We Skyped with 3rd Graders in Canada!

We finished our book titled The One and Only Ivan as part of the Global Read Aloud.  I, as well as the students, were sad to see the story come to an end!  It was a wonderful story about friendship and sorrow.  The book also had many opportunities for us to make inferences, (and for us to shed a few tears) which is exactly what we have been working on in literacy.

As part of our collaboration with schools across the country, we ended with a big "Skype date" with some third graders from Canada!  We chatted for over 30 minutes and could have gone on much longer.  It was awesome!  We learned a little bit about their school, we shared information about us, and then we had a chance to ask each other questions and share our answers.  The students did a super job and thought it was so "cool" to be able to do something like that.  I told them it is only the beginning.  Below is a picture of their class and a student asking us a question through Skype.

With the Global Read Aloud, we used Twitter, Edmodo, our blog pages, and Skype to collaborate and share thoughts and activities that connected to the book.  The students get so excited when we check our Twitter account to see if we have more followers, post different things,  and read what others are sharing.  Most of our followers are classes around the world.   I thought it would be cool to map our followers so here they are!  As you can see, we have followers in every country except Africa.  I am working on that!!!  Our next project is to make a video sharing information about Iowa for our friends in a class in Australia.  The students are anxious to start that next week.    We would have liked to Skype with them, but they are sleeping when we are in school.....that wouldn't work out so well.  :)

Here is a map of our Twitter followers as of now.  There will continue to be more and more as the year goes along.  We met our friends who we Skyped with yesterday through Twitter.

Great Start to Conferences and Book It!

Thank you to the parents who attended conferences last night!  I enjoyed the discussions we had and the evening was a success!  If you have conferences scheduled for tomorrow night, I look forward to our time together as well.

Please remember the Book-It calendars are due November 1st for the month of October.  Many children have already returned them, and that is wonderful!  Those students who return their calendars each month will receive a coupon for a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.  If they return their calendar every month, they will celebrate with me in April.  :)  So please remember to return them tomorrow if your child plans to participate.  Remember, reading is the main piece of homework for 3rd grade so why not get a free pizza out of it? :)

Reminder.... Friday's Field Trip to Bunnicula!

Just a reminder about this Friday's field trip to UNI to see the play Bunnicula.   I showed the students the book trailer, as we have not read the book yet, and they are very intrigued in what is going to happen.

A note was sent home on Monday explaining what students can and cannot take on the bus.  We are taking Hawkeye Stages buses so the students should be comfortable.  Teachers will be supplying the movies so students do not need to bring those.  If you are unsure what your child can and can not bring, please contact me and I will review them with you.

Remember that your child needs to bring a lunch along for the day.  We will be eating on the bus on the way to the show as we do not leave until 10:30.  Please send a beverage that has a twist top lid and is not soda/pop.  Thank you!

We are looking forward to a great trip and show!

Celebrating Cadet Pride with School Dance!

The students in 3rd grade have done a wonderful job of earning Cadet Pride tickets the last two months!  We have met our goal, actually passed it, with over 1000 tickets!  Awesome job 3B!

To celebrate, Crestwood Elementary will be having a dance next Wednesday, October 31.  A letter will be sent home sharing information about the dance.  Students can wear their Halloween costumes to the dance that day, but they can not wear them all day long.  Please send their costumes, if they would like, to school with them in their bag and I will give them time to change and get ready!

So please look for the note coming home today!

Great job 3B!  I am so proud of you!!!!

Inferencing

Today I introduced the reading strategy of inferencing.  If you are not sure what inferencing is, please look to the right side of the blog where our reading strategies are defined.

I introduced it in a really fun way, and the students really caught on to the meaning of inferencing, which is usually pretty tough.  I used the video below to introduce students to what inferencing means.  They did a wonderful job determining the character's feelings, actions, jobs, setting, etc. without any of the characters in the video even speaking.  It was wonderful!  Let's hope they can apply the concept to their reading as well.

Here is the short video full of opportunities to infer.   It is kind of cute as well!

Character Counts Week and Red Ribbon Week

We value good character at Howard-Winneshiek schools.  To celebrate this, we will be having themed dress-up days next week for Character Counts week.  Here they are:

Monday, October 22:  Hats off to Respect and Being Drug Free
Tuesday, October 23: Trustworthy Team Tuesday/Favorite Jersey
Wednesday, October 24:  Responsible Rock Star Day and Rock the Vote:  glitter, sunglasses, music
Thursday, October 25: Caring Citizens Career Day/ dress as your favorite dream job
Friday, October 26:  Fairness Friday/ school spirt/ Cadet clothes

We encourage everyone to get excited and show that you are a person of character!

Important Information About Conferences and Picture Retakes

Well, it is Thursday and the week is flying by!  Where does the time go?  The students often comment about how quickly the day goes by, so obviously, we are busy!

I just wanted to send a quick reminder about signing up for conferences.  Conferences are coming up in  a few weeks.  A letter was sent home last week with information on how to sign up online.  That is a parent's responsibility as there will not be paper copies sent home for parents to sign up.  If you do not have internet access, please call Linda at 547-2300 and she will get you signed up. You can also call her if you are having troubles getting into the necessary login site.   I look forward to chatting with you in a few weeks about your 3B student!

The students have been reviewing and working hard in preparation for their first real science test.  We had the main part yesterday and will be doing some "hands on" activities and short answer questions today and tomorrow.  Please remember to have our child return his/her science book as soon as possible so that I can collect them.  I will be showing the students their scores on the assessment sometime next week, but I will not be sending them home.  I plan to hold on to them to share with parents at conferences.

October 23rd has been scheduled as the day for picture retakes.  If anyone would like to have their picture taken over, please send back the original pictures and retakes will be done that morning.  Students who were absent will also have the chance to have their pictures taken then as well.

I also wanted to quickly give parents a heads up if their child came home saying Mrs. Kerian was gone for a few days this week.  That is true.  I am on MANY committees in our school district and one with the state of Iowa for the NE Iowa STEM Advisory Board.  These meetings, although I would rather be with the students, are part of my professional duty and obligation as a teacher.  Usually, they are spread out, but this week has been a little rough as I was gone for two days in a row.  The students have expressed they do not like it when I am gone, and I do not like it either, but it just happens. When I am gone, I have everything ready for the sub and use the same routine as if I were there that we use every day.   For the most part, the students have been good for the subs, but we still have a few issues with respect and responsibility that we are working through. So, if your child states that I was gone a few times the last few weeks, please don't think I am out taking the day off just because.  Professionally, I am a learner as well and being on committees is part of my continued learning and involvement.

Enjoy the rest of the week.  We are working really hard to share some great things with you at conferences!  Right 3B? :)

Great Cardboard Challenge 2012

Reading Strategies....Looking for Evidence

I wanted to make a quick post about how literacy is going.  We have buzzed through our first week of our theme on "Changes".  Our focus for the past week has been working on the strategies of determining important information, determining author's purpose, using text evidence to answer questions, and recognizing synonyms.  We also just started talking about the prefixes that mean "non", such as "un", "non", "im", and "in".

Please remember that there are various online activities your child can work on at home to help with their reading strategies and skills besides reading a book.  I have many listed on the side of my blog that work on synonyms and author's purpose.  Students can practice the focus skills and strategies from our literacy series at home at any time.

There is also a description of the strategies, such as "Determining Important Information", listed on the side of my blog page as well.  I encourage you to discuss whatever your child is reading at home and ask them about what the important information is from their reading.  What is the author trying to teach or tell them?

I will continually update/add more online activities and reading strategy descriptions on my blog page, but I wanted to make sure parents were aware of them.  The students are aware of everything on the blog page, but they sometimes forget what they can be working on at home.  Read! Read! Read! (and work on the strategies given on the blog page).

Happy Reading!

Spelling City - Review for Science Test Next Week

I have introduced the online program/game of "Spelling City" to the students through our word study in literacy but I am also going to be using as a review for students to use for the upcoming science test of plants and animals.

Your child will be bringing his/her Plant and Animal Populations book home this Friday to start studying material that will be covering in the assessment.  I am planning on the assessment being sometime next week, either Tuesday or Wednesday.  I will let you know, but I wanted to give the students enough time to start looking over and rereading the materials.

Along with that, I have posted some vocabulary words that will be covered in the assessment online through a site called "Spelling City".  Your child has used it via the iPad to review and practice word study words so he/she should be familiar with the site.  Many have not done it online though so I showed them today.

Here are the basic steps to getting to the site and practicing the vocabulary words for the assessment:
1.  Open internet and type in http://www.spellingcity.com/ (I have also put the link on the side of my blog so you can also just "click" on the link there or the one above.)
2.  Select "Find a Class" on the bar of options
3.  Type in my name, "kim kerian", and search "by teacher".
4.  Click search
5.  This should take you to a menu of words.  Select the list titled "Plant and Animal Populations"
6.  Click on "Play Games"
7.  This will take you to a menu of games.  I encouraged the students to do the "vocabulary" games as review and practice.  They can also do the spelling games if they would like, but they really need to focus on the vocabulary activities.

Hopefully this will make studying for the assessment a little more enjoyable.  Please encourage your child to review the words many times before next Tuesday or Wednesday as it will be very beneficial (hint, hint).

Have fun!

Global Read Aloud 2012

Today we made a word cloud in the shape of a gorilla with words we feel are connected to the main character of our book The One and Only Ivan.  I am so impressed with how much the students are really getting into the story and collaborating with others.

Here is our word cloud:

The other thing I did today, although I wish I would have waited, was share with the students an article from a newspaper from this past August that Ivan, the character and animal telling the story, did pass away recently.   The students' faces were so precious as they looked so sadden by that news.  I think everyone is really getting connected to this gorilla.  It is a wonderful story of friendship and life.

We are excited to keep reading!

Stomp Out Bullying!

We will be the ones to stomp out bullying!  Will you?