We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do! We've Got Spirit, How 'Bout You?!

Homecoming Parade

It was a fun, spirit-filled week here at Carmel Elementary.  We enjoyed dressing up to show our support for CHS Homecoming.  Pictures of our class from these spirit days can be found on the "Pictures" tab on our class blog.

Workout Wednesday

College Go! Day

This week wasn't just fun spirit days, we also fit in a lot of great learning.  This week we focused on Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. We practiced being good listeners and trying to see things from others' points of view. 

We were excited to start our Mineral Field Guides in science.  After observing our minerals, we described their appearance, feel, and smell.  We will continue our work in our field guides this next week.

It was a great week in math as we continued our unit on computation.  We learned two different algorithms for addition this week, and we will learn two different algorithms for subtraction during this coming week.  Our test will be the following week, and students will get to choose their preferred methods of adding and subtracting on the test. 

Modeling Partial Sums Algorithm

We also had a very successful problem solving day in math.  We continue to work on the process of solving tricky multi-step problems, and we are focusing on learning some of the different strategies that we can use to help us solve problems.  This week we practiced the strategy of drawing a picture, and we learned how drawing a picture in math is different than drawing a picture in art.  As one bright mathematician summarized, "When you draw a picture in art, you are trying to make a masterpiece.  When you draw a picture in math, you are trying to make sense of the problem."  How perfect an explanation is that?!

Drawing in Math

I have been especially happy with our work in writing lately.  We have been working on having strong leads that hook our readers.  See if your child can share with you some of the different types of strong beginnings we learned.  We have also practiced giving and getting descriptive feedback.  We then use the descriptive feedback to set goals for our writing.  Ask your child to tell you about the descriptive feedback he has received and what he is trying to do in his writing.

Writing Partners Giving Descriptive Feedback

Overall, it was another fantastic week in 3rd grade--I can't wait for the next one! 

Recess Fun!

Are You in the Loop?

Do you have an e-mail address?  Can you spare 3 minutes?  That is all you need to set up a Twitter account and follow our class--this will keep you in the loop for all the great stuff going on in 3rd grade.  I post most school days--this year I have tweeted (or retweeted) over 50 times. These tweets will not only give you a peek inside our day, they will also help you get past the "Nothing" response when you ask your child what we did in school that day.  We are always doing something--I promise--encourage your child to talk about it.  Talking about what we are doing and learning in class is an imperative step in helping students make sense of their learning.  If you haven't been following our class, here are some of the tweets you've missed.

+40 more....Don't miss any more tweets--follow us today.  

Hopefully you are convinced that you want to see our tweets.  If you have a Twitter account, follow us @Grade3atCE.  If you don't have an account, all you need is an e-mail and 3 minutes.  

There is a way to get our class tweets sent to you by text message.  If you text follow Grade3atCE to 40404, you will get a text each time I tweet.  This is a good option if you have an unlimited texting plan and really don't want to get a Twitter account.  However, I have found the best option would be to sign up for a Twitter account and follow our class. First, I tweet a lot (over 50 times already during the first month of school) and you may not want that many text messages.  Secondly--and most importantly--if you sign up for a Twitter account, then you can also follow others to keep you up-to-date with all the happenings at and around Carmel Elementary.  Once you get your account and start following us, consider also following the following:

Carmel Clay Schools @myCCS
Carmel Elementary  @CE_Tigers
Carmel Elementary PTO  @CarmelElemPTO
Mrs. Rodriguez, art teacher @CEArtTeacher
Mr. Murphey, PE teacher  @CE_wellness
Mrs. Williams, media center teacher  @CarmelElemMedia
Nurse Diane  @DianeBraun1
Carmel Elementary Student Council @CE_StuCo
Carmel Clay Public Library @CarmelLib

It's going to be a great year--join us for the ride! 

SUPER!

If there is one word to describe this last week, it is SUPER!  Super class, super learning, super week, and, of course, superheroes.  

The class came decked out in our favorite superhero gear on Friday to support a Carmel boy who is fighting cancer.  It was so great to see all the Carmel Clay elementary schools come together to show support for this local superhero.  If you haven't had a chance yet, check out #BeBraveBrooks on Twitter to see pictures from across the district.  

The superheroes in our class showed their super hearts (and super art skills) to make some super cards and color some superhero pictures to send to Brooks.  I am sure these will put a smile on his face.  What a super group of kids!

Check out some of our favorite superhero photos from Friday.

In addition to all the superhero fun, there was also a lot of super learning going on this week.  We learned about Habit 2--Begin with an End in Mind.  Have your child share with you some of the goals she set this week.  After some work on goal setting, we also had fun with a group challenge where we had to plan how to save Sammy, the worm.  See if your child can share the plan her group came up with to save Sammy.

Making a plan to save Sammy 

We spent the week in writing learning ways to brainstorm writing ideas.  The class will use these strategies all year long when they need an idea for writing.  We learned how to make lists, write around a person, and make a treasure map of story ideas.  Ask your child his favorite way to brainstorm ideas--and then have him share some of the story ideas he used this week in writing.

Making lists to brainstorm writing ideas

Have a SUPER week!

 

Meet the Teacher

It was so great to see so many parents at our Meet the Teacher night.  Thank you for carving out the time during this busy back to school season.  I am glad I got to share so much information about 3rd grade.  I also enjoyed getting a chance to talk to many of you afterwards.  Please do hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or you would like to set up a meeting to talk more.  I am really looking forward to the upcoming year with this group of students and families.

I know a couple of you were unable to attend last night.  I sent home all of the papers with your child, so keep an eye out for the blue folder that is coming home.  I also linked the Meet the Teacher Presentation so that you can see some of the information we covered.  Let me know if you have any questions.

It has been a really great start to the new year. This makes me so excited and hopeful for the year ahead.   I can already tell it's going to be an amazing year!

First Week Fun

We had a great first week in 3rd grade!  

In addition to learning about procedures and expectations of 3rd grade, we also learned about our classmates.  After reading the book The Matchbox Diary, we presented our own 'Paper Sack Diaries' so that we could get to know our new classmates better.

We also worked on our teamwork building skills so that we will be prepared for all of the collaborative work in the coming year.  If you are following our class on Twitter (@Grade3atCE) you saw these fun pictures from the team building activities--I'll be posting more to the blog later.  All in all, it was a successful first week, and I am excited about the upcoming year!    Take a moment to check out the 'Pictures' tab on our class blog for some more photos from our first week.

I look forward to seeing all of the parents at our "Meet the Teacher" night on Wednesday at 7:00 pm.

Getting Ready . . . Getting Excited!

I love the start of a new school year.  The new school supplies, back-to-school shopping, seeing everyone I missed this summer---this is a great time of year!  It is a wonderful time to start fresh with new plans and new goals and a new hope for what is to come.  I now have my class list, and this adds even more to the excitement.  I was happy to see that there are some kids on that list that I already know and several I can't wait to meet.  I am definitely looking forward to the year that we are going to spend together--I have a feeling that it is going to be really special!

I look forward to seeing everyone who can make it at the Ice Cream Social on Monday, August 10th from 4:00-5:30.

Green Thumbs

Our field trip to the community garden

School might be out for the summer, but the learning opportunities are not done.  This year our plant units were some of our favorites in science.  We learned during these units that we have a lot of green thumbs in this class--and CE needs those green thumbs this summer.  Carmel Elementary has its own plot at the Carmel Community Gardens, and we are looking for some helpers to weed and water the plot this summer.  They have set up a sign-up so that everyone can volunteer to help out.  Check your summer schedules and see if you have any of the available days free to help out.  The planting is already done, so we just need helpers to weed and water (and harvest when the veggies are ready).  We learned all about weeding and watering on our field trip to the community garden, and I think the students will be super excited to practice these skills while they are helping our school.   Ann Dennerline (annfclark@yahoo.com) is our contact person if you have any questions.  I hope to hear that some of our gardeners helped out at our school plot this summer. If you go, take a picture of your child at the garden and send it to me.  I will tweet it out to the class and we can all celebrate the summer learning taking place.  Happy gardening!

Click here to sign up to help at the community gardens.