Spelling, Pictures, and Lost & Found

Happy Monday!  I have a few items to pass along today.

• The spelling words this week are very difficult.  The words we are working on have kn, wr, gh, or ph combinations.  I have talked to the students about having a goal of improving by four or five words from the pretest.
• We were supposed to start the pictures of our parents today, but that will actually start on Tuesday.  We are going to do our egg experiment today.  That gives students one more day to turn in photos.  Remember that they need a picture at the following stages:  baby, elementary, high school, and adult.  Thanks to all those who have already turned theirs in.
• Finally, a note from the office. There are already lots of clothes piling up in the lost & found.  Please put initials or names on coat and jacket tags.  There are many nice pieces of clothing left up there all winter.  Our class will stop by today to look for any clothes that are ours.

Schoolhouse Rock

We only have 10-15 minutes of math today before the Green and Gold Experience so we are going to watch a couple more of the Schoolhouse Rock videos for numbers.

Threes


Fours


Nines

Parent/Teacher Conference Schedule

Here is the schedule for the Parent/Teacher Conferences.  If you need to adjust your time to fit your schedule better feel free.  Remember, I have two openings for each half hour so if there is a time open on the schedule just let me know you want to switch.

Tuesday, October 23
4:00  -  Skyler
4:30  -  Hailee and James
5:00  -  Emma
5:30  -  Hailey
6:00  -  Jackie and Colton
6:30  -  Montanna
7:00  -  Mariah and Brynn


Thursday, October 25

4:00  -  Alyson
4:30  -  Abby
5:00  -
5:30  -  Savannah
6:00  -  Owen and Nicole
6:30  -  Zachary
7:00  -

Reminders

• Don't forget to send in the 4 pictures of a parent or adult by Monday, Oct. 15.  We will be working on them right at the beginning of the week.  The three pictures are a baby, elementary, teen, and adult.
• The Green and Gold Experience is tomorrow!  Make sure that your child has socks for the day.
• We had a fire drill today at IGEMS.  It may be a good time to review what the fire proceedures are at your dwelling.
• Finally a parent article about iPads improving learning.  We have 10 iPads that are checked out in IGEMS.  We have been checking them out for use on Thursday and Friday.  The kids get very excited about them.  One student at a time also reads an eBook from my personal iPad.  So far we have been doing activities on the Internet and a few apps.  I hope to continue to find activities that fit our curriculum.  Here's the article:  CNN iPads

Classroom Parties

We will have four classroom parties throughout the year with the first one coming up at the end of this month. I split the kids up for each one in alphabetical order.

For each party we will have the members of the group decide what they want to do for an activity/game. We'll have two students in charge of food and two students in charge of games. I will meet with the group to decide who wants each job and send notes home so parents know.  The students work to develop the game ideas on their own though.

I have left a list of the committees at the lower-right side of the blog as well.  That way you can reference them later in the year.

Halloween Committee
Mariah
Emma
Colton
Brynn

Christmas Committee
Abby
Montanna
Nicole
Jackie
Alyson

Valentine's Day Committee
Hailey
Skyler
James
Jackson

Spring Party
Hailee
Zachary
Owen
Savannah

Life Cycle

We will be starting our first unit in science this week.  This unit focuses on “life cycles,” and we need a little help from you for a project the children will be doing.

Please help your son/daughter find photos of one of their parents from the following stages of life:

q  Infant        (Note:  one picture from each stage)

q  Child

q  Teenager

q  Adult

The pictures will be displayed in the hall with your child’s work on this project—they will be out of reach of little hands and will not be stapled, etc.  Please send them in a sealable bag (ziploc, etc.) with your child’s name clearly on the bag.  Also write your family name (ex. “Moen”) on the back of each photo in case they get mixed up with others while working on the project. Please send pictures that are no larger than 5X7.

Also, if you have digital images that don’t need to be returned that would be great too.  You can print those on your home computer to send with your child or send me an attachment of the four photos via e-mail (avanovermeer@igs.k12.wi.us).  If you send them to me I can print them in color.

Thank you for your help with this.  We need the pictures by next week Monday, October 15^th.  They’ll be sent home a few weeks after that.  You may begin sending them as soon as you’re ready.

No photos of parents will be used on the blog.  :) 

Language Arts

We have our first unit test in language arts next week.  We'll split the test up into smaller pieces so it isn't so overwhelming.  The first part will be on Tuesday and then we'll do a section a due on Wednesday and Thursday.  Because of this we won't have a new set of spelling words next week.

Here is a game for the weekend:  Hangman

News and Notes

• I am sending home the parent/teacher conferences sign up tonight.  Please return that form as soon as you can.   Conferences will be in the classroom this year.  They will be on Oct. 23 and Oct. 25 from 4:00-7:30.  If you can't come at that time just let me know and we can make adjustments.
• If anyone is still going to order Panther Pride items there are only a couple of things left.  Necklaces and eye blacks are the only thing left on the agenda.
• A reminder that if you are taking your child home after the parade to please send a note in the morning.
• Cool Free App:  I know not everyone has an iPad, but there is a cool new program that I found that can be used on the iPad or even regular computers.  It is called Storia by Scholastic.  It's a free e-reader from Scholastic who also does our Reading Counts program.  Of course the books cost money to buy, but I have bought several already for under a dollar.  I am letting students read a book from my iPad one at a time to try it.
• Finally, on days when we have testing like Monday and Wednesday I do not send homework home with the students.  They did their MAPs testing for math today and put forth great effort.  We'll do the same thing when we take the WKCE tests later this fall.

Congratulations...

...to the following students for turning in their September reading calendars!  Mariah, Emma, Colton, Brynn, Abby, Montanna, Nicole, Jackie, Alyson, Hailey, Skyler, James, Hailee, Zach, and Savannah.  Great work!


They will receive their extra thirty minute reading recess today and what a beautiful day to get some extra recess.  Starting with the October calendar students will receive an extra 30 minute recess and get the personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut's Book-It program.

Letter of the Day

We did the lowercase letter y today for cursive.  Since I have a three year old I know my Sesame Street fairly well.  We watched and listened to the video Don't Know Y today while we wrote our cursive.

Transportation Note

If students are traveling to Religion on Wednesday there is a new bus rule.  Students won't be dropped off in Montfort by the bus.  The student will need to get picked up by someone at the backdoor instead.  This is also the case for other activities like gymnastics.

News and Notes

Reading Calendars are due on Monday, October 1!  

We will have our extra reading recess on Monday too so don't forget!  I wanted to leave this on the top of the blog as a reminder for the weekend.

Other Notes:

• On Monday we'll also be taking our MAPs (Measures of Academic Progress) test for language arts.  The kids sometimes get confused because we are studying map skills in social studies, but the MAPs test is just an acronym.  On Oct. 1 we will do the language arts portion and on Oct. 3 we'll do the math portion.  Students usually get done in under an hour and the test is taken on the computer.
• I added a page at the top of the blog called Weekly Classroom Links.  This is a page that will change often but will give students a quick place to access the links we are using for that class period.  We will use the Internet during iPad time and/or computer time.
• The parade next week will actually begin at 2:30 and not 2:00 as it says on the master calendar.  If you are going to take your child home after the parade please send a note in the morning.  It can be kind of a crazy day.  Thanks.
• Finally, I had a plan to send links to interesting articles for parents this year (Don't worry, there won't be any quizzes:)  I have been sending out so many posts that I wasn't sure when I would start sending them out.  For now, I am adding it to the update page.  Here's the first article:  Your Third Grader's Brain

Almost The Weekend Games

Mega Math are games that go along with our new math series, Math Expressions.  I have linked several games below that fit the multiplication and division lessons we have been learning.

Mega Math

Country Critters - 2s and 5s

Country Critters - Grouping

Up, Up, and Array - Mult. up to 5

Up, Up, and Array - Div. up to 5

Up, Up, and Array - Multiples of 10

Also, most of the games I have been linking are Flash games, which won't work on iPads.  If you have an iPad and would like to still try these games you can download the app called Rover.  This is a web browser that will allow you to play flash games.

iPad Link

I am going to try to include iPads into our guided reading time two days a week (hopefully Thurs. and Fri.).  We have 10 iPads for checkout in the IGEMS so it will depend on whether other classes are using them.  Since we don't have enough iPads for each student to use individually we will split them up over two days.  Below is the link to the comprehension game they will work on with the iPad this week.  Some weeks they'll use the Internet and others they will use apps to work on different reading and/or writing skills.

Allie's Basketball Games - Millionaire Comprehension

Happy Half Day

What a beautiful day for the kids to be able to get a half day off.  I hope they are able to get out and enjoy the weather.

I have a few different Schoolhouse Rock Videos to share that go along with what we are learning in math and language arts.  So far we have only watched the multiplication fives video in class.  We will watch Mr. Morton on Thursday.

When we watch Mr. Morton the students will get in groups of 3 or 4.  They will watch the video and then as a group have to determine what the meaning of a subject and predicate is.  That way they are using the video to learn while they are being entertained.







Finally, I know on the video page that some of the Schoolhouse Rock videos aren't working.  I am working on updating those.  The videos above have all been updated and have current links.