Wednesday's play

My camera batteries kept dying so I only got a few of the skit in class. They were pretty cute and excited to say their lines in front of others not in our class. I hope everyone has had a good Thanksgiving and long weekend, see ya Monday!

Wednesday November 25th

A few different and exciting things this Wednesday;

1. The last day of the week (it is a FULL day, dismissal is at 2:30)
2. Dollar for Duds! -bring a $1.00 and the student is free to wear their choice (all but flip flops, spaghetti straps, shirts with violence and short shorts)
3. We are going to try to perform (be ready for full use of scripts and a few giggles) the Thanksgiving Readers Theater, in our classroom on Wednesday at about 10:10-10:30. You are welcome to come and watch :)

Have a great 4-day weekend and see everyone on Monday the 30th

Nutrition

Friday afternoon I brought in a lot of local store ads. For math, we made two shopping lists-one of whatever they wanted for $20 and the second "healthy" food- some from every food group except sugar/ oil. Then they cut out food and glued them onto their "food guide pyramids". I couldn't find a template of the old/ regular guide so I went with the column sheet.

Social Studies, Tests, Next Week

First, you may have heard that we are working on a "play" or Readers Theater about some of the people making the journey on the Mayflower. Here is the First Thanksgiving website that I took the Readers Theater from, there is also other history stuff there too.
Also I know some students have gone to SpellingCity.com but I wanted to remind all that this is a good site to practice any and all spelling words on.

At our staff meeting this week they gave us the percentages for math testing. At the beginning of the year 76% of our class tested at 3rd grade level for math computation (timed math facts), now when tested again at the end of October we have 100% testing at 3rd grade level!! The second test is concepts and applications, more the story problems and multiple choice problems. At the beginning of the year we again tested at 76% at grade level, and in October 95% of our class has progressed!! Keep it up at home as well!

Next week is a 3 day week- full days Monday- Wednesday. We will not have a regular spelling test or list, instead we are going to practice sight words and old spelling words spelling bee style. I will be sending home regular math homework Monday and Tuesday night (to be turned in Tuesday and Wednesday) and probably some work for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Veteran's Day

No School Wednesday November 11th.
We talked a little in class about how Veteran's Day was named (orig. Armistice Day) when WWI ended on the eleventh hour, eleventh day of the eleventh month. Although these were mostly from WWII, I showed them a few pictures from when I was in France last November and saw the American Cemetery. We talked about the day not to necessarily be sad, but as a day to think of the hero's who served/ is serving our country. Here are the photos.

Outlining practice November 9th

We talked about different ways to organize information, one being outlining. Previously I made 4 different possible outlines with titles, categories and details (ie- Seasons; Thanksgiving; turkey, family, Pilgrims...) They worked in groups of 4 or 5 to move around the laminated words to figure out how the outline should go and record on their own paper.

Fall Festival November 7th

Quote and Journal Responses

Yesterday I wrote the quote; "We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace. We need love and compassion." Mother Theresa on the board. We spent a few minutes talking about what they thought it meant and then I had them do a free write about the quote. Some sample (unedited) responses I wanted to post up because I was impressed about how many of them took time to think!

"like being nice, good in this world. we need a lot of peace I wish I can go on tv and say why do we have to be so bad to each other. Would if you were an animal would you like to be killed. we need to fight for ourselves."

"People fight other people for peace. You should not do that. You should realy say I love how they are working. Do it like that instead. I like it that way peaceful intead of fighting."

"I think this quote means like hold the door for someone instad of pushing and say you have a beautiful dress, not ugly. Being nice to evertyone and not fighting"

"How I could make peace at my house? Would be not to fight my little brother."

"I think we don't need war, I think we can all just get along with eachother. you know, like be friends. As I say in the name of Jesus."

Just a few that were still out in their journals that I picked up... Have a good weekend and I think if we took words of advice from the 3rd grade we would have a pretty peaceful place :)

Catch a Little Rhyme

They are learning lots of new sayings, phrases and poems from our Core Knowledge curriculum. Here is one that they started on Monday and many have taken it a step further, memorizing it and saying it in front of our class and principal. In case you want a copy at home:

Catch a Little Rhyme
by Eve Merriam

Once upon a time
I caught a little rhyme

I set it on the floor
but it ran right out the door

I chased it on my bicycle
but it melted to an icicle

I scooped it up in my hat
but it turned into a cat

I caught it by the tail
but it stretched into a whale

I followed it in a boat
but it changed into a goat

When I fed it tin and paper
it became a tall skyscraper

Then it grew into a kite
and flew far out of sight...

Words to Live By video

We watched this video in a staff meeting and I wanted to share it. I will wait until the end of the year to share this with the class when they might all understand it better- but by all means if you are interested, watch and talk about what it means with your student or family!


http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1437000/words_to_lead_by/

I couldn't get the video to download and show on the school computer, but hopefully this link will get you there!

Fall Festival November 7th

Fall Festival is coming up Saturday, November 7^th from 11-2pm at Legacy school. The students will have a chance to perform for music class, play games and eat food.

The 3^rd grade is grilling hot dogs, selling soda and waters, and doing foot race to raise more money. If you are able, we would love donations of water bottles, cans of soda, hot dogs and buns, and old pillow cases that you don’t want back. Either send the items with your student, or let me know via phone, note or email and bring them Saturday morning the 7^th.