Dear Families,
We have some very exciting news to share with you all this week. As you might recall, last week the students wrote a collaborative letter to an author called Sheri Amsel, whose books we have explored in class in connection with our unit on ecology and habitats around the world. The students asked for a skype session with her and she has accepted!!
If everything goes as planned, we will skype with her next Wednesday morning at 8:30 am (2/3/10). We would like to invite family members to join our classroom for this wonderful celebration of literature and ecology!! If you can, please come promptly as we will start chatting at 8:30 sharp and return the attached slip (For those families reading this letter on the blog, please be advised your child will bring home a separate sheet for you to sign. Thank you). The skyping will last for approximately 30 minutes and the students will have already prepared questions to ask her. Sheri Amsel is both a writer and an illustrator and she uses many different forms of art in her books. I have linked many sites on her work, biography and books on our classroom digital portfolio, which is linked on the blog sidebar. The url for this site is www.summitprojects.pbworks.com
I have linked Sheri Amsel’s sites on summitprojects.pbworks.com under “Red Clover”, Abraham Lincoln, because just like young Grace Bedell, we wrote letters to a well-known person too!
In response to this great opportunity for our students, vocabulary homework this week will be a little different. Every child brought home a regular list of 5 words. Your child can follow our regular guidelines and write definitions and sentences for those words. If your child wants, he or she can choose their own 5 new words from any of the linked Sheri Amsel sites related to ecology (and not already studied). The guidelines are still the same, but your child chooses his/her own words. Since we will work in small groups and partnerships to explore possible questions for Sheri Amsel in the next few days, your child might have a specific area of interest for her. Good luck and have fun creating questions, sentences and ideas about ecology and nature!
Report cards are coming home this week. Please sign the envelope and send it back to school empty so I know you received the information. I have met with all the students who were interested in chatting about their report cards so there should be no surprises. If you have any questions or wish to meet with me, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Our next unit in Writer’s Workshop will be “Response to Literature.” The students will learn effective strategies to analyze characters in books. We will primarily focus upon character attributes and change as we learn to use a rich and interesting vocabulary to back up our statements with evidence from the texts.
We will not start another science unit for another couple of weeks as we are wrapping up our unit on States of Matter. The students are also exploring scientific inquiry skills, observational techniques and data gathering as we prepare for the district-wide science assessment in about two weeks.
Have a great weekend. We hope to see you next Wednesday at 8:30 am!
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Idiom of the Week
Our new Idiom of the Week is
"to keep it sub rosa"
This expression means to keep what is said sercret and confidential. The idiom has a long and complicated history, but most evidence points to the belief in the Middle Ages that roses suspended from the ceiling meant that if you sat below, you had to keep conversation "sub rosa."
The adventures of Mr. Moose continues
Mr. Moose likes to dance, it turns out. He had fun with our Kindergarten buddies last Friday!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
New Word Invention
A student coined a new word for us as we explored traditional Self-to-Text Connections. Since we use so much technology in the classroom and in our daily lives, she suggested that we do....
Self-to-Textnology Connections
When you do these types of connections, you are....
Self-to-Textnological
Our next read-aloud, Frindle, by Andrew Clements, happens to be about the invention of a new word. perhaps we can get this into the common usage as well????
I think we are up for the challenge. What do you think?
Self-to-Textnology Connections
When you do these types of connections, you are....
Self-to-Textnological
Our next read-aloud, Frindle, by Andrew Clements, happens to be about the invention of a new word. perhaps we can get this into the common usage as well????
I think we are up for the challenge. What do you think?
Weekly Update
Dear Families,
Our second quarter marking period ends on the 22nd and report cards will go out the following Friday. We do not schedule regular parent-teacher conferences this time, but if you and your family would like to meet with me or another teacher, please let me know and I would be happy to arrange that. Thank you!
The students have had many assessments in reading, writing and math this past week and they all did a great job. All of these assessments are administered to make sure your child receives the best possible instruction at the correct learning level and these assessments, in addition to more informal, daily continual assessments are used to guide our instruction. We are looking forward to a “regular” week next week!
Despite all the assessing, the students had time to complete some other projects. They finished the second stage in our reading response to the Red Clover Book Owney, the mail-pouch pooch by Mona Kerby. They finished their individual Voicethreads and now they have been partnered up so they can ask their questions to another student in class, who, in turn, will research and respond to that question. Please check the classroom digital portfolio for postings and the blog, where a link will be posted as well.
The students also finished writing our letter to Sheri Amsel, an author from up-state New York who offers time to Skype classrooms. We hope she likes our letter and will grant us a Skype-session. To spark her interest, the students also wanted to share their digital pictures of their stuffed animal projects. We will keep you posted. (The letter is posted on our digital portfolio in the Red Clover section, Abraham Lincoln).
Thank you all for making sure your child handed in his/her stuffed animal project this week. They are truly amazing. The students did a great job representing their animal and our classroom looks like a beautiful ocean scene now. Please visit if you can.
Lastly, the students and I have had many productive conversations about the proper use of technology. As our students grow up in an increasingly technology saturated world, and they must learn how to navigate this ever-changing landscape, they must also learn to use technology wisely and with prudence. They must learn to differentiate between the beneficial aspects of technology and those that are not. They must learn to critically think and question the ever-expanding offerings on-line. Please be advised that young children should never “surf” the internet unsupervised and encourage your child to talk to you about what he/she comes across online. For example, in the classroom, students seldom use google to do searches. It is a great tool, but not very efficient unless you know how to use it correctly. Please guide your child to the HCS Library space or to my wiki, where I have linked more appropriate search engines (under that name). These students do an incredible job in the classroom and it is inspiring to see how easily and readily the embrace technology and its creative benefits. I am very proud of them!!!!
Have a great weekend!
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Our second quarter marking period ends on the 22nd and report cards will go out the following Friday. We do not schedule regular parent-teacher conferences this time, but if you and your family would like to meet with me or another teacher, please let me know and I would be happy to arrange that. Thank you!
The students have had many assessments in reading, writing and math this past week and they all did a great job. All of these assessments are administered to make sure your child receives the best possible instruction at the correct learning level and these assessments, in addition to more informal, daily continual assessments are used to guide our instruction. We are looking forward to a “regular” week next week!
Despite all the assessing, the students had time to complete some other projects. They finished the second stage in our reading response to the Red Clover Book Owney, the mail-pouch pooch by Mona Kerby. They finished their individual Voicethreads and now they have been partnered up so they can ask their questions to another student in class, who, in turn, will research and respond to that question. Please check the classroom digital portfolio for postings and the blog, where a link will be posted as well.
The students also finished writing our letter to Sheri Amsel, an author from up-state New York who offers time to Skype classrooms. We hope she likes our letter and will grant us a Skype-session. To spark her interest, the students also wanted to share their digital pictures of their stuffed animal projects. We will keep you posted. (The letter is posted on our digital portfolio in the Red Clover section, Abraham Lincoln).
Thank you all for making sure your child handed in his/her stuffed animal project this week. They are truly amazing. The students did a great job representing their animal and our classroom looks like a beautiful ocean scene now. Please visit if you can.
Lastly, the students and I have had many productive conversations about the proper use of technology. As our students grow up in an increasingly technology saturated world, and they must learn how to navigate this ever-changing landscape, they must also learn to use technology wisely and with prudence. They must learn to differentiate between the beneficial aspects of technology and those that are not. They must learn to critically think and question the ever-expanding offerings on-line. Please be advised that young children should never “surf” the internet unsupervised and encourage your child to talk to you about what he/she comes across online. For example, in the classroom, students seldom use google to do searches. It is a great tool, but not very efficient unless you know how to use it correctly. Please guide your child to the HCS Library space or to my wiki, where I have linked more appropriate search engines (under that name). These students do an incredible job in the classroom and it is inspiring to see how easily and readily the embrace technology and its creative benefits. I am very proud of them!!!!
Have a great weekend!
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Our new Kindergarten Buddies
We have new Kindergarten buddies and they will come and visit our classroom once a week. We will join together in many exciting new ventures. Please come back and read more about these projects. We are starting a reading response task shortly and we will use technology as a way to communicate with each other. We had a dance party last Friday. Please view some pictures above.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Idiom of the week
Our new idiom of the week is "on top of your lungs"
This expression means to say or sing something very loudly. In a sentence, it could be "She sang the song on top of her lungs."
Can you think of another sentence? Please share in class.
This expression means to say or sing something very loudly. In a sentence, it could be "She sang the song on top of her lungs."
Can you think of another sentence? Please share in class.
Weekly Update
Dear Families,
Have you noticed that the days are getting longer? As much as I love winter, I am excited about the first sign of a changing season. It does not look like it outside, however, with lots of snow and freezing temperatures, but things are changing. As a challenge at home, start documenting small signs of Spring and please encourage your child to bring his/her observations into class to share. Please remember to send your child to school with warm clothes every day as we have recess unless it is raining or below zero. Please remember to send your child to school every day with a snack. They need nutritious and hearty snacks in these cold temperatures.
Our unit on ecology is coming to an end. The students have conducted research on an ocean animal for a couple of weeks and will be expected to write a four paragraph essay about how this animal finds food and shelter in the ocean. Some animals are a little bit more challenging to find information on, but the students all help each other and share information. It is great to hear them share things they have learned from each other as they conduct their own research. In addition to learning about the importance of finding relevant information to your stated focus, the students have also learned to re-write and “paraphrase” texts and authors. Your child has learned not to copy word for word from a text, but rather enter the information needed into bullet points, which later will be re-written into his/her own words. Not only are these important skills for writing; they also reinforce the value of the written word in and of itself. Writing reflects a personal and unique thought process, just like art and music. While it allows the writer to express his/her ideas of various topics and the world, it also allows the reader to join in this conversation and dialogue through different reading responses and follow-up discussions and personal reflections.
The students have learned to use Voicethread in more depth this week and have almost completed their second multi-media response to the book entitled Owney, the mail-pouch pooch (Mona Kerby). Please ask your child about this very exciting venture and how we have learned to research various places around the world using resources in our classroom, on the computers and from each other. If you do not know already, Voicethread is an online community that allows for communication and information sharing on a given topic. It allows students to share personal Voicethreads, but it also allows them to respond to others queries and questions. Most importantly, Voicethread allows students to show their understanding of a given topic in multi-sensory ways; it allows them to write, to speak, to draw and to use music and videos. In other words, it allows students to create their own responses. If you have any questions and/or concerns about Voicethread, please do not hesitate to contact me. We are very proud of our new project and are very excited to share it with you. Please revisit the wiki and blog often as these Voicethreads will be shared as soon as they are ready to be published.
Reminders:
• Our Ocean Animal Project is due next Tuesday, 1/19/10. The assignment outline is attached to this letter. If you need materials and help, please do not hesitate to contact me.
• The second quarter is almost over and individual student report cards are mailed home (1/29/10). We do not schedule conferences this time, but if you wish to meet with me or your child’s math or word study teacher, please let me know. Thank you!
• There is not school on Monday, 1/18/10, and the school celebrates Martin Luther King Day.
• Do not forget to access snapfish.com where our classroom pictures are located for you to print out. Please let me know if you need help to access our classroom group account. Thank you.
Have a great weekend!
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Have you noticed that the days are getting longer? As much as I love winter, I am excited about the first sign of a changing season. It does not look like it outside, however, with lots of snow and freezing temperatures, but things are changing. As a challenge at home, start documenting small signs of Spring and please encourage your child to bring his/her observations into class to share. Please remember to send your child to school with warm clothes every day as we have recess unless it is raining or below zero. Please remember to send your child to school every day with a snack. They need nutritious and hearty snacks in these cold temperatures.
Our unit on ecology is coming to an end. The students have conducted research on an ocean animal for a couple of weeks and will be expected to write a four paragraph essay about how this animal finds food and shelter in the ocean. Some animals are a little bit more challenging to find information on, but the students all help each other and share information. It is great to hear them share things they have learned from each other as they conduct their own research. In addition to learning about the importance of finding relevant information to your stated focus, the students have also learned to re-write and “paraphrase” texts and authors. Your child has learned not to copy word for word from a text, but rather enter the information needed into bullet points, which later will be re-written into his/her own words. Not only are these important skills for writing; they also reinforce the value of the written word in and of itself. Writing reflects a personal and unique thought process, just like art and music. While it allows the writer to express his/her ideas of various topics and the world, it also allows the reader to join in this conversation and dialogue through different reading responses and follow-up discussions and personal reflections.
The students have learned to use Voicethread in more depth this week and have almost completed their second multi-media response to the book entitled Owney, the mail-pouch pooch (Mona Kerby). Please ask your child about this very exciting venture and how we have learned to research various places around the world using resources in our classroom, on the computers and from each other. If you do not know already, Voicethread is an online community that allows for communication and information sharing on a given topic. It allows students to share personal Voicethreads, but it also allows them to respond to others queries and questions. Most importantly, Voicethread allows students to show their understanding of a given topic in multi-sensory ways; it allows them to write, to speak, to draw and to use music and videos. In other words, it allows students to create their own responses. If you have any questions and/or concerns about Voicethread, please do not hesitate to contact me. We are very proud of our new project and are very excited to share it with you. Please revisit the wiki and blog often as these Voicethreads will be shared as soon as they are ready to be published.
Reminders:
• Our Ocean Animal Project is due next Tuesday, 1/19/10. The assignment outline is attached to this letter. If you need materials and help, please do not hesitate to contact me.
• The second quarter is almost over and individual student report cards are mailed home (1/29/10). We do not schedule conferences this time, but if you wish to meet with me or your child’s math or word study teacher, please let me know. Thank you!
• There is not school on Monday, 1/18/10, and the school celebrates Martin Luther King Day.
• Do not forget to access snapfish.com where our classroom pictures are located for you to print out. Please let me know if you need help to access our classroom group account. Thank you.
Have a great weekend!
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Friday, January 8, 2010
Idiom of the Week
Our Idiom of the week was "apple of my eye"
This expression means that something or someone is cherished, valued and adored. It has an interesting historical evolution as it originally referred to the actual eye (apples were some of the most commonly used spheres back in the olden days) and since eye-sight was cherished, its more commonly used figurative meaning of today became prevalent.
Mr. Moose
Hello,
Our new classroom pet Mr. Moose continues his adventures around our school. We have discovered he likes to read.
Red Colver Reading Responses
Below is one example of how the students have responded to Pale Male, a Red Clover nominated book by Janet Schulman. Please visit our digital classroom portfolio, linked in the sidebar, or simply access through the url www.summitprojects.pbworks.com
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Be a STAR Voicethread
Please click here to view, listen to and see our classroom Voicethread. Please make sure your speakers are on! If you click on the picture in the middle you can zoom in and move it around. To go back to its original size, simply click another time. Thank you.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Ecology Assignment: Stuffed animal
Please see the below assignment descriptions. Due date is 1/19/10. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this assignment. Thank you!
Stuffed Animal of the Ocean
What: A stuffed paper animal to hang from our ceiling.
Requirements:
1. The stuffed animal should be fairly large, no matter what the actual size of the animal is in real life (we want to see them!)
2. The expectation is that the animal will be made out of paper, but you may use fabric, fur, etc. to make it as realistic as you want.
3. The stuffed animal needs to be two sided since it will be hanging from our ceiling.
4. The animal should be colored the way it looks in real life and have as many details as possible. You may use any art medium you want.
5. Be sure to stuff the animal with paper or cotton so that it looks three dimensional.
Optional: You may add any touches you think will “bring your animal to life” such as a bird on a tree branch, or a predator holding its prey.
Stuffed Animal of the Ocean
What: A stuffed paper animal to hang from our ceiling.
Requirements:
1. The stuffed animal should be fairly large, no matter what the actual size of the animal is in real life (we want to see them!)
2. The expectation is that the animal will be made out of paper, but you may use fabric, fur, etc. to make it as realistic as you want.
3. The stuffed animal needs to be two sided since it will be hanging from our ceiling.
4. The animal should be colored the way it looks in real life and have as many details as possible. You may use any art medium you want.
5. Be sure to stuff the animal with paper or cotton so that it looks three dimensional.
Optional: You may add any touches you think will “bring your animal to life” such as a bird on a tree branch, or a predator holding its prey.
Weekly Update
Dear Families,
Welcome back and Happy New Year!! It is wonderful to be back in the classroom again with all of the students. They have so many exciting things to share about their vacation and it is great to share in their excitement.
We also have some very exciting news to share with you in our classroom. We have a new student join us from Williston and we could not be happier to have him with us. Welcome Corey!
We started our new Science unit this week and we will study “Solids, Liquids, and Gases” this time. While most students have been exposed to these concepts before, the expectation for 3rd and 4th grade rests more upon gaining an understanding about the properties of water vapor and gas; i.e., that gas takes up space, has pressure and weight. In this unit, the students will learn more about the water cycle, and they already explored the properties of liquids this week. Ask your child to explain our experiments in liquids. We explored how the densities and properties of various liquids, such as soap, oil, milk, water and food coloring, affected each other. The students are, once again, examining science through constructivist thinking strategies and are encouraged to “act” as scientists as they make predictions, observe and gather data upon which they construct their conclusions. They did a great job this week. Please view the blog and our classroom picture-sharing account for photos from these experiments. Thank you!
3rd graders started a new math program this week. I have the pleasure and privilege to pilot a new math program for the school. The program is called “Investigations” and the students and I just love this approach to math!!! Please ask your child to share some of the exciting mathematical discussions we have. A letter already went out to all the families affected explaining these new procedures. If your child did not bring home this letter, or if you would like some additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me per e-mail or phone. Please know you can also drop by anytime! Since our math homework schedule in 3rd grade has changed somewhat, I wish to remind everyone that Spelling and Vocabulary homework are still due on Fridays. Reading logs are also due. Please know that you and your child may choose any reading log you wish using our classroom Link Library on the wiki by simply printing out the one you wish to use.
Our unit on Ecology is wrapping up in a couple of weeks. The students will be expected to write a 4 paragraph essay in class as a culminating assessment on their animal of choice. The students are also expected to create a stuffed animal. This assignment must be completed at home and must represent the animal your child is doing his/her research on. Please see the attached assignment in this newsletter. The due date is 1/19/10. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Lastly, the students created their first Voicethread this week. Voicethread is an interactive multi-media platform that allows students to respond and show their understanding in many different ways; they can write, paint, speak and use a video camera. The students responded to our school policy “Be a STAR”. I have posted this as a link on the blog, but the actual Voicethread sits upon a new digital portfolio that I am creating for the class as a whole. This digital portfolio will be linked on the school web-site and it is my hope that it will serve as a permanent record of all the wonderful things these terrific students do every day in class. My hope is that this digital portfolio will motivate students further as an audience (you and your family) can easily access this information. The url for the web-site is www.summitprojects.pbworks.com. It is linked in the blog sidebar as well. If you have any problems accessing this page, please let me know or if you have any ideas for how to improve it, please let me know.
It is great to be back. I hope you had a great week as well. Have a nice weekend.
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Welcome back and Happy New Year!! It is wonderful to be back in the classroom again with all of the students. They have so many exciting things to share about their vacation and it is great to share in their excitement.
We also have some very exciting news to share with you in our classroom. We have a new student join us from Williston and we could not be happier to have him with us. Welcome Corey!
We started our new Science unit this week and we will study “Solids, Liquids, and Gases” this time. While most students have been exposed to these concepts before, the expectation for 3rd and 4th grade rests more upon gaining an understanding about the properties of water vapor and gas; i.e., that gas takes up space, has pressure and weight. In this unit, the students will learn more about the water cycle, and they already explored the properties of liquids this week. Ask your child to explain our experiments in liquids. We explored how the densities and properties of various liquids, such as soap, oil, milk, water and food coloring, affected each other. The students are, once again, examining science through constructivist thinking strategies and are encouraged to “act” as scientists as they make predictions, observe and gather data upon which they construct their conclusions. They did a great job this week. Please view the blog and our classroom picture-sharing account for photos from these experiments. Thank you!
3rd graders started a new math program this week. I have the pleasure and privilege to pilot a new math program for the school. The program is called “Investigations” and the students and I just love this approach to math!!! Please ask your child to share some of the exciting mathematical discussions we have. A letter already went out to all the families affected explaining these new procedures. If your child did not bring home this letter, or if you would like some additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me per e-mail or phone. Please know you can also drop by anytime! Since our math homework schedule in 3rd grade has changed somewhat, I wish to remind everyone that Spelling and Vocabulary homework are still due on Fridays. Reading logs are also due. Please know that you and your child may choose any reading log you wish using our classroom Link Library on the wiki by simply printing out the one you wish to use.
Our unit on Ecology is wrapping up in a couple of weeks. The students will be expected to write a 4 paragraph essay in class as a culminating assessment on their animal of choice. The students are also expected to create a stuffed animal. This assignment must be completed at home and must represent the animal your child is doing his/her research on. Please see the attached assignment in this newsletter. The due date is 1/19/10. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Lastly, the students created their first Voicethread this week. Voicethread is an interactive multi-media platform that allows students to respond and show their understanding in many different ways; they can write, paint, speak and use a video camera. The students responded to our school policy “Be a STAR”. I have posted this as a link on the blog, but the actual Voicethread sits upon a new digital portfolio that I am creating for the class as a whole. This digital portfolio will be linked on the school web-site and it is my hope that it will serve as a permanent record of all the wonderful things these terrific students do every day in class. My hope is that this digital portfolio will motivate students further as an audience (you and your family) can easily access this information. The url for the web-site is www.summitprojects.pbworks.com. It is linked in the blog sidebar as well. If you have any problems accessing this page, please let me know or if you have any ideas for how to improve it, please let me know.
It is great to be back. I hope you had a great week as well. Have a nice weekend.
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Friday, January 1, 2010
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