Additional words you can use for this unit are: cries, flies, fries, ladies, skies, spies, geese, moose, buggies, booties, bullies, diaries, fairies, sheep, deer, nineties, pastries, posies, rubies, trophies, women, dozen, and data. See earlier post http://3rdgradehudson.blogspot.com/2011/09/parent-information-highlights.html for additional activities. Activities we are doing in class include identifying parts of speech, roots, prefixes and suffixes.
I am asking all students to write their spelling words in cursive. This will be challenging, but without the practice they will struggle to develop their letter-to-letter connections. I am not grading their cursive, only encouraging it. I am also writing on the board in cursive occassionally to develop the skill of reading cursive as the 4th grade teachers will write in cursive next year. I am checking to make sure everyone can read what I write on the board in cursive so no visual learners are disadvantaged.
Please spend some time practicing keyboarding. If you are unable to load TTL4 at home, there are lots of great free online resources. Here is but one http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/cjh/appliedtech/Business/Keyboarding/ Students will take Ohio Achievement Assessments on the computer in the near future and this skill will help them greatly. This is a good summer activity as well. There are a lot of games they can play. I've found numerous inexpensive copies of engaging instructional typing software at Half Price Books on Lane Avenue. http://www.hpb.com/052.html
We are continuing with our author study on Roald Dahl and are writing journal responses to Fantastic Mr. Fox. Students are to write in first person, past tense, and supply a descriptive summary of what we read daily. I'm very pleased with their efforts. Students are sharing daily, which is a great motivation to put effort into their responses. All students who are in classroom reading groups are reading a Roald Dahl book to draw connections to other books by our author.
We are working on our plans for our Tremont pen pals in writing. I am pushing the class to include all of the 5 W's and as many of the 5 senses as possible.
We are reviewing math with an emphasis on problem solving, including showing our work (either drawing a picture or writing a number sentence/model), labeling our answers with units of measure, and circling our answers. I presented the class with a traditional math puzzler: If everyone at your table (There are 9 students at each table) shakes hands with everyone else only once, how many hand shakes will there be. There are many ways to solve this, but one of our students, Tyler Cannon, came up with a fairly sophisticated strategy. Spoiler: You may want to try to figure this out before using Tyler's strategy.
If you would like to see previous Ohio Math Achievement Assessments, you can find them here: http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?page=3&TopicRelationID=1070&ContentID=7479&Content=122453
Mr. Schuster, room parent and UAHS physics teacher, visited us to expand our physical science unit on force and motion.
Students experiment with Bernoulli's principle which states a fast moving stream of air creates an area of low pressure and gives lift due to surrounding high pressure areas. Have your student demonstrate this with you at home.
Mr. Schuster and his daughter/assistant, Xan, keep a ball hovering in a low pressure area caused by a leaf blower.
Xan about to launch a 2 liter bottle that has been pressurized with a bicycle pump.
Mr. Schuster and his assistant about to launch the potato cannon which uses an air compressor as force.
More soda geysers.
April 16 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
April 17 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
April 16 - MOVband challenge is over. Please send your student to school with their MOVband.
April 17 - Third Grade Musical (see earlier post for more information: http://3rdgradehudson.blogspot.com/2012/04/3rd-grade-musical-performance.html)
April 21 - Invention Convention at UA High School (http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4935700267914769940&postID=5242561711290921440) As of now I do not have any registrations. I'm assuming no one is entering the Invention Convention this year. Please let me know if you sent your registration directly to Greensview so I can support your student by providing them with an opportunity to present their invention to the class and respond to questions.
April 23 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
April 24 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
April 23 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
April 24 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
April 27 - Kids Fest 5:00 till 8:00. Please visit the Windermere PTO's page for more information. http://www.windermerepto.org/ I will be in the dunk tank. Come take your best shot:)
April 30 - Ohio Reading Achievement Retakes (only for students who did not pass in fall)
April 30 - Ohio Reading Achievement Retakes (only for students who did not pass in fall)
April 30 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 1 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 1 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 1 - Ohio Mathematics Achievement Assessment
May 7 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 7 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 9 - Early Release at 1:15 for teacher math professional development
May 12 - Windermere Wish Run
May 14 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 15 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 21 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 22 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 28 - No School, Memorial Day observed
May 29 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 30 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 31 - Ukulele Orchestra Performance at 7pm (more information to come). This will be our final ukulele date for 3rd and seniors.
June 4 - Field Days, send your student with a water bottle and sunscreen already applied
June 5 - Field Days rain date
June 7 - Last day for students
June 8 - Summer begins for students
May 7 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 7 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 9 - Early Release at 1:15 for teacher math professional development
May 12 - Windermere Wish Run
May 14 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 15 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 21 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 22 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 28 - No School, Memorial Day observed
May 29 - Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 30 - Senior Ukulele Orchestra. Don't forget those ukes.
May 31 - Ukulele Orchestra Performance at 7pm (more information to come). This will be our final ukulele date for 3rd and seniors.
June 4 - Field Days, send your student with a water bottle and sunscreen already applied
June 5 - Field Days rain date
June 7 - Last day for students
June 8 - Summer begins for students
