Have a Wonderful Winter Break!

Winter break is already here! My oh my how the time flies by! :)

While we all deserve a break and are looking forward to two full weeks off, I want to take a moment to quickly say thank you to all of the students for giving me such a great first year so far at North Beach. I am happy to be teaching third grade here and am thankful for my awesome class for helping to welcome me this year! Thanks, too, to the families of the students in Rockin' Room 15 for helping support your students and our classroom in so many ways!

I can't wait to hear about all the adventures you had while away from school but remember to be safe, get plenty of rest, and enjoy yourself during this long break! I will see you all in 2012!

Marvelous Mathematicians!

WOW! Thank you so much to the 14 donors who donated to our DonorsChoose project and helped get it funded this weekend! I appreciate all of your support (both emotionally and financially) and your help to make our classroom the best it can be!

Cultural Heritage Project Questions Answered!

Woweee! What a fast month it has been.... I guess the holiday season always gets that way, doesn't it!

Well lots of exciting things have been happening in Room 15, namely our good friend, the cultural heritage project. First of all, I just want to say that this was a big project... and I mean a BIG, GIANT project! It was research, and writing, and reading, and more writing, and editing, and MORE! But you know what, we did it... dare I say we made it out alive and better students in the end!

I know that there are some project that come along that are very involved and challenge every ounce of ourselves as students (and teachers too!). The beauty of those projects, however, is that we learn a LOT, not only about the subject but about ourselves! I can't describe the groans I heard when I introduced the project to the students a mere three weeks ago. Nor can I describe to you the looks of terror on the faces of the students when I told them the due dates and what all would be involved in this project! But I have to say that after spending a week doing hours of research, both on computers and in books, writing a first draft, editing our first draft, writing our second draft, typing our final draft and finally printing off our final draft, I have never been prouder of the work I'm seeing from the students. For the first time this year I feel like I've found a project that students are not only engaged in, but are doing their BEST work that they're able. So as far as I'm concerned, mission accomplish. I'm not doing my job as a teacher if I'm not challenging your students to do their best every day and even stretch their understandings and abilities to the maximum limits. That's why we come to school after all is to learn and become better students, right? So before I answer the questions, I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of the students who have been at school every day, ready to learn, ready to add onto this monstrous project, and have given it EVERYTHING they have to give. You know who you are and I applaud your effort and determination. The result speaks for itself!

But enough of what I want to say! :) Now onto the questions that I've been receiving in this last minute crunch of the project and last minute reminders about deadlines!

1. When is the final draft of the written project due? The final written draft of the project (TYPED) is due Wednesday December 14th (tomorrow!).
2. What format do you want the typed final draft in? Each paragraph should be on its own page with the title of the paragraph's topic as a title of the page. For example, on the page with the paragraph with my country's culture at the top, I would write the title "Culture" at the top! :)
3. What size is the poster? What is on the poster? Do we provide our own materials for the poster? The poster will be a standard sized poster board paper, approximately 24"x18". The poster will have pictures (each student is allowed to have two pictures printed off of the computer at school, but more can be printed off at home and brought in) and favorite pieces of information about their country. I expect each poster to have 5-7 interesting "facts" or pieces of information about the country in addition to the poster pictures. Make sure your country's name is big and bold! The materials will be provided for the students at school on December 14th to work on in class. Whatever isn't finished will be done at home.
4. Tell me more about the International Celebration! The International Celebration will be in Room 15 on December 15th starting at 2 o'clock. Family and friends are welcome and encouraged to come and see a little taste from the cultures around the world in our classroom! "Official" invitations will be coming home tomorrow with the students. Students are expected to wear costumes which represent traditional clothing from their country's heritage. The costumes don't have to be elaborate, though! It can definitely be our "best approximation" of what they would be wearing! :) Students are also expected to bring food from their country for students to "taste test". This means a bite-sized sample for each student, not a full meal! Please make enough for about 40 people to taste.

Last but not least, thank you SO much for those people who have helped make this project successful! I know at times, it seemed like we'd never make it but here we are! We've learned a lot and had a ton of fun in the process! I can't wait to see you all on Thursday for this GREAT celebration!

Double Your Donation!

We have a Donors Choose project open right now that would love some holiday gifts this season! Some families have asked what I would like for Christmas (or winter holiday) gifts and honestly I have pretty much everything I need in the classroom. However, we have a math project open right now on a great website called www.donorschoose.org where people can donate directly toward projects we have needs for in the classroom! I was SO excited to hear that from now through December 12th, DonorsChoose is matching your donations dollar for dollar!

You can go to the website above and look up Marvelous Mathematicians in the search bar to find us or click here! When you check out add the matching code SPARK and DonorsChoose will match your donation toward our class project! How cool is that?!

We are so thankful for all that you do for us throughout the year and hope that everyone is having a great winter so far! Stay warm out there!

Book Orders Make Great Gifts!

Well the last book orders before winter break came out yesterday (seems so weird to talk about winter break already!!) and I forgot to write on them that they are due November 29th. There are a TON of great products this month and a lot of great ideas for Christmas gifts in there! If you go to www.scholastic.com and sign into book clubs as a parent using our classroom activation code (J2J6H) you can order online even which gives us free books each time! On the classroom page you will see recommended titles as well as a classroom wish list in case you're interested in supporting our classroom library this holiday season! Thank you so much for your orders!

Note: If you're interested in having a book ordered as a gift, I recommend ordering online and sending me a quick email that it's a gift. That way I know to hold the book and set up a secret meeting time when the books come in! :)

A Break from Posting

Not that I've been super regular lately with posting but there will be a slight interruption in posting on my behalf. I just moved this weekend and amidst everything I'm in the chaos of unpacking AND I don't have internet hooked up just yet. Thanks for hanging in there with my during the interruption! :)

Sand Art and Verbs

Well today was a SUPER fast day!

Today was one of the first days where I feel like the lightbulb went off with most of the students. They are finally getting into the routine we've been working on all year and are getting into such a great rhythm that they can come in from recess, look at the schedule and get straight to work! It's so exciting to finally see we are at that place! I was so proud today!

In art today, we did some sand painting to go with our Rocks and Minerals science finale. We used the Grand Canyon as our inspiration and really got some great results!

Since this week is a shortened week (no school Friday for Veteran's Day) there is NO SPELLING. Instead we are focusing on action verbs which are always lots of fun! We did our introduction today about what action verbs are and starting tomorrow we will learn the three tenses that our verbs can take - past, future, and present. It's always exciting to see what everyone comes up with as their sentences. :)

Today we also started our author study on Kevin Henkes. We are going to be focusing on one author for a couple of weeks to find more books that we are interested in and learn to improve our writing through reading other author's work. Kevin Henkes is one of my favorites and has such great stories that have really positive messages. We read Chrysanthemum today - ask your student what it was about!

To start off the spirit of Thanksgiving we also started our expository writing about why we are thankful. It was really interesting to hear what the students were thankful for! Some started off with the "essentials" in life like food, clothing, housing, etc. while others took a totally opposite approach and were thankful for video games and Blu-ray DVDs! What a difference!

Behind Schedule... Once Again!

Goodness, Gracious, Oh MY!

I am behind schedule on posting AGAIN...

I dare say that you're all used to it by this point and are hoping I get my act together pretty soon. Let me tell you, that makes two of us! :) I am definitely ready to get back into my blogging routine and keep in touch more often! With the party this week and conferences coming up soon I have been on overload but the excuses stop here!

This week we have a LOT of great things coming up in our shortened week (reminder that Friday there is no school for Veteran's Day).

This week we will talk about VERBS! I love the actions words because we get to ACT it out! How fun is that?!

Junior Achievement is finishing their last two lessons with us for social studies which is bittersweet. We have LOVED having Devin and Cole in our room teaching us so much about social studies but it's a great launching point for our social studies unit starting next week!

This week we are also starting a new kind of writing - expository writing! Expository writing is non-fiction writing meant to inform or explain. We are going to be writing about why we are thankful since Thanksgiving is right around the corner (can anyone else not believe how fast this year is flying by??).

With so much going on this week I hope we all get plenty of sleep and are ready for a great week ahead! See you all tomorrow morning!

Halloween Monday

Wow, what a crazy and FAST day today was!

The party was a LOT of fun and the costumes everyone had was great! Pictures will be coming soon. Parents: If you have any pictures, please email them to me so I can get a slideshow put together asap! Thanks so much for all of your hard work decorating and your support with snacks and games! We couldn't do it without you!

Book Orders Due Tomorrow (Tuesday)!

Calling all book orderers!

Book orders are due tomorrow by the end of the day! Online is the best way because you don't have to find those paper forms AND our classroom gets a free book... win win!!

There are some great books and a wonderful opportunities to start holiday shopping early (I know it's weird to start thinking about it now but it's a good idea to plan ahead... Halloween is in one week after all and those holidays are going to be here before we know it!)

See you all tomorrow!

Autumn Mobiles

Autumn Mobiles

Click on the link above to see a quick Animoto video showing our first art project - Fall Art Mobiles! They turned out great and add an autumn festiveness to our classroom!

WANTED: Post-it Notes!

Finding Nemo in sticky notes, anyone?

I'm not asking for quite that many stickies but we are sure in need of some in Room 15. We are using our stickies to record our thinking in our books and mark important information to deepen our thinking. Right now each child only gets 2 stickies per book which is terrible! I feel like I am telling them, "Please don't think very much on this book!" So, we are in need of sticky notes of any size, shape, and color (and actually the wider variety the better!). If you're out and see a great deal and are thinking of us, we would be SO thankful!

Wednesday.... already?!?

Well I swear, I have been blinking and the day is over! It's going to be Thanksgiving before we know it!

Today was a very quick day to say the least! Roots of Empathy in the morning, all the way to our student council assembly in the afternoon so we could vote for our 5th grade class president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Whew! Great speeches today!

This week we are working on long I words and are trying a new way to practice those spelling activities. We are using word sorts for students to really notice and learn spelling patterns in the week and gain more exposure to words that follow the same pattern. Each day during our word work time we are doing a different activity that relates to our word sorts. Monday we get our new words and explore with them, Tuesday we draw pictures that go with the sorted words (only 10 pictures are required), Wednesday is sorting with a partner, Thursday is finding words in books, and Friday is a partner practice quiz and our official spelling quiz. The students so far have really been doing well at noticing those word patterns and the activities have REALLY helped their reading with words that have the patterns we are focusing on.

This week we also started grammar during our writing time. This week we are discussing nouns and how to make nouns plural. This Friday we will be having a quiz on plural nouns to see how much we remember from the week. We will be working through parts of speech (at least the major ones like nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) and then we will work on improving our writing grammar which is a big area of improvement for the students.

Here is a great idea I'm thinking of for next week when we do adjectives to tie in Halloween since it's on the mind of EVERYONE! :) Thank you Pinterest for the great idea and Mrs. Lemons for your constant inspiration!

Adorable... right!? I can't wait to see what we come up with!

This week we are going to start finishing our first personal narrative which is really exciting as well. Most of the stories are so wonderful it's going to be great to publish and finally celebrate such a great accomplishment for everyone!

Book orders came home yesterday. Does anyone else LOVE book orders like I do? It's like a party whenever those white and red boxes arrive full of brand new books and I LOVE seeing the joy on every kid's face when the book orders are handed out. It's an instant love of reading which makes my teacher heart happy! Remember there is the option of ordering online to help our class earn more free books and points. Thanks for your support for our classroom and for your student's reading!

A Quick Reminder

I'm on my way to training so more posts will be coming tonight but I wanted to send a quick reminder that picture day is tomorrow!!

It will be individual pictures only and money is due to me (or done online) by tomorrow. We will have pictures first thing in the morning before recess so get those pearly whites ready for a big smile!

Monday!

Well another Monday has passed us and wow was it a fast one! Must have been eventful weekends because everyone was so tired today! :)

Since we have a shortened week we don't have a celebrity of the week and we won't have a spelling list since we want to make sure we have plenty of practice time. Enjoy the week off of spelling and get ready for more long vowels next week!

Today we finished our fall art mobiles and they turned out GREAT! Pictures coming soon!

Since we don't have spelling homework this week we have other homework that will be coming home this week. Today students have writing where they need to finish re-writing their discovery drafts of their personal narratives. Parent input is GREATLY appreciated for students. As a group we are having a really hard time understanding that the first draft we write is not perfect and needs to have adjustments made, whether that be spelling, paragraphing, grammar, etc. The kids seemed outraged when I suggest that they re-write a clean draft so we can continue editing this week. Once we started editing, though, they realized how much could be adjusted and changed.... and we haven't even started paragraphing! :) Baby steps and we will get there together!

We have also started working on alphabetizing and this week we will spend a lot of time working on dictionary skills. Dictionary skills are really important at this age to build vocabulary and have the ability to find words in a reasonable amount of time. Since the dictionaries are alphabetical we start with alphabetizing. Most of us did a fantastic job today and I was surprised how much they already knew! I can see this will be no problem for us which is great to hear! We are started building vocabulary next week and those dictionaries will be a lot of help for us!

Wish List

I've had a lot of families come to me and ask, is there anything Room 15 needs for extra supplies. First of all, you all are too generous to me! You're making our classroom such a wonderful place to teach and learn. Secondly, I often draw a HUGE blank when I'm not thinking about something we need so that doesn't help anyone! :)

So to help everyone out, I added our classroom wish list to the right hand sidebar so that if you're ever wondering I will constantly be adding and adjusting things on the list so I never have to give you that blank look again! :)

Thank you for your wonderful support and involvement so far this year! We've been off to a great start so far thanks to all of you!

Seiji Celebrity of the Week!

Seiji was this week's Celebrity of the Week! He chose to bring in so many special things to share with us. This one is a necklace his grandmother made...

and this is a necklace he got in Hawaii! Boy, did we love hearing about Hawaii!
You did a wonderful job this week Seiji!

There won't be a new celebrity this week since we are on a short week... no school Friday for a professional development day for teachers so enjoy that long weekend everyone! To make sure it's fair and everyone gets a full week we won't have a celebrity but on Thursday the new celebrity will be chosen... who will it be? :)

Roots of Empathy

Wednesday we started a new program that will last 28 weeks this year called Roots of Empathy. The program teaches the students how to become empathetic, respectful, and builds a classroom community. We even have a "class baby" that will help us through the process and once a month our real baby will visit the classroom so we can learn with him. We will get to see him learn and grow from 2 months old to 11 months old to find out how much changes in 9 months of life for a baby. We are all so excited to meet baby Leo this week!

The class is taught by Miss Lilia our school counselor. She has a green blanket that is only for baby Leo so we practiced staying off the blanket so Leo can have his space. This day we only used a doll to pretend what it would be like when Leo is here.

Miss Lilia taught us our greeting and leaving song for baby Leo and we got to practice so we are ready for his arrival this week!
Great job Room 15 for being such respectful and attentive listeners!
We get to meet baby Leo this week! I can't wait to see what's in store for us next!

Rhiannon Celebrity of the Week

Well.... I am so behind that I still have pictures of Rhiannon from her Celebrity of the Week (**cough, that was two weeks ago, cough**). Ahem, so here we are!

Rhiannon chose to bring her GIANT stuffed bear to share with us! He was definitely a favorite in the whole class!

That's a BIG bear!
Friday for Celebrity of the Week all the students get a poster signed by their classmates to take home!

Fall Art Mobiles

Whew! I can finally start to play catch up on the posts I've been hanging onto this week. YIKES!

Last Monday we started Art for the first semester. We got to start our fall art mobiles by using liquid starch and tissue paper to create a layered, fall-colored tissue paper base that we can cut into next art session to make our mobiles.

Look at those artists at work!

They all did a GREAT job listening and getting a thick layer of tissue paper down with a variety of fall colors. I can't wait to see how they turn out tomorrow!

Uh oh...

Guess which teacher has 2 thumbs and is TOTALLY slacking on making blog posts to all of my wonderful parents... THIS GIRL!

This week has totally slipped away from me and I have a TON to post! I will work hard on getting it up ASAP! Meetings and training every night made getting to the computer pretty much impossible! So sorry!!

Last Day in September!

Wow! Where has the month gone to? Already tomorrow we enter the month of October! I still can't believe it's already here but I can't lie that I'm excited. We have our first month under our belts and we are ready to really dig into the curriculum!

Today was Rhiannon's last day as Celebrity of the Week and Monday will bring a new Celebrity into our classroom. Who will it be, you ask? Well I guess I will have to wait for Monday for the big reveal! :)

Thank you SO much to those families who came to curriculum night last night! It's always nice to see your smiling faces! :) If you were unable to make it, the paperwork was sent home with your child today in their folder so make sure to check that out as soon as they get home. There is a syllabus for the class and a parent volunteer form if you're interested in volunteering! The more the merrier! :) I will try to get in touch with all of the people who are interested in volunteering by early next week to start getting times and schedules locked in so we can get going ASAP!

Again, thank you for all of your support so far! Today was a GREAT day in class for the students - I'm super proud of them all! Being a Friday and a rainy one at times didn't distract them and in fact, it was probably our best day of the week!

Monday brings a new month and a slightly new schedule - we start ART first thing Monday morning which is AMAZING! Next week we also start music and we will get back into the library on Tuesday to check out books so make sure they are in on time. Great job Room 15! Have a great weekend! Relax, recharge, and rest and we will see you Monday!

SMARTboard!!!

We got a SMARTboard for our classroom!! YAHOO!!! If you couldn't tell, I'm super (make that SUPER) excited about it!

Curriculum night is September 29th from 6:30 to 8(ish)! Please try to make it so we can all be on the same page for the year on everything in Room 15 from A to Z! S just may be for SMARTboard - come see how wonderful it is! :)

Celebrity of the Week Mystery Guest!

Congratulations to Rhiannon for being our first celebrity of the week! Today the celebrity gets to bring in his or her favorite book to share with the group. Rhiannon decided to have her mom and dad come in and read the book to us which was extra special!

Thanks for coming and sharing her special day! We LOVED the stories!

Rain and Books!

Wow! Where did this ugly weather come from? Yesterday was blustery but gorgeous and I could get used to that! Then gray and RAINY Monday came - YUCK!!

Tomorrow the book orders are due - PLEASE make sure your online order is submitted by 4 tomorrow so I can send in the orders. Make sure paper orders get in right away so I can get the orders done and money sent into Scholastic.

The school book fair started today - feel free to check out the selection in the library before or after school. There are some WONDERFUL books in there! We will be going as a class tomorrow afternoon to take a browse through what's available!

Tomorrow also bring a surprise in the classroom.... I will give you a hint.... it's really SMART! :) Can't wait to show you! See you Tuesday!

Spelling Test Tomorrow - Study Hard!

I will make today's post short and sweet because I am nursing a cold (ugh!) and want to make sure I'm better tomorrow.

Tomorrow is our first spelling test of the year - YAY! Oh, am I the only one cheering? :) Make sure you study hard and show those long a sounds what you are made of.

Today we continued to build our reading stamina and read a staggering 22 minutes and 38 seconds before getting distracted. Can I say WOWZA!? I don't know where that's been hiding but hopefully we can bring it out again! :)

Great job today everyone! Keep up the great work for a fabulous Friday!

Spelling This Week - Long A Sounds

This week we have started our spelling program and I wanted to make sure parents and families know exactly what to expect since there was a big lack of homework turned in today. Yikes!

On Monday students are given a pre-test to decide which group of words they are going to be doing. If a students gets at least 90% of those words correct then they will be given the challenge words for the week. If not, the students will be given the standard words for the week. However, regardless of which list you are given, both follow the same pattern for the week. For example, no matter what list you are given this week, you will be having words that follow the long a pattern. After the pretest, students are given an intro to the pattern of the week to gain exposure to the words and start practicing recognizing patterns that occur in the words.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday students are participating in homework AND in class practice with those words via games, SMARTboards, whiteboard practice and writing. This allows all students to practice the spelling pattern for the week, regardless of the level of words they are given individually. The homework is given out on Tuesday and students need to complete one activity to complete each night and return the next morning in class. Today only 6 students returned homework which concerns me that students are not practicing at home. All students NEED to practice those words both to learn the pattern and learn those words.

Friday we will have a short review time with the whole class and then students will take the spelling test for the week. On the spelling test there will be 20 words eventually. There will be the 10 that they have studied, 5 additional that follow the pattern but haven't been studied prior to see if students KNOW the pattern or are just memorizing words, and 5 high frequency words that the students doesn't know. Keeping in mind that this week there won't be any high frequency words because we haven't finished assessing those things, so there will only be 15 this week.

PLEASE feel free to contact me if there are any questions. Email is easiest for me (I actually have a school email now!) and it is lndunwoodie(at)seattleschools.org. I am free some after school times and before school some days to meet for any concerns or questions.

Your child got their list on Tuesday of this week and it is bright yellow! Keep an eye out for it and make sure it stays in the homework folder or in a safe place at home. In third grade we are working a lot on becoming more independent and responsible for ourselves so it's important that students start practicing not losing their work as soon as it leaves the classroom. :)

Great work today Room 15!

Magazine Money

On your school supply lists there was an item requesting you bring in $5 for a subscription to a classroom magazine. I have only received the money from 9 students and we need to get it in by the end of the month so we can get our subscription asap. This year we are ordering National Geographic for Kids!! I'm super excited!

The following students still NEED to bring in $5 ASAP.

Aia

Alex

Amrit

Annalise

Clara

Grace F.

Grace H.

Leslie

Makenzie

Max

Quinn

Rhiannon

Seiji

Sylvie

If you think you turned in your money, please check with your student and in his/her backpack because I haven't received it. We will be placing the order at the end of the month and it's important everyone has their money turned in so everyone can get the magazine. Thank you all for your support! :)

Book Orders due September 27th!

Hey there Room 15 families! Another Monday has come and gone and I am playing some SERIOUS catch up on my blogging! Sorry for the delay - these first weeks have been nothing but catch up for me! :)

Book Orders went home Friday and are due September 27th if you're interested in ordering. I have set up online ordering for our class which saves a lot of time and hassle if you're interested. If you need that extra incentive, our class gets a FREE book for every order you place online which is AWESOME! :) Ordering online is SUPER easy. Log into scholastic.com's website for book clubs and create a one time log in address that you will remember. Our class activation code is J2J6H. This allows you to place orders online and they will arrive with the rest of our class books that I can deliver to your child when they come in! (Sorry for all of the capitals, but I'm always super excited about book orders.... I mean who isn't?)

I sent the LUCKY flyer home so I will make a few recommendations if you're not sure what to purchase. Online there is a LOT more to choose from and other flyers to browse which is fun.

#5 on the Lucky Book order and only $5!

#26 in the LUCKY flyer and at only $1 you can't go wrong!

#48 in the LUCKY flyer - this is an AMAZING fairy tale book you can read forward or backwards! $5

#35 in the LUCKY flyer - Jack is a third grade detective who can talk to animals... how cool! Only $3!

There is SO much more where that comes from but it's a great starting place. Scholastic book orders are a great way to build your at home library and increase those reading scores. In third grade we transition toward reading more chapter books so the more exposure the better! :)

Happy reading and ordering!

Book Orders and "The Talk"

Thursday is here already... am I the only asking where has the week gone?

Our first book order of the year is going out tomorrow with your students. I have also set up online ordering to make things nice and convenient for you and your family to order books. PLUS, when you order online, our class gets a free book! It's a win win situation with Scholastic! Tomorrow I will post some recommendations from the book order, but as always there is much more to browse through online and more catalogs to see too for higher readers. Keep an eye out for those!

Today was also the first day we had to have "The Talk". Things have been going GREAT so far in the year but today we hit a small stumbling block. Nothing major, several of the students decided that listening wasn't what they wanted to do and students weren't always saying very nice things to each other. In Room 15 we are a community of learners and I work hard to make sure that everyone feels safe and supported in my room. We had a class meeting and talked about what was happening and I made it clear that bullying and discouraging words to one another were ABSOLUTELY NOT acceptable - no exceptions. After our meeting the students changed their behavior and most of the kinks were worked out so we ended the day on a positive note, which was good for everyone. I think this week has just been our first full week and we have covered a LOT of material so far and everyone is just ready for the weekend. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday! :)

I know tomorrow we will all have a better day together and be ready to support each other as learners and get back our classroom community we have been working on this year. Remember, North Beach Seals model excellence!

Building Stamina

The reading workshop is in full swing and we have started building stamina in our reading - reading for longer and longer and longer. Today our maximum stamina was 14 minutes which was pretty impressive for day 6 of school! Way to go third graders - every day I am more impressed!

Starting next week there will be math homework as well as regular classroom homework so be on the lookout for BOTH pieces of homework every night. We are working on making sure things are written in the planners every day so that we are staying organized as much as possible and can remember what we are supposed to do at home for homework. Next week we will also start our spelling! YAY! :) Later this week I will be sending home a more detailed newsletter in paper form as well as on our class site that will allow you to better understand how spelling will work for your third grader. They will need your help at home and I will post the lists on our site in case those pesky words go missing like they sometimes do! :)

Great job again today Room 15! See you tomorrow, homework in hand! :)

Our First Monday

Well we made it through our first Monday together!

Today we started a LOT of new things. Today was the first day of reader's workshop - I was VERY impressed with how well and how long the students can read! 30 minutes just flew right by us!

We also started our first class read aloud called Clementine by Sarah Pennypacker. It is a great story about a goofy girl and all the trouble she gets into. Ask your child what the last part they remember was! If they need a hint, ask about Margaret's hair! :)

"Walk to Math" started today as well! I am currently teaching the third grade math and Mr. Paul is teaching the advanced math. We are off to a great start together!

Today we decorated writer's notebooks to show ownership which turned out great! Writing seems to be the biggest struggle for our class at this point. When it is time to write, whether it is about our own stories, given topics, or to explain understanding, the vast majority of the class starts a LOT of complaining. I promised them that I have not lost anyone yet to writing - but it is still an issue. A good idea is to have your child write down their favorite thing they did that day at school and then read the story to you. That encourages their writing AND you get a sample of their best work! Win, win!

We also started our science unit on Rocks and Minerals today. Today we got through writing what we think we know and questions we have about rocks and minerals. Tomorrow we are getting hands on with some REAL rocks to find out if what we thought we know is true and to hopefully learn something new. Students are welcome to bring rocks found outside to class and we will start our own rock garden to display.

Keep up the great work as we head into Tuesday! :)

Happy First Day!

Today was our first day and everyone did AMAZING! I was so impressed with all of your hard work and attention. I know this is a long couple days with routines and everything but you did a great job and were EXCELLENT listeners! I was very impressed!

Make sure that you are bringing back any volunteer forms that need signed, blog picture releases, and your $5 for a magazine subscription ASAP. Remember, we are a NUT FREE classroom so that includes peanuts and all tree nuts. No food containing these items will be allowed in the classroom.

Thanks for your time and consideration for health issues within the room. Can't wait for day 2! :)

Welcome!

Welcome to Rockin' Room 15! The start of the third grade year is almost here! Can't wait to see you all at the Meet and Greet on the 6th! Stay after for popsicles on the playground, too!

I'm so excited to start our year together! See you soon!