Area Maps of Our Classroom

Here are some pictures of the Area Maps we made of our classroom before Winter Break!

A Peek at Our First Week of 2009

In Math, we are beginning multiplication. We will need to learn and memorize our multiplication tables. We are starting a new Science theme: The Human Body & Nutrition. In Reader’s Workshop on Monday, we reviewed story elements while reading Pete & Pickles. We discussed the different genres of fiction and nonfiction. This week we focused on Realistic Fiction books. We read Thank You, Mr. Falker and Going Home. We also read Axle Annie and the Speed Grump. In Writer’s Workshop we worked on more personal narratives about First Times and Last Times. We received 8 new postcards this week from the states of: Kansas, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Tennessee, Georgia, and West Virginia. On Thursday we did Flexible Math Groups in the afternoon. We visited other third grade classrooms for math. Today is Polar Express Day, since we missed it on December 19th due to the Snow Day. Today we had our first Spirit Day Assembly. The whole school gathered in the gym and recognized students who were generous during the month of December. Abel received the award from our classroom! Congrats, Abel! We also learned our new School Pledge which is: “Today I promise to do my best, I will be responsible with my actions, I will be respectful to myself and others, and I’m ready to learn!” Kindergarten shared with the whole school some of their songs (like the alphabet song and the months of the year song). Next month, the Spirit Assembly will award respectful students! We also started using Tumble Books this week, which is a website where we can read and listen to books online. This week in cursive, we learned the letters h and k. Siyana is taking Speedy home this weekend. Have a good weekend!

P.S. We FINALLY were able to paint our landform models that we made quite awhile back. They took forever to dry, but we painted them this week. Check out the pictures below:

This Week's News

This Monday we went to the Morton Arboretum for our first field trip. We learned about the water cycle and how nature recycles its materials. It was very cold! BRRRR! Tuesday was Veteran’s Day. We invited veterans and parents to come see our performance. In Reader’s Workshop this week, Miss Anna taught us a lesson on connections. In Writer’s Workshop we are planting our seed stories onto paper and working on fixing up our writing. Next week we will publish our personal narratives! In Math, we reviewed place value. We are learning a place value game that we will teach our online buddies in Mount Prospect. In cursive this week, we learned the letters i and t. In P.E. we had a free day. Today we are going to an assembly called The Power of One (about bullying). In Social Studies this week, we’ve been researching Washington D.C. and we started making a brochure to welcome the Obama family to their new home. Today is our first Fruity Friday! Mrs. Boryszewski was able to win a grant and get money for our school to give healthy snacks out! Every Friday, each class will get to try a new fresh fruit! Dominika is taking Speedy home this weekend. Check out pictures from our field trip below:

Our Ball Chairs Have Arrived

As you've read from our previous blog entries, our class posted a grant proposal on the Donor's Choose website, where people can donate money to school projects and help teachers fund projects for their classrooms & students. One of our projects was called "On the Ball...." and we were requesting 6 large exercise balls to use as chairs in the classroom. I wanted the 3rd graders in Room 203 to be "on the ball" in reading, math and writing, and what better way then by providing exercise ball seats! All teachers search for ways to promote learning and engagement in their classrooms. Creating a motivating, engaging, and creative learning environment is always on the top of my list!

The balls arrived on Monday, and with the help of an electric air pump, we inflated them all! They're orange (they perfectly match our Promethean Board) and the kids love them! Check them out:

A Peek at Our Week

On Monday this week, we all did a school vote for our country's next president! We all got our own ballots and voted in a voting booth for John McCain or Barack Obama. We even got an I VOTED sticker after! The winner of the Kennedy School Presidential Elections was Barack Obama! We didn't have school on Tuesday since it was Election Day. We all watched the elections at night to see that Barack Obama won with 364 electoral votes (he only needed 270 to win). Wednesday we learned about the different regions in our country and which states are in each region. We used candy to represent the different landforms in the United States! On Thursday in Reader's Workshop we read If I Were President and talked about all the different jobs a president has when in office. In Writer's Workshop we worked on planting our BEST seed story from our writer's workshop journsl on a piece of paper to grow and develop into a writing piece to publish! This week we read The Scrambled States of America and even watched the movie version! Today we chatted with our "online buddies" (the 3rd grade class in Mount Prospect) on gmail. We had music today, too. It was our last music class before our Veteran's Day show next Tuesday. Earlier this week, real veterans came to talk to our classroom. We got to ask them questions and learn all about what it was like to be a soldier in a war. We are very excited for them to come to our Veteran's Day show next week!! In computers this week, we started researching for our WELCOME TO WASHINGTON,D.C. brochures we will be making for the Obama family! Malia and Sasha, and Mr. and Mrs. Obama will probably want to learn about all the monuments and buildings they can see when they move to Washingotn, D.C., so we are going to make them a brochure and send them to the Obama's! Julia will be taking Speedy home this weekend. We received 4 new postcards for our postcard exchange project this week, Louisiana (2), New York (1), and Utah (1). Have a great weekend!!!!!!

This Week's News.....BOO!

This week in Social Studies we learned about landforms. We made a dough and put it in a landform mold. When it dries we will paint it and label the landforms. In Math, we did Candy Corn math, where we practiced multiplication and division fact families. In Reader’s Workshop we’ve been working on making good connections to what we read. We read Duck for President and Roberto the Insect Architect. We also read The Wall by Eve Bunting and learned about Veteran’s Day (coming up on November 11th). In Writer’s Workshop we’ve been practicing writing great leads, which are the first sentences of the story to hook the reader! In P.E. we started basketball. In Art we painted Picassos. Our postcard exchange project is going great! This week we received 8 new postcards. We now have postcards from 15 of the 50 states. Today is HALLOWEEN! We have our parade at 1:30 and our party afterwards. We brought LOTS of goodies! Our class’s ball chair project was fully funded on the Donor’s Choose website! We will soon have 6 large exercise balls to use as chairs! Thanks to everyone who donated money for our classroom!

This Week's News from Room 203

This week in Reader’s Workshop we learned another way we can respond in our Reader’s Workshop journals. We practiced making connections. We read Sparky the Firefighter to practice this strategy. We also worked on picking out the adjectives in a story. We read The Night I Followed My Dog by Nina Laden. In Writer’s Workshop we practiced telling stories, instead of just saying what happened. We learned that great writers write so that readers can feel like they are there (in the story)! This week we received new postcards from Washington, Alaska, Texas, Nevada, California, Florida, and Pennsylvania. We now have 20 total postcards from 12 different states. In Social Studies we are learning about landforms, which are different ways our land is shaped. In Math, we’ve been practicing subtraction facts with flashcards. We learned strategies to help us when we subtract 9 or 10 using a hundreds chart. The answer to a subtraction problem is called a difference. We also started multiplication this week! We practiced multiplication number sentences using cookie crisps! This week, we also started cursive! We put shaving cream on our tables, and practiced some of the strokes that we will use when learning cursive letters. Friday is Matthew’s birthday. This weekend Julia will be taking Speedy home. In P.E. we are learning about fitness. This week was red ribbon week (drug awareness week). Each day we did something fun to promise to just say no to drugs Monday was turn your back on drugs so we wore our shirts backwards. Tuesday was put a cap on drugs, so we wore hats to school. Wednesday was sock it to drugs, so we wore crazy socks. Thursday was team up against drugs, and we wore our favorite sports team shirt to school. Friday is saying no to drugs is no sweat, so we are wearing sweats and pajamas today. We decorated our door for the door-decorating contest, which will be judged today!