Category: All Blog Entries

Monday, November 14:  We worked on a pictograph, showing favorite ice cream flavors.  We are also beginning our work with ELAPSED TIME problems. Please throw in a few “what time is it?” questions here and there for extra practice with your 3rdLander.  In the afternoon, we worked on our word sorts.  Then we had PAWS time where we worked in small groups on different activities.  Our university teachers taught a great lesson about why some animals live in groups to survive.  As a whole group, students learned about elephant herds, and then they researched an additional animal that lives in a group.  We’re sharing our information with google slides.

Tuesday:  NWEA this morning lasted most of the morning.  In the afternoon, we worked on our word sorts.  We also spent time finishing up zines, google slides and lit. logs.  The Shredderman group met and had a great discussion, comparing Bubba’s bullying behavior with the pros and cons of Nolan’s anti-Bubba website.  We practiced a poem called Patience on the Literacy Cafe.  Today was fabulous with 100% attendance in 3rdLand.  Dr. H. is always happiest when we’re all together.

Wednesday:  At morning meeting, we learned that the world’s population has reached 8 billion people.  Wow! More NWEA this morning.  Math!  Senora Coolidge came for Espanol.  In the afternoon, we went on a word hunt with our partners.  We also worked on finishing our zines.  Our university teachers worked with us to write a classroom citizenship pledge.  They also brought some special snacks to Room 204 because this was their last day to visit.  Soon they’ll be student teaching full time.  We made them cards and gave them a goodbye gift.  We ended the day with one round of Reader’s Workshop.

Thursday:  We focused on equivalent fractions in Math time today. During Reading Workshop, we worked with a new Vocab Venture word, FORMIDABLE.  The 7 x 9 = Trouble group met and had a great discussion about how learning can be stressful.  Captain Cash came in the afternoon.  We talked about the importance of saving money.  We’re enjoying our chapter read aloud, RULES by Cynthia Lord.

Friday, November 18:  November 20 is World Children’s Day.  We learned all about this day that’s sponsored by UNICEF.  We made posters to teach other kids about World Children’s Day.  The theme this year is “Inclusion:  For Every Child.”  What an amazing way to end a great week.  Hoorah!

Monday, November 7:  We worked on a lot of Social Studies today.  In the morning, we revisited the United Nations web page and learned about organizations within the UN that have won the Nobel Peace Prize.  We wrote a reflection about what we’ve learned about the UN and listened to a song called Wavin’ Flag. This song was featured at the World Cup and the artist also sang his song at the United Nations General Assembly.  Wavin’ Flag became an instant hit with the 3rdLanders.  In the afternoon, we worked on some math problem solving.  Then our University Teachers taught a lesson about citizenship.  Last week, they taught about physical landforms and the 3rdLanders created maps of their own country, which included a legend and a range of different landforms.

Wednesday, November 8:  Our Math calendar this month features fractions.  We will make observations about equivalent fractions and equations that include fractions as we use the November calendar.  We also worked on using a multiplication chart to find answers to multiplication problems.  During Reading Workshop, we read a TFK article called Miracle Trees.  The article tells about the mangrove forests in Karachi, Pakistan and why people are working to protect them. Our IU teachers taught about different aspects of CULTURE.  After discussing elements of culture, the 3rdLanders researched the topic, using books from EPIC.  We ended the day by bringing our writer’s notebooks outside to the shelter house.  It was warm and sunny, so we enjoyed an extra recess after our writing time.

Thursday:  More work on multiplication during Math time.  We read and discussed Our House Is on Fire, a picture book about Greta Thunberg and the climate change movement. During Writing Workshop, we created zines about mangrove trees and ideas from the TFK article.  Zines (zeens) are small publications that can be about any topic.  Our zines included facts about mangroves and opinion statements about the issues presented in TFK.  Some friends of Dr. H, university professors, visited our classroom while we made our zines.  They were very impressed with 3rdlander independence and creativity.

Friday:  The 3rdlanders did a great job with the Veteran’s Day program in the morning.  After the program, we had math groups, rotating through a math game, FRECKLE math on the iPAD, and teacher table, where we worked on multiplication problems together. We are finishing up our informational bookmarks about the UN.  Dr. Frye agreed to let us share bookmarks with kids who check out books in the library.  In the afternoon, we visited the library and had another round of Reader’s Workshop.  This week was certainly busy.  And lots of fun too.

Monday, October 24. This morning was a hubbub of activity — new seating chart, red folders, report cards, AND an extra recess as a thank you for being so helpful when we had our guest teacher on Friday.  While we were outside, we collected some fossils for future study. We worked on Math in the afternoon.  We are working on breaking up an array into smaller arrays to find out the total number of squares the array contains.  Our first literature circle met today!  WooHOO for The Year of the Panda.  Mr. Sudbury’s class came to see our slide shows about the Nobel Peace Prize winners.  We’re moving on to learning more about the United Nations.

Tuesday, October 25.  Today was a bit of a challenge since Dr. H. had problems with her voice. A slight weekend cold has turned into laryngitis.  UGH.  The 3rdLanders rose to the occasion and helped our class run smoothly all day long.  THANK YOU THIRDLANDERS!!!  We worked together on 2 step math problems during Math time.  After Art, we started putting together our portfolios.  We had 3 solid rounds of Reader’s Workshop in the afternoon.  We worked on some “Poetivities” at the Literacy Cafe site.  We discussed important questions about Brothers in Hope.  We put a new vocabulary word in our Mini-Lesson book:  ENGROSSED.  At the end of the day we looked at text features on the United Nations website to learn more about different kinds of UN projects.  Text features will be a focus in second quarter.  We can use text features like photos, headlines, subheadings, graphics, maps, words in bold, to learn new information when we’re reading nonfiction texts.

Thursday, October 27. More multiplication work today.  We also read a new Time for Kids and worked on bumper stickers for Brothers In Hope.  After our Thursday Recess (awesome weather), we learned more about the United Nations.  Great job with sketch notes today!

Friday, October 28.  Lots of INView testing today, but we did enjoy Spanish with Señora Coolidge.  We made Day of the Dead masks.  We also got to go to the library.  Always a favorite event.  We made cards for Maeve’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Maeve!

Monday, October 3:  We worked hard on our subtraction work today.  3 digit subtraction with regrouping has been tough stuff for many of us, but we continue to practice.  We’ll get there.  Seven crayfish came to Room 204 today. With our small groups, we observed their behaviors and structures.  We also watched 2 short videos about crayfish.  We read the crayfish section in the Structures of Life textbook.

Tuesday, October 4:  More working on subtraction with regrouping.  We also practiced checking our answers by using the inverse operation: addition. We read about the Webb telescope in Time for Kids today.  The photos from the Webb are incredible.  In the afternoon, we brought our cereal out to the HHFB van.  The HHFB folk thanked us for helping provide food to our fellow Bloomington citizens.  After some work with the crayfish, we released them back to the creek.  Many of us have wondered how they’re doing now??? Lots of crayfish missing happening in Room 204.

Wednesday, October 5:  We played a math game called Anything But 5 with partners this morning.  We used base 10 blocks as we raced from 95 to 0, using subtraction.  After Spanish, we previewed our Peace Keepers unit.  After recess, we worked on a crawdad mini-report.  Our university teachers read a section from TFK where kids gave their opinions about whether the US should send astronauts into space.  We wrote down the reasons for and against mentioned in the article.  Then we voted with our bodies, moving to sections of the room to show our opinion.  A few students were against space travel.  The rest of us were split between YES and Not Sure.

Thursday, October 6;  We began our day with Reading Workshop.  We heard some book blurbs about our chapter book choices for Literature Circles, which will be starting soon.  We also reviewed the criteria for getting a + in our writer’s notebooks.  During Math we used cash register tape to model the factors for 3, 6 and 9 up to 90.  After we worked on some pages in our math books, we played Anything But 5.  Weather was beautiful for our extra recess.  We ended the day with some quiet handwriting practice and listening to our read aloud, Prairie Lotus. A very pleasant Thursday.

New

Monday, September 26:  We had a guest teacher in the morning who reported our class was very cooperative and focused. Hurrah!  In the afternoon, we learned a useful new vocabulary word:  CAJOLE.  We also practiced working on identifying character traits with supporting evidence from a text.  We wrote “in role,” pretending we were the UN Peace Bell, writing a diary entry.  A fun Monday afternoon.

Tuesday, September 27:  We completed an anonymous reflection about our Well, Well, Well unit.  In the afternoon, we worked on our new word sorts. We also read a new poem on the Literacy Cafe site, Is a Traffic Jam Delectable?  We talked about words with multiple meanings.  We also took an assessment where we identified a character’s main trait in a story and gave supporting evidence from the text.  We finished up the day with reading stamina. Miss Jones helped us get our bots and our bot letters into envelopes to be delivered to some very important people at our school.

Wednesday, September 28:  We went outside for a nature scavenger hunt.  When we returned to class we built up our stamina by writing in our notebooks.  A wonderful way to start Writer’s Wednesday.  We did more work with groups of stamps in Math.  If you have an 8 by 4 grid of postage they cost 2 cents each, how much will those stamps set you back?   Our IU teachers read a book to us about different ideas about PEACE and we took sketch notes.  We also learned about writing book blurbs that include a short summary, some opinion statements, and a recommendation to a specific reader.

Thursday, September 29: We looked at seascape pictures and guesstimated the length and width of various animals that live in a coral reef.  Using Chloe the Clownfish as a model, we asked questions like, “If Chloe is 4 inches long, how long is the parrot fish?  the tiger shark?  the sea turtle?  We also went searching for objects in our classroom that are 4 inches long.  Often our estimates were super different than the real measurements.  One 3rdLander guessed that Dr. H.’s ears were 4 inches long, but we cleared that up quickly, using a ruler to measure accurately. We learned about POURQUOI tales today.  They are tales that tell WHY something is the way it is. We read a tale called How Rabbit Lost His Tail. We took a POINT OF VIEW assessment.  We are learning about the difference between first person, second person and third person narrators. We ended the day by writing in our notebooks. Mr. Marshall came for a visit and remarked that our class was so focused!  Hoorah!

Monday – We worked on finding great power words in the books we’re reading.  A power word is a word that’s new and surprising.  Instead of saying, “Joe was tired,” we might write, “Joe sagged with exhaustion.”  We made bots in the afternoon.  SO FUN!  We talked about making wellbots, domino robots that can encourage people to take actions for their own wellness, as well as for their community’s wellness.  Each 3rdLander donated one of their bots to give to a member of Childs staff, to show them we appreciate how much they do for our school.

Tuesday – We started our day with a story writing project.  We wrote stories about characters who find wellbots.  The wellbots give them encouraging advice about how to stay well.  We also had a fabulous discussion about the book, Four Feet Two Sandals and worked on bumper stickers to share important ideas from that book. We practiced writing down our responses to the book, The Flunking of Joshua T. Bates.

Wednesday –  In Math today, we worked with partners to take inventory at Harry’s Pet Store.  We talked about ways store items can be arranged in different arrays.  We used different strategies to count our inventory — counting by ones, counting by 5’s, repeated addition and multiplication.  We also worked on a pictograph about graphic novels that we think are essential items for our library.  At noon, we had one minute of silence for peace.  This wave of peace went around the world, in all different timezones.  Many Childs Jaguars participated in the minute of peace.  In the afternoon, we celebrated Violet’s birthday and we also celebrated PEACE DAY.  We learned about the history of the peace bell at the United Nations.  We made peace pinwheels. They were tricky, but most of them did spin.

Thursday:  First day of Autumn!  We rocked our Math work today.  We focused on two step problem solving and some multiplication modeling using images of sets of stamps.  We practiced a new poem at the Literacy Cafe and did some work with our word sorts.  After our wonderful Thursday recess, we read an old classic, Where the Wild Things Are. Then we learned about Banned Books Week.  The 3rdLanders were not pleased to see that some of their favorites have been challenged or banned, including Where the Wild Things Are.  Our Afternoon Meeting, the conversation kept going.  The 3rdLanders shared many different perspectives.  Hoorah!

Monday:  We organized our desks and cubbies first thing in the morning.  We also put our HOMEWORK FOLDERS in our backpacks.  Then we took the Chapter 1 math test.  We worked on “Vocab Ventures” during PAWS.  This week, we are learning about the words AVID and BELLIGERENT.  Our IU M401 students came for their first visit.  Ms. Balaskas and Ms. Pavlidis will join our class on Monday and Wednesday afternoons this semester.  Next semester, they will be doing full time student teaching.  They helped us with our final wellness center.  We’ve learned a lot about our individual wellness.  Now we’ll focus on community wellness.

Tuesday:  Our math tests needed some “fixes,” so we spent some time in the morning working on fixing our mistakes.  We talked about the importance of taking your time and doing careful work at all times in 3rdLand.  So important!  In the afternoon, we learned more about the Hoosier Hills Food Bank. We made sketch notes as we watched a video about the food bank.  We received a great email from the food bank.  They thanked us for collecting cereal and will pick up the cereal the first week of October.

Wednesday:  We took another assessment about character traits this morning. We also are learning about how to write literature circle post-its in preparation for starting our chapter books soon.  In the afternoon, we learned more about the benefits of public parks and how parks are funded.  We researched parks at the Bloomington Parks and Rec Site and found out that our town has 32 parks!  We are making posters to persuade people to head to the park!

Thursday:  We are working on subtraction and addition up to 1000, with regrouping.  This is tough stuff for many of us, but we’ll get there.  We are also working on solving 2 step word problems.  During Writing Workshop, we learned about the craft of writing:  strong leads, power words, snapshots and endings that leave us thinking.  We focused on leads today and looked through books with our partners to find leads that really “hook us in.”

Friday: Picture DAY!!!  Everyone looked great and we had our pictures taken before gym, which was fantastic.  We worked on our PERSUASIVE PARKS POSTERS in the morning.  We talked about the importance of having few to no CUPS errors on posters.  We also spent some time on Ms. Stewart’s Site, Literacy Cafe.  We worked on responses to the poem, “I Am the Dot.” In the afternoon, we worked with Dr. Frye to continue work on our LIBRARY ORGANIZATION project. We ended our busy week with some calm, quiet reading time.

Last week was a short, but busy week.  At Friday’s afternoon meeting, the 3rdLanders helped me with the newsletter by recalling our week’s activities.  Here’s their list of last week’s highlights:

We’re working on a library project with Dr. Frye about ways we think libraries should be, or could be, organized.

A bat made its way into Childs one morning this week.  It flew around the atrium.  It was eventually caught and released, but we had many questions about this bat’s visit to our school.

We read about Althea Gibson, a famous tennis star.  We discussed her character traits:  brave, strong, determined.

We received our first Time for Kids magazine.  We worked with partners to identify which articles we thought were most important and which were most interesting.

We worked at our wellness centers to learn more about sleep, physical exercise and nutrition. We’re using google docs to write reflections after we finish each center.

Our Cereal Drive is going great.  We have 48 boxes of cereal so far!

Our read aloud is a fantastic chapter book called Prairie Lotus.  We’re all enjoying it.

Our poem of the week is about bees, so we did some bee research and made sketch notes as we read an article and watched a video on the Literacy Cafe website.  This is Mrs. Stewart’s awesome website.  You can find it on our blogroll.  Lots of literacy resources there.

We took a math test on Friday but we need to finish it up next week.

All is well in Room 204!

Monday, August 29:  In Math we talked about how equations model real stories.  15 + 19 = M might be a story about Sam, who had 15 apples and then picked 19 more.  15 + M = 34 might tell the story of Ellen who had 15 cookies, but needed 34 for her class.  How many more should she make?  M + 19 = 34 might be the story of Zack, who had some shells.  Then his sister gave him 19 more, which brought his total number of shells to 34.  How many shells did he start off with?  We talked more about Point of View in Reading Workshop.  We also talked about the big ideas in We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy.  We made bumper stickers for that book.  We made flyers about the cereal drive. Today was a great day.  At Afternoon Meeting, many 3rdLanders said they wanted us to have more time for writing on Tuesday.  Music to my ears.

Tuesday, August 30:  We worked on adding with regrouping, using different addition strategies — base ten models, jumping, splitting as well as the standard stacking algorithm.  We started working on our Poem Partner stories.  We’re finding connections in poems, and then using flow maps to plan out a story about these connections.  In the afternoon, we had new word sorts.  We also started a new chapter book called Prairie Lotus.  We read a great picture book called Four Feet Two Sandals.  Then we talked about character traits for the main character. We accomplished a lot today.

Wednesday August 31:  Today we walked out to the garden to check out all the flowers and veggies.  Then we wrote in our notebooks in the shelter.  In Math, we are working on subtraction problems with regrouping.  During Reading Workshop, we practiced writing book blurbs. We also discussed the point of view of the narrator of the picture book, Two Feet Four Sandals.

Thursday, September 1:  We worked in inquiry centers this morning.  Our 3 centers focus on the importance of sleep, nutrition and physical exercise.  We worked with partners to read and answer questions about these topics, and to create tableaux, yoga poses, and nutritious dinner plates.  I was super impressed with how cooperative and focused the 3rdLanders were during center time. We ended our centers by writing reflections using Google Docs.  In the afternoon, we worked on our word sorts.  Then we had recess.  We ended the day with partner discussions about Four Feet Two Sandals and a lovely Read 2 Self time.  The week has flown by.