One of my very favorite authors is Roald Dahl. I fell in love with his books when I was young and have been sharing him with my students since I started teaching. I'm not sure if this site is new but I stumbled across it for the first time today... http://www.roalddahlclub.com/
In September, in honor of Dahl's birthday, they began a reading challenge. Any child, living in the United States between the ages of 7 and 13 can earn The Official Dahlathalon Award for reading just three Roald Dahl books.
Whether or not your child chooses to participate, the website is great fun!
One of our third grade writing standards is letter writing. Write personal and formal letters, thank-you notes, and invitations: a. Show awareness of the knowledge and interests of the audience and establish a purpose and context.
b. Include the date, proper salutation, body, closing, and signature.
National Geographic Kids website offers a great opportunity to practice this form of writing while doing something good! From the site - "Lions are in danger of extinction across Africa. Filmmakers and National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Dereck and Beverly Joubert want you to help save lions! Write letters to lions and the Jouberts will deliver them to African leaders to let them know how important lions are to kids everywhere. And we may feature a few of them in a gallery on the National Geographic websites and in print!"
For more information about these beautiful animals, click here. Nat Geo Wild will be supporting National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative with Big Cat Week starting December 6th. Check it out and cause an uproar!
I will be sending home another book order tomorrow and thought it would make things easier if I included the link on our blog in case you'd like to order online. http://clubs.scholastic.com/parentordering/login.jsp For every order that is placed online, we will receive $3 to spend on books for the classroom! Our Class Activation Code is: DL6GB - you will need this when you place your order.
Here's a virtual tour of some of the books available in the Holiday Books brochure:
I wanted to share a really great website for kids that provides information and videos about all subjects. To access all of their content, you have to purchase a subscription but they have LOTS of free resources as well.
In honor of Veterans Day, we will be learning a little bit about Veterans and the reason this legal holiday was created.
A website created just for kids is available thanks to The Department of Veterans Affairs.
Please note that although we will not have school on Thursday, November 11, we will have school on Friday the 12th. If you are planning to take the day off for a long weekend with the family, please let me know ahead of time so that we can prepare an independent study contract.
"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
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.
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/
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.
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.)
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!
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."
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! :)
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:
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.
Reading ~ Have you read a book recently that you really enjoyed? Read some book reviews written by children and then write your own! Share What You're Reading
Language ~ Look through old magazines and catalogs for images that grab your attention. Cut out a picture (be sure to ask if it's okay first!) and then glue it on a piece of paper. Write adjectives all around the picture that describe it - try to come up with at least 15 words.
Mathematics ~ Next time you are out to eat, ask for a To Go Menu (you can also find these online for most restaurants.) Pretend you have only $7.00 for your meal - what would you choose? What if you got to choose food for your whole family but only had $20.00 to spend? Try different combinations. You can also practice your 'ballpark estimates' by rounding the amounts or practice using a calculator.
Writing ~ Keep a vacation journal. Write about how you spent your days and who you were with. Not much to tell? Make up a crazy entry like in the book we read, How I Spent My Summer Vacation.
Health ~ Make a graph of the healthy foods you eat this week. How many items did you eat in each of the food groups? Did you eat more veggies than 'extras'?
Science ~ Walk around your yard or neighborhood and collect 15 things you find along the way. Sort them into at least two categories and label them appropriately.
Hey kids!
If you choose to complete any of these activities, take a photo and email it to me! I'll post it on the blog for your classmates to see. :)
I hope you are enjoying your vacation so far. I can't believe it's already been a week! I have already read a great book, seen a few movies, spent time with my friends and am now getting ready for my trip to Washington, D.C. I can't wait to see my sister and my nephews. What have you been up to?
Here's a silly picture I took of my friend's dog Gunner, beside the pool. :)
I miss you and hope that you are having some fun! Do something to exercise your brain and your body this week. My next post will be from Washington, D. C.!
Hi Families,
Providing summer learning opportunities is an important way to prevent your child from experiencing "Summer Slide" - a common occurrence for children when they have 2-3 months off during the summer. This loss of learning time can lead to problems for students down the road. According to a USA Today article, "...a well-documented "summer slide" in academics that, by sixth grade, accounts for as much as 80% of the achievement gap, Allington and other researchers say. Researchers note that low-income students lose about three months of ground each summer to middle-class peers."
Sadly, our lease prohibits us from having summer school at LdV this year but that doesn't mean the learning has to stop! I will be posting some suggestions for educational opportunities here on our blog all summer long. I will try to provide a variety of activities, both things kids can do online and things that can be done easily at home and in your neighborhood. If you have any suggestions for activities or your child would like to share what s/he's been up to, please email me! I'd love to put their work up on the blog as well! I'll have the first post up ASAP.
Through the end of the school year, we have access to www.worldbookonline.com - an online encyclopedia and more. There are three levels of content and even a Spanish section so it's great for all kinds of students and can be used at home. Check it out today!
I found a website that I'd like to try out with the kids. It focuses on nutrition and gives them an opportunity to use what they've learned while playing online games. It is available in English AND Spanish!
Here's a direct link to the Kids' Area: http://www.nourishinteractive.com/kids/kidsarea.html
There you will find games, stories and links. The kids have their login and password on a label in their red folder.
As we all continue on this journey toward better health, I have been trying to understand what nutrition labels actually mean. There's so much information there... just what should I focus on? Parents ask us questions like this all the time but none of us on staff at da Vinci is an expert so we are learning right along with all of you. We know that it's important for kids to eat healthy foods and we are concerned about childhood obesity rates (1 in 3 American children is considered obese!) so that's why we chose to center our charter school around that very issue. Here are some helpful resources I have come across on the web.
How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label from the FDA
As stated on the website, this resource will "make it easier for you to use nutrition labels to make quick, informed food choices that contribute to a healthy diet." Each section of the labels is clearly described and tells you which nutrients to limit and which you should increase.
Food Labels, Decoded from Real Simple Magazine
This resource helps you translate common label terms to help you make the wisest choices. It includes health implications and things to keep in mind.
Understanding Food Labels from PBS Kids
This page walks kids (and adults) through the label on a popular snack - hot and spicy crunchy cheese snacks (Flamin' Hot Cheetos, I think) and points out just why snacks like this are not good for you. For years, I've seen kids eating entire bags of these for their morning snack. :(
Dictionary of Nutrition from the American Heart Association "If you are looking for information on common nutrition terms, you’ve come to the right place. This dictionary from the American Heart Association will help you make heart-healthy decisions at the grocery store and in your kitchen."
Organic and Other Environmentally Friendly Foods from Kids Health
"So you may be wondering if organic foods are healthier and safer for your child, and worth the extra money if they cost more than conventional foods. How do they taste? And what do labels touting foods as "sustainable," "natural," "free-range," "grass-fed," or "fair trade" mean?"
Child Nutrition: Simple Tips for Busy Moms (and Dads!) from Web MD
This is a great article - consider printing it out to bring with you to the store. "The simplest tip to help your family get more of the nutrients they need – and fewer nutrients that contribute to disease and weight gain -- is to serve more whole foods and less processed food. Eat fruits and vegetables with every meal. Serve your children healthy, lean protein at most meals."
I love poetry. It's one of my favorite things to teach to children. Kids love to read it, love to listen to it and love to write it, especially when you tell them that poems don't have to rhyme. :) Poetry is very non-threatening and it can really level the playing field, especially for kids who are still mastering their reading and writing skills.
April is Poetry Month so we will be celebrating poetry all month long! I thought I'd share some online resources with you all so you can join in the fun at home. I'll add in a few more as the month goes on...
Shel Silverstein is one of those poets I think most people are familiar with. He has a great website with games and printables that are fun for kids of all ages. You can also find animated versions of his poems on YouTube.
Another undeniable kid favorite is Jack Prelutsky. His really fun website has a number of his poems (click on the sun) and in the 'Grownups' section, silly songs (click on Jack's Music) as well as some helpful tips for reading with young children and some very funny fan letters.
I had the opportunity to meet Brod Bagert when I was earning my teaching credential. He did a session about poetry at a reading conference I attended. He believes that poems should be recited OUT LOUD and provided great ideas about getting kids up in front of others, performing them. His books are always favorites with my students. The most popular of his poems is easily one called Llama - it has just the word llama in it, written over and over. When you read it, it's quite boring but as a performance - magic! Here's another of his poems that I really like...
Kenn Nesbitt writes a lot of poems about school and things that children can really relate to. His website includes an online rhyming dictionary (SO helpful!) along with lots of his poems that you can print and email, lots of great word games and links to all kinds of poetry stuff online.
Here's his poem Tighty, Whity Spider:
(to the tune of "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider")
The tighty-whity spider went down the waterslide.
Got a water wedgie halfway down the ride.
Jumped up and screamed and ran around in pain.
Now the tighty-whity spider will not do that again.
Inkless Tales is the creation of Elizabeth Bushey. On the site, children can listen to her poems, read stories, play games, create finger puppets and more. On one page of her website, visitors can make their own poem by dragging words around the screen - like a virtual Magnetic Poetry Kit.
Roger Stevens is a silly British poet. His website is a bit overwhelming but allows 4-18 year old children to share their poetry with the world! He also has animated poems available on YouTube. Here's my favorite...
You may have heard that we've been keeping an eye on a mother barn owl and her 5 eggs for the past several days. They are in an owl box in someone's backyard in San Marcos and have become quite an Internet sensation. The eggs will be hatching any day and it's been fascinating to see the birds in their home and to witness what they do on a daily basis. We've even been able to see her eat a few times! Here's the link so you can check it out from home: http://www.ustream.tv/theowlbox
*A warning - the chat section can be a bit inappropriate at times for children. We always watch using the full screen version, where the chat window is not visible. This can be accessed just below the video window next to the sound.*
We've made many observations and hypotheses about owl behavior while watching Molly, the female. (McGee, the father, comes in very early in the morning and in the evening so we haven't seen him while at school.) We did a bit of research on barn owls yesterday so that we could learn more about what we were seeing (and it ties nicely in with our science standards.) Here are a couple of links in case you are interested in learning more too.
We learned that the owls stay home for about 60 days before learning to fly. That means we'll be able to see them as they develop from inside the box. Too cool!
Another Habits of Mind progress report came home with children this weekend. In case you have questions or want more information about the Habits of Mind, here are a few helpful links.
The children will be talking to you about our study of rocks and minerals during Student Led Conferences next week. We are moving on to another science unit but they still have such curiosity and so many questions that I posted these links for them to continue their study independently.
A couple of weeks ago, Maya told me that she had heard about the earthquake in Haiti and wondered if we could do something to help, like we did with Feeding America. We decided to talk to the rest of the class about it and see who else wanted to help take the lead. A small group of them meet with me several times last week to come up with a plan. As a class, we did some research about the earthquake and about Haiti so that we could understand why they needed our help. The numbers we discovered were dramatic and the photos, very powerful.
3 million people are in need of emergency aid
more than 217,000 people were killed in the quake
at least 300,000 people were injured
nearly 2 million people are living in makeshift tent cities
at least 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings were destroyed
One of Maya's big concerns was that the money we donate should be given to a reputable aid organization. She chose the American Red Cross.
On Friday the leaders instructed groups of their own, making posters for all of our classrooms and collection envelopes while Maya and I wrote a script to use at the assembly on Monday. They learned that being in charge of other kids and giving directions can be difficult but, in the end, they got the job done.
I am so proud of the children for showing such empathy for these people they don't know. They had so many ideas about ways to help - from giving the children stuffed animals "to help them feel better" to collecting canned goods and water. Several of them spent their recess or free time talking about their ideas and making plans for the project.
Here are the basics about our project:
We will share our project with the school on Monday, March 1st at the assembly.
We are collecting coins and bills.
Collection will run from March 1-12th.
Collection envelopes will be given to each classroom and to the office.
The leaders will collect envelopes every morning. (Money will be counted and we will keep track of money collected on a spread sheet during our math time.)
The money will be donated to the American Red Cross. (We'll use the CoinStar machine at Wal-Mart to donate the coins and bills will be donated online via the Red Cross website.)
We will provide daily Twitter updates about money collected.
We will ask teachers to have their students/Families make cards or write letters to Haitians. These will be sent to Haiti via UNICEF.
We hope that you will support our project by donating. No donation is too small - every little bit helps!
