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!