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Tuesday’s Musings! (Long but Important!!) Part I

Tuesday’s Musings! (Long but Important!!) Part I

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!

Voicethreads Galore!

Voicethreads Galore!

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!

Fieldtrip Tomorrow!

Fieldtrip Tomorrow!

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!”

Troubles in Video Land

Troubles in Video Land

Well, I guess the math video displayed well but the sound was very quiet and hard to hear. When I get a better mike, I will maybe redo the video so that you can hear it better. One thing to mention though, the video just describes multiplication without regrouping which means we are not “carrying”. Carrying will come next. We still had some students today who were having some difficulties with the multiplication so we will be spending lots more time on this concept.

Catching up on our Poetry Tournament, so far our winners are: April Rain Song, Why?, Me and Yesterday. Here are the four latest contestants reading their poems.

spring-is – Spring Is

me – Me

Yesterday – Yesterday

lost – Lost

Speaking of poetry, here is another poem to add to our Daily Poem of the Day list:

Rock n Roll Dad
by
Jaime Adoff

Rock n Roll Dad cooks
in the kitchen
radio blasts
always on ten!!
It’s so LOUD, I have to shout,
“WHEN ARE WE GOING TO EAT!?”
Dad yells,
“SOOOOOON!”
Dancing past me with his spoon.
Pots shake,
pans vibrate.
Mom screams:
“It’s an earthquake!”
“What?” Dad yells back.
I roll my eyes.
Mom shakes her head.
Rock n Roll Dad is a little deaf.
“A lot.” Mom says.
“Too many years playing drums.” Rock n Roll Dad shouts, twirling his sticks and stirring the sauce.
“Can I go to the club with you tonight?” I ask Dad.
“You’re not old enough yet.” He answers back.
“I want to go. I’m eight years old. I’m old enough to Rock n Roll.”

. . . One day I’m gonna play the drums too.
My hands will fly so fast
my sticks will break the speed of sound.
I’ll be the best drummer in town.
I play the plates with my carrot stick-sticks.
Splashing salsa cymbals with my rock n roll chips . . .

©2009 Jaime Adoff. All rights reserved.

For science today, students were comparing the sizes of different objects in space including the planets, moons and asteriods. Students had a number of images and had to categorize them according to 5 types: Smaller than a school, bigger than a school but smaller than the moon, bigger than the moon but smaller than Earth, Smaller Than the Sun but bigger than Earth and, finally, bigger than the Sun. Students were quite surprised to find that some objects were bigger than they thought and that some objects were a lot smaller than they thought. It was very interesting. I also found a video, courtesy of Mr. Munro that nicely shows the sizes of objects in space and gives a little perspective both things we ahve talked about in Science.

We had a little disappointment today in regards to our tomatoes. When I came in this morning, a few of the seedlings had been pulled from the soil. I guess there had a been a group in the evening and some children had been using the other side of the room. We have fixed things up as best as we could and are continuing on with the experiment. None of the students know which were pulled out as I replaced them with extras I had. However, the students were very disappointed as was I. I have been very pleased to see our curious and excited the children have been to see their plants grow and this will defineatly be a project I will do again. We are almost ready to send in our results. Once our results are in, they will notify us as to which seeds were which. Very exciting!!!!

Don’t forget about the Spelling Bee next week. Students will be doing the in-class Bee on Tuesday. We have the field trip on Wednesday, the school Spelling Bee on Thursday. Another busy week ahead!

Math Video and a Neat Article by an Astronaut

Math Video and a Neat Article by an Astronaut

Soooo, we’ve been working hard the past week on multiplying 2 digits by 2 digits and 3 digits by 3 digits. Most of the students are now fairly confident in this concept after a lot of examples and working together. This can be a difficult concept for the students especially if they try to rush through it and don’t put their numbers in the right spots because they are not doing their neatest work.

However, I thought I would share with you how we have been working through this concept so that you had an idea as to how the concept is being taught. It is probably different from the way you were taught as I know it was for me. So I did a little video using the smartboard software, an online screen recorder and a mike. The sound isn’t the best but turn up the volume and it should be fairly good. So sit back and enjoy my dulcet tones ringing through your speakers as I speak the gentle tones of mathematics! (Warning: It might be a little choppy depending on your internet speed. You might want to start it and then pause. That way it can load a little before you play it.)

I also found a neat article written by an astronaut who is actually up in space at this very moment. He has written a post on what it is like in space. Here is the article:

Living in space is all at once wonderful, and a royal pain. During my first mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia, I marveled at the sensation of freedom that came right after Main Engine Cut Off (MECO). I watched as tethered checklists floated gently back and forth, and it quickly became normal to release a camera lens in midair, as I removed the old one off of the camera to be replaced.

There was also a sense of dizziness, since the inner ear balance system wasn’t working so well. My head felt a little full, as if I were laying down on an incline, since there was no longer any gravity to pull fluids down to my extremities. In fact, the human body carries about two liters less water in space, than on the Earth.

But, it was amazing how quickly it became normal, just to fly head first down a hatchway, or to spin myself with a push off using just a few fingers. With a little practice, most astronauts get pretty graceful at flying through the spacecraft. Just don’t try it at home, back in gravity!

Large masses are easily moved around slowly, and it becomes second nature to orient yourself using only your vision.

However, what about all that other stuff?

Imagine how easy it is to lose something! Where did that pen go? Where is my thumb drive? Where is that photograph of my family? First place to check is the air filters. But there are plenty of dead zones of air inside, and things can be lost for a few minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or forever. If it’s critical, you had better keep it inside of a sealed bag, safely contained inside of a second larger mesh bag, tied off to a handrail.

What about eating in space? Hygiene? What is the coolest thing about being in space? What is the most difficult? Stay tuned, I’ll be writing about all of it. (From Gizmodo).

Finally, here in another poem for you to enjoy! Also, take a look at the comments from the last post as Stef has left a couple of really neat poems for us to enjoy!

Ladder to the Moon
by
X. J. Kennedy

If I had a ladder that reached to the moon
Up its trillions of rungs I’d go,
Higher than ever the clouds can fly
Till the earth was a ball below.

I’d put on my warm wool winter coat
And my long scarlet scarf in case
While I climbed my ladder straight up to the moon
It started to snow in space.

I’d sidestep a couple of shooting stars
And stand on the steepest hill
At the top of my ladder to the moon
If only the moon stood still.

©2009 X. J. Kennedy. All rights reserved.

Is It Already May? Aaaggghh

Is It Already May? Aaaggghh

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.

Seed A Seeds 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!

Math and Wordle

Math and Wordle

I found this site a few weeks ago, though I haven’t really found a good use for it in class yet. But I thought I would take the ideas that our class came up with in Math today for our discussion on how math is all around us in everything we do and turn it into a wordle.

Wordle is a neat site that allows you to take some text, copy and past it into the editing area and create an image of the words. The more times you use a word the bigger it becomes. It is very much like the keywords I have along the bottom left hand side. They are also sized according to how may there are about that subject.

Wordle, however, just creates a neat “cloud” of words. You can see from our wordle that the word “math” was very important in its relation to the activities alot of us are involved in. It was a neat activity to show that math isn’t always just numbers. It is an integral part of our lives; involved in many of our daily activities. We just don’t think of it as math.

Anyway, it is a fun site to play with. You can find it by clicking here.

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

choral3-09_04_08-11_34-am-1

choral4-09_04_08-11_38-am-1

poetry1-02_04_08-10_05-am

poetry-2-02_04_08-10_06-am

poetry-3-03_03_08-11_30-am

poetry-4-27_02_08-10_53-am

poetry-5

poetry-6

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

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