Terrific Tuesday!!

Another great day is under way!! WOO HOO!!!!

This morning, in math, we took the pre-assessment for unit 1. The purpose of the pre-assessment is to help guide my planning and instruction. It gives me a chance to see what the students already know, so that I do not bore them (too much!). After taking the pre-assessment, I reviewed the correct answers. Then we identified the difference between a digit and a number. I explained that just as letters go together to make words; digits go together to make numbers. Some letters, a and i, are words, too; some digits are numbers (0-9). The class was devastated (LOL!) that we ran out of time to assign homework.

We began our reading block by discussing our writing focus for this marking period, personal narratives. Then I modeled brainstorming a topic, creating a graphic organizer and writing a rough draft. After that, I began some informal reading testing with individual students. This testing allows me to work one-on-one with each student in order to become acquainted with their learning styles and to determine their current reading instructional level.

During this time, our resource teach, Mrs. Arul, who will be with us daily until 12:45, conducted a lesson on choosing the "right" book for independent reading. She also read a story to the class. Then, the students worked on an All About Me worksheet. This worksheet needs to be kept in their writing section...it will be a useful tool when writing personal narratives this marking period.

After lunch and recess, I will assign some homework...a reading survey. Then Mrs. Howard will visit and do an introductory lesson with the class.

We will end the day by sharing what we know about fingerprinting and reading about the history of it.

Remember...Back to School Night is Thursday, September 2 at 7pm...no worries, the Skins game doesn't start till 10:00 that night...you will be home long before that!! :-)

The First Day!

Welcome to third grade!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing summer! I am looking forward to a fun year of learning!!

I believe this begins the third year of maintaining a class blog. I do my best to post daily. I sincerely hope this blog becomes a tool that allows you to discover what your child is doing each day and answer any questions you might have regarding teaching methods and daily assignments.

I do my best to use appropriate spelling and grammar...but sometimes I am in a rush. So, in advance, I apologize to any of you writers out there!

Also, I do enjoy knowing that the blog is being read...please leave a comment and feel free to add any suggestions that would make this tool even more valuable!

OK...so let's move on to today...

We did NOTHING!

JUST kidding...but isn't that what your kids will say???

Unfortunately, the first day isn't very exciting...the teacher (that's me!) does a lot of talking and the students do a lot of listening. So, if your child says that third grade is boring...today was...but it WILL get better!

We began the day by reviewing morning routines such as unpacking, ordering lunch and completing morning work. Then we switched for math.

Students taking third grade math will be in my class. Mr. Vogel is teaching fourth grade math to a group of third graders. In math, we set up our math journal and began a warm up. The students listed various ways to compose the number 321. Examples include, 300+21, 310+11, etc. There is no math homework this evening!

After math, the children returned to their assigned homerooms for our reading/language arts block. We spent time setting up our binder and learning how to use the planner. Then we read and discussed a poem about the first day of school.

For homework, the children need to reread the poem and complete a worksheet using the poem.

Just prior to lunch, the children spent some time getting to know each other better. They each received a worksheet with 20 statements on it (...has brown eyes, is left-handed, etc.). Their job was to walk around the room and talk to their classmates in order to find a person whose name could be put into a blank on the worksheet thereby making the statement true. The children had a lot of fun with this activity!

Following lunch and recess the students went to art. When they return to the classroom, we will review the getting to know you activity and then begin brainstorming what the children "know" about fingerprints...our first science unit is Crime Lab Science.

After that we will pack up and go home!

Back to School Night is THIS Thursday, September 2 at 7 pm.