Half-Way There

Sending home mid-terms yesterday means that we are half through the school year already. Yikes! Where did the time go?! We have accomplished so many things already, yet we still have SO much more to learn and experience together. Looking ahead to the coming months brings many exciting opportunities, too!

This past week was our mid-year benchmarking, which interrupted many of our normal activities and lessons. I am looking forward to studying the data more in depth this week with our collaboration team to celebrate successes of our students and evaluate different options for further improving instruction. Every year I teach I continue to learn more and more!!!

Quick note on the mid-terms --- Please disregard the "Spring" label on top. I must have been dreaming of warmer weather when I typed that heading, because it's clearly cold and blustery outside as I'm typing this post. Does anyone else have that problem?

On Friday we started working on two classroom goals: 1 - clean room, and 2 - be ready. Every week we will start with a certain number of points for everyday of the weekA nytime I clean up unnecessary items or we aren't ready when expected we lose a point, and anytime students are going above and beyond we gain a point. At the end of the week if we have remaining points we've earned class reward time. We started Friday morning and the class was all-in! Students were working together well, encouraging one another, and paying attention to time management as we transitioned throughout the day. It was great!

I encouraged everyone to find some creative ways to be active INdoors over the weekend due to the cold temperatures. I promised to post a link to a Zumba class that I found online. I haven't watched it all the way through, but the video is from Hull College and appears to be led by a college student. The man who leads it is quite the dancer, and it's a great workout! Here's the link to YouTube!

Math, Math and More Math

Just want to give everyone a heads up for our math homework tonight. We struggled a little with our study guide today as we have learned ALL new concepts this chapter. There is a practice packet coming home tonight to help. Here is how it can work.

 

The kids have been told they can do a few problems from each section and if they are getting them all correct without any help, they do not have to do the whole packet. However, if they complete 5 whole pages (front and back) correctly, they will get ‘something’ from me. J

 

So… as a parent, if they do not finish the whole thing, it is not a big deal. It is about finding the area of struggle and practicing. J

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

Adventures in PowerPoint

Today  we started a new adventure with technology and learning. We are doing a technique known as Jigsaw when we break off into groups and are in charge of becoming "experts" and then teaching others.

Today we broke off into groups of 5 and separated our Social Studies unit into sections. We started reading and recording our information. We also had a preview of what our final product could look like. Yes indeed... we are doing PowerPoints. It might take us awhile, but what motivation it creates. The kids are so excited to start their final projects and know it is going to take some hard work to get the information ready to go but with a final project like a PowerPoint, they have all the motivation they need.


Other important notes:

We have a math test coming up on Friday. Watch for the study guide to come home tomorrow so you can go over things with your child.

Library is tomorrow (Thursday).

Conference slips went home today. They are due back on the 18th (I believe) or sooner.


Upcoming event:

Parents in the classroom.

Have you ever wondered what goes on in your child's classroom? Ever thought of volunteering an hour or two? Now is the time. The months of February and March are "Bring your parent to school" months in our classroom. Let's set up a time to get you into our classroom to work with kids, read a book, correct papers, help with recess, assist during teaching, etc. What a great way for you to show your child how much you care about their education and a neat way to give you an idea of how things happen in our room. More information will be coming soon, but if you are interested right away, please let me know so I can start the schedule.

Back in the swing...

Welcome back!

Wow what a great vacation, but am I the only one who thinks it went by way too fast? We shared some of our favorites (and not-so-favorites) from our vacation and it sounds like next year Santa needs to stay away from clothes. :-)

It was so great to see everyone back. Yesterday was a little crazy with all the excitement of seeing our friends... today, not so much. We are all pretty sleepy. But we are right back into our regular routine. Here is what we are working on...

Math: Decimals! Yikes! Although, we are seeing the light turn on for many and are really getting a great grasp on things.

Writing: Building the paragraph. This is a huge skill for 3rd graders that works on taking our current stories and "beefing" them up a little.

Science: Magnets with Mrs. Clarey

Social Studies: Moving on to Unit 3 and learning about how people affect a community. We have had some VERY interesting conversations in only 1 day.

Reading: We have started small groups with myself. Our skill this week is author's purpose and irregular verbs.

Quick reminders:

Fargo Force reading calendars were due.

Snow gear needs to come to school every day. :-) It's cold out!