Data Work

After organizing, grouping, and evaluating their data, students used the iPads to record their observations. To see more samples of their work, visit the student work section of our classroom website.

listen to ‘Alexandra Esteban’ on Audioboo

Data

Today the students started their first lesson on data. They were all given a list of twenty responses to the qusetion, "Where do you like to eat?" They then had to determine what they wanted to learn from the data and organize it in a way that would help them answer their question. 

Another AR Post

A few parents have contacted me because they were uable to log into AR Home Connect. As it turns out, I had the wrong link on the website. I have since corrected that link, so you should be able to successfully use the site now.

The direct link is: https://Hosted119.renlearn.com/148433/HomeConnect

Accelerated Reader

This is a long post, but an important one. It explains our entire AR program and will answer many questions you might have about what your child has mentioned. It also includes information about how you can monitor your child's progress.

Reading is an incredibly important skill that all students must master to be successful in school. Students should be reading at home nightly for approximately 30 minutes each day. They can read anything they like, as long as it is material on their reading level .  

One way that I ensure that all children are reading, and understanding, books is through a program called Accelerated Reader (AR). This program is a website that tests students’ comprehension on books they have recently completed. By passing these tests, students show that they have successfully completed the book.

I have assigned each student a book level range from which they should be reading.  I assigned the range based on the individual student’s reading ability.  All books read should be

Field Trip to Boerner Botanical Gardens

From the first day of school, the students have been learning about plants, plant parts, and seeds. To accompany these topics, the students will be going on a series of four field trips to the Boerner Botanical Gardens. Each of these trips will be about plants, but each will focus on a different aspect. Today the third grades went on the first trip of the series and learned about seeds, their similarities and differences, and why

Class Dojo for 9/25

Class Dojo does not appear to be working today. If you are monitoring your child's account, you won't see any data for 9/25.


---Updated---

Class Dojo is working again!

Class Dojo

This year we have been using a website called Class Dojo to monitor student behavior. This site allows teachers to award points for positive behavior and deduct points for negative behavior.

Class Dojo offers parents the opportunity to log into the site to monitor their child’s behavior. This option requires the teacher in input the parent’s email address. Parents who provided their email address to me at the beginning of the year should have received an email from me and one from Class Dojo today. If you did not

Resources

I recently added a new page titled "Resources" to our classroom website. This page will contain notes and slips that you might need to read and/or complete. I recognize that sometimes things like permission slips can become misplaced at home and I mean to use this page as place to post extra copies of these materials.

Visualizing

One of the traits of good readers is their ability to visualize in their head the events of the story they are reading. It is likened to being able to paint a picture in your head. While adult readers may take this skill for granted, developing readers must work to build this skill.

Over the past two weeks we have been reading various books, discussing the pictures we may see in our head, and then drawing those pictures. We then compare and contrasted how each student visualized
the story with other students and with the book's illustrator.

In one story, Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back, each student took one of the short stories, drew a picture of what he or she visualized, and then placed that
picture on "turtle's back."

Today, we took the skill of visualizing, and started weaving it into their writing. When students are writing, they often have a very good picture in their head of what they are writing about. Unfortunately, this mental picture does not always

Our First Field Trip

Today your child brought home a permission slip for the first field tip of the school year. This trip is to the Boerner Botanical Gardens and will be held this coming Tuesday, September 25. Because this field trip is next week, we do not have time to perform background checks on parent volunteers. Consequently, only those parents who have previously been cleared on a background check will be allowed to chaperone on this trip. I apologize if this causes an inconvenience. There will be seven more field trips this year so parents who would like to chaperone should have ample opportunity.

MAP Testing

Today the students finished up their last MAP test for the season. MAP is a computerized test that the students take in fall, winter, and spring. Each testing season consists a test in reading, language arts, and math and each test takes about an hour to complete.

This test is different than the WKCE test (which the students will take in late October or early November) in two important ways. The first is that teachers are able to view a more complete breakdown of the scores so that we can see specifically where a child's strengths and weakness lay. The other benefit to MAP is that we get the results immediately.

In January the students will again take the tests so that we can gauge each student's progress over the semester.

Scholastic Book Orders

This year your child will again have the opportunity to purchase books throught the scholastic book orders. The first Monday of every month I will send home book orders with your child. If you choose to order, the completed orderform, along with payment, must be returned by Friday of that week. I ask that you send payment by check, no cash please.


Alternatively, you may place your order online at www.scholastic.com.  The class activation code is: GVWB3 

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Pop Quiz!

Here is an extra credit project for my third graders.  Look at the pictures below, when you hover over a picture, an exclamation point will appear. Click on the exclamation points and follow the links to answer the questions. Once you have them all answered, you can complete the quiz by clicking here.

What do these pictures all have in common?

Math and iPads

This past week's math lessons have focused on understanding place value and using that understanding to add and subtract numbers. Today, as a review of this week's lessons, the children used iPads to explain how to solve a math problem.

Below is a sample from Aubree, Thomas, and Antonio
 

Click on the following links for more student work.
Dylan, Bri, Hunter
Alexandra, Cheyenee, Grace
Zachary, Gabriel, Michael
Austin, Sebastian, Esteban

Student Math Handbook

This year your child will continue to learn math using the Investigations curriculum. Since this way of learning math is substantially different from how you and I learned math, I am sending home a Student Math Handbook (SMH) with your child. This book should be used as a reference for you to use at home as you are assisting your child with homework.

 The top of every homework sheet will have the correct page from the SMH noted on the upper right corner of the page. The SMH should be kept at home and returned at the end of the school year.

 If you have any questions, please contact me.