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Monday’s Fine!!

Monday’s Fine!!

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!

Christmas Time is Here . . .

Christmas Time is Here . . .

We had a wonderful day yesterday. The students had a reading test yesterday and we also prepared for their Science Test today. Students were extremely well behaved on their field trip to the Chilliwack Museum where they got to hear stories from the past and make some pioneer crafts including potato candy. Yes, that’s right. You heard correctly; potato candy! And it was good!! In fact, it’s all good in Grade 3.

As the Christmas season comes closer, we often tend to think of those in need. While we should always be thinking of others who are having difficult times throughout the year, Christmas seems to naturally bring these feelings out.

As such, our class has a couple of projects we are working on to help bring Christmas to others. Our first project is the annual Salvation Army Food drive. We are are working hard to being in lots of cans and other food items. We have already received a number of items but more is needed. Please continue to bring those items in.

The other project we are working on is a toy drive. We are working on getting used or new toys together to donate the local Woman’s Shelter. Any toy is fine as long as it is in good shape, has all the pieces with it and is clean. I am sure that your child has many items that they do not play with and could be donated to someone who may not get a present for Christmas.

The Fabulous Home Reading Program

The Fabulous Home Reading Program

This week we are starting a new program for home. It is a home reading program where students will practice reading at home with you. Each night students will be expected to read for at least 15-20 minutes a night. Just like any activity we do to get better, reading also takes practice and the brain needs continual work on developing the ability to read fluently.

Your child will be coming home with some materials today. You can also find these materials below, in the widget beside this post or here reading-newsletter and here readinglogembed.

Each child will be given a sheet with ten lines on it. As your child reads and finishes a book, they are to write the name of the book, the author and the date. Then you will be asked to sign the page to verify that you heard them read and finish the book. When the page is filled up, your child can then bring the page back to school. We will be keeping track of the number of books read and awarding prizes for reaching certain goals. Every time a child finishes a page, they will bring it back and receive a new page to fill out.

Poetry Books Have Arrived!!

Poetry Books Have Arrived!!

By now, you all should have seen the poetry books our class created. I think they look pretty awesome. The class did a wonderful job and the book looks great. Each child got a free book. However, if you would like to purchase more, you can go to the lulu.com website and order as many as you like. They will make them on order and ship them to you. The address is . . . .

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=2394290

Sadly Negligent!

Sadly Negligent!

I’m sorry but I have been sadly negligent in putting the rest of the poetry readings on the blog as well as the choral readings. So I am going to put the rest on the blog in two parts. Here is the first part.

choral1-09_04_08-11_29-am-1

choral2-09_04_08-11_32-am-1

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Landing on Mars

Landing on Mars

Devotion:

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Oh give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. Oh give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever. Psalm 136:1-3

All the students were very excited this morning to tell me the news about the new Mars craft landing on the surface of Mars. Called the Mars Polar Lander this spacecraft is different from the previous machines as it does not move. Instead it will stay in one spot and do research on whether there is water there and whether there is any kind of life. There is lot of information on their website at Phoenix Mars Mission. Here are some of the videos.

If you go to these sites, you can download some images and make your own animotos. We will then put them on the blog if they turn out. Part of their homework tonight is to think of a question to ask the scientists.

We also previewed a new game which is very addicting, challenging and takes a great deal of logic and brains. There are some ads on the site though so please do not click on the ads. The game is called Magic Pen.

The rest of the day went very well. We are continuing with our poetry unit. However, we are just reading some poems now. Today we read a Robert Louis Stevenson poem about going to bed in summer. The students were really able to relate to the poem. We also had a look at the first 10 spelling words for the week. Here are the spelling words:

Read this doc on Scribd: 0-4
A Topsy, Turvy Day!

A Topsy, Turvy Day!

It was one of those days where everything you plan goes out the window. We had lots we were going to do but it got put to the side as we focused on getting our poems done for the book. It took us all day but we are one day closer to having our published book. As the students finished up any remaining poems that needed to be finished, we also looked at various covers to bind our books in and staring thinking of titles. So far we have a very creative list of titles including:

Poems for Family and Friends
Poems That Fill Your Head With Pictures
Mom, I want to Stay Up and Read
Peace to Poems and Goodwill Towards Books
Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, Good Night Poems
Poems That Fill Your Head With Good Thoughts
Poems For Life
For Poems Give Me Strength to Read
Poems For Reading Out Loud
Everlasting Poems
Listen Once, Read Twice
We Write, You Read
We should be ready to send in the poems by Friday and then we wait . . .

There is no spelling this week as it is a short week. The kids are strangly happy about that. Hmmmmm . . . .

In homes without rules about Internet use, 74% of children report that an adult is never present when they use the Internet.

I didn’t get a chance this week to continue on with our discussion on Internet Safety. So here is another way for your child to stay safe on the Internet.
2. Doing Safe Searches: While not foolproof, many search sites give you control over what types of images or sites should be displayed when you are doing a search. For example Google allows you to choose from 3 types of searches as shown below:
search1
search2
Quintura
yahoo
You can also use sites like Yahoo Kids or Quintura for Kids. Both sites work hard to make sure that your results are kid friendly. They’re still not perfect though so make sure that your child knows what to do should they come across anything inappropriate. I usually suggest the 3 sec rule in that if a child comes across anything inappropriate, they have 3 secs to turn the screen off and come find you (though that part might take a little longer than 3 secs!). However, make sure you child understands that coming across these things accidentally will not get them in trouble.
Even at this age, and especially as they get older, children and teenagers are afraid of telling parents about anything bad or inappropriate that may be happening on the internet, whether it is coming across inappropriate sites or being bullied online. They are afraid of having their computer privileges revoked or having the internet disconnected. Particularly at the older ages, students would rather try and deal with these things themselves and not get parents involved if it means their internet use is disrupted. For students, their use of technology like instant messaging, texting on cell phones or even the cell phones themselves is an important part of their social life and is important to them in connecting and retaining relationships with their peer group. To them, taking away this technology substantially hurts their social standing. Thus they would rather go try and solve these issues alone. We need to make sure that the door to communication is always open and that our children are not afraid to let us know when these things are happening.
Getting Ready to Publish!!!

Getting Ready to Publish!!!

This is going to be a busy week for us in 3B. We are going to get our poems read to be published. I am very excited as are the students. One of the things we have to do is decide on which cover we want to use. I have put a number of choices below to choose from. We will be voting on which cover to use in class. This should be an interesting experience. Here they are:

cover1 cover2 cover3 cover4

cover5 cover6 cover7 cover8

cover9 cover10 cover11 cover12

cover13 cover14 cover15 cover16

cover17 cover18 cover19 cover20

Sk . . Sc . . . Schoa . . . School!!

Sk . . Sc . . . Schoa . . . School!!

Today is our qualifying round for the Spelling Bee on Friday. We will select five students from the class to join with the five students from Ms. Starks class. We had lots of things happening yesterday. Poetry in particular is a big push right now as we try to finish all our poems by Friday. We also had our part yesterday to celebrate how hard the students have been working. It was a good time had by all.

logoSome really great news popped up yesterday. It was funny, but just after I wrote about the new space program coming out in late May; lo and behold, if it doesn’t pop up ready to be downloaded yesterday. I am very excited. My wife says I’m like a boy in a candy shop. Anyway, the program looks brilliant and I am going to download at school as soon as I get there. The site is called WWTelescope and it comes to use from Microsoft. It’s also free!

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