Due to the holiday, many of the students will be absent tomorrow. You can find a brief summary of our day below. We will miss you, and I'm looking forward to seeing you Tuesday!

Language Arts:
Monday morning we will add the five new spelling words to our spelling dictionary:
about, almost, because, could, first

After completing our daily grammar lesson (the "Caught Ya"), we will complete a page in our cursive workbooks.

If there is time, I will introduce the new vocabulary words from Wordly Wise lesson three. The clipart can be found below, however, I imagine we will save this lesson for Tuesday.

Math:
Our first math lesson in chapter two will be about fact families. The students were introduced to fact triangles last year, which are a type of flash card. The children will receive a set of fact triangles tomorrow to cut apart, take home, and use for review of addition and subtraction facts. We will also discuss the commutative property of addition.



Reading:
The students will receive a copy of the rubric for their reading fluency project with poems that they are currently working on. The rubric will help them to understand all of the expectations including oral fluency, artwork, time management, and appropriate use of Voicethread. Later in the day, the children will be completing their artwork for their poems so that we can start recording the poems on Voicethread. (Some have chosen to use KidPix or KerPOOF as their medium. Others have chosen to draw the pictures themselves.)

Science:
The children are in the middle of creating an ocean zones art project. It requires three steps: taking notes on the three zones and six creatures, creating artwork, and turning the notes into complete sentences.
Tomorrow we will be working in small groups on this project.

In addition to the academic content of the day, we will be discussing the importance of balancing time on task with exploration of these new Web 2.0 programs. It is essential that the students understand that these programs, though incredibly fun, are meant to be used to produce an assignment. As they grow and develop this year, they will become better and better at managing their time effectively.

We will end the day by spending 25 minutes in the library for silent reading and Reading Counts tests.

Please be sure to check the homework sheet (the link is located on the lower right side of the blog) for information about at home assignments.

We will miss you tomorrow!
:)Mrs. Neal

Today has been busy! After our spelling test this morning, we worked on counting coins and calculating differences between amounts. (Journal pages 20-21) We also played a fun game called Trading Up which can be found here. It seems easy at first, but it can get complicated when your game board starts to fill up with change.

Mrs. Driscoll introduced the students to a new typing program during keyboarding this morning. It is exciting and a great way to develop the proper keyboarding skills.

This afternoon we will talk about how an ordinary idea can turn into something extraordinary in a story by reading Duck on a Bike by David Shannon. Afterwards, we will draft a few ideas about a story of our own.

Before we go to Music, the children are very excited to get to meet their second grade buddies! I can tell they are thrilled that this is the first time they are the "older" buddy. It should be great fun!

Today was fabulous! The third graders are really getting into the swing of things. :) This morning, after we completed our usual morning work, the students completed an "in house" reading assessment. It allows me to get a snapshot view of your child's reading abilities.

In math, we talked about estimation when purchasing items. We looked at a sale poster together and discussed how to decide what we could and could not buy with a set amount of money. In pairs the students played "store" and recorded purchases, total cost, and change given. (Journal page 20)

This afternoon, we held rotations. The children visited a site called Critter Cam. Here, they were encouraged to explore the deep ocean, locating various creatures. While reading about giant squids, manta rays, and the like, students completed a worksheet which they will finish tomorrow.

In small groups, we discussed our first rubric for note taking. The class has been reading about the ocean in our book Sea Monsters. We've been discussing how to locate important information when reading non-fiction, how to put what we understand in simple, "caveman speak" notes, and how illustrations can help us to remember information. The rubric is their guide on how to earn the grade they desire, so today we worked on completing all the required pieces for their note taking guide.

We've also been practicing our poems for our next Web 2.0 project. Continue to encourage your child to read their poem aloud and with enthusiasm. I'm anxious to see how it will turn out!

This morning we practiced our first Wordly Wise lesson . The children have started learning the definitions through clipart. I'll attach the first set we used below. The only downfall of using slideshare is that the animations disappear. Originally, the students would see the clipart, then try to guess which Wordly Wise word was presented. I would click, then the correct vocabulary word would appear on the screen. This won't be possible with slideshare, but at the very least, it will allow your children to explain how the pictures help define each word:

To help the students understand the Wordly Wise homework, we completed parts A and B together.

We also discussed our new spelling format. Each week, the children are introduced to five new spelling words. This week's words are: all, also, does, every, & into. First, we entered each word into their personal dictionaries for easy reference, then I explained how they will be tested.

On Friday, I will give a dictation spelling test. For instance, I might say aloud, "Mrs. Neal thinks all of her students are fabulous." Instead of just writing down the appropriate spelling word (in this case, "all"), students are to write down the entire sentence. Students are only graded on the specific spelling words...but that list will grow.

Next week, the children will be introduced to five new spelling words, but on that Friday, they will not only be tested on the new list of five, but all previously introduced words as well. The dictation sentence might be something like, "Did all of you know there are volcanoes at the bottom of the ocean?" The two words being assessed in this sentence are all and know.

In Math, we practiced quick, mental math skills, then graphed how many letters are in our first names and last. You can see an example here:



We created a bar graph together in our journals (pages 6 and 7), and then analyzed the data, looking for the median, mean, range, and mode.

This afternoon, we held rotation. In small groups, we discussed how to take notes "caveman" style. We read a few paragraphs in our Sea Monsters book and tried taking notes together. During Seatwork time, students continued to save pictures for their glogs and caught up on some dictionary work.

It's been a busy day! Whenever you are out, I will post what we have been doing here for your reference and send home any assignments as soon as you return. Please let me know if anything posted here is confusing. I would be happy to help!

The latter part of this week, I helped the students set major reading goals for the school year. There are three independent reading goals we will be working toward:

*Reading Counts points (annual goal)
*Third Grade Genre Titles
*Third Grade Buccaneer Books (also called Rockets)

Both the genre list and the Buc Book list are new to third graders this year, and since there was so much information to share with the students, I wanted to let you know what to expect.

The third grade genre list is composed of 24 book titles, divided by genre. Included genres are; Informational, Biography/Autobiography, Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Poetry, and Mysteries. Children are required to read one title from each genre, but encouraged to read multiple titles if the books spark their interest. Within each genre, there are three book titles available, ranging in difficulty level.

After giving the children a brief overview of the books in each genre, I offered them the chance to start checking them out. In addition to what copies the library may have, I have two copies of each title available in our classroom. The goal of the third grade teachers is to expose the children to a variety of genres, hopefully giving them the opportunity to find enjoyment in a style of writing they'd never read before.

The third grade "Rockets" list has 15 books on it, and you can find a link to the titles here. The children were asked to set a goal for how many of the 15 each of them would read before May. I believe many of these books would be of great interest to the students!

Luckily, while working toward reading the required books from the genre list and the Buc Book list, your child will simultaneously be earning Reading Counts points!

Although I would love for each child to earn many points this year, I don't want it to come at the expense of the love of reading. We are setting goals to encourage the students to read from a variety of genres, develop their love of reading, and feel good about their accomplishments. I told the students that reading a great book is far more rewarding for me than earning points...and that they shouldn't even ask me how many points a book is worth because I won't know! I hope you'll guide your children toward reaching their goals, but put most of your focus on developing their love of reading.

Setting worthwhile and achievable goals is a learned and beneficial practice. Today you'll find the first monthly reading goal sheet in your child's backpack. After reviewing each child's annual goal individually, we selected both a monthly and weekly goal to help keep everyone on track. You are encouraged to go over this form with your child, sign, and return it to me on Tuesday. I will continue to check on your child's progress as the weeks go by to ensure everyone reaches their goals.

It is also important that children know how to find a "just right" book. They should select novels that are challenging, but not too hard, very interesting, and fun to read. We talked about the five finger test, which you can read about here. I've also found a couple of websites that offer suggestions for both parents and children.

How to Help Your Child Find a Good Book
Help Me Find a Book!

Have a wonderful three day weekend (hopefully filled with reading)!