Playing with Dreidels!

Today we spent some time learning about Hanukkah and playing with dreidels! Each student made one and brought one home today! Dreidels are great family games!

Christmas Decorations Around the Room

Since we are going to be taking down our Christmas decorations tomorrow I thought I probably should post some pictures so everyone could see them before they are gone!

This is a picture of the snowflakes the students made hung around the room. They make a very wintery touch to the room without the frigid temperature!

This is a picture of our class Christmas tree with ornaments the students made. Look at all of the presents we have! This is a spoiled class! :)

Here are some more snowflakes. They are very beautiful and sparkly with glitter! Nice work!

Two More Additions!

Congratulations, Mary for getting into the Thousand Page Club! Great Work!
Excellent work, Ezekiel! Keep your sights set high to that Two-Thousand Page Club!!

Christmas Concert Tonight!

I haven't posted in a while (and I am sorry for that!) but tonight will be a quick one and more detail tomorrow. Tonight we have our Christmas concert starting at 7 o'clock p.m. It is important that the students are at Frontier at 6:30 p.m. so we can get ready and line up together before the performance. After the performance is over the students will come back to our room and get their goody bags from Santa. If you want to take group pictures, after the concert would be best!

The families can also pick up their students from our classroom after the concert is over to avoid too many traffic jams. :)

Thank you for coming tonight and can't wait to see all of you guys looking great!

One last note, there will be a bake sale at the concert as well to support the music program at Frontier! Yum!

Spelling Words for Dec. 14 - Dec. 18

The following words are for PF, SW, TB:

cram crab crash crib brag brat
grip slip slid slap clock blob
flag flop flock spill spin spot
snap trick trash truck

The following words are for BL, DV, EZ:

best left neck bell bled yet green
wheel sheet need bleed teeth creep
speed mean team deal reach beach
steam clean bean

The following words are for KB, CB, MB, IB, KK:

toy boy joy coin foil boil
spoil noise point town clown brown
gown frown howl sound mouth scout
round couch loud hound

The following words are for EU:

photograph phonograph telegraph graph
lithograph graphite autograph phonogram
hologram television telephone telegraph
telephoto telescope telepathy telethon
tropics tropical phototropic heliotrope
tropophilous thermotropism

Good luck and happy spelling!

LATE START TOMORROW!

Due to the weather that we have been having lately, we are starting school an hour later than normal. School and the buses will run an hour late and so school will start at 9:00 a.m. Please try not to send your students early if at all possible!

Today we had a pretty good day. We were trapped inside for recesses because of the frigid weather outside. I think the students are getting used to it because they don't really complain as much when we hear that we are inside. I think they realize the alternative is freezing outside so the gym looks pretty good! :)

We got new spelling words today which I will post online shortly. We spent time making Christmas books for three classmates today. The students have such a creative mind when it comes to what they are going to get each other. You can definitely tell they know each other very well!

Tomorrow I will be sending home a note with your students about our Christmas party. Keep an eye out for that one in your student's backpacks. Also, a quick reminder that our Christmas program is December 17th (Thursday) and students need to be at school by 6:30 p.m. but the program does not start until 7 p.m. Students need to wear dress clothes. No athletic gear, tennis shoes, or jeans please.

Hope all of you are staying warm and aren't having too many weather related issues (though hopefully none!). Can't wait to see you an hour later tomorrow! Sleep in and get some extra rest to ward off the colds that are floating around!

Another Thursday Behind Us

Today we worked really hard on a variety of things related to the holiday season. The Christmas concert is coming up next Thursday, December 17th at 7 p.m. so the third and fourth grade classes got an extra 40 minutes to practice their performance together with Mrs. Drummond. It was really fun to sneak a little peek at the kids while they were practicing. Things are looking great so far!

This afternoon we spent time working on more Christmas and winter art projects. We started the paint part of our crafts today so we can finish them later. We started making gingerbread people and a little penguin. It will be fun to see how things turn out! This is quite an artistic class so they never cease to amaze me at their artistic talents and creativity.

A couple of quick reminders.....

1. Book orders are due Monday, December 14th either online or in paper form. I will submit the order Monday after school to make sure we get our books by Christmas time. Remember, books make great gifts!
2. Also, some students have been asking me what I "want" for Christmas. There is really nothing extra special that I am wishing for and honestly while I do like getting presents it isn't necessary to get me anything. If you decide that you want to get teachers a present it is a great idea to visit www.donorschoose.org and search for Montana schools. This website is an amazing site that allows people to donate money for materials and supplies that the classroom needs. I have three projects on the site (2 should be coming soon and one is already there) and I would love if you wanted to donate to the site. That way the whole class is benefiting!

I hope you all stay warm and have a fantastic evening!

Book Orders Due Dec. 14

Book orders were sent home with your student yesterday. Book make excellent gifts for the holidays and I am more than happy to arrange pick up time with you so you can be sneaky!

The sneakiest way to order is online through our class page. The web address is:

scholastic.com/bookclubs
Login name: FrontierThirdGrade
Password: order

Every time you make an online order we also get free books for the classroom so it is a win-win situation! Best holiday and shopping wishes!

A Note on Spelling

It has come to my attention that spelling is an issue with this group of students overall.

Since the beginning of the year we have done spelling words so the whole class has the same list every week and they are all expected to know the same words. However, I am noticing this isn't really successful for the students: either they are failing week after week, doing great some weeks and very poorly others, excelling every week, or doing about average every week. Also, there doesn't seem to be the transfer from their spelling test to their writing. So starting this week we have some changes...

The students will be split into groups based on the things they need to work on in spelling (for example if there are three students who can't spell words that have the /ay/ spelling at the end of the word they would be grouped together and would be working on those words). They will be given a spelling test on their words on Friday like usual. However, this time, the words that they do not spell correctly on their spelling test are going to be on their spelling list again next week. They will continue to get those words until they are spelled correctly. That way students are getting practice with words that they need help with and are getting additional practice on words that are giving them trouble. I will try to post the spelling lists with student initials next to the groups so that you can still access spelling lists on the site (since many of you have expressed an interest in doing that!)

I hope this is clear for all of you and as always, if you have any questions feel free to call or email anytime. I check my email several times during the day so that is the easiest way to contact me. Hope to hear from you soon!

Oh the weather is getting frightful...

Well it has been a couple of days since the last post so I will get us all caught up together. Sorry about the lack of posting!

Monday we started our Christmas project for our classmates. Instead of having each student buy a gift for another student we are going to be making Christmas books for each other to avoid the extra holiday costs. The books say, "If I could get you anything for Christmas, I would get you..." and there is a piece of wrapping paper attached to the bottom where the students can lift the flap and draw a picture of anything that they would get their classmates. This way the students can use their artistic and creative talents at a free cost! The students will also be working with fourth grade to draw "Secret Santa" gifts but, again, students will be making the gifts as opposed to going out and buying a gift. This way the emphasis is on the spirit of giving and thoughtfulness rather than the dollar price tag on the gift. Every day we will be working on the books for one or more students.

Yesterday we started a science experiment (given the current temperature of Wolf Point) to find out what happens to water when it freezes (besides that it turns to ice). To do this experiment we filled a vial with water and placed a cap on it. We also filled a syringe to 40cc of water. Today we found out that the water EXPANDED when it was frozen! The syringes expanded to 45 cc of ice and the ice was raised out of the vials so much the caps were busted off. Wow! The students were surprised that the water would expand when it froze!

A quick note about the weather...
Please make sure that you are sending your student to school dressed for the weather. So far we have been okay but as things get colder make sure kids have heavy coats, hats, gloves or mittens, scarves, and snow pants if you have them. I do have a drawer filled with gloves that the students can borrow if they choose to while at school. All of the students should also have hats since my grandma made each student a hat. Hats are so important to make sure they don't get sick or have headaches after coming in from the cold outdoors.

Also, emphasize to your student that it is a REALLY bad idea to stick their tongues to frozen metal poles. We had an incident today with a student doing that and it is not pleasant and causes a LOT of blood. We want everyone to be safe and healthy at school. No one wants that unpleasantness to happen, especially to themselves.

I hope you are all staying warm and cozy at home and the weather isn't treating you too badly. Can't wait to see all of your smiling faces tomorrow morning!

Two More 1000 Page Club Members!

Congratulations Caeland! Nice job! Keep up the great work and keep reading to get to the next level!

Congratulations Dani! Keep up the great work and go for the 2000 page club! :)

Friday

Friday was a great ending to the week. The students had spelling, vocabulary and a grammar quiz. They did a great job overall!

We ended the day with our classroom store. The students all really like to have the chance to spend their hard earned money on items from the store. The popular items were some twisted pens and the "mystery bags" as per usual. The mystery bags are paper bags that are filled with an assortment of goodies found in the class store. Sometimes the bags have really expensive items and other times they do not... it is all in the luck of the draw. This will be the last major class store before Christmas break. Our next time for classroom store will be December 18th. On that day we will be doing a small store selection and our classroom auction for the end of the 2009 year. We will be auctioning off posters, supplies, and class made books that have been made so far this year. It will be a time that students can get presents for their families as well. The students are really looking forward to that time because we haven't yet had an auction in the classroom.

I hope you all enjoyed the Christmas parade on Friday night and there is the craft bazaar at the Elk's Club today. Enjoy your weekend!

Thursday is here!

This week is just flying right by us! Goodness gracious!

Today we read some more to make it toward our goal of reading 100 books by the end of the month. Today we got to 77 books read so far this year so we are well on our way. Tomorrow several people are doing conferences with me too so we will get much higher tomorrow!

In writing the students spent time finishing their letters to our generous donors and our pen pals. It will be exciting to send another batch of letters to our pen pals. I remember being in elementary school and loving writing to the pen pals we had and these kids share that same enthusiasm. It is great!

This afternoon we had more art... this has just been the week of art projects! We finished our mini-Christmas trees and made some mini-snowmen. We are trying to make several ornaments so that we can decorate our class Christmas tree and also have some to send to Helena to represent our Roosevelt County tree at the Capitol! The kids have been doing a great job with these and they are really turning out very nicely! I am very impressed.

As the weather starts to get colder, remember to dress your student for the weather. If they are not dressed appropriately the recess duties will send them inside to sit on the bench rather than getting that fresh air and exercise outside. I do have some gloves that the students can borrow for recesses but hats and scarves are not in such high supply. Though all of them should have a hat since my grandma made them each one, many of them say that they don't have one here. It is chilly but not too bad yet so that's okay. Once the weather gets colder, snow comes, and the wind picks up that will be a different story though! To make sure that all of them get to run and play outside please send them dressed appropriately.

Tomorrow we have a spelling test so make sure your student is practicing those words! Next week spelling will be individualized to meet the needs of the students in the class (more detailed information to come!). This week, though, we are all doing the same words that are listed off to the right. Can't wait to see you tomorrow!

Glitter: The Mess that Keeps On Giving!

Well today we spent another day getting into the spirit of the holidays and continued to work on our Christmas tree decorations. Also, we spent time decorating our snowflakes with glitter. This is my first time really using glitter in a project and all I can say is wow. I didn't realize at the time how the glitter was going to get EVERYWHERE. :) Bless their hearts though, the students all got on their hands and knees with a damp paper towel and "swept" the floor. Even then, the glitter seemed like is was growing! :) It will be something you are going to see covering your students for the next month probably.

Looking ahead we are starting to think about our Christmas party. The party itself will be on December 22nd (which is the last full day before Christmas break). However, along with the fourth grade class we are interested in having some holiday craft stations in our rooms which all of the students can participate in and make something special for the holidays. So, we are interested in seeing if any of you are willing to run a station during the crafting time. If you have any ideas for a craft station you could run and supply materials for, please email me or send me a note as soon as possible so we can start to arrange the times and everything. We love to have you in our classrooms so feel free to let me know!

Have a great night and can't wait to see you all tomorrow!

P.S. Midterm reports will be mailed out next week so keep an eye on the mail! If you are curious of your students grades sooner, email me and I will let you know on Friday when the grades are final. :)

Another 1000 page Club Member!

Congratulations, Mr. Chevy for being our newest member of the 1000 page club! Keep up the great work and look for that 2000 page club mark! You can do it!

December Already?

Well December is officially here... unbelievable! I am excited though for the holiday season. Christmas is my favorite time of year! We have a lot of Christmas music playing throughout the day in my room. Gets us all in the spirit of things!

Today we spent time learning how to summarize books that we are reading. The students had a really hard time getting the understanding of what a main idea or major idea was as opposed to just an extra detail. That is something we will be working more and more on this week to really start processing the idea. We also spent time learning what a "third grade" sentence really looks like. Before this point in the year the students have written a lot of sentences like, "It was fun." or "I liked it." We are well into third grade though and this is not what is expected of them. The students need to remember that they CAN add detail to their sentences and therefore that is expected of them. I shouldn't have to ask a ton of clarifying questions about each sentence to find out the who, what, when, where, or why. Those are things that need to be included in their sentences. That is going to take some adjusting but I told them very clearly today that work not done at a third grade level will be turned back into them and redone. We are third graders after all!

We continued writing our thank-you letters and response letters to pen pals. The students are really doing a great job on these letters! Way to go!

In math we learned about horizontal, vertical, and oblique lines. We used all of the capital letters in the alphabet to find these lines. It is surprising how many have more than one type of line! Oblique also looks like a great bonus spelling word this week... hint, hint third graders! :)

This afternoon we spend another fast afternoon starting getting in the Christmas spirit. We have many art projects planned for this week to make ornaments for our classroom tree as well as ornaments to send to Helena. Each year in front of the capitol building there is one tree for each county in Montana. Last year all of Roosevelt county schools submitted one (yes 1) ornament. Needless to say our tree looked pretty sad compared to the other ones. So this year we are making several ornaments for the students to send off to Helena to proudly represent our county.

We also are making cut out snowflakes to decorate our room with. Today we read Snowflake Bentley about a man who photographed snowflakes in the early 1900s. We learned that no two snowflakes are the same so we each had time to make our own snowflakes. Tomorrow we will add glitter and add some sparkle to those snowflakes to add to the winter feel in our classroom. I am excited! We will get to be toasty warm but enjoy the snow inside! :) Best of both worlds.

Today with your students you should find (in addition to Spelling homework due tomorrow!) a newsletter about a pajama drive we are doing as a class. Every year the Pajama Program (www.pajamaprogram.org) donates pajamas and books to children and adults in needy situations around the holidays. These are mostly children who have been abused and abandoned to add to their holiday spirit for the year. We are asking you to donate NEW pajamas (for any age or size) to this great organization. For every pair of pajamas we donate, Scholastic Book Clubs will donate a book as well to give these young people a Christmas gift. If you (or friends, neighbors or relatives) are interested in donating pajamas to this great cause, please send the pajamas with your student to school and I will take care of the rest. We are sending the box in on December 19th, so the pajamas must be received by December 18th. Thank you so much in advance of your donation!

Tomorrow is PE so remember to get plenty of rest. Bring your backpacks please and enjoy your evening! Peace out little diamonds! :) (Ask your student about the reference there!)