Final Test

Most students finished their final test today.  They will be taking the ACT Aspire again at the end of the school year.  There was a lot of great effort taken on these assessments.

ACT Aspire

On Monday the students completed the language portion of this test.  Today they completed the math section.  Tomorrow will be their last test.  It will be on reading.   I should have their results by conference time to share with you.  They will take this same test at the end of the school year.  Below is a picture of students enjoying their break after focusing on the language portion of the ACT Aspire.  My wife, Melissa, was nice enough to cut up watermelon for them to enjoy.

Vocabulary Words

Below I listed the vocabulary words your child has learned so far this school.  I will be giving them a test on their understanding of these words in the near future.  If you get an opportunity please test your child on his/her understanding of these words.

absorb
pause
examine
active
gradual
rare
habit
prevent

Main Idea

Today, as a group, we discussed how to find the main idea of a story.  Also, we talked about supporting details.  During reading each student was partnered up with a classmate.  They were given an article from Ranger Rick to read with their partner.  As they were reading, they were asked to figure out the main idea of their article.  Also, they were asked to find four supporting details to prove that they chose the correct main idea for their story.  Tonight for homework, I'm asking each student to practice this skill.  Today, they either checked out a magazine from the library or borrowed one from me. In their homework notebook there is a sticker that states their assignment.  Please help your child as needed with this assignment.  The more practice they get at this skill the easier it will become for them.

Lockers

The students are excited to have new lockers.  Starting on Monday they will start using them.  They will keep their gym shoes in the classroom, but most of their other things will kept in their lockers.

ACT Aspire

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday our class will be taking the ACT Aspire.  It's a national assessment.  The students will be tested on reading, math and language.  We will take these tests on our chrome books from 9:00 to 10:00 on each of these days.  Please just remind your child to try his or her best.  They will take this assessment again at the end of the school year to measure their academic growth through third grade.

Milwaukee Zoo

Next Friday is the Milwaukee Zoo field trip.  I will remind your child if he or she ordered a bag lunch for this field trip midweek.  Don't forget to keep an eye on the weather forecast.

Allison's Survey

Here are the results for Allison's survey.  She will share her results with the class on Monday.  Her question was, "What is your favorite pet?"

Pet	Number of Students
dog	15
fish	2
cat	4
hamster	0
other	1

Mystery Chemicals Experiment #2

Today the students mixed each mystery chemical with vinegar.  They took detailed notes.  Some students even made predictions on what the mystery chemicals are.  They are always required to explain why they are predicting the way they are.  I believe they had a great time exploring and learning more about these mystery chemicals.

Birthday

It was Ambrosia's birthday on September 22nd.  Happy birthday again, Ambrosia!

Reading Strategies

The past two days were a refresher course for the students on a couple of important reading strategies.  These are two strategies that they learned in second grade and will continue to use throughout their lifetime.  They are cause/effect and using context clues.  The pictures below show the students using context clues.  The statements below the pictures are cause and effect sentences the students created after reading an article about sea turtles on the National Geographic for Kids website.

Green sea turtles have strong flippers, so they can travel long distances.  Ambrosia & Austin

The green sea turtle is green in color, because it eats seaweed and sea grass.  Danica

Most baby leatherback sea turtles don't make it to the sea, because they are scooped up by birds or confused by house lights.  Zack

Female green sea turtles come up on the beach, so they can lay their eggs.  Julian

People throw plastic in the water, so sea turtles mistake them for jelly fish.  Joel

Bear Problem

Here is an example of the type of math problem I've been asking the students to solve the past two days.  We've started each math class with a question like this.

About how much more do three female black bears weigh compared to three male sun bears?  Without finding the exact values, tell how you can solve this problem.

Weight

Type of Bear	Female	Male
Sun Bear	78 pounds	95 pounds
Black Bear	215 pounds	345 pounds

Math Properties

Over the past few days the students have been learning about the addition properties in mathematics.  Also, we have gone over the multiplication properties.  Today, Sam and Danica came to front of the classroom to explain two of these properties.   They made wonderful teachers.  Below the pictures of Sam and Danica are examples of the addition properties.

Mirror, Mirror

Each day two students are assigned a word.  They are to find the definition of this word and to draw a  picture of it too.  Finally they create their own sentence using this word correctly.  They complete all of their work on a mirror located in the back of the classroom.  At the end of the day they teach their classmates about the word they were assigned to complete in the morning.  Finally all of the students go to their vocabulary document on their chrome books and add this new word to it.

Tally System

This morning the students noticed a white laminated piece of paper taped to their desk.  Each morning they will start with four tallies on this piece of paper.  If they are able to keep these tallies on their desk throughout the day they are then rewarded with four soar coupons.  Students can lose these tallies throughout the day for not following classroom expectations.  Also, they can gain more tallies for doing positive things in our classroom.  Your children will also use these laminated pieces of paper on their desks to complete math problems and to keep track of where they are on ixl.

Mr. Logan

This morning Logan shared the results of his survey.  He wasn't surprised by the results.  He assumed that most students would choose video games.

Logan's Survey Results

Logan asked the students a great question.  He asked them, "What would you rather do?"  Below are his results.  He will be presenting his learnings on Monday.  Great job Logan!

Choice	Number
Video games	13
School	1
Play inside	4
Play outside	5
None	1

Morning Sorts

As part of their morning routine each day the students work on a word sort with a partner.  They are given 20 words and then have to organize them into four different categories based on spelling patters, parts of words, etc.  After organizing their words successfully, they then are asked to complete various tasks with these same 20 words.  They complete a lot of this work on Google Docs and then send it to me.  These word sorts force them to look at these words more completely.  This will help improve their spelling and reading.  In a couple of weeks, we will start to have weekly spelling tests.

Reader's Theatre

The students got into small groups today to work on their reading fluency.  Each group was given a different folktale to practice reading together.  Each person was a different character in the story.  Eventually they will read these scripts in front of the whole class.  I may even video tape some of them to share with you on the blog.  Maybe they will even get a chance to perform their scripts in front of another class.

Mystery Chemicals

The students are completing various experiments to determine what are mystery chemicals are.  So far the students just know them as blue, red, yellow, orange and green.  Through these experiments and by taking detailed notes they should be able identify them by the end of the unit.  In this experiment they observed how each chemical interacted with water.

Rounding Masters

Over the past week the students have been working hard at rounding numbers in a variety ways.  They are doing fantastic.

Math Teachers

Today in math we learned more about rounding numbers.  Four students volunteered to be the teachers in front of the classroom.  They were Elexus, Josephe, Maddie and Logan.  They did a great job explaining how to round numbers.  If your child wants to work on practicing rounding, they could work on P.1 and P.2 in third grade on ixl.  If they want a challenge, they should work on A.6 in fourth grade on ixl.  Keep practicing.

Famous Quotes from Room 117

Over the past week we've read the story, "The Chalk Box Kid."  We finished reading this story yesterday.  Here are some quotes made by students in our classroom about this story:

“I thought the book was pretty good, because I really like the ending.  In the beginning he didn’t have many friends, but at the end he had a lot of friends.”  Logan

“I like how at the beginning Vance was a bully and then at the end he became friends with Gregory.”  Shyann

“I liked the page in Chapter 9 when it showed the picture of the garden, because it looked like it had a lot of detail.  Allison and I counted 119 plants.”  Brayden

“It was very interesting.  I like how in the beginning Vance and everyone else was being mean to Gregory and then when the teachers looked at the drawings and loved it, Vance and the other students started being nice to him.”  Allie

“I like the part when Ivy introduced her brother to Gregory, because they became friends.”  Josephe

“I like how at the beginning Ivy was shy and then at the end she became friends with Gregory.”  Tifa

Guest Speakers

Today we had a visit from three local fire fighters.  They shared with the students the importance of preventing fires.  They also discussed with them on what to do if there is a fire in their home.  The fire fighters brought a special model house with them.  They used this interactive house to show the students how fires can start and how to prevent them.  The students listened to two actual 911 calls.  They used these phone calls to show them the importance of staying calm when calling 911.   The students asked some great questions and learned quite a bit.  Today they are bringing home a quiz that the fire fighters gave them to complete and go over with an adult.  Please go over this with your child.  Then sign the paper and have your child return it to school.  Your child will receive a free ice cone from Dairy Queen after completing these steps.

First Night of Homework

The students were given a math homework sheet and a reading assignment to complete tonight.  Your child should read 15 minutes.  While they are reading they should complete the prediction, clarify and question sections of their homework sheet.  When they are finished with their reading they should fill out the summarize section of this sheet.  As a class we've been working on gaining a better understanding of these four reading strategies over the past week, so your child should be able to complete this reading independently.  Our library time is tomorrow, so it's important for your child to return his/her books.  The books they check out of the library will become their homework books for the week.

Tilt a Whirl

Today, we learned about Earth.  The students learned how the Earth spins completely around once a day.  They learned that this causes us to have day and night.  Also, they learned that the Earth orbits the Sun.  The students learned that it takes one year for the Earth to move completely around the Sun.  We did our best to model how the Earth moves.  Joel was the Earth and Maddie was the Sun.  After doing this activity, Danica told the class a great connection that she had made.  She told them that the way the Earth moves is kind of like how a tilt a whirl moves.  She did a great job explaining herself.  Way to go Danica!

Pictograph

Today the students learned about pictographs.  At the last part of our lesson today the students had to create a pictograph based on the data we collected together.  Each student had to choose a shape from a large container in our classroom.  They took this shape without looking.  We then kept track of the different colors that they were picking randomly.  Everyone was successful in creating their pictographs.  Allie and Julian did a great job on their graph.  Allie came up in front of the class to share it with the rest of the class.

Survey Says

This school year each child will be in charge of creating a survey for the entire class.  During the past week I modeled for them how to do this.  They learned that you first have to ask a question.  My question was: What is your favorite subject in school? Next, I taught them how to send their survey to their classmates through their gmail accounts.  After receiving all of their results, I was able to guide them in creating a table to organize this data.  Soon after completing this table they learned about how to make graphs using this information.  They learned how to make bar graphs and pie graphs using their computers.  The pictograph was taught to them by using pencil and paper.  The last step was for me to share this data with them.  I  explained to them what I learned from the data I collected and how it helped me.  Below are a couple of graphs sharing the results to my question.  You will be seeing more survey results on our blog almost weekly.  These will be done by students.

Subject	Number of students
Science	14
Math	1
Reading	6
Writing	2
Soc. Studies	0