It's Been Quite Some Time....

.....since we've written in our blog (no school last Friday due to extreme cold weather). This week, there was no school on Monday to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Tuesday was an exciting day, as it was the inauguration day of President Barack Obama! It was fun to watch as he took the oath of office and officially became the 44th president. What a historic moment to watch the 1st African American president take office! In Math this week we've continued working on our multiplication facts. In flex reading groups this week we traveled to Mrs. Bricker's room to learn about context clues. In Reader's Workshop this week we focused on character traits. We read I Hate English! and focused on Mei-Mei's character. We also read The Wolf Who Cried Boy which was a twist on the Traditional Literature folk tale The Boy Who Cried Wolf. It had a lot of witty jokes in it and we definitely recommend it. In Science we began learning about the Respiratory System, which is the system of the body that brings oxygen in an removes carbon dioxide from our bodies. We learned that when we breathe in, it's called inhaling, and when we breathe out, it's called exhaling. Oxygen is the one gas our body needs to stay alive! After learning about the parts of the respiratory system and what happens when we breathe oxygen into our bodies, we were able to color and cut out lungs/trachea to glue onto our mini-me paper bodies! We will continue learning about the different systems of the body. On Thursday we did Project Recycle for the 2nd week. We love being responsible for collecting the recycling for the entire schooL! We will try to take pictures next week so you can see us in action! We do a very good job sharing the responsibility and working together! Today we did a project with our online buddies in the morning and made SNOW with our Kindergarten buddies in the afternoon! We had a great day! Speedy is staying at Kennedy this weekend....no field trip for him! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Digital Projects from December

Enjoy the slideshow....you'll see pictures of our holiday gift (digitally editing photos on picnik.com and online collaboration with our buddies in Mount Prospect, IL). Check out our wiki to see more of our projects with the 3rd graders at Fairview Elementary!

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!!!!!!