Let's Go Fly a Kite

We've been digging in the dictionary.

I decided to see what they could handle today with

guide words and searching for a word in the big ole

dictionary.  Let's just say Mr. Webster would be proud!

They found the given word, wrote the definition on

the kite, wrote the page numbers on the bow, wrote the

guide words on the bow, and finally found the part of

speech and recorded it as well.

Looking Good!

Fables and Sequencing

In order to see if students understood fables and sequencing,

I devised a short activity.  Students independently read the famous

fable, The Tortoise and the Hare.  Working together in groups of

three students then chose 4 events from the story and recorded

them on a small piece of paper.  They then attached them to a

tortoise.  Groups mixed up their events and traded with other 

groups.  Finally, groups were asked to put the events from the 

other groups in the correct sequence.

One completed sequence chart...

Owl Unit

The students dove right in as we dissected owl pellets.

First Secret Readers

Friday afternoons are good for a lot of things, but in my classroom

they are best used for secret readers and readers' theatre.  A couple of

times a month (on Friday) Mrs. Simpson and I combine our classes 

and anxiously await our secret reader.  The rest of the Fridays students 

will be performing readers' theatre for the other classroom.

Friday, August 19 we opened our "Secret Reader Season" with 

2 familiar faces, but with new roles in our school.

Mrs. Rowlett, Principal and Mrs. Spencer, Assistant Principal

They shared a wonderful book titled 

You Read to Me and I'll Read to You.

It's a funny book of poetry written for two voices and I must say

 it was perfect for these two voices.  

Thanks so much ladies.....the kids truly enjoyed it!

Sequence

The second week of school has now come to a close.

We dove into our reading series - Reading Street.

I chose to skip the first story because it's what I call

heavy.  It's long and requires schema the students do not

yet have.  I went to the 2nd story:  What About Me?

Our skill all week was sequencing and fables.  Below you will 

see a sequence chart we did together as a class using events

from the story.

Owl Surprise

Mrs. Simpson and I cooked up a fun owl surprise at the

end of our short owl unit the first week of school.  

OWL PELLETS

Check out all the new facts we know about owls

after reading 2 non-fiction books.

Owls cannot digest the fur and bones of the animals

that they eat so they cough or regurgitate those parts up

in an owl pellet form.  The two classes participated in 

an owl pellet dissection.  Inside students found the skull,

ribs, pelvis, and much more of mice and other small rodents.

It was amazing to hear them as they worked!

One of them even said, "This is like, SCIENCE!"

It was well worth the money and time invested for this activity.

Graphing Fun

We began with a little graphing in math the first week.

The lesson started with a quick SmartBoard lesson on graphing.

We did a quick graph for the number of boys and girls, favorite

color, and favorite vegetable.  We wrapped up the lesson with

a quick pictograph of what we did over the summer.

Finally, the students turned the class pictograph into a

bar graph by coloring the correct number of bars for each.

First Day of School Treat

We had a great first day of school.  I sent each student

home with a special treat from me.  It turned out super cute.

First Few Days...

Well, the first two days of school are officially over.

I've met my new 3rd graders and so far so good.  I have

a class of 15 sweet boys and girls.  The first night I sent home

an "OWL" about me bag (instead of ALL about me) to be filled with 

goodies that tell about the student.  I loved listening and getting to 

know the students' likes and dislikes with these bags.

 Today we read one of my favorite "first week" of school picture

books, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  We enjoyed reading 

the story and "harvesting" unusual words.  I asked the kids to listen

as I read and pick out interesting, unusual, or unfamiliar words.  They

did awesome and we came up with a list of 11 words.  We then
discussed each word and they recorded this in their Reading Journals.  

Here's my chart:

After we watched an animated version of Chrysanthemum on 

www.unitedstreaming.com, I introduced Readers' Theatre to the class.

They were excited as I assigned parts for our first readers' theatre....Chrysanthemum!

We began practicing reading and reading with expression today.

I can't wait to see how they do tomorrow.

Ready or Not....Here We Go!

Putting the finishing touches on an "OWL"standing

third grade classroom.  Can't wait to meet my 3rd graders

next week.  Ready or not - here we go!