time, the actual magnet exchange happened yesterday.  As names were drawn, students went up and selected a magnet made by their classmates to take home.  It was a wonderful activity (the first time we have done this type of project for Character Counts), and we were very pleased with the effort the students put into their magnets to show their classmates they care about them!  Awesome job 3rd graders!

Just a little reminder that the end of November is tomorrow.  Please return Book-It calendars for the month of November by the end of this week.  I will then send home a certificate for a free personal pan pizza for your 3B student.  Remember that if your child participates in Book-It all the months involved, they will celebrate with a pizza party supplied by me, Mrs. Kerian.  So keep reading!  Look for the December Book-it calendar to be sent home Wednesday or Thursday.

We wrapped up most of our first Inquiry projects for our literacy.  Students participated in created a TV talk show in which they shared their findings about the history of Cresco.  While it was our first attempt at this type of project, the students did a nice job and were very excited!  Our only problem is that we have such quiet students that sometimes it was hard to hear them speak (we will work on that).  There is still one group that needs to present their TV talk show as they had a member of their group gone last week. They will present at the end of the week and I will post all videos of the talk shows on my blog then.  Look for them soon!

Students are finishing up their personal narrative writing pieces and we will be moving into auto-biographies before going into realistic fiction writing.  I am amazed at the passion many students in 3B have towards writing!  It is wonderful and great to see!  They are keeping me busy with my teacher conferencing, that is for sure!!!   We have been discussing point of view, description of settings, organization of our ideas, and adding detail.  I have seen lots of improvement since the beginning of the year in all the students' writing!  Keep it up!

This week we have many additional activities going on.  The high school students will be coming over Thursday to do their 2nd Food and Fitness presentation on beans.  Our first presentation last month was on broccoli, and the high school students did a great job with their presentation.  Many students were surprised to find out that they liked raw broccoli, as long as they had ranch to dip it in.  :)  We also have a lady coming from the county to talk about eating healthy and making healthy choices.  She will be here tomorrow morning to share more great information about healthy food.

Just a heads up on some of the strategies we are getting into with our second theme in literacy.  Students are loving this theme as it connects to science, and our first readings are all about sports and science.  Love it!  We will be jumping into summarizing, recognizing cause and effect, and reviewing antonyms this week.

Enjoy the sunshine and stay warm!  Thanks again to all the parents who supplied yummy snacks for our first celebration!  Our tummies thank you!  :)

Lots to Do Before Thanksgiving Break

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope that you had a great weekend!  Only three days of school and then everyone can enjoy some family time for our November break!  I think everyone is looking forward to eating until their tummies are full and laughing with family, including myself.

I hope that each of you received the information letter about our November "Caring and Sharing" celebration this Wednesday afternoon for the students.  Students will be creating something such as an award, animal, object, or creature using a circle cut from tin (edges are safe) and exchanging those creations with friends.  This celebration focuses around the pillars of Character Counts, which the letter explained.  Please remember that if your child is using special craft materials for their "creation", they should bring those materials from home on Wednesday, November 23rd.  If you have extra craft supplies you are willing to donate to the class so others can use some of them, that would be appreciated as well.
Students are to come prepared Wednesday with their ideas as we will have limited time.  All "work" on the creations has to be planned out so they are ready to "create" Wednesday afternoon.

Parents who volunteered to supply snacks for the celebration will receive a letter today with information. If you do not receive the letter, then you are not responsible for supplying snacks.  Thanks for all the parents who volunteered to help with all our celebrations throughout the year!  Awesome parent support!

We are wrapping up our first literacy theme this week and taking the end of the theme assessments.  I am pleased with how the students are doing and have done!  I have seen lots of growth already in the students reading. These assessments are not sent home as they are used for teacher data and information. We will start out next theme after the Thanksgiving break.

To finish up our first inquiry project, students will be working in small groups to practice and present their TV talk show sharing how Cresco has changes.  I will be video taping the talk shows and posting them on the blog sometime next week.  They are very excited about this, as am I.  So look next week for their talk shows to be posted.

Last week I showed the students how to put pictures on their blog post.  I will show them this week how to use clipart and then I think they are set to start making post from home.  They had a blast last Friday using Photo Booth and posting crazy pictures on their blog pages so it was a fun way to end the week.  Check them out on the student blog pages if you haven't already.

Enjoy the break with your family and happy Thanksgiving!

BURR! It's Cold Outside!

Old Man Winter decided to make his appearance early this week!  Wow!  It is chilly!  Just a quick reminder to make sure students are dressed appropriately for this weather, especially for the mornings before school.  I have had some students come without coats this week, and I have had to hunt down extra coats or things for them to wear.  Please help them be responsible as well as warm enough outside for the upcoming weather.  I also suggested to the students to throw an extra pair of socks in their bag in case the ones they are wearing end up getting wet.  We had a lot of wet socks in 3B yesterday so having extra socks and gloves/mittens is a good idea.

Some students have turned in their interviews and research for our first Inquiry Projects. Thank you so much for being responsible.   Information about the project and your child's part of the project were sent home on Tuesday.  Please remember to help your 3B student complete his/her portion of the project as they are due tomorrow, Friday, November 11th.  We will then start putting together the different information gathered and start developing our small group presentations.  Students are very excited about this type of learning!    I am anxious to see what they come up with for presentations.

"Busy" is a perfect word to describe 3B lately.  We are working through a variety of activities, and the days are flying by.  Students are amazed when I say it is time for lunch, and they haven't even realized how quickly the morning has gone by!  It is wonderful!

In math we started our new unit on measurement. Students have been introduced to measuring to the nearest half, whole, and quarter of an inch, as well as by foot and yard.  We also ventured into the metric system and have looked at millimeters, centimeters, and meters.  They have been measuring all over the room and having a great time doing it!  Next week we will start looking into perimeter and area as well as continuing to review measurement. Even though we may not be working on addition and subtraction, it is a good idea to keep reviewing basic facts at home.  Students need that constant review to get them down quickly.

Last week I showed the students how our new literacy series, Lead 21, has a "chat area" in which I can post a question or comment and the students can respond with one another via the computer.  They thought they were so cool and some said they felt like they were on Facebook.  :)  Well, it is not Facebook but it is a way I will start posting thoughts and questions for students to think about and respond to.  Information will be sent tomorrow about how to log in to Lead 21 so your child can continue to play our vocabulary games, reread material, and start "chatting" with me via the computer.  If your child does not have the Internet at home, don't worry.  I am going to make arrangements for those students to stop in in the morning and jump on a computer either in the classroom or our Discovery Center.  We will work that out so that no one is left out or can't utilize the technology that comes with our literacy series.

Just a reminder that we have a small quiz over the oceans and continents tomorrow.  A note and study sheet was sent home yesterday, on Wednesday, with information.  Please review the oceans and continents with your child (even though I think they know them very well) so they are ready for the quick quiz on Friday.

I hope everyone is handling the homework that is being sent home.  As I told parents at conferences, homework will be sent home more often than it was in the first quarter.  While it is often small and not too time consuming, some activities that are going to start next week take a little more time.  Continue to help build that responsibility in your child encouraging them to get any homework done.  I appreciate your help and support!

Last comment is about book orders.  Last week I sent in the book orders that students recently returned.  While I usually do them online so they get sent to us quicker, I had to mail these orders in due to the fact that many checks were made out to Scholastic and not me.  That is fine, it just makes it so I can't order online.  Please remember that it is easier to write the check to me as I use my credit card to order the books online so they arrive quicker.  Any questions, feel free to contact me.  Hopefully the books will be here by the end of next week as it takes longer with mail in orders.

Have a super week and stay warm!

Great Conferences!

Thank you so much to everyone for making it to conferences! It was wonderful to touch base with everyone and continue to build that home to school connection! Remember that if you ever have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me through email or a phone call.

Burr....it is suddenly very cold outside! I think we were spoiled by the warm weather and now fall/winter is fast approaching. Please remember to have your child come to school dressed accordingly as many are coming with not enough layers and freezing outside before school starts. Hats and mittens now would be a great thing as well as many are saying their hands or faces are chilly! I always hate to talk about this topic as I hate winter, but I guess we have to deal with it living in Iowa!

After a nice three day break and Halloween thrown in there we are back at it! Hopefully you all had a nice break. I jetted to New York City for three days with my family and had a wonderful time....even if it did snow on us Saturday. Luckily they only had 2-3 inches where we were and it was melted by Sunday morning so we could still take advantage of the sites of the city. We had a super time, and I hope your 3B son or daughter enjoyed eating their big lolly from Dylan's Candy Store. Yumm!

I will be sending home your child's unit 2 math assessment next Monday as there are a few yet to finish. We are jumping into measurement this week and will be on that topic for a while. We made our own class measurement tool called a "Bruno" so we can understand the reason to have standard types of measurement. The students used their "Bruno" to measure various things in the classroom and had a super time with it!

If you haven't noticed, there has been a little more homework sent home this week. I hope the students can get used to it because it probably will continue. While most are not big task to complete, there will be a larger activity sent home next Monday that connects to at home reading. I talked to many parents about this at conferences and stated that it would be sent home this week. I have decided to start it next week so look for that information next Monday or Tuesday.

Have a great week!