Reading Counts Update

The Van Clan has been doing a great job in Reading Counts. I am very proud of the effort and determination they have shown for this program.

To review, we started Reading Counts at the beginning of the second quarter. Students take a test on the computer to recieve a Lexile. The students then use their Lexile scores to find books with similar Lexile scores. By doing this, they are able to find books that will challenge them, but not frustrate them. After reading a book they take a test and if they get seven or more out of ten right they pass the test.

In third grade, we are keeping track of the number of words they have read throughout the year. The middle school, who also uses reading counts, has a goal of 1 million words in a year. Here is how the Van Clan has done in a quarter and a half.

5 students are over 100,000 words!
5 more students are over 50,000 words!
Every child in the Van Clan is over 25,000 words!

Keep up the great work!

Multiplication Game

Our new math unit is back to multiplication and will focus on multiplying two single digit numbers. The Multiplication Grand Prix is good practice even if there are a lot of directions before you start.

Here are the directions to start:
1. Click Play and then Continue
2. Add a name to play under (pick a silly name instead of your real name)
3. Choose Create a Game or just a join a game someone else started
4. Choose a Public Game
5. Click on Start Race

Grand Prix

Reminders

Don't forget that the Harriet Tubman Home Project is due on Monday, March 1st. If their project is done they can turn it in on Friday too. The kids will present their project to the class next week.

Also, don't forget that the February Reading Calendar is also due on Monday, March 1st. We'll have the extra reading recess on Monday and hopefully some beautiful weather for the kids to play during it.

New Ways To Stay In Touch

There are two items:

1. I hope everyone has been able to keep up with the Van Clan News this year. I am introducing a new way for parents to keep up with the blog. At the right of the sight there is a Widget (that means any tool in a blog) titled Subscribe Via E-mail. If you type your e-mail into that sight you should get updates on days when I post new information on the blog.

After you type in your e-mail you will get an activation message on your e-mail account. There will be a link to click on within that e-mail to activate the service.

2. If you have a Facebook account, Iowa-Grant now has a page and you can become a fan. You will get updates and information about happenings at Iowa-Grant from it. Here is the link to the Iowa-Grant site: I-G on Facebook

P.S. We are learning about articles this week in Language Arts, so that is why they are all bolded. The students will need to find the noun that follows each article.

Star of the Week

Feb. 22-26

Weekend Game

The Warehouse is a tricky little math/strategy game. Put the box in their place, but make sure that you don't get a box stuck against the wall!

The Warehouse

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears

This is the story that we are reading this week and it is an African Tale. Here is a video of it read by James Earl Jones, who has such a cool sounding voice.

Star of the Week

for February 15-19

Caps for a Cure

A handout is coming home tonight about Caps for a Cure, which is being organized by Student Council. If a child brings in $1 by Friday, February 19th they can wear a hat to school the following Friday (Feb. 26). All the money from the proceeds will go to Relay for Life in Platteville.

HARRIET TUBMAN PROJECT CHANGE

The Harriet Tubman home project will be due on Monday, March 1st instead of Friday, February 26. This gives everyone one more weekend to work on it.

Harriet Tubman Home Project

Please choose one project to do at home. You may have help with your project.

*Design a quilt from either fabric or paper. This was
Harriet’s prized possession.

*Make a shoebox diorama of a scene from the book.

*Write a letter to Harriet Tubman.

*Draw a wanted poster of Harriet Tubman. Remember to
include key information: her description, what she is
wanted for, the amount of reward offered, etc.

*Make a model of Harriet’s log cabin. No legos, please.

*Draw a map of Harriet’s journey.

*Make a game.

*Do you have another idea? Please ask me about it before
you do it.


Your project is due on Friday, February 26th. Have fun!

Star of the Week

Feb. 8-12

Class List

Here's the list of names for Valentine's Day cards. Sorry I didn't get this up sooner.

Elizabeth
Hannah
Haylee
Peyton
Allyson
Nathan
Keaton
Kailey
Carter
Brandon
Dezmon
Hunter
Charity
Trysten
Brylie

Snow Day Game

Enjoy your day off!

Marble Lines

Gone Tomorrow

I'll be home with a sick child on Monday. There won't be any updates tomorrw for sure, but I wanted to give parents a heads up about an important project starting soon.

Please watch for the home project for Harriet Tubman which will be sent home on Tuesday. It's a fun project that the kids do along with our Harriet Tubman story. The project will be due on Friday, February 26th.

Scholastic Book Wizard

Now you can look up books at home to see what their reading level and/or lexile is for books that are at home. This goes along with the Reading Counts programs that we are doing at school. Each child should know what their lexile score is.

After typing in the book name, click on search. Then in the new website click on the name of the book. At the left will be the reading level and lexile of that book.

I also placed this resource at the bottom of the webpage so when this post goes off the page you'll still have access to it. It will always be at the very bottom of the page next to the hit counter.

Weekend Game

Here's a game to work on your geometry skills. Find the buried shape with the box around it in the picture and match it to the 3 dimensional shape at the bottom of the page.

Buried Shapes Game

Cursive Time

Beginning next week we will begin reading about Harriet Tubman during our old cursive time. We'll still practice cursive during our writing time and other language arts time though. This just gives the third grade a small block of extra time for social studies for the rest of the year.

Adjectives

We are learning about adjectives starting this week so we'll use another School House Rock video to help us learn about parts of speech.

Star of the Week

for Feb. 1-5