Just a quick reminder that tomorrow we are going on a Field Trip to the Nature Center!  We will be learning about Ecosystems!  Make sure your child wears hiking shoes and warm clothes, we will be outside most of the time!  It will be such a great learning experience for the kids! *If you are a parent and are coming see you at 11:45am at the ONC! 

Yes, it is our favorite time of year in THIRD grade!  Your children should be SUPER at skip counting as of now!  THE Upcoming event in our class is memorizing Multiplication Facts!  Below is our schedule of what facts the kids are going to learn each day!  It is a very fast pace month!  But, the kids truly love it and by the end of February, they will be fabulous with their facts.  ***It is going to require some practice at home!  SO, parents we hope you are up to the challenge!  Each kid will be bringing home Flashcards of the Fact of the Day, along with a sheet that teaches them the “HINT or the Trick” for the day!  This will help them with the memorization!  The children will be giving “FACT” timings!  They are to pass of 2 quizes or timings 100% in one minute, before they can move to the next FACT. I have added some quick vids of the Can Do Kids singing our “Count By” songs and some other fun vids to help them remember their “Count By’s” under the MATH page- X Resources.  In case you have not went there, if you click on the HEART it will take you to a link that has a variety of different Multiplication Games to aide in helping your children practice their facts! Class Goal: is to pass off each of the facts by March   ! So that they can attend the ICE CREAM Party! After that, the kids will start working on the MiXed fact sheets.  These are the sheets that we will be giving one minute timings on and their goal by the end of 3rd Quarter is 50 DPM!!! Just like Addition was!  We really believe in our CAN DO KIDS and know that they can do it!  Why? Because they can do anything!!!

Happy Multiplying!

 

We have talked about Reading Workshop before…for the past couple months the kids have been working on individual goals, while they READ to SELF.  The teacher would then walk around and conference with each child to make sure he or she is understanding their new goal and achieving success. 

This time, we are working on a Strategy Goal with a group.  In this group, the kids will be Reading, Writing, Thinking and/or Researching to complete their Goal.  I am so excited to watch the kids participate in this!  THey will work with a teacher, as well as in the group to acheive their goal.

We are going to try out our First INQUIRY Circle of the year (Synthesizing), our First Literature Circle (applying Reading Strategies while reading a chapter book, Author’s Purpose), we will be working on some Fluency Goals, and using Read Naturally and finally one group will work hard on Retelling a Fiction Text!  

(Basically, I am integrating all the ideas from my favorite prof. books presented in them and trying to create my own ADvenTurE in learning!) In case you are a teacher reading this and you have not read any of these books…below check them out! I wish I could teach every day, all day sometimes so I could follow all of their amazing suggestions!) (I am obsessed with Debbie Miller & Stephanie Harvey’s reading strategies, I love Harvey Daniels take on Literature Circles, my new WOW book is Inquiry Circles by Harvey & Daniels and I love the “SISTERS” take on assessment and centers!”

Pics and vids we be posted so that you can see how this process works!  I am so excited to see all of the THINKING and Reading going on in ROOM 305!

I know it’s a little late… but I figured better late than never!

This picture slideshow generated with Smilebox

If you ask anyone in our sweet class if they enjoy Math right now!  The answer would be an EXTREMELY large YES!  They are having so much fun memorizing their Count By’s!  Mrs. Peterson and I are so proud of them!  They are doing so well!  I wanted to make sure and let you know that under the Math Page up top, under X Resources…I have started to add some vids of the kids practicing their Count By’s in a variety of ways.  Don’t forget to check it out!!!

REMEMBER: ALL COUNT BY’S MUST BE PASSED OFF BY JANUARY 31ST! 

Way to go CAN DO KIDS!  I just wanted to tell our FabULouS class how proud I am of each of them.  They have been working hard on their 1st Power Points in Computers!  THey are catching on really fast & I can see the light in their little eyes….it tells me they are learning, and that they can’t wait to work on another PPT after this one!  If you have PPT at home, I am sure your child would love to play around with it! 

HIGH FIVE!  Kids in room 305!  We are SOOOOOOOOOOOO proud of you! 

Our goal is to have them done by conferences!  Cross your fingers!

***thanks to all the parents who have sent in pics for the kids!

Your fabulous child is going to start working on their very first Power Point today in the lab!  Yeah!!! They are very very excited, as I am too!  Our goal is to complete this by conferences next month! 🙂 For their Presentation, it would be helpful if you would either email me or send a disk, with an individual photo of them, a family snapshot, some pics of them participating in their favorite activies…and whatever.  They will be learning how to insert pictures into their presentation!  Call or email me if you have any questions!  Thanks a bunch for all your support!

I need them by Thursday the 13th if possible!!!!

If you have never read the book “One Smile,” by Cindy Mckinley…You must!  It is one of my absolute favorite stories!!!  Not only because I really love to see a child SMILE, (you can ask our class…it is a RULE to always SMILE) but also because it melts my heart to think that our wonderful CAN DO KID class could make a difference in the world by “Paying it Forward!” 

As a class, we have decided that our New Year’s Resolution for 2011 is to take the PAY IT FORWARD challenge! 

*Do something real good, kind, genorous… for three people.  Each.  An then when they ask how they can pay it back, simply say… PAY IT FORWARD, to 3 more people. (and on and on and on)! We retold our favorite story…if you would like to listen to it… it brings tears to our eyes everytime we read it!  Enjoy!  and PLEASE TAKE THE PAY IT FORWARD CHALLENGE!!!

Please leave a comment below, sharing your

 Pay it Forward experience!  We would love to hear about all

the wonderful things people are doing to change the world!!!

Congrats guys!  We have hit over 10,000 hits!  Our blog is a happening place because of you and all the cool stuff you do each day! 

Cheers to BEING A CAN DO KID AND LOVING TO LEARN!

SchOOl is CooL!

Here are a couple pics from our Hero day at school – and don’t forget to check out Mrs. Newton as the Villan!  Don’t forget to read each students’ comments to see who they feel is their hero as of today! 

P.S. I just can’t stop smilin’ at Kylee – she strutted into to class with her tall, black high heels…everyone kept saying “Mrs. Slaugh, Kylee is YOU.”  It took me forever to figure it all out- bless her heart she said she was dressed up as me for her hero!  That was just one of those moments that I will never forget!  XOXOXOXO  

Who is your hero?  

 Read our comments!