Fluency Practice

"Fluency is the ability to read or access words effortlessly with seemingly little attention to decoding. Fluent readers decode words not only automatically but accurately. in addition, fluent readers group words into meaningful units, utilize punctuation to guide their voices, and use expression appropriately to help them comprehend what they are reading."

"Fluency develops over time, and students should be given repeated opportunities to practice fluency with a variety of texts. Repeated readings increase rate, accuracy and comprehension by providing students with multiple exposures to words and spelling patterns. In addition, it helps students improve their ability to break sentences into meaningful phrases and to use intonation. It is effective with both older and younger students. Repeated readings involve the students reading segments of text between 50 to 200 words, depending on students' ability. Students should practice repeated readings with a variety of different text types."

~SRA Imagine It! Program Appendix

Every week, we will be practicing fluency with short pieces of text. All students can benefit from extra practice with the text at home so I am going to start including the text on our class blog. Your child should work on being able to read the text without making mistakes, paying attention to punctuation and with appropriate expression. You can time your child and count the number of mistakes made, then reread and try to beat that time, making fewer mistakes. Have your child make a chart to keep track of his/her progress - they love to see their improvement on paper. :)

This week's passages:
Here I sit in the best room in the house – my bedroom. I can watch the trees sway, the butterflies fly, and hear birds sing. This is also where I sit and wait for my best friend to come and visit me. I can see her coming around the corner now. This is my favorite spot in the world.


On warm days, I love to spend time in my backyard under the cedar tree. I love to sit under the tree and read with my friend, Stacy. Stacy is my best friend, and that cedar tree is my favorite tree.

My best friend moved to a state far away. This summer I’m going to take an airplane to visit him. We’ll do some of our favorite things: ride bicycles, swim, and shoot hoops. I can’t wait until summer!


I’ve missed my home a lot. I’ve missed my friends even more. I moved away last year, but something great happened last week. I made a new friend. I still miss my old home, but I think now I’ll know what to do to make things better – I’ll make even more friends!

By the way, you should choose one passage to work on at a time. They are not meant to be read all together.

Here's a video from Reading Rockets that highlights successful strategies for helping children become fluent readers. To learn more, check out this link: Reading Rockets: Fluent Reading

Everyday Mathematics

On Monday, I will be giving the kids their login and password information for the online content that goes along with our Everyday Mathematics program. I will show them how to access the site and what is available to them on it so that they will know what to do when they want to use the site at home. The site offers educational, fun math games as well as an online version of the Student Reference Book that we use in class.

The site offers a wealth of resources for parents as well. Some highlights are:

 

These are the same letters we put in the kids' homework binders at the start of each new chapter. Here, you can find them in other languages.

Many of you have asked for help with the methods EM uses to teach different math algorithms. I'm excited to tell you that the website offers animated, step-by-step instructions for all of the algorithms we use! Once you LAUNCH the Free Family Resources, click on Algorithms in Everyday Mathematics and you can select your child's grade for easy access to the algorithm you need.

https://www.everydaymathonline.com/

Paper Airplane Project

We recently wrapped up our airplane project, listening to the findings of each of the groups. We discovered a lot about what factors make the airplanes fly farther.

What effect would paper clips have on the plane?

They discovered: One paper clip in the front seems to make a plane fly farther. Lots of paper clips all over the plane made it flip over and fall straight to the ground.

Can different materials make the plane go farther?

They discovered: Construction paper airplanes can go farther than sandpaper airplanes.

Can different materials make the plane go farther?

They discovered: If the plane is regular, it flies well. If you put toothpaste and glue on it and throw it gently, it will go much faster and farther.

Which designs fly the farthest?

 

 

They discovered: If the airplane has cuts in it, it seems to fly farther because the wings don't get damaged as much. If it has more cuts and folds, it will just fall to the ground.

Can different materials make the plane go farther?

They discovered: The sandpaper was heavier than the construction paper and copy paper so those two flew more smoothly and farther than the sandpaper. We think the weight caused a shorter flight.

Will a plane fly farther if we throw it up VS down?

 

They discovered: Throwing the paper down the stairs was better than throwing it up the stairs. When we threw it down, it flew all the way out to the parking lot.

Can different materials make the plane go farther?

They discovered: The sandpaper plane didn't fly very well. There was a tie between the copy paper and the construction paper, like the other group found.

In most cases, our predictions were incorrect. The airplanes didn't behave the way we expected. We found that the planes that fly the farthest:

• are made from lighter paper.
• have cuts in the design.
• have more weight in the front.
• have balanced, slightly heavier wings.

Here are a couple of websites and videos we looked at together that your child may want to check out again at home:
http://paperplane.org/
 

https://www.thepaperairplaneguy.com/site/



And a few others you may find interesting...
http://www.amazingpaperairplanes.com/
http://www.paperairplanes.co.uk/planes.php 
http://www.origami-kids.com/

Time For Kids

This week I'll be sending home our first edition of Time For Kids, a weekly news magazine written especially for children in grades 3 and 4. I will ask the children to read it and complete a related assignment. If you have the time, I would love for you to read an article or two with your child and discuss it together. Exposure to the world outside of where they live and breathe every day is so great for your child and can provide many opportunities for interesting discussion.

TFK also offers a great website that your child may wish to visit from home. We will be talking about it in class so that they'll know how to access it.

School is in session!

I am excited to welcome you all to third grade! It's so much fun to work with so many familiar faces and to meet some new friends as well. We are off to a great start! I hope that this blog will be a useful tool for your family and that it will help you feel more a part of what we're doing at school.

You can "follow" this blog by clicking on the FOLLOW link on the right side of the page. (By the way, sometimes those boxes on the right take a couple of minutes to load... not sure why exactly but I'll keep working to improve things.)

Calling All Captain Underpants Fans!

Dav Pilkey, author of the Captain Underpants and Ricky Ricotta books, has a new book out TODAY! I found the following description of the book on Scholastic's blog: "In this new book, Harold Hutchins and George Beard create two kung-fu cavemen named Ook and Gluk who get sucked back in time to 500,001 BC in the area of present-day Cleveland, Ohio. They have to defeat evil Big Chief Goppernopper and his reckless future great grandson. But that's nothing a little kung-fu can't handle."



On the Captain Underpants website, you can find lots of fun and even educational activities including Professor Poopypants' Change-o-Chart 2000, where you can find out your silly name. Mine is Crusty Lizardchunks. :)

I also found some videos of Dav explaining how to create flip-o-ramas on YouTube. As always, access YouTube with caution!

Family Poetry Jam

Kids love poetry. LD OnLine published a great article about sharing poems at home as a family. One suggestion is: "Have each member of the family choose and practice a favorite poem to share with the family. Set aside a special time to celebrate poetry by having each person share their poem."

Read all about it and share some poems today!

Molly is back!

BIG thanks to Rhiannon for keeping an eye on the owl box! Molly is back in the box and is currently sitting on four eggs which she laid from July 6-14th. Here's the link in case you don't have it: http://www.ustream.tv/theowlbox#more

Parents beware - the chat windows are open to the public and aren't always appropriate. I haven't seen anything bad there but you never know. It is best to watch the owls full screen so that you can't even see the chats. Safety first! :)

Online Games and Apps That Promote Health

Our friends at Nourish Interactive are excited to be one of the finalists in a competition created by Michelle Obama and the USDA. You can help them win by going to the Apps for Healthy Kids Gallery of Games and voting! The contest ends August 14th. Register for the contest here.

There are LOTS of cool Apps and online games available to help you learn about health and practice what you've learned at school. Check out the list on:

Update

Hi everyone!
My apologies for not posting for the last couple of weeks. My laptop broke down right before I left for my trip to the East Coast. :( It's up and running again so I've been trying to get caught up after not having it for almost two weeks. I will be posting some new ideas for continued learning soon.
I hope that you are enjoying the summer and that you've been keeping your brain active too! I miss you all very much!
:)Ms. G

The fireworks in Washington, DC were fantastic!

Here I am with my sister and my nephews at the White House.