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!