So sorry you couldn't make it today! We've been working hard and having fun. :)

This morning, we completed the Caught Ya as well as the math boxes on page 147 (they were challenging). We also finished the symmetry problems on page 146. We reviewed the Wordly Wise words (Lesson 10), and you can find the same power point on the blog.

The new spelling words are listed on the board. You can add them to your Spelling Dictionary when you come back.

During math, we discussed the difference between congruent and similar shapes. (Please see the power point below.) We reviewed by playing the sorting game located here. After the children had a solid understanding of the concept, we practiced by playing a matching game. It was funny to watch the children move around the room with different sized triangles, trying to find congruent or similar matches.

This afternoon, Mrs. McCracken read a few books to us from the author Tony Buzzeo, who will be visiting us tomorrow. She writes quite a bit about librarians!

We held rotation this afternoon. The seatwork was fun! The children designed a robot that could do whatever it is you like! (clean a room, complete homework, print money, etc.) Students could either hand draw (and color) their robot, or they could use the robot builder website located in the post below. If the robot was designed on the website, students had to use the "snippet" tool in order to save a copy of it. We will work with these robots in our study of adverbs later in the week.

Those working with me were able to continue to write their stories about a fractured fairy tale. They are coming along nicely! During DEAR time, students were assigned chapters from their Dan Gutman book to read. You should finish the book and complete the literature circle form I will send home with you tomorrow.

We hope you are feeling better and can come back to school tomorrow!
:)Mrs. Neal

On Tuesday we will be studying ADVERBS. Adverbs can be kind of dry and boring to study (yawn), so I have a secret mission you will be a part of in conjunction with your adverb study to make things a little more interesting. I know, I know, this is all rather mysterious. It is supposed to be. Just bear with me.

Our lessons will be conducted in three parts:

1. You will be using the Robot Factory site to create a robot. Not just any robot...a robot that can do whatever mundane task you really wish you didn't have to do...and maybe a few other tasks that would just be plain fun to watch.

2. You will learn about adverbs. (I promise to make it at least a teeny bit fun.)

3. You will use your new found knowledge of adverbs to explain how your robot functions. (Details will be coming later.)

If all goes well, I may post a few other fun Robot Building websites later in the week!

Check out the latest Wordly Wise introduction from this week and practice your new words by playing on Kubbu from time to time. The test won't be for another week, but have fun reviewing the words until then.


Although we do not have spelling homework this year, it is still a great idea to review your spelling knowledge from time to time. You can find a few challenging games below:

AK-06 Mendenhall from Extreme Ice Survey on Vimeo.

Today, we talked about how we activate our schema to make inferences. We learned it is very important to build our background knowledge through experiences and reading so that we can make inferences. I thought I would share some of the links with you, in case your child would like to try activating their schema at home.

Inference Review
Riddles
Battleship
Make an inference
Game

I hope you try them out!
:)Mrs. Neal

So many of you were out today! It just wasn't the same without you. Here is a brief summary of our day...

Language: After the International Parade, we wrote our own individual endings to The Frog Prince Continued. Most children opted to write from the prince's point of view...I chose to be the princess. :)

Math: Together, we practiced how to create angles using AngLegs. I demonstrated by first putting two AngLegs together, fixing them at the 12 o'clock position. I gave directions, such as:

Rotate counterclockwise a half turn. One AngLeg stayed put at the 12 o'clock position while I rotated the other AngLeg a half turn (counterclockwise). Together with a student, I drew the ending position of the AngLegs as well as an arrow, indicating which direction the AngLeg moved. This is sort of what it looked like...but this animation does not start at the 12 o'clock position as we did. You can also try this site (click "Make the Angle").

I gave several of these directions:
*Start at the 12 o'clock position.
*Rotate 3/4 turn clockwise.
*Mark and draw the rays.
*Label the end points of the rays
*Draw the arrow, indicating which way the ray rotated

This was done in the math workbook. I'll be happy to catch you up when you return! I know it sounds confusing!

You can review angle measurements playing this game or click the icon below for another fun game.



Library Skills: After lunch, we spent an hour in the library learning how to read an atlas. Many of the maps we looked at identified the National Parks in our country.

Fun: We started painting our own Explorer Trunks! We'll put finishing touches on them tomorrow.

Lab: We visited Mrs. Driscoll this afternoon. She showed us how to create an Excel Spreadsheet. It was fun to learn the ins and outs of how to use the tricks in Excel so that we plan our own budgets! (Tim and Moby gave us some inspiration.)

We are so sad you missed the day! I hope to see you tomorrow!
:)Mrs. Neal

Spelling: We added new spelling words to our dictionaries. You will find those posted on the board (pink poster) when you come back to school.

Language: I read aloud the story The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka, hoping that we would each have the chance to take a shot at writing our own versions of the ending. We ran out of time today, but tomorrow, we will each choose to be either the frog, the princess, or one of the witches and write from their perspective when writing the end of the story.

Math: We learned what polygons were by exploring on geoboards. You can find a brief explanation and quiz here by searching for the term "polygon".
We also sorted polygons at this site.
Distinguishing between "regular" and "irregular" polygons was a new concept. Regular polygons have sides that are all the same length and angles that are all the same size. You can click here for a fun game using regular polygons.

We completed a couple of pages in the math journal as well. We will help you catch up once you return.

Reading: We all read one chapter together in our small literature circle groups.

Seatwork: Students continued to work on these assignments-
*Agent Erosion and Weathering Investigation Online
*Dan Gutman comprehension questions
*Valentine Cards

This afternoon, we had art with Mrs. Hillmer. Please check the homework sheet for information about Wordly Wise. We hope you can come back to school tomorrow. It's the International Parade!

:)Mrs. Neal

Today, we spent most of the morning with our grandparents. We worked on a booklet of projects together, guessed the number of M&Ms in the jar, and shared our work with them. It was lots of fun! Check out the Smilebox in the post below so you can see pictures of all the grandparents.


This afternoon, we talked a little about common minerals you may already know: gold, silver, graphite (pencil lead), salt, etc. It was just a brief conversation with a few pictures to help you see that you are already familiar with many minerals. You can see some common minerals by clicking the image on your left.


We also held rotation. Each group discussed their Dan Gutman book and completed a set of comprehension questions about the chapters you've read so far. I will give you a copy of the questions on Monday.

We were also able to spend time this afternoon in the computer lab, practicing our keyboarding skills.

It was such a fun day, though we are so sad you weren't here. The third grade performance of Frederick was fantastic! We missed you!

:)Mrs. Neal

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Practice using a protractor.

Shoot the bananas!

Or try Kung Fu!