Book It......Reading at Home

Today I am sending home the calendars for Book-It.  As many of you know, this is a reading incentive program sponsored by Pizza Hut to encourage students/kids to read at home.  The kick off/start month is October, which begins on Tuesday.  A goal is set and written on the calendar for the amount of time each student is to read or surpass, recording their minutes on the calendar or each day that he/she reads. At the end of the month, students return their calendar showing they have completed or passed the goal.  He/she is then given a coupon for a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.

While I encourage every student to read at home, participation in Book-It is optional.  I would love to see all of my students in 3B participate as reading at home is very important!  But again, I am not going to require the students to participate and return the calendar for Book It if they decide not too.  We will start checking books out of our classroom library to go home starting next week so students will have books they could be reading at home not only from the classroom but library as well.

BUT........those students that do participate and return their calendar EVERY month for Book-It will enjoy a celebration with me in April as a reward for returning their calendars, participating, and meeting/surpassing their reading goals every month!!!!!  Last year the celebration involved dinner and a movie in the classroom during lunch.  Only those that participated could enjoy dinner and a movie with me.  So......why not participate, have fun reading, build those reading skills/strategies and have some fun along the way?

So...get reading!

Reminder of Homecoming Dress Up Days

Here are the days for Homecoming next week:
Monday:  Jersey/favorite sports team day (Wear your favorite sports jersey or sports team shirt)
Tuesday:  Camouflage Day
Wednesday:  Color Day, 3rd grade is to wear orange (no face paint)
Thursday:  Wacky-Tacky/ Mix and Match Day (come to school dressed in clothes that don't match)
Friday:  Blue/School Colors Day

Can't wait to see everyone's outfits to celebrate Crestwood Homecoming!

Aphids......Our First Science Visitors

Today we had some special guest visit our classroom.  They are called aphids.  They are the first of various insects we will have visit, eat our plants, and demonstrate a food chain.  The students were very excited to learn about aphids and watch them on our bean plants yesterday.  Here is a picture of these creatures.  Wonder what will come next????

Showing our Creativity on Dot Day!

The students had a wonderful time celebrating Dot Day and their creativity!  I know they all "made their mark" in the world through all the fun stations and activities.  Here are some pictures from the day:

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Dot Day Fun!

September 15th is International Dot Day.  This is a day based off the story The Dot by James Reynolds.  It is a story of a teacher who dares a doubting student to trust in her own abilities and be brave enough to "make her mark".  What starts with a small dot on a piece of paper becomes a breakthrough in confidence and courage, which has inspired adults and children to celebrate their own creativity on this day.  Each year, people all around the globe are encouraged to "make their mark" to show they can each be creative.  While the official "Dot Day" is September 15th, it can be and is celebrated throughout the month and longer.

Students in 3rd grade at Crestwood Elementary will be celebrating "Dot Day" with various art activities inspired from the story.  Students can also come to school dressed with dots on their shirts, pants, sweatshirts, cheek, etc. to fully celebrate creativity.  A note was sent home today sharing information about Friday.  I know it is going to be a wonderful day!  Stay tuned for pictures to be posted next week.

MAPs Testing....Two Down! One to Go!

I am sure many of you have heard that we have started MAPs/MISIC  assessments.  These are district assessments that students take in the fall and spring of each academic year to show growth and progress.  Being we are 1 to 1 with iPads, the students in grades 2-6 are doing their assessments on the iPad.  As with anything, the first time has lots of bumps and bruises, but the students survived and were very calm while our tech department and teachers smoothed everything out.  There are three test the students take: reading, language arts, and math.

Overall, the students have been trying very hard.  I am sure they will be glad though when the assessments are over (as I will be too and we can return to normal routine).

September 11....Always Remember

It was a day of learning about an important day in our history that was not that long ago.  Having been to Ground Zero soon after the attacks on September 11th, I wanted the students to understand the impact that day had on our country then and now (in kid friendly terms). We shared some great videos, listened and read some wonderful books, and shared our thoughts by creating a visual using the app of Doodle Buddy, which you can view on the students' blog pages.  The students had a lot of questions. I shared some pictures from my trip there a week after the attacks as well.  We ended our day with a super discussion about what a hero is and this will lead into a writing activity for tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures of the students working on their visual picture using Doodle Buddy.  It was a powerful day of discussion and caring.  I was very touched by the empathy the students showed.  Such big hearts!

The students also wrote a post about a hero to them.  Check it out!

Picture Day!

Just a reminder that school pictures are tomorrow.  Please remember to send your picture envelope with the necessary money for the order.  It is not required to order pictures if you do not want to but every child will have their picture taken for the class composite.

Smile big!!!

We are Building Our Stamina!

I am very impressed with the students and their Read to Self stamina to start the year off!  After 3 days, the students have already built their read to self stamina up to 15 minutes!!!!  That is great for the beginning of the year!  Keep it up 3B!  Let's see if we can get to 20 or 25 minutes by end of next week!
You can do it!

Will They Layer or Will They Mix?

Thank you to the students and parents for remembering to send our "liquids" to school.  Students did awesome learning about the scientific method through a hands on activity!  After I modeled what happens when you pour blue Gatorade, Diet 7-Up, and cranberry juice together (they layered), the students worked in small groups to decide what liquids they wanted to test out.  As they worked through this, they applied the steps of the Scientific Method that scientist use.

Here are some pics of the students working.  Most of the groups found that their liquids mixed, but there were a few that had some layer.

Congrats to the students who went home and discussed their findings with their parents.  Many parents were right on the mark with the correct answer:  It depends on the density (sugar content) of the liquids if they will layer or mix.  If they have are about the same density, they will mix.  If they are very different in density, they will layer.

Everyone is a super scientist!

What is Your Passion?

We have had our second "Genius Hour" of the week (we have this every Wednesday), and the students continue to be so excited about the whole idea behind Genius Hour.  This week I showed the following video to them to get them thinking about what they would like to learn about.



The students then made "Word Salads" listing some of the things they are passionate about.  We discussed what it means to be passionate about something and created a huge list.  You can see the students' "word salads (created by an app on the iPad) by checking out their blog pages at

     http://kidblog.org/mrskerians3B

We would love to have some comments so please take a look!

We are loving Genius Hour....stay tuned for great things to come!

Great Celebration Friday and 3 Day Weekend!

I hope everyone had a very nice 3 day weekend. Funny how we were all sweating last week and thought the heat would never let up, and today I am feeling like I better dig out the warmer clothes.  It is chilly!  I am not ready for the cold weather yet!

My 3 day weekend was wonderful and relaxing.  It was super to see so many of you at the game Friday

night!  Beautiful night for football......and the Cadets pulled off a win!  Go Cadets!  My family attended a beautiful outdoor wedding Saturday night before heading back up to our cabin again for a few days.  We don't get up there much in the summer because Elyse and Alex are in sports so we take advantage of it now whenever we can on the weekends.  I had to include this picture of my dog Norah sitting on the table out on the porch.  She loves to sit up there so she can see out over the water at what everyone is doing.

Now we are back at it ready for another great week.  This week we will continue to explore scientific question about if all liquids layer or mix when poured together.   We will also start building our reading stamina, apply our math skills, and dive into our passions!  I am very excited about the activities planned this week!

Here are a few pics from last Friday's award celebration.  I think everyone had a super time eating watermelon, dancing, and trying to dunk various teachers and community members in the dunk tank.  It was hot, yes, but great to be part of a super celebration.  It was quite an honor to have the Governor and Lt. Governor skype in to congratulate the school district on the Healthy School Award!  Pretty cool!

Remember to return your Cadet Nation order form if you have not done so.

Have a super week!