Teaching Kiddos

HOUR OF CODE Computer Science Education Week a.k.a. the Hour of Code kicked off today!    Last year 15 million students participated in the Hour of Code, and this year the goal is to get 100 million students worldwide to do an Hour of Code by the end of 2015!    Here’s a little intro video from  Code.org  if you’re unfamiliar with what The Hour of Code is all about.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC5FbmsH4fw&sns=em We fully support their philosophy that every 21 st -century student should have the opportunity to learn computer science.  If you’ve never tried coding before,  Code.org is a great place to start.  It offers a variety of self-guided tutorials from kindergarten up featuring Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, and even Frozen!  Here are a couple of our cuties working on a coding program. Happy coding!!!!

This week our kiddos went into Olive's STEM classroom to use not only their fabulous brains but also their social skills to work together.  Each group was given the following materials: - foil -tape - straws - string - sticks -plastic glove The task was to build a "Mayflower" boat.  The boat needed to float and hold as many weights as possible. We were so proud of how awesome the kiddos were while working together .  Lots of communication! We were very impressed by the mature academic communication that occurred . And then came the floating competition: Lots of winners. Even if a boat sunk the group got a chance to discuss what went wrong and what solution would of fixed the problem.  We all enjoyed our 21st century STEM lesson. Because of the student's exceptional attitudes, we will be able to visit Olive's STEM room several more times during the year...... Can't wait!

We had some really creative puppets " walk" into our classroom last week.  For their book report assignment , the kiddos had to find a scary book, mystery book, or Halloween themed  book. After the book was chosen, the kiddos had to identify the main character . For the book report a character sketch needed to be filled out, a summary needed to be written neatly or typed and most importantly a puppet needed to be made of the main character.  Character sketch  Book summary Puppet

For our phonics lesson about the silent e, we became   " ninjas". We loved doing this lesson because we not only got to sing a Teenage Mutan Ninja Turtle's song ( go ninja, go ninja, go) but we got to learn how powerful that silent E can be at the end of a word . To demonstrate this we became ninjas and placed an E at the end of several short vowel words.  After the whole class lesson, the students then took their masks and went through their daily 5 books from their book baskets. In their own leveled books they could search for words that had the Super Sneaky Silent E. In our opinion , any lesson with " costumes" is a fun and productive one!!!!!

We have begun using our iPads on a daily basis. We are so fortunate to have these in our classroom. With California's new core curriculum , we are able to expand our standards based teaching and take our learning to the next level. Each student has learned the rules and responsibilities of having an iPad. We did a quick lesson on the various parts of an iPad . After our iPad introduction was complete, each student signed a contract to ensure that they would take this new responsibility seriously.  Our first lesson with the iPad's began after we learned about the Earth's continents . Each group filled out a tree map and jotted down as much information about the continents . When the tree map was completed, each group picked one continent to focus on. They opened their PicCollage App and choose one picture of their continent and typed out 3 facts about it.  We can already see that this year will have so many more opportunities to allow our student to do so much more research

We still continue to excel in our Daily 5 morning routine. We added a few new books this week. One being from the Harry Potter series. We were happy to see many excited kiddos who wanted to get their hands on it , but it did make us pause and review the Daily 5 " I PICK" system.  A few weeks back we introduced I PICK and it seemed to help a huge majority switch out their books in their book baskets with books that were more readable .  I showed the kiddos 3 sizes of shoes. I would put one on ( too big)and run unsuccessfully around the class. Then I put on another shoe ( too small) and tried to run around the classroom , unsuccessfully .  Finally the     " just right" shoe was put on me and I could easily sprint around the class. This demonstration not only gave me a good workout but more importantly taught the kiddos that they needed to find their own " just right" books to be successful with reading. We talked about I-PICK as well as the "Five Finger

          WARM FUZZY JAR.           "Do something kind and get a warm fuzzy" One thing that is really important to us is having a positive classroom environment where students feel safe and loved.  The warm fuzzy jar will contribute to such an environment.         Here is our Warm Fuzzy Jar! As we see students doing a kind thing, serving, helping each other, encouraging each other etc. they will get a pom pom (warm fuzzy) to put in our Warm Fuzzy Jar!  When the jar is full we will have a class celebration! The only stipulation is that everyone in the class has to have contributed a Warm Fuzzy in order for us to have the party!  We're really excited to see how this will contribute to a positive classroom environment where our students will be excited to come and be able to learn to the best of their ability! One nice thing about a big jar is that we can be generous with our rewards. Dropping warm fuzzies in the jar often does several good things: It reminds them that we ar

Daily 5 The Daily 5 is a series of literacy tasks which students complete daily while the teacher meets with small groups or confers with individuals.   The Daily 5 is more than a management system or a curriculum framework – it is a structure that will help students develop the daily habits of reading, writing and working with peers that will lead to a lifetime of independent literacy.  We started  The Daily 5  this year in third grade and we are soooo excited about it! This is what we have been doing each day. We created a read to self anchor chart. We talked about urgency and the importance of reading. We talked about student/teacher expectations during this time and how to build our stamina. Stamina is doing anything for a long period of time without getting tired or giving. Our kiddos needed to get to 20 minutes before we introduced the next daily 5 task, work on writing. Sense of Urgency: Why do we read? 1. Become better readers and writers 2. It is fun!  3. It makes us happy! 4.

A,E,I,O and U can spell! During the month of  September our spelling words consist of mostly short vowel words. This is one of the best times of the year for spelling tests because by 3rd grade many of our students have already mastered this strategy. Many short vowel words are 3- lettered and some ( like many of our spelling words) are more. The vowels " glue" together the letters to make a true word. Perfecting our short vowels at the start of the year help to make it an easier transition into long vowels. Words with only three letters are the easiest to make the short vowel sound out of, due to the fact that only having three letters typically doesn’t allow for a second vowel to force the long vowel sound. An obvious example of the exception would be words like bee or tea. These words use a second vowel to force the long vowel sound from the first one, while other words like ant or mat use the placement of  consonants  to force a short vowel sound.  If your student is stil

We decided that we needed to do something about the frustrating fragments that often plague our third graders' writing.  Therefore, we started the school year by teaching the four types of sentences during Lang. Arts time.  Immediately after that, we tackled subjects and predicates. Slowly, our ideas started chugging.  When brainstorming, we often try to come up with some sort of visual that students can apply to a new concept.  We decided to try using a train analogy to teach subjects and predicates this year.  We could teach students to think of a complete sentence as a train, with the subject being the train's engine, and the predicate serving as the train's caboose. After the whole group lesson, the kiddos worked as a team to put subjects and predicates together( ocean theme of course ) Not  only did our third graders really seemed to enjoy the  subject   &   predicate  activities we did, we can honestly say that they really seemed to latch onto the train analogy! 

We have our chapter 1 math test coming up.  We have learned to read and write 3-4 digit numbers. We have also learned how to round to the nearest 10 or 100. To help better understand this concept we became " race car drivers" The kiddos had to place their car on the number that decides wether it will be rounded down and rest or add 1 more and let it soar to round up. Lots of fun.... And educational at the same time!!!

Last week we read the book " How Full Is Your Bucket?". It is about a boy who begins to see how every interaction in a day either fills or empties his bucket . He then realizes that everything he says or does to other people fills or empties their buckets as well.  So the idea behind the buckets is that we all have an imaginary one that is a part of us.  Throughout our day we are either "filled" or "dipped" from by the people around us, and the experiences we go through.  Saying something nice to a friend, adds a drop to their bucket (and yours!).  Say unkind words to a friend and their bucket has just been dipped from (and yours!)  The goal is try to and keep a full bucket and to help those around as have one as well.   After reading the book, the kiddos got their own buckets and had to come up with one way they fill people's buckets.  We got some great ideas. Check some out: