With all the stuff happening lately, we have missed our chances to do our memory verse on both Friday and Monday (today). My apologizes and we will try to get back to a regular schedule for the memory verses. That said, we will do last weeks memory verse tomorrow. The memory verse for this week, which we will do on Friday is from Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Here is the spelling list for this week:

Spelling N 2

We had a nice surge of users on Spelling City last week. Keep it up and remember, the Spelling City has lots of other great resources including games and printable handwriting practice with the spelling words for the week.

It has been a couple of very busy weeks recently. The students have been working hard and we are now just putting the finishing pieces onto our Daily 3 Language Arts Program. It has been a long process but the modeling and all the work that went into setting it and getting the students comfortable with the process is paying off. We started the last piece. “Listening To Reading” today with the introduction of the media players. Students will be listening to audiobooks on tape, CD and the computer. Hearing professional readers reading pieces of literature is a great way for students to build reading fluency. Hearing the reading on the tape or CD while following along in the books helps the brain hear and practice good, fluent reading. As well, we will be using a website called RAZ Kids as part of the Listening to Reading Program. This website allows students to read books at their own level at home. The system has been set up for their level already. Once the students log in, they can read books, have books read to them, and take quizzes about their book to earn stars which they can use to add things to their “Rocket Ships“. Once our program is flowing well, I will release access to the students to work on it at home. For now, we are just using it at school.

So with the addition of the “Listening To Reading” portion of the Daily 3 program, we now have all elements in place. Students will now be choosing on of the three parts of the program to do each day, with most days allowing opportunities for more than one choice. By the end of the week, all students should have had a chance to complete all three areas. This will also be replacing our D.E.A.R time which was a free reading time.

The three areas students will be working on now, in summary, are:

• Read to Self: Students working on reading by themselves focusing on reading the words, reading the pictures and re-telling the story.
• Read To Others: Students read with a partner choosing either to read the same book or read different books. As they reading they are either practicing reading fluency or reading comprehension. Students have summarize each page or section that has been read to them to show that they are listening and comprehending.
• Listening To Reading: The newest section of the program, students read books while listening to them as a way to practice fluency and vocabulary.

We have also talked about how to pick good books that are the “right fit”. A “Good Fit” book is one where the student gets to pick the book, they are picking it for a purpose and they are interested in it. It should also be a book where they are able to comprehend most of what they are reading AND it is a book where most of the words are familiar and can be read by the child with high accuracy.

If you come across any used cd players or tape players you would be willing to donate, please continue to send them our way. We can always use more!

Here is the spelling for this week:

Spelling N 1

I have also included the link for Spelling City here. Remember, if you print off your certificate and bring it in, it will count as an extra point on your spelling test on Friday. Also, parents, if you do not have access to a printer or it breaks down, just sign your child’s planner with a note stating that they did complete the test and got 100% and that will count as well. Make sure to tell your child to show it to me as I may not see it in time otherwise.

Our memory verse this week is from Matthew 7:7:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

The students have once again earned a party, which we will have on Friday afternoon. I have asked the students to bring a snack for the class if they are able to. As the year is now fully into swing and expectations have been set and understood, students will be having to earn more stars in order to earn further parties. They are now working on 50 stars and will then be required to earn 75 stars. I have stressed to the students that these are their choices as to whether they earn stars or have stars taken away. By stressing this, I am helping students to understand that they are the ones that decide their own behaviour; that it is not me arbitrarily deciding when they get stars or have stars taken away. They are the ones that choose. I believe that this is a very important distinction.

Finally, I want to thank everyone for the hard work and effort that went into the Science Challenge. All the vehicles showed great creativity and team work! It was so neat to see how such simple materials could result in so many different yet wonderful realizations. I hope that you also found this a rewarding time as you had a chance to work with your child and see the wonderful capabilities a child has for creativity. Now, don’t worry! We will not be doing this every week but about once a month or so I will throw another challenge out there for your family! I have taken photos of all the projects which I will turn into an Animoto for you. For now though, I thought I would end off with a science video as a reward for getting this far and reading all the way to the end.

Today, the students made it to 30 mins sustained reading. It was incredible!!! The students each have a box of books that have been leveled to their reading level. These are the books they are using for our Daily 3 program. Every week, students get to pick new books to add to their box based on their improvements in reading. The kids are really into the program. It so wonderful to see students really getting into reading. We will be starting our Home reading program soon once Thanksgiving is out of the way.

In their writing, we have been working on writing stories based on the book, “If You Give A Pig A Pancake”. We recently worked together as a class on a story as an example. You can see it below:

If You Give A Dog A Shoe
By
Mr. Hancock’s Class

If you give a dog a shoe, he will put it on his nose. Then he will go outside and try to shake the shoe off because it stinks. Then he will chew it up. After he chews it up, he gobbles it up and swallows it.  He will get very, very, very, very sick and will have to go to the vet. After he is done in the doctor’s room, he will come out with his owner and see a orange, bob-cat. He will chase it all over the vet’s office and room knocking everything over. As he chases the cat, the dog will get caught in a cage of books. His owner will put him on a leash so he won’t run away. The dog will then get mad and start to chew off his leash. He will run into the middle of the road. All the cars will brake and smash, bang, boom, together into a huge, massive crash. After, his owner will come over and get very angry and scold him. The dog will find a shoe at the accident and start chewing it. He will throw it up in the air and it will land on his nose.

We will be starting our own stories based on that book starting tomorrow!!! Here is the spelling list for this week:
Spelling M 3

I introduced the students to Spelling City a couple of weeks ago and the response already has been incredible. I had many students bring their certificates in from after their practice and I also had a few parents writing notes stating that their child completed the practice test and got 100%. That was fantastic! Here is the link to this weeks Spelling City list:

I wasn’t able to send out the memory verse this week as our printers were down (though I guess the students could have written them in their planners!). However, the memory verse is below and we will be adding them into their planners tomorrow. I think it is a very good verse and again, it was supplied by one of the students.

Romans 12:21

Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.

Finally, I am not sure if you are aware of this but every week, I feature a “Music of the Week”. Each week, I highlight a different style/genre for the students to experience. I try to play some jazz, children’s music, christian, classical, vocal, etc. This week we are featuring the musical, “You’re Good Man, Charlie Brown”. It is a fun musical and the students seem to be really enjoying it. Here is a video from the musical:

Keep watching the blog this week. We have exciting things coming up. Videos, maps, notes and maybe a few cookies!!! Hmmm, keep checking here for all your news, info and fun!!!!

Happy Monday! Yes, I know that sounds strange. How can you have a Happy Monday? Easy! Come to Mr. H’s class and see all the hard working fun we have!!!

The students had a great day and we got lots of work done. In Language Arts, we are working on a great reading program called The Daily 3. This program strives to build students into independent readers who have the stamina to read for longer and longer periods of time while using a variety of comprehension skills to aid the understanding of what they are reading.

It is a great program and I am already seeing great results. We have started with the first part of the program called Read to Self. The idea of this part of the program is to focus on building stamina and reading for longer periods of time. Right now, the students have reached 11 minutes which is fantastic!!

At the beginning of each reading period we discuss the appropriate behaviours and the three types of reading that students can use to read their books. We talked as a class about reading the words of a story, reading the pictures of a story and re-telling the story. In the next couple of weeks, we are going to be reaching 30 minutes of focused reading everyday. We will also be talking about how to choose appropriate books for their reading ability. The it will be time to move to the next sections of the program: Reading to Others and Listening To Reading. The students are very excited and I have already heard many of the children saying that they love reading.

Here are the spelling words for this week:
Spelling J3

Here is something new this week. I introduced the students to a new website called Spelling City. It is a great site where students can see their spelling words, learn their spelling words, test their spelling words and play games using their spelling words. Whew! That’s a lot of “spelling words” words! The other neat thing is that students can print out handwriting pages with their spelling words and practice handwriting their words. They can even print out the words as sign language and practice signing them!!!! It’s a great site and it’s FREE!!!! I love free!!

All you have to do is click the Spelling City box with the J3 on it below.

Every Monday, there will be another box. Clicking on the box will take you straight to the spelling list for that week.

No hard links to remember, no fancy addresses to type out, no clicking through page after page of websites to get there! No Sireeee!!!!! You just click a simple click on the Spelling City box and you are there.

I have also told the students that if they test themselves and get 100%, they should print out the test results and/or the certificate and bring it to me for a bonus mark on their spelling marks for the report card!!!!

Finally, students received their first memory verses of the year. If you remember, I had sent home a homework reminder for the students to bring in their families favorite memory verses. This year, we are going to use those favorite verses for our memory verses. As these are special verses to people and mean a lot to each of us in different ways, I thought that it would be more meaningful for students to memorize those. Our first verse is below:

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

1 John 3:18

Finally, here is a funny video I found. It is hilarious!! Just wait for the surprise at the end!!

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!

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.

Here is the spelling for this week:

Spelling 01

Here is the link to the spelling activities to go along with the spelling words!

Our memory verse this week, comes from Ephesians 6:1-2

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honour your father and mother” – which is the first commandment with a promise-

Well, I guess you have been good. Here is a neat video and a song for you!

beep_beep-160 Beep-Beep

So here we are in May. Wow. Soon your children will be in Grade 4. Isn’t that incredible? Your children have grown so much this year. On second thought, maybe I’ll just keep them all for another year of Grade 3.

We had a good start to the week today though it did start with some bad news. We found out today that Mrs. Davies’ brother-in-law was involved in an accident involving heavy machinery and passed away leaving her sister-in-law with 5 children and another on the way. We prayed for her and the family this morning and it would be wonderful if you would pray for them as well.

Lots of news this week. Read below to see what’s coming up and help you prepare.

Tomatoes in Space

Our tomatoes are growing well and several more came up over the weekend. I have taken a picture of both groups which you can see below. It has been tough deciding which group has the seeds that have been in space. We won’t actually know which seeds were which until we send in our results.The students have been making their observations everyday. It has actually been a nice addition to our space unit as students get to see plants growing right from the seed. We will be continuing on with the experiment for another couple of weeks until we are sure all the seeds have had a chance to germinate. The first one is Seed A followed by Seed B.

Spelling

Here are the spelling words for this week:

Spelling N 8

Spelling City

Here is the link to the activities on Spelling City:

Spelling Bee

Students also got their words for the annual Spelling Bee hosted here at Highroad Academy. The Spelling Bee will be held on May 14th with the primary classes competing after lunch at 1:00 running until 3:00. It should be a lot of fun. To prepare, every student has received a list of words that will be used for the competition. Only 5 students will be selected per class. To select the students, we will be holding our own Spelling Bee the morning of May 12th. If you don’t see the words in your child’s backpack, please let me know. There is also a parent letter that came with it. You can download the letter in the Box.net box to the right or by clicking spelling-bee-newsletter.

Planetarium Field Trip

Students will be going to the Vancouver Planetarium on May 13th. The permission form will be going home tomorrow or you can get your copy from the Box.net box on the right hand side. We will need volunteers. The bus will not be as crowded this time as it is just our class going! I promise! A big thank you to the parents who joined us for the last field trip. It was wonderful to see so many of you and have all those extra hands helping out!

Memory Verse

Our memory verse this week comes from Hebrews 11:1-

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Wait there’s more!!!!!

Poetry

For our poetry unit, students have been competing in a Poetry Tournament over the last couple of days. Two students choose a poem to take home and practice. The next day, the two students read their poems out load to the class. Students vote for their favorite poem. The results are being recorded on our tournament bracket on the wall. I am also looking for a way to display the data on the website. Anyway, one of the other things we are doing is recording the poems for the blog. So here are the poems that have been done already.

My Mouth: My Mouth

April Rain Song: April Rain Song

My Mother Doesn’t Want A Dog:Mother Doesn’t Want A Dog

Why? : Why?

How About Some Fun!!!

Here is the video of our daughter rolling over! Enjoy!

So, I was looking through the new Google Earth the other day, especially at the new Mars section they have there when I noticed something really interesting. I think that Google Earth is the coolest program ever (though WWTelescope is right up there as well) and I was so happy when they added the Google Mars and Moon sections to it. So I was spending quite a bit of time looking around at all the pictures that they already have of Mars, when I found this strange site. You can see it below. Click on the picture to make it bigger. Do you see anything strange?

Now I always thought that my family was a little alien but I didn’t realize that they had actually moved to another planet!!

Anyways . . ..

Today, was a good day. Mondays are always exciting because it is the start of a new week and the students are always refreshed and ready to delve into new ideas and topics. For science today, we used Stellarium and WWtelescope to look at the constellations in our sky today as well as learn some new things about Space. One thing that we learned was that a supernova is a star that has gotten too old and died, exploding into many different pieces.

One supernova exploded in 1987 and we didn’t see it until the year 2004! That was amazing. Here is a picture of a supernova:

Here is a video showing an animation of a supernova happening. This is a really cool video though it is just an animation. However, it does give some idea as to what happens.

Here are the spelling words for this week:

Spelling N 3

You can get to the Spelling City List using the link below. Just click on the picture.

The memory verse for this week is:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Have a great day!!!

It was a great day; a little chaotic as Monday’s go but still a lot of fun. It was great to see so many of the students back after their sicknesses and travel.

It is amazing to think that we are now into February. Soon it will be time to start thinking about report cards again! In Science, I am really excited to be starting our Space Unit. We had a great time last year with it and I think we will have lots more fun this year. A little hint: I was talking to a parent who was having computer problems and I was telling her that this unit has lots of great resources including free programs, videos and other wonderful things for the computer. If you are having problems with your computer or have been thinking about upgrading, this would be a wonderful time to do so.

Here are the spelling words (spelling-n-2) for today.

Spelling N 2

This weeks bible verse comes from Jeremiah:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

Have a great evening and to end off, here’s a great video for all you animal lovers out there!