Thursday, February 18, 2010
HCS "Be a STAR"
We celebrated our committment to "Be a STAR" with our Kindergarten buddies earlier this week. Please visit our Voicethread as well. It will be posted in our digital portfolio site soon and I will add the link here directly.
Weekly Update
Dear Families,
We have had another productive week in 3rd and 4th grade. We had the opportunity to continue our character studies unit and we are almost done with our classroom read-aloud Frindle written by Andrew Clements. After completion, we will, as a class, write a 4 paragraph essay together concentrating on the main character Nick. The students had the opportunity to view the scoring rubric for our Response to Literature unit this week. They learned that while many elements are the same as in a regular paragraph piece, some elements are different. For example, in Response to Literature, the students are expected to include the author’s name and book title in the introduction along with a hook and connection. The students also learned that they are expected to cite and make direct references to the texts throughout their writing pieces. These expectations are similar to thesis papers written in college!! The students are doing a great job integrating these new elements into their writing.
We had our first weekly constructed writing prompt this week. The students wrote on an assigned topic for 15 minutes. The topic this week was “I look forward to vacation next week.” The students and I will look at these writing pieces together and hope to share them with you at our next conference times. In an effort to encourage learning all the time, I have posted many different paragraph writing prompt on my classroom wiki, under the heading “Writing Prompts” in the Link Library. (Click here to view these prompts). These prompts provide the students with opportunities to practice constructed responses on single topics. We might use some of them in class. I have also posted semantic maps for help the students organize their thoughts before starting the actual writing. We use those maps in the classroom.
3rd grade mathematicians completed a multiplication array project a little while back and have shared their creations in class. The photographs of these projects are listed on the classroom digital portfolio under math (Click here to view these pictures). Please visit to see their incredible work and creations. 3rd graders have also participated in an interactive Smartboard assessment this week and have begun to learn to create their own! They worked in small groups and created 10 questions within pre-determined strands of mathematics. They take turns creating graphic designs, click and reveal, and patterns on the Smartboard. These assessments will be given to the rest of the students in class when everybody has had a chance to complete theirs.
The students will come home with a Vacation Journal over the break. This project is completely voluntary but if your child wishes to write about the fun and exciting things he/she will do over vacation, I would greatly appreciate it. It is always nice to share when we come back and get to know each other a little better. If you choose to complete this project, please know that you can be creative…add pictures, postcards (if you travel), stamps, admission slips, itineraries, etc. I also encourage the use of computers for this project. If your child has access to Word, Publisher, or any other writing/drawing program, perhaps you want to explore some technology as well. You can always send the file electronically to me.
Lastly, NECAP results have arrived and parent letters will be sent home in the next few days. Please be advised that this is only one, out of many, assessments that teachers use. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
News & Reminders:
• Monday, 3/1/10 is a teacher in-service day. No school for the students.
• Flynn Theater trip is scheduled for Wednesday 3/3/10. Thank you all for the prompt return of our permission slips and payments.
• If you have not yet returned the UVM Peer-Relationship study permission slips, please do so. If you need another copy, please let me know.
• We finished our first Voicethread with our Kindergarten buddies this week. It was a response to a Red Clover book entitled How to heal a broken wing, written by Bob Graham. It will be posted shortly on the classroom digital portfolio under Red Clover.
• Please ask you child about our grade level movie day! They did an amazing job and we hope to fill up another HCS poster with stars soon again!
• There is no classroom reading log this week. Please use the one provided by the HCS Reading Celebration, if you participate. If you really want one, please print on off the wiki!!!!
• There will be no vocabulary over the break either.
• Don’t forget to have fun, relax and spend TIME with your families and friends next week.
• Remember, technology can always be used. The new “www” is Whatever, Whenever, Wherever.”
Have a great weekend and winter break!
Regards,
Maria McCormack
We have had another productive week in 3rd and 4th grade. We had the opportunity to continue our character studies unit and we are almost done with our classroom read-aloud Frindle written by Andrew Clements. After completion, we will, as a class, write a 4 paragraph essay together concentrating on the main character Nick. The students had the opportunity to view the scoring rubric for our Response to Literature unit this week. They learned that while many elements are the same as in a regular paragraph piece, some elements are different. For example, in Response to Literature, the students are expected to include the author’s name and book title in the introduction along with a hook and connection. The students also learned that they are expected to cite and make direct references to the texts throughout their writing pieces. These expectations are similar to thesis papers written in college!! The students are doing a great job integrating these new elements into their writing.
We had our first weekly constructed writing prompt this week. The students wrote on an assigned topic for 15 minutes. The topic this week was “I look forward to vacation next week.” The students and I will look at these writing pieces together and hope to share them with you at our next conference times. In an effort to encourage learning all the time, I have posted many different paragraph writing prompt on my classroom wiki, under the heading “Writing Prompts” in the Link Library. (Click here to view these prompts). These prompts provide the students with opportunities to practice constructed responses on single topics. We might use some of them in class. I have also posted semantic maps for help the students organize their thoughts before starting the actual writing. We use those maps in the classroom.
3rd grade mathematicians completed a multiplication array project a little while back and have shared their creations in class. The photographs of these projects are listed on the classroom digital portfolio under math (Click here to view these pictures). Please visit to see their incredible work and creations. 3rd graders have also participated in an interactive Smartboard assessment this week and have begun to learn to create their own! They worked in small groups and created 10 questions within pre-determined strands of mathematics. They take turns creating graphic designs, click and reveal, and patterns on the Smartboard. These assessments will be given to the rest of the students in class when everybody has had a chance to complete theirs.
The students will come home with a Vacation Journal over the break. This project is completely voluntary but if your child wishes to write about the fun and exciting things he/she will do over vacation, I would greatly appreciate it. It is always nice to share when we come back and get to know each other a little better. If you choose to complete this project, please know that you can be creative…add pictures, postcards (if you travel), stamps, admission slips, itineraries, etc. I also encourage the use of computers for this project. If your child has access to Word, Publisher, or any other writing/drawing program, perhaps you want to explore some technology as well. You can always send the file electronically to me.
Lastly, NECAP results have arrived and parent letters will be sent home in the next few days. Please be advised that this is only one, out of many, assessments that teachers use. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
News & Reminders:
• Monday, 3/1/10 is a teacher in-service day. No school for the students.
• Flynn Theater trip is scheduled for Wednesday 3/3/10. Thank you all for the prompt return of our permission slips and payments.
• If you have not yet returned the UVM Peer-Relationship study permission slips, please do so. If you need another copy, please let me know.
• We finished our first Voicethread with our Kindergarten buddies this week. It was a response to a Red Clover book entitled How to heal a broken wing, written by Bob Graham. It will be posted shortly on the classroom digital portfolio under Red Clover.
• Please ask you child about our grade level movie day! They did an amazing job and we hope to fill up another HCS poster with stars soon again!
• There is no classroom reading log this week. Please use the one provided by the HCS Reading Celebration, if you participate. If you really want one, please print on off the wiki!!!!
• There will be no vocabulary over the break either.
• Don’t forget to have fun, relax and spend TIME with your families and friends next week.
• Remember, technology can always be used. The new “www” is Whatever, Whenever, Wherever.”
Have a great weekend and winter break!
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
3rd graders create arrays
3rd graders creates arrays to show their understanding of multiplication using creative array designs. Please visit our digital portfolio for full size pictures. Thank you!
Adventures of Mr. Moose
Mr. Moose continues to participate in our classroom. Recently, we learned he likes science experiments!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Happy Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you have a great weekend with lots of special treats.
Love,
Mrs. McCormack
Idiom of the week
The idiom of the week was
barking up the wrong tree
This expression means that you have completely misunderstood something or you are wrong about something. This expression evolved from hunting dogs. They were often found "barking up the wrong tree" when they mistakenly thought their prey was hiding there.
Weekly Update
Dear Families,
This was a busy week for us in 3rd and 4th grade. We started off with our 100th day celebration on Monday. All the 3rd and 4th grade students created stars to show our commitment to our school’s “Be a STAR” program. The stars hang in our hallways and we are very proud of them. Please come by to see them.
On Tuesday, the school participated in the Vermont Writes Day, a day when all schools write for 7 minutes at the same time. Even the teachers wrote! It was a wonderful experience. We had three writing topics to choose from. Please ask your child to tell you our options. We shared the stories afterwards and some of them will be displayed around the school. This event served as the “kick-off” to our classroom’s new weekly writing prompts, a 15 minute writing time when the students will all write a paragraph on the same topic. 3rd graders are expected to write a single paragraph, with a well-developed topic sentence, two supporting details and a conclusion. 4th graders are expected to write a 4 paragraph essay, a writing piece that contains an introduction with a hook, two supporting paragraphs and a conclusion. The students will have a chance to create the writing prompts in school and I will post many of them in our wiki Link Library. Please visit this new section for examples and let me know if your child creates an interesting prompt. Thank you!
On Wednesday, HCS started its traditional Hinesburg Reading Celebration. The whole school met in the gym and read together for 20 minutes. Your child should have already brought home an entry form to this reading celebration so he/she can track how many minutes he/she read. The white forms are due back on 2/19 and the yellow forms are due on 3/2. The winners and the prizes will be announced on the 3rd of March.
On Thursday, the students completed the CSSU science assessment, a constructivist and inquiry-based assessment that encouraged the students to “act like scientists.” The students were observing the flow of water through various earth materials. They were encouraged to make predictions, collect data and make scientific observations and they had to conclude their experiments scientifically. They did an incredible job!
Friday will be our Valentine’s Day party celebration. Thank you all for sending in treats and sweets to our children. It is greatly appreciated.
Have a great weekend.
Regards,
Maria McCormack
This was a busy week for us in 3rd and 4th grade. We started off with our 100th day celebration on Monday. All the 3rd and 4th grade students created stars to show our commitment to our school’s “Be a STAR” program. The stars hang in our hallways and we are very proud of them. Please come by to see them.
On Tuesday, the school participated in the Vermont Writes Day, a day when all schools write for 7 minutes at the same time. Even the teachers wrote! It was a wonderful experience. We had three writing topics to choose from. Please ask your child to tell you our options. We shared the stories afterwards and some of them will be displayed around the school. This event served as the “kick-off” to our classroom’s new weekly writing prompts, a 15 minute writing time when the students will all write a paragraph on the same topic. 3rd graders are expected to write a single paragraph, with a well-developed topic sentence, two supporting details and a conclusion. 4th graders are expected to write a 4 paragraph essay, a writing piece that contains an introduction with a hook, two supporting paragraphs and a conclusion. The students will have a chance to create the writing prompts in school and I will post many of them in our wiki Link Library. Please visit this new section for examples and let me know if your child creates an interesting prompt. Thank you!
On Wednesday, HCS started its traditional Hinesburg Reading Celebration. The whole school met in the gym and read together for 20 minutes. Your child should have already brought home an entry form to this reading celebration so he/she can track how many minutes he/she read. The white forms are due back on 2/19 and the yellow forms are due on 3/2. The winners and the prizes will be announced on the 3rd of March.
On Thursday, the students completed the CSSU science assessment, a constructivist and inquiry-based assessment that encouraged the students to “act like scientists.” The students were observing the flow of water through various earth materials. They were encouraged to make predictions, collect data and make scientific observations and they had to conclude their experiments scientifically. They did an incredible job!
Friday will be our Valentine’s Day party celebration. Thank you all for sending in treats and sweets to our children. It is greatly appreciated.
Have a great weekend.
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Weekly Update
Dear Families,
Another exciting week is coming to an end in our 3rd and 4th grade classroom. This week, we started many new and interesting projects and we are very eager to share them with you.
To begin with, we had a wonderful Skype session with the author Sheri Amsel on Wednesday morning. The students did a great job taking turns asking questions and I think we had a chance to ask all of them! She generously gave us 40 minutes to chat!! The students created their own questions for her in advance and devised their own system for how to ask them fairly so everybody who wanted to ask a question got an opportunity to. Please ask your child to explain how they solved this as our time with Sheri Amsel was limited. The chat was very inspiring for all of us. The message from Sheri Amsel was clear; if you like something-do it. Just do it. If you like to write…write. If you like to draw…draw. If you like to read….read. She shared the story about how she wrote one of her best-selling books, A Wetland Walk. Many years ago she was attending a graduate seminar when she felt compelled to write this story about a boy who walked around in a wetland area, a story that seamlessly weaves poetry and scientific facts together. She felt inspired, so she wrote this book in only ten (10) minutes!! We had many wonderful discussions about this in class and my advice to the students is; “Be ready to be inspired…anytime.” Are you?
We are started our new unit in literature this week. If you recall from last week, the students will learn to find character traits in fictional stories and find evidence in the texts to support their statements. As a class, we will read the book Frindle by Andrew Clements together and the students will gather character traits as we read along. The students will write their own four paragraph essays on character traits from another book, after we have had the opportunity to explore many others together.
3rd graders are bringing home a math assignment this week. This multiplication array assignment is due next Friday, 2/12/10. Please let me know if you have any questions or need materials to complete it. Thank you.
Our class has the opportunity to participate in a University of Vermont study on peer relationships in the next few weeks. Please see the attached information sheet with permission slips for full details and information. We are very excited to be part of this study. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you.
Lastly, please do not forget to return the emptied Report Card envelopes and permission slips for our trip to the Flynn Theater to see Frindle (March 3rd, 2010).
Thank you.
Have a great weekend!
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Another exciting week is coming to an end in our 3rd and 4th grade classroom. This week, we started many new and interesting projects and we are very eager to share them with you.
To begin with, we had a wonderful Skype session with the author Sheri Amsel on Wednesday morning. The students did a great job taking turns asking questions and I think we had a chance to ask all of them! She generously gave us 40 minutes to chat!! The students created their own questions for her in advance and devised their own system for how to ask them fairly so everybody who wanted to ask a question got an opportunity to. Please ask your child to explain how they solved this as our time with Sheri Amsel was limited. The chat was very inspiring for all of us. The message from Sheri Amsel was clear; if you like something-do it. Just do it. If you like to write…write. If you like to draw…draw. If you like to read….read. She shared the story about how she wrote one of her best-selling books, A Wetland Walk. Many years ago she was attending a graduate seminar when she felt compelled to write this story about a boy who walked around in a wetland area, a story that seamlessly weaves poetry and scientific facts together. She felt inspired, so she wrote this book in only ten (10) minutes!! We had many wonderful discussions about this in class and my advice to the students is; “Be ready to be inspired…anytime.” Are you?
We are started our new unit in literature this week. If you recall from last week, the students will learn to find character traits in fictional stories and find evidence in the texts to support their statements. As a class, we will read the book Frindle by Andrew Clements together and the students will gather character traits as we read along. The students will write their own four paragraph essays on character traits from another book, after we have had the opportunity to explore many others together.
3rd graders are bringing home a math assignment this week. This multiplication array assignment is due next Friday, 2/12/10. Please let me know if you have any questions or need materials to complete it. Thank you.
Our class has the opportunity to participate in a University of Vermont study on peer relationships in the next few weeks. Please see the attached information sheet with permission slips for full details and information. We are very excited to be part of this study. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you.
Lastly, please do not forget to return the emptied Report Card envelopes and permission slips for our trip to the Flynn Theater to see Frindle (March 3rd, 2010).
Thank you.
Have a great weekend!
Regards,
Maria McCormack
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
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