Belated Final Post

Happy summertime, everyone! I hope you've enjoyed our first Monday of vacation. :-) I am a little late on my final blog post, but I wanted to share some "last day" pictures with you. I thanked our class last week for making it our very best. While everything around us was crazy, Room 12 was a happy little oasis of fun crafts, writing projects, and "Starry River of the Sky." I appreciate that more than you know! I'm so proud of us. Our class shrunk and grew several times, but we became such a family by the end. It warms my heart to see them so invested in our group success, to care about each other, and to be so excited about learning. Next year you can find me upstairs in 5th grade. I told the class that was perfect, because we were moving upstairs together and I could see them every day. Feel free to stop by and say "Hello!" Please be on the lookout for Oakwood's summer reading program in a few weeks. More information coming your way! Happy trails, and see you next year!

Camp Wonderopolis

Yet another summer opportunity, families! Let's do everything we can to learn this summer and start fourth grade at our best. :-) Wonderopolis, one of my favorite websites, hosts a free summer camp each year. Every day students are given an article to read, vocabulary, questions, as well as indoor and outdoor extension activities. What better entertainment could you find? This year features 42 STEM units for students to explore. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Consider enrolling your curious, almost-fourth grader this year. Runs June 15-July 26!

http://camp.wonderopolis.org/

Bedtime Math

I plan to post a more thorough update later, but I couldn't wait for this one! I found a free app called "Bedtime Math" that presents students with one math puzzle per day. Families are encouraged to solve puzzles together, making math a summertime routine. This company also publishes books that you could complete as well. http://bedtimemath.org/books/

Check it out! Educational apps = quality tablet time this summer :-)

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bedtimemath/id637910701 

After-Testing Fun!

Our first EOG was a success! I'm so proud of everyone's hard work and focus. I'm equally as proud, however, of our productive afternoon! Our stamina is so strong that we weren't even a pile of goo. (Quite an accomplishment, I promise) With time to move and talk, students continued learning and having fun. YAY!  Here's a peek into the rest of our day:

"Fast Phrases" fluency game is always a fun center.

"Verbs in Space" computer time is a great review.

Who doesn't love relaxing with a good nonfiction text?

I have faith that we can do it all again tomorrow. :-) Let's get a good night's sleep!

Summer Idea!

Good evening, everyone! I'm sure you've heard about our exciting day tomorrow: our very first EOG! Please be sure students go to bed early and eat a good breakfast in the morning. I have faith in each and every one of us, and I know we will get through this together. :-) Don't forget the happy bags!

In my Pinterest-ing tonight, I found something really cool! A free app on iTunes and GooglePlay, called "Epic", provides an entire library of ebooks for students to read with tablets. Students create a profile, choose their favorite genres, and earn badges for books read! There is a "Read to Me" option for some books. It's been dubbed "The Netflix of books for kids," which has to be a good thing. Check it out!

https://www.getepic.com/app/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/epic!-unlimited-books-for/id719219382?mt=8 

End of Year Party

Happy Wednesday! You may notice a new button over to our right. ------> In an effort to cut the paper trail and group emails, the third grade teachers are trying something new! Our "End of Year" party will be Monday June 8 at 1:00pm. If you are willing to donate your time or supplies, please click the button. This will take you to our sign up sheet. This allows everyone to see which supplies are taken, which ones we need, and you can also comment to eachother if needed. Teamwork!

Thanks for such a wonderful year together- I can't believe it's almost over. I appreciate all that you do to keep third graders rested, motivated, and confident as we wrap things up. We can do it!

What A Lovely Day!

What a wonderful day! I want to thank our class so very much for all their hard work. We had a long day of MClass testing and independent work, but boy were we productive! I appreciate their understanding, focus, and flexibility. I tried to break up the monotony with happy tasks, but none of that would have worked without such sweet students. :-) You're the best!

To top it off, we published our inventors research today. Bravo!

Enjoy a happy, three day weekend and I'll see you next week!

Field Day, Ice Cream, and Presents- Oh My!

Happy Wednesday, everyone! We're having an awesome week so far in third grade. I complimented students today on our positive attitudes, our focus in class, and how well we are working together. Bravo! :-)

Somehow, my most recent blog posts have omitted several important events. (Yikes!) I'd like to thank all of you for your sweet cards and flowers for Teacher Appreciation Week. I felt so loved. Our windowsill is now colorful and bright, it's beautiful!

Look at these silly faces! Field Day was a ton of fun, and the weather was perfect. You can see more of our adventures HERE!

We recently celebrated our success with the Multiplication Ice Cream Party. Twelve students from our class passed all their times tables and enjoyed some ice cream and sunshine. Special applause to Jesus, who was our class record holder for the most problems solved in two minutes. (Psssst...he also had the highest in the whole third grade!) So proud of everyone for their hard work. :-)

And just a cute anecdote, I spotted the class in a moment of suspense! Who knew snack time stories could evoke so much emotion? I love catching moments like these. :-)

Let's keep up the great work, everyone! Thanks again for all you do!

Mission Possible!

Happy Monday, families!

Today third graders kicked off our "Mission Possible" EOG math review. We pledged to try our hardest every day, to spy all the clues in math problems, and to persevere in solving them. Students are on a mission to solve riddles and identify the "Mystery Agent" at the end of our 10 day unit. WHO WILL IT BE?? Be sure to ask your student how our mission is going!

We also took some time today to update our classroom social contract. It is so very important that we remember how wonderful our class has become. I try to remind them often, but sometimes it is easy to forget. :-) We discussed how to handle stress, nervousness, and anxiety as a team and not to take it out on each other. Expressing our feelings appropriately is a learned skill, and doing so in a team is even harder for our third graders. Thank you for your support as we continue to guide our students through this growth experience. We will be stronger on the other side! :-) 

*Remember: Third grade t-shirt money is due Friday May 22! $6.00 per shirt

Candytooth Kingdom

Our current social studies unit is all about the economy! Students understand the terms "goods and services" as well as "supply and demand." WOW! Today we learned how supply, demand, and production costs affect prices we see in stores. To play our "Candytooth Kingdom" game at home, click below. Happy learning!

"Candytooth Kingdom" Game 

Mid-Week Update!

Happy Wednesday, everyone! As usual, we've been up to non-stop adventures in room 12. :-) I'm proud of us for sticking with it even though we are entering "crunch time." Please encourage your child not to give up as we approach the final stretch. Test prep, EOG practice, and weeks of MClass testing await us, so it is imperative we maintain our happy, motivated spirit. We can do it together!

As life gets a little crazy, let's look back at some awesome events. Here is a peek at our latest fun:

Mathematicians worked so diligently on elapsed time word problems. We made it!

Reading group Red 2 had their very first literature circle meeting. So proud of them!

Cheers to mixtures and matter! This was a great way to close our science unit.

April was Jazz Appreciation Month!
We loved learning about Duke Ellington and wrote similes about jazz music. 

I love watching our class grow each and every day. Fourth grade will be here before you know it- let's make every day count! :-) 

Concert Opportunities

As if all that information wasn't enough, here's a little more! There are two awesome free concerts in our area this week. If your family needs a free activity, or just craves a little artistic enrichment, come on down. :-)

Featuring 3 Reeses, what fun!

Plenty of Work and Play!

Wowee, what a week! From RC Point rewards, to Homework Club parties, field trips, Career Day, Book Fair, Spring Carnival, and more- we were busy this week. Rest assured, however, our third graders deserved every bit of it. We continue to practice reading passages and multiplication tables. We also tackled matter, fables, and interpreting data from graphs. What hard work!

Jesus is our current Record Holder with 49 problems in 2 minutes!

Students researched Aesop's life in literacy centers.

Partners teamed up for a graphing scavenger hunt!

Third Quarter "Five Timers" Club

Third Quarter "Nine Timers" Club

So excited at the Science Center!
See more pictures from the trip HERE!

Listening to Firefighters at Career Day.
See more of Friday's adventures HERE!

Earth Day, Hooray!

Want to celebrate Earth Day again? We can! Here is a link to Earth Day online games that teach recycling, energy efficiency, vocabulary and more. Enjoy!

Earth Day Games!

Country Projects!

Congratulations, everyone! Third graders did a wonderful job on our "Around the World" projects last week. I loved watching their curiosity and writing grow through our research process. I also saw confidence blossom during presentation time. This was such a valuable learning experience for us and I am proud of each and every one of you. :-)

Without further ado, you can see pictures from our gym day HERE! Report grades should go home in Tuesday folders soon, but we are saving posters and boards for further display. They are too pretty to send home just yet!

Special thanks to Ms. Barbara Pitts for teaching us more about Canada last week. I am so sad to see our world cultures unit come to a close. It was the best! However, we are on to new exciting things. :-)

Coming Up:

• Book Fair: All week!
• Science Center Trip: Wed. 9:00-11:00am
• Homework Club parties: Thursday at 12:45
• Spring Carnival: Friday 5:30-8:00pm
• Baking Basket: Our classroom basket for the silent auction has a baking theme! Please consider donating cake mixes, muffin cups, and other small baking treats to fill our basket. Thanks!

Happy Vacation!

Hi everyone! Hope you are loving vacation. I've enjoyed sleeping in, time with family, and lots of baking adventures, but I can't wait to hear about all the fun you've been having, too. :-) We'll be together again very soon! If you need a little help getting in the "school spirit," maybe this will help:

Psssst...Don't forget about our country projects! Due on Tuesday :-)

Remember all our practice with dialogue punctuation?
Teams of 3 clipped quotations and commas on sentences around the room. 

Our "Bunny Bubbles" turned out so well! 

We used iPads to play "Text Features Jeopardy" during center time.

Look at our beautiful Henna Hands!
Studying Indian art and culture was so much fun.

Seven Habits Superstars!

We used procedural texts to make origami hats!

What a great week! We enjoyed such happy, productive days and I am thankful for our little class. Students are so well-trained and stamina is strong, that we actually finished lessons ahead of schedule this week. (Something they can assure you NEVER happens. Ms. Reese? On time? No way!) This is only possible because of our teamwork, clear vision of daily goals, and our understanding of the steps needed to get there. Boy have our "7 Habits" come in handy! We grow more into 4th graders every day. :-)

Highlights this week included finishing our Leprechaun creative writing projects, starting a world cultures unit in Social Studies, exploring math patterns, and a huge focus on nonfiction text features. We continue to chip away at our multiplication tables, and I am so proud of the progress we have made!

Things to Remember:

• Our final timed tests (11's and 12's) will be next week! Make ups continue after break.
• Wednesday April 1 Math Benchmark
• Friday April 3: No school!
• April 3-10: No school! Spring Break
• Tuesday April 14: "Around the World" Projects due
• Wednesday April 15: "Around the World" Project presentations in gym 1:00

Joseph and Gabriella's moms teach us about Brazilian culture!

Research Resources!

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Third grade's "Around the World" projects are finally here. Students were very excited to receive their countries today, and we started researching at school. After today, students will be primarily responsible for researching at home, but here are some resources to help!

From Ms. Reese's "Student" page: CLICK HERE

Pssssssst! Want some extra fun at home? Click HERE for some fun musical games, in honor of "Music In Our Schools Month." So many games and learning opportunities to explore!

Happy Spring!

We loved our field trip to the Art Museum!

Happy first day of Spring, everyone! We are so excited to finally say "Spring" during our daily calendar report. :-) This was an exciting week full of festive activities. From field trips, to Science Day, to St. Patrick's Day and more, it was the BEST!

We started a math unit on line plots and measurement this week. Not only did we plot the marshmallows in "Lucky Charms" cereal, we also measured, tallied, and plotted the lengths of leprechaun feet! It was a lot of work, but students did a great job hanging in there. Our stamina grows every day!

We loved Science Day! Special thanks to all the volunteers that made this event possible for our students. We solved a mystery with help from the Catawba Science Center, and students were exposed to several different science concepts during our time in the gym. What fun!

Finally, we were so excited about Star Student Nelly's parent spotlight! We met Nelly's mom and sister, and learned all about her favorite things. Way to go, Nelly!

Only two more weeks to Spring Break, we can do it! Have a happy weekend, and I look forward to seeing everyone on Monday. :-)

What a Week!

Happy Friday! We had a fantastic week in Room 12. I am thankful for fun projects, recess (in spite of some very ominous clouds!), our new read aloud, and the way we continue to grow together. Our classroom family is so supportive and understanding of eachother, which makes such a difference at this time of year. :-) No "spring fever" in here! 

Lily's table practices "Fractions of a Set" with counters.

We found text evidence to support answers in a "Little Grunt" Jeopardy game.

        Finally, just listen to the engagement in this video. Students LOVED our dinosaur classification game. We drew inferences on the dinos' diets based on physical features. We observed pictures of dinosaurs as well as used information from a nonfiction text. What fun!

You can play, too!      Dino Appetite Game                         

Coming Up...

• Mon. March 16: Men's Night 6:00-7:30...for male parents/guardians and their students.
• Tues. March 17: Science Day at Oakwood (all day)
• Wed. March 18: Art Museum field trip ($3.00)
• Thurs. March 19: Salsarita's Spirit Night
• Thurs. March 26: Latino Parent Potluck Dinner
• Thurs. April 2: Yearbook Orders Due

Springing Forward!

Happy Monday, everyone! We were off to a sleepy start today with our time change, but everyone worked their hardest and I am so proud of them. With snow days and my conference in Raleigh, we've had a crazy few weeks. My hope is that this week will be routine, comfy, and enjoyable. :-)

Without further ado, congratulations to Star Student Avery! She was a trooper through the snow days and delays, and we enjoyed her Parent Spotlight. So proud of you!

We have been plotting fractions on a number line, and are now moving toward mixed numbers and equivalences. If we keep practicing I know we can do it!

Our plants and soil unit in Science has been a lot of fun. From digging up actual soil samples and watching the layers separate in water, to assembling our own "edible soil," we've had a great time. Thanks to all those who donated supplies to make today's lesson possible!

Claire and Erika sketch diagrams of soil layers next to pudding models!