Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Post-Election

We did a mock election with the third graders!  We talked about the four candidates for president, we looked at a brochure that talked about the candidates that were up for election (from judges, to sheriffs, presidents, congress people--we discovered there were a lot of people running for some type of office this time around!).  For the official unofficial voting, Hillary Clinton won with the student population.  Hopefully none of the students stayed up until 2:00 AM to find out the actual winner of the presidential election--unlike one of our grade-level teachers!  Here is a great video from Kid President to open some lines of communication with your child to talk about some manners to have if you disagree with people.  I am sure we know a handful of adults that could benefit from a viewing of this as well!


Friday, October 28, 2016

Boosterthon Golden Bungee Rocket!!

Thank you parents for your support of our Boosterthon!  My homeroom class got to bring "home" the golden bungee rocket today from our Boosterthon Pep Rally!  :) 





The weekend challenge is to get pledge(s) for $3 a lap!  Keep up the great work!

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Going, going, going...time is speeding up!

Howdy!

     It's already the last week of October!  Thank you for a great week of parent conferences.  It was great catching up with you all and getting some more insights to your kiddos!  This week we will have a grade in Social Studies that revolves around the Week 7 of the Studies Weekly newspaper.  There are homework assignments for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to read different articles in the paper.  The questions on Friday will be coming from these articles. 
     In reading we have been working on character traits--hopefully seeing how a character had changed from the beginning of the story to the end.  We are also working on identifying a good  summary.  So far we have discovered that good summaries include important events from the beginning, middle, and end of a story.  We'll also look at characteristics of a good summary from a non-fiction selection. 
      We will continue working on building better story arcs by starting with the climax of the story.  WHY are you wanting to tell the story you are writing?  In class we looked at two stories and compared them to see which one was a story worth telling.  (It was unanimous--no one wanted to read a story about someone making their bed.  There weren't any monsters, no dust bunnies attacking, and no bedbugs eating a person alive!).  We will also take a closer look at stories that were written without structure verses a story that follows a story arc and has a clear beginning, middle, end, climax, and rising action that has tension.


       BOOSTERTHON TIGER TROT takes place on November 4th!!  We had our pep rally today, so students will be coming home this evening with their pledge cards.  Every student that goes to Funrun.com and registers will get a prize!  Remember, you are pledging money for laps, and most kiddos will run between 30-35 laps (if you've never seen our Fun Run, the laps are pretty, um, short!).  Come on over next Friday and join us!

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Spelling City

    I have made some changes!  If you look at the symbaloo, you will now see a tile that has a pink S and has the label of Spelling City.  That tile SHOULD take you straight to my teacher page.  I have made a list for the current spelling words, so this should make it easier to do some of the activities to practice the spelling words.  Please send me an email if you find that it's not taking you straight to the page that has a link to our current spelling list.
   Students need to do two activities from the spelling menu each week--and these activities should be recorded into the purple spelling journal.  If your child works on Spelling City, please write a title of Spelling City, the date, and then sign it to show that you witnessed your child practicing their spelling words using the site.  I check homework each Friday, and part of what I check is to make sure they have done at least 2 spelling activities. 

QR codes and Updates

   Thank you for such a great turnout for Curriculum Night this year!  I did have some parents tell me that "the QR code for the blog scares me!".  QR codes aren't meant to be scary.  QR codes are a teacher's best friend, especially for getting to places on the web when the students are not very good typists!  To use the code on a mobile device, you first need to go to your "Store" and download a QR reader app (get a free one, don't spend $$ to get one).  Once you have done that, you open the reader app, then point the camera over the qr code.  Depending on the app, it will take you directly to the website, or it will first ask permission to go to the website.  Very quick for use in the classroom!

Try it out!  Where does this QR code take you?  

       Spelling:  Notice that there is a tab next to "home" that reads "Spelling".  You'll find the current list on this page.  When we change lists, I'll update the page.  Our first spelling test is on September 23rd.  We'll give 5 words on the test from the pattern from their study list, but then we'll give 5 words that ARE NOT on the list, but follow the pattern.  This week the big difference is long vowel sound before or a short vowel sound before the ending.  The rest of the words will come from the high frequency list. 
     In reading we are continuing to work on marking our thinking.  We are spending time talking about what makes a good prediction (prior knowledge and using text evidence--what clues have we gotten in the writing thus far?), and next week we'll be using determining importance.  We'll practice picking out the important information in a paragraph using our Social Studies textbook while reading about the different jobs that happen around the mayor, city council, and the services that are provided by a city.  
     Social Studies is a little challenging right now.  We are learning about three important documents that helped start our country: The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights.  I mostly want the students to know what the gist of each document is, how the Constitution helped to establish our three branches of government, and the Bill of Rights are freedoms that we enjoy here in America.  Here is a fun little video for the Bill of Rights done by some students using the Taylor Swift song, "Shake it Off".  
Click here for the video


Next week we have picture day on September 21st, and progress reports go home on Friday the 23rd! 



Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Welcome to the Third Grade!

Who's feeling nervous?  Excited?  Pumped?  Shy?  Interested?  Overwhelmed?  Hopeful?  Curious?  Confident? I hope it isn't just me!  Welcome to third grade, where we switch classes, go to Moody Gardens for a field trip, and dress up as a famous person to make our own Frostwood Wax Museum!  You will want to bookmark this blog so that you can check on what is going on in our classroom.  Down at the bottom of the page you will find a symbaloo with links to some of Mrs. Mallette's favorite educational sites as well as links that go with our curriculum.  When we start up with spelling, you'll find a tab under the blog title that will lead you to the words for the week (they SHOULD be written in your agenda as well!), and you can use Spelling City to practice your words.

Stay tuned...