As it was the last week of school, our poetry tournament was finally coming to an end. I had told the students that I would be choosing two secret people to be the readers of the two finalists and I would not tell the children who they were until the time of the reading. The students, thinking that it was going to be one of them, were very puzzled when we got to Weds morning. Lo and behold, if Mr. Hancock had not fooled them and, instead, had invited Mr. Shinness and Mrs. Kristjansen to the class to read the two poems. Here they are for your listening pleasure.

maybe-dats-youwr-pwoblem-too

why

The winner, by a large majority, was “Maybe Dats Youwr Pwoblem Too” by Jim Hall. I have to admit, in ful disclosure, that this is my favorite poem as well. I was a little hesitant to let the students students read it as it takes a great deal of confidence, control and skill to read it with effect. However, the students you do hear reading have done a fantastic job and I was very proud of all of them.

We’ll see all of you tomorrow at the End of Year Ceremony starting at 9:30!!!

Wow! Lots happening this week!!! Tomorrow, we have the fieldtrip to the waterslides. Wednesday will be a general clean up of the classroom with our class party in the afternoon. Thursday is the K-3 Fun Day which is also a half day for the students. Friday is the end of year ceremony. School will be dismissed when the ceremony is completed. So, lot’s of things to think about!

We had a great day today seeing the “one-man-bands”. The students did a fantastic job on them and we had lots of fun listening to them. I will show pictures of the bands later on this week.

Waterslides Fieldtrip:

For the fieldtrip tomorrow, students will be leaving on the bus at 9:00. Please get them to bring:

• sunscreen,
• hat,
• swimsuit,
• lunch,
• backpack,
• warm clothing (in case of rain or cold weather),
• towel.

Students can also bring money for the canteen if they like but not too much.

Fun Day

I am looking for some volunteers to help out with Fun Day on Thursday. The centers are all based on a Western Theme. Any help would be appreciated. The centers are all easy and fun and it’s also a half day!! So, come out for some fun and a chance to see your child in action! If you are able to help out, please let me know!!

Here are some more voicethreads for you to enjoy!!

Our Poetry Tournament has reached the finals with “Why?” and “Maybe Dats Youwr Pwoblem Too!” beating out “Me” and “Monday”. Wednesday at 9:30 will be the final match-up with two secret people being chosen to do the final reading. If you would like to see the match up, please feel free to drop by at 9:30. It should be a rousing match with some tough choice having to be made!!!!

Here are the poems from today read by students from the class.

its-dark-in-here2

monday-2

maybe-dats-youwr-pwoblem-too-3

maybe-dats-youwr-pwoblem-too-4

me-21

monday4why-3

Well, all right then! This will be our last Science Challenge this week  . . . and it’s all about music!! No, no, don’t worry your smart, curious, intelligent heads now. You don’t need to be able to read notes or anything. You can put away the old tuba collecting dust in the corner. This one is going to be a whiz-banger of creativity, a flim-sham of activity, a kerplutz of musical genius making. So without further ado (and with sounds of music running through my head!) here is the challenge:

Use any/all of the following materials to create a one man band contraption that you can wear and play. This is a great one to videotape!

belt
string
tape
rubber bands
paper clips
notecards
empty cereal container
a plate
2 spoons
2 objects of your choice
a bowl
a book
straws
a hairbrush
a comb
3 soda cans

As you think about your design for this challenge take a listen to a news article about a real one man band and how he designed his!

Listen to a One Man Band - Interview from NPR

If you need some more inspiration, try this game out!

One Man Band Build your very own one man band!

Play this free game now!!

To end off, here is a an old favorite from Mary Poppins where Burt becomes a one man band!

Have fun! All projects are due on Monday, June 15th but you can always bring them in early!!!! The earlier you bring them in the less you have to worry about them!!!!!

Also, permission forms for the waterslides are due on Friday! Check the Important Dates area for more info on things coming up!

(Check below for the first part of this post.)

It has been a good start to the week already. Though it is getting so close to summer vacation the students can taste it, they are still working hard on getting those last minute things done. We still have many things to finish. Most important of those are the poetry books. We may get them done and sent in in time but it may not be in time for them to be shipped here. In that case, the students will receive the books in the fall when they return. Tomorrow, students are going to be working on the last poem to go into the book as well as choosing a cover to go on the front of the book. Students will have three votes to use in whatever way they want. The cover with the highest votes will be the one we choose as our front cover. You can see the covers the students can choose from below.

On Thursday, students will be having their constellation party! Students have been learning alot about constellations throughout the unit as well as how to find them in the sky. Today, they got started on creating their own constellations; naming them and writing a little story of how they came to be constellations. On Thursday, students will take those constellations and share them with the rest of the class as we pretend to sit around the campfire (there won’t be a real campfire though, I promise, though Ethan did say he would deal with Mr. Shinness if we did have a real campfire and it set the fire alarms off.

Speaking of campfires, here is a great video for all you parents out there that, I believe, has some important ideas those some of it is tongue in cheek.

I am going to try to keep this as short as I can but I may need to put this into two posts!

First of all here is the spelling list for this week:

Spelling 0-3

As well, don’t forget to mozy on over to the Spelling City page to practice your spelling words:

Our Memory Verse for this week comes courtesy of 1 John 3:18:

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

We have also had a number of poems read since our last post with recordings in it. Click on the blue arrows below to hear some more of our students reading poems!

its-dark-in-here - It’s Dark In Here

superman-1 - Superman

mozza-mozza - Mozza, Mozza

maybe-dats-youwr-pwoblem-too-1 - Maybe Dats Youwr Pwoblem Too

the-toughest-boys-in-school - The Toughest Boys in Town

yawn - Yawn

monday - Monday

dont-tell-me-i-talk-too-much - Don’t Tell Me I Talk Too Much

Finally, for this post, here are a couple more voicethreads for your enjoyment!

Check out the above post for more information!

Here we are at the beginning of June. And what a beautiful way to start with the sun shining and no rain in site.

Here in Grade 3, we are still hard at work getting things finished. We have finally finished our Voicethreads on community services that are important; whether they are emergency services or just regular services, students have learned a lot and have worked hard to make these voicethreads for you. I will put a few on at a time as there are way to many to add all at once.

Tomorrow, I will have some more for you as well as some more poems read by the students. We are close to the end of our poetry tournament but the action is thick and the poetry continues to bring excitement to the students as they vote for their favorites. Who is going to win? Who knows!

Yes, well . . . Apparently, my attempts to try and be more consistent in writing these posts has come to naught. However, I am here with this weeks spelling words, memory verse and various other things. Here is this weeks spelling list: Spelling 0-2

Here is the link for the Spelling City list:

Our memory verse for this week is very easy. It comes from Psalms and the many of the students already were very familiar with it. However, it is definately a favorite as many students chose it to include in the list of memory verses we collected at the beginning of the year.

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.² He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, ³ he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Last week’s Science Challenge brought in some fantastic results. We have them hanging from the ceiling if you would like to come in and see them some time. I also created an animoto where you can see them all.

I have also included a new game in the links to the left. The games is called “Stars Over Half Moon Bay”. I am not sure you can call it a game though. Basically, you must select stars and drag them below the horizon. These stars can then be used to create constellations. That’s about it. Not quite as sophisticated as Dyson but it fits very nicely into our Space unit. Students have been learning all about constellations; how to find them and some neat facts about them. However, their final constellation is going to be one that they make up. They create their own constellation, draw it out and create neat facts about how their constellation came to be. Should be interesting.

Students had a good day today; a little poetry, a little science plus all the other things we usually do on a Tuesday like Library and Music.

The puppets were fantastic. There were a few who didn’t get them done on time. Please finish them and bring them in for tomorrow. I am going to create an animoto of the pictures I took of the puppets and you will see it here soon.

Speaking of puppets, here is a hilarious video I found featuring the best puppets in the world . . . Yes! That’s right . . . The Muppets with my favorite version of that perennial favorite Danny Boy.

The students have some homework this week which is due by next Tuesday! They need to bring either a blank CD or DVD or one that is not used anymore and they also need to bring a juice lid. The juice lids I am talking about are the ones you get from the frozen juice containers without the sharp edges.

Have a great day!

Just wanted to give you a reminder and a head’s up that the Science Challenge projects are due tomorrow. You were to create a puppet that can move in two different ways. If you need more of the details go to the post, Getting Ready for the Week!

See you tomorrow! Oh, and no spelling list this week!

We’re off to the Space Science Centre tomorrow. We have an incredibly busy day of activities and workshops to do which is why we are leaving so early in the morning!

We will be leaving at 8:00

sharp tomorrow so please be

here before that time!!!!

I know it will be a great day!

To get us in the mood, here is a video of the space shuttle launch that happened yesterday. I am sorry that I didn’t know about it sooner as it would have been fun to watch as it actually happened. However, this is the next best thing. The shuttle is in orbit now getting ready to repair the Hubble Telescope one last time before it goes out of commission. The Hubble Telescope has been a higely important source of information and images for us and this upgrade will hopefully extend its power and lifespan before it finally breaks down. So here are the videos. I also included a couple on the Hubble Telescope and the challenges of repairing it.

Here is the poem of the day to end off things here at the blog. We’ll see you all tomorrow!

Me and Joe Lining Up After Recess
by
Betsy Franco

We race
for the front

bunch up
and bump,
wiggle,
giggle,
push,
pull,
trip,
tease,
jab,
grab,
poke,
pinch,
squish,
squeeze.

Then teacher gives the quiet sign.
Says,
“You two go to the end of the line!”