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Friday is Fun With A Capital F!

Friday is Fun With A Capital F!

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Well, another week has gone by. This year is going fast already. The students have had an awesome couple of weeks. We are just about to wrap up our building projects and are looking towards our Space unit.

Students had their math quiz today, and from the looks of things, they all did quite well. Starting next week, students will be doing a weekly Mad Minutes. They will have to answer 35 adding in two minutes, 35 subtracting in two minutes and 25 multiplying in two minutes. If you would like to practice for these, you can create your own quizzes using the Math Fact Cafe link on the side under the links.

As we have started our memory verse again, please work with your child on helping them to memorize their verses for each Friday.

Here is the link for next weeks Spelling Words. Justr click on the picture and you will be taken to the new words with the activities.

For devotions today, we did something a little different. One of my favorite bands is the David Crowder Band. So I found a video with their music and words and we sang along with it. Anyway, I thought I would also share it with you.

To end off, I would like to share one of my favorite poems with you. I was sharing it with Mrs. Davies and I was telling her that we had a copy of this poem hanging on our wall at home. So to end of this week, here is a poem that means a lot to me.

Desiderata

written by Max Ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Poetry Books Have Arrived!!

Poetry Books Have Arrived!!

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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

A Topsy, Turvy Day!

A Topsy, Turvy Day!

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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!!!

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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

Poetry Comics

Poetry Comics

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One of the projects we have been working on is a comic strip based on the events of the poem “The Secret”. Students had to use the actions in the poem to create a comic strip showing how secrets can spread and hurt others. This helped us to understand the main idea of a poem. I told the students that I would pick the winner and create a comic using a comic strip creator called MakeBeliefsComix . The winner turned out to be a tie between B.D. and J.K. So I combined the two ideas and created these comics.

Click on the picture to see the whole thing.

comic1

comic2

Friends, Romans, Countrymen Lend Me Your Ears . .

Friends, Romans, Countrymen Lend Me Your Ears . .

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What a busy day of learning today!!!! Today we started a new poem called “Apologies”. Students brainstormed a variety of inanimate objects, then though out apologies for how they have used them. Whether it was sharpening a pencil or kicking soccer balls, students had a great time thinking up apologies for their actions! We did a sample poem together, which you can see below:

Read this doc on Scribd: i’m sorry

Students also finished studying the eight times tables, which are the last times tables the students had to learn. Actually, the only 8 times fact we had to learn was 8×8 as we had already learned all the other times tables and could apply those to learning the 8 times tables. For example, students already knew 2×8 so they also knew 8×2. After this, students will be working on multiplying multiple digits (ex. 28×2).

In social, we started a new project called “A Tribute To . . .” We have been learning about about everyday services and emergency services in class. Using that information we picked an emergency service to write a tribute about. We will take those tributes, add music and pictures to it and create a voicethread to add to our blog.

Finally, in science we have been making some fantastic discoveries. First students discovered that the Sun is huge compared to the Earth and Moon and that the moon is actually tiny compared to the Sun and Earth. We then then solved a mystery. WE have been wondering how it is possible for the moon to cover the sun during a solar eclipse if the Sun is so big. Using a couple of examples, (including one of the boys standing on a counter!) students discovered that the farther away something is from us, the smaller it looks. So the sun appears to be the same size as the moon because it is so far away!! Next week, I will show the students a neat website that shows what the sun looks like from different planets!!!!

I have included the spelling letter in the box.net widget on the side. As well, I am working hard to get the May newsletter ready. Look for it coming soon!!!!

Friday!

Friday!

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Devotion:

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. (Colossians 3:12-13)

Students had a great day today. I was very encouraged to see that all the students knew their memory verses. I think the change in having students glue the verse into their planners really helped so we will continue with it. You should be seeing a home letter today

The students have also really been enjoying playing floor hockey. Our new South Korean student has really picked it up quickly and is one of the most active on the floor. It is great to see that even with the language barriers, he can still get into something like floor hockey. He is picking the language up quickly and is working hard to communicate which is great to see.

magnetThe choral poetry and the other poems should be on the blog this weekend. Speaking of poetry, here is a great site that might be fun for you to play with the students. It’s called Magnetic Poetry. Just like having magnets of words on your own fridge without the mess!

Have a great weekend and see you on Monday!

We’re Back in Business!

We’re Back in Business!

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Devotion:

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7)

It’s almost the end of the week and that means that it was a crazy Thursday with music, library and gym all happening on the same day. I have also replaced all the widgets on the blog. I decided to try a different book service as nothing seemed to be happening with the other one and, as you can see, it works though it is not as spiffy as the other one. Ah well! I also thought I would start adding the devotions that we do as a class to our blog so you can discuss them with your child as part of your evening devotions if you wish.The students’ “Colour Poems” are coming along beautifully. There are some truly beautiful and creative poems being written and I am very impressed with their ideas and the way they are stringing them together. As I mentioned in the newsletter, one of the changes I have seen in the class has been in the freedom they feel to be creative. I think that is plainly evident in their poetry with all the beautiful language and imagery being used.On a completely different note – Did you know that the Earth hums? Apparently scientists have noticed this for a long time.

“The planet emanates a constant rumble far below the limits of human hearing, even when the ground isn’t shaking from an earthquake. (It does not cause the ringing in the ear linked with tinnitus.) This sound, first discovered a decade ago, is one that only scientific instruments – seismometers – can detect. Researchers call it Earth’s hum.

Investigators suspect this murmur could originate from the churning ocean, or perhaps the roiling atmosphere.”

Here is a video we watched awhile ago on the size of planets compared to each other and other stars. It’s quite amazing.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/k7hsQA3wo3Q" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Here’s something to check though. Are those numbers correct? Can they be compared with other sources? Which shouldn’t always take things for granted just because they are on t.v. or on the internet!

Guest Poetry Reader

Guest Poetry Reader

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Yesterday we had our next guest poetry reader. He is a high school student here at Highroad Academy and he was reciting, what has to be, my favorite poem, “Thwat’s My Pwoblem Two” by Jim Hall.

Have a listen and tell us what you think!

Spiderman

Spelling and New Poems

Spelling and New Poems

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Well, it was a good day here in 3B. We got a lot done. With report cards around the bend, we are busy finishing up work and doing a few tests. Students will have a reading test on Tuesday and a Social Test on Weds.

We had another round of our Poetry Tournament today. It was “The Voice” against “Mother Doesn’t Want a Dog”. It was very close today, a nail-biter but Mother Doesn’t Want a Dog came out victorious by 1 vote (10-9).

As for the voting here on the website, it looks like “How to Eat a Poem” has continued it’s winning streak. Today, we have two other poems for you to vote on (vote is actually one of our spelling words today! Cool!).

We have “Squirrels In My Notebook” against “Listen to the Mustn’ts”.

ListentotheMustnts

squirrels

Ms. Cull was our guest poetry reader on Wednesday and gave a wonderful rendition of the poem “Courage”. She used a lot of great expression, fluency and rhythm in her reading to make her poem interesting and meaningful. Have a listen:

Courage

To finish off, I have added the permission form for our trip to Science World in the box on the right side. Simply click on the docuement and choose where you want it to download it.

Spelling

been feel

capture diary

broke history

deed dozen

exhaust sorry

inspect pear

practice criticism

expect else

vote fifth

equip yesterday

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