Sniff..Sniff..COUGH COUGH COUGH!

Updates from the Health Department:
      (aka Me) I just had to say the words, "I rarely get sick"! Now, I'm sick!

   The "funk" has officially infiltrated room 107! Myself and Wu Laoshi are both on our last leg, actually, I'm on my last lung! The Thanksgiving Break could not be at better time. We've lots of little ones coughing, sneezing, tummy aches and headaches this week. We've also had strep throat in the school building so be on the lookout for the signs.
 
   On a more serious note, and in the spirit of providing full disclosure, mold has been detected in the building. I know that this is probably not news to you as this building is old and there have been findings in other classrooms. I am not surprised that we have additional illnesses popping up not only due to the weather changing its mind every other day, but also due to the fact that our HVAC unit was cleaned and "de-gunkified". My scientific hypothesis is that while the cleaning is a good thing, it stirred all sorts of mess into the air in the classroom. I've kept the heat off and the windows open all day everyday in hopes of clearing it all out of the air.

   I am wondering if houseplants can help out with air quality in the room? I am no green thumb, but I'll give it a try! If y'all any thoughts, please let me know.


THE GIVER: 
 
   We finished our chapter book and it ended with the kids begging me NOT to stop reading! YES...even your kid...the one who doesn't want to read or do his/her reading response journal!
We will be using the vocabulary words from our chapters to delve deeper into learning words through context. The students will also have a RRJ assignment over the holiday. It will be glued inside their RRJ tomorrow.

              Now that the story has ended, we don't know what happens to Jonas, Gabriel, or the community ......

     If you were the author Lois Lowry, how would you write the next chapter in their story?

      * Write about Jonas and Gabe's new lives OR write about the community after Jonas and Gabe's escape. 

      *Draw and color your visualization of the next chapter. 

     * Remember to circle the words you think are misspelled and use your writing conventions! * 
   

Informational Writing Assignment:

    Your child will be bringing home a loose leaf booklet upon which he/she can work on their informational booklets. 

   This is not an assignment that needs to be completed in its published form. I would simply like the students to conduct research on their subtopics/chapters and take notes. They have already created chapters and are working on an introduction. (Their chapters can always be changed or re-arranged if they don't seem to fit)

We will work together after the holiday break to stretch out their writing and publish their work. 

An example of a Friend's Table of Contents

 

                    

Another Table of Contents

 ART: Guerrilla Girls

        The students are creating posters that focus on an issue or problem in today's world. Here are a few works in progress:

 December:

  I will be focussing heavily on grammar, sentence structure, building words for spelling and reading fluency during the 4 weeks between Thanksgiving and Holiday Break. I am amping up the requirement for the RRJournals as well. I am setting the expectation that the students take initiative to edit their work, circle words that are misspelled (or thought to be) and identify the author's purpose for the book that was read.

I know I am forgetting something....but I am going to bed. :)

Reflection....

It's been another action packed week in Room 107!

CLASSROOM COMMUNITY:

We got our white boards and Mr. T and his protege installed them! THANKS So MUCH AGAIN!

So..of course I spent my workday re-arranging the room and re-organizing some of our routines. The kids cubbies are moved to the other side of the room and I have been teaching them to think about our day as soon as they enter the classroom.WITHOUT having to tell them, they figured out that they needed to unstack chairs, sharpen pencils and greet one another before playing a game. We also had hte HVAC unit serviced and cleaned! It looks great and the heat works...so well that we had to turn off hte heat about an hour into the day. I believe it was William who said, "MAN it's hot in here!"

We did a community building lesson on how we can all make our classroom run smoother and how we can all get what we need each day. I asked the students to write about what IS working/what they like and also what ISN'T working. Here's a glimpse of the feedback.

I learned that the kids love me, which I selfishly love to hear! They also love that they have free time to actually play together in the classroom. It amazes me that  they think I am the reason for that, when in fact, it is because they work so hard and complete all of their work each day! They also love Chinese Culture with Wu Laoshi. We have decided to include more of her culture into each of my lessons whenever possible. I also learned that they love math and reading centers. I will work at making our centers even more engaging and challenging (esp in Math).
    I found out that French is hard, which is understandable, so I spoke with them about how it will get easier. They wrote that they wish we had a smart board or projector. I am going to start a donor's choose project to try and raise money for those items. I will provide all of you with the information once I have done so. The idea is not to raise money from all of you, but rather to tap into our collective resources with friends and business owners who are looking to make a tax deductible donation. Even if these items are eventually going to end up in each classroom, there is no reason why our classroom should wait! :)

RESEARCH PROJECTS:
 
   We are beginning our unit on Informational Writing. I learned SOOO SOO MUCH from Lucy Calkins last Friday and I am extremely excited to jump into the unit! Here are the ideas your kids came up with so far:

Wu Laoshi checked out every book from the library we have that are related to our topics. We will be working diligently on our topics and our writing. I may be sending home the writing over the break so that the kids can work on it if they choose. I 'll send more info on that after I see how far we get.

More to come......

Must go grocery shopping....I have one egg and an onion in my kitchen!

Très Important

                            Hello! It's time to give you some important info and updates! 

WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON: I am sending home a book order form for the school-wide book club book. It is $10. I will be reading it to the students and incorporating it into our curriculum, but if your child wants one, they can always read along with me!

PROGRESS REPORTS:

  Please  be sure to return ALL PROGRESS REPORTS IN THE PURPLE FOLDER to me. I can make you a copy if you request one. I still have a few still out there floating around and my TYPE A personality is making me worry that some will get lost! :) You can keep the Science Project and SS Historical Figures Projects. I need everything else. You will receive all of it back at the end of the year. 

FRENCH:

  Please see Mademoiselle Buntin's Blog for info on French updates! 

http://nbuntin.weebly.com/les-eacutetoiles.html

Her 11/4/13 post says:

Hello Parents,

This week we will be working on house vocabulary.  Some of the words that your child will be learning are:  la maison = house, la chambre = bedroom, le salon = living room, la cuisine = kitchen, la salle de bain = bathroom.  Have fun with your child by saying each room in French!  Par exemple, voici la chambre = here is the bedroom.  As a culminating activity we will be making shoe box houses.  We will need a shoe box or a small box 

NEW MATH SERIES:

  I'm going to spend most of my time tomorrow looking over the new series so that I can use it to its fullest! You may have noticed that different math HW sheets have been coming home. We have a consumable "HOME LINKS" book for each child, so even though it is sort of easy for the kids, I don't want to waste the resource. We are going deeper than the practice your child is bringing home. Having said that, your child should be able to complete his/her HW easily and independently. They should also use this HW as a practice in following the directions and answering the questions in sentence form with appropriate grammar and writing conventions.  

CURRICULUM:

Math: Multiplication and Division, word problems, problem solving

Reviewing: Addition/Subtraction with re-grouping, place value

RLA: Figurative Language (idioms, metaphors,similes,onomatopoeia, alliterations, hyperbole) and SPELLING CENTERS!!!

reviewing: pronouns, sub/verb agreement, prefix,suffix, root words

Reading: Cause and Effect Relationships, Non-Fiction Text Structure

Reviewing: Characterization, Inference, Setting, Author's Purpose

Writing: Research Reports (Student interest driven)

Social Studies: Ancient Greek Civilization, Roots of Democracy

Science: Magnets

REQUESTS:

  Please send in any books about Ancient Greece or the Olympics that you may have for unit of study. We will be conducting research about the early forms of government and comparing the structure to our government today. There will be a really fun project to culminate our learning.....more to come on that! 

LUCY CALKINS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:

       I will be missing my first and second day of school next week (Nov. 14-15) to attend the Writing Seminar in Jacksonville, Florida! I will leave very detailed and precise lesson plans with the sub and hopefully I will be able to talk with him or her before I go. (I am way too Type A to leave my children with others....I'm really working on that about myself!!) Having said that, I will miss the Fun Run, so if any of y'all would like to come and help out on Thursday, I'd really appreciate it! It starts at 10 am. Look for more info in the Globe Gazette or next week on the blog! 

Finally...Here are some photos :

New Boards are here and will be installed tomorrow! YAAAY! Thank you so much!

We used our front board space to write our research project interests!!

Here is what your kids are interested in learning about! 

Have a Great Weekend! 

Special Visitors This Week!

Visitor #1
  One of my former students (I had him as a 5th grader)  is the Running Back for Lakeside High School.  He came by to surprise me on Monday morning! He brought so much joy to my heart. He talked with the kids and told them that they are lucky to have me as their teacher.
                               
                              AWWW SHUCKS!  Sniff...Sniff. Beaming with Pride.

    He also told me that I was the first person who ever believed in him. He was a challenging student to say the least. He was always joking and playing around. He rarely turned in his homework or class work and he was (is) absolutely BRILLIANT ....I used to get so frustrated with him. He told me that all those little mini lectures and talks we had paid off. He's a wonderful student now, taking AP classes! What a great way to start my Monday!

Visitor #2
   My son had a teacher workday today so I asked Michael if I could bring him to work with me, rather than take a personal day. So, Mr. Cole came to GLOBE today and was a really good boy! The kids were so kind and sweet to him and they took care of him as if he were their little brother. They also taught him some Chinese! He had such a great day and the kids wore him out because he is sound asleep on the couch right now!

CHINESE CULTURE

The kids made clocks with Chinese numbers today and also read their letters from their Chinese pen pals! Yes, Wu Laoshi has a friend in China who teaches 3rd grade. So the kids write letters and the 2 teachers take photos of the letters and text them back and forth. Such a great experience for the kids! 

FUN RUN

  We are participating in FUNRUNTIME.COM! The children are being asked to get pledges for running laps! All prizes are being donated to children in need and proceeds go toward a new playground for our school! 

    Here is the message from Mr. Molina if you haven't already read it:

It's Fun Run Time.COM!!! We kicked off of the Fun Run Fundraiser for GLOBE today!

The FundRunner Team will be talking to our students about different character traits that will help them in and out of the classroom!

The FundRunner Team will also help our school raise money that will be allocated to improvement and/or additions to outdoor playscapes and learning environments for Globe students.  Remember, the more money we raise the more money our school keeps!

Your student will be coming home with their Pledge Form today! 

You can turn in pledges two ways:

• Go to FunRunTime.com and enter your child's access code found on the front of his/her pledge form. You can record your sponsors on this page.

• Or fill out sponsor information on the pledge form, turn it in daily and it will be returned daily!
  
  * We are only collecting pledges right now; the money will be due after the Fun Run.

In lieu of individual prizes our children will be donating all earned prizes to the children at My Sister's House, a shelter for victims of domestic violence. 

Students will be working towards school-wide incentives including a school-wide Dance Party, Student Dress Up Day ( students will dress up in their own costumes, no masks/weapons), Teacher Dress Up Day, and if we reach our goal, Coach Corso will dress as a Banana and Mr. Molina will dress as an Angry Bird!

We hope you can come out and support your student at the Fun Run! The Fun Run is:

Thursday, November 14

K and 1st:  8:30am - 9:30am

2nd and 3rd: 10:00am - 11:00am

Thank you for all of your support! You Rock!

Next POST:

  Curriculum for the next few weeks! I'll give you an idea of what is happening in the classroom in the next few weeks and some of my special project plans! 

How To Read Your Child's Progress Report!

SO...I am finally finished with the Progress Reports and you can find it in your child's backpack today (if you haven't seen it already)!

COPIES:

   In order to cut down on paper  and ink, I did not make copies. If you would like a copy, you are welcome to make one on your own or if you don't have resources to do so, just send me a note and I will make copies for you here at school.

Please be sure to return everything to me so that I can keep them in a cumulative file! You will receive the whole file at year's end.  Here's a list of what I need back:

1. The progress report. (It has lots of yellow highlighted standards)
2. The writing sample and rubric
3. Speicals PR's
4. French PR

HOW I ASSESSED:

  I highlighted all of the standards we have worked on this semester. Some have been explicitly covered and others have been touched upon or are part of ongoing 3rd grade skills. I used the math assessments, math journals, reading journals, writing journals, observations, classroom discussions, running records, spelling assessments and one on one discussions to determine your child's level of understanding/mastery for each standard. This was no small task!

  Since I am so accustomed to using grades and a grade book, I  had to shift my paradigm and really study your children! Generally if I noticed your child exhibiting a particular skill in one of the above mentioned journals or assessments, I checked off the "meets" category. In truth, some of your children were in between approaches and meets for some areas. For example, many students exhibited skills in writing but can always improve as it is a complex process.

   Having said that, I am thinking about creating an assessment, or skills, rubric to help me "test" each child in certain areas. As your child progresses in math, reading, listening and speaking, you will see their "approaches" turn to "meets". For Science and SS this may not be the case since we only have time to cover each of the standards once before the DREADED CRCT! :) I think I will try and create a yearlong jeopardy game or allow students to complete research projects on their areas of "approaches" or "does not meet" so that they have the chance to learn more about that particular subject area.

Please email me with any questions or comments you may have! Thanks so much for being the BEST parents in the world. YOUR KIDS ARE BRILLIANT AND AMAZING! :)