Taking a break for fun

As we prepare for winter break, it's nice to take a day to have some fun and enjoy being with our friends. On Thursday we spent the day creating ornaments: a candy cane reindeer, a mitten - wreath - or tree, a paper clip angel, we made cards and snowflakes, then we read a book called Stranger in the Woods and created a snowman out of a sock! We revealed our Secret Santa identity to everyone's surprise, and we danced to a DJ as we dipped treats into the chocolate fountain. Everyone in our class was happy and everyone behaved. We work so hard that it's important for us to take some time and enjoy ourselves and our friends. My only regret is that we forgot a camera!
Happy Holidays to all from the M&M's!

December Holidays

What a perfect time of the year to learn about the many cultures represented in our classroom. Yesterday we enjoyed latkes, jelly doughnuts, candy dreidles, and lighting a menorah. We read books about Hannukkah and listened as Rachel, Sarah, Sande, and Tyler shared some family traditions. In keeping with our functional writing and reading focus, please take a look at this Morris family latke recipe.

Potato Pancakes

2 eggs 2Tbsp. flour

1/2 small onion 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt 3 Cups raw cubed potatoes

Put eggs, onion, salt, flour, baking powder, and 1/2 cup of potato cubes into blender container.Cover and process at grate until potatoes have gone throught the blades. Stop blender and add remaining potatoes; cover and process at chop until all potato cubes have passed through processing blades. Use rubbern spatula to help guide potatoes to blades. Do not overblend! Spray griddle or pan with cooking spray. Pour potato batter as you would pancake batter and flip when the edges turn brown. Serve warm with applesauce or sour cream.

By Mrs. Morris

Oreo Cookie Turkeys

Supplies: Oreo Cookies, White Icing, Malted Milk Balls, Candy Corn, Cinnamon Red Hot Candies
Directions: Open the Oreo cookie and apply a generous amount of icing to both sides. Stand one half of the cookie up in the icing of the other half. Place the malted milk ball in the middle and fan out the candy corn across the vertical cookie half to resemble feathers. Dab a little bit of icing on the red hot and apply it to the malted milk ball to make a turkey's waddle.
Enjoy your delicious creation!

Reader's Theater: Soccer Field

On Election Day our class read a play about a group of kids that recently learned that their soccer field was going to be turned into a movie theater. They banned together to petition the city leaders to build the theater someplace else and spare their field.

We used this play to improve our fluency. First, we read through the play and decided who would read each part. Then we read it again paying close attention to the ending marks and trying to put emotion into our voices. This video will show you the final reading of our story. The students' fluency really improved and they read it over a minute faster!

Re-reading is a wonderful strategy!

By Mrs. Metzger

Awards Ceremony

These students earned an A in Citizenship!

Congratulations for always following the rules!

A Plump and Perky Turkey

The November book of the month is called A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman and Jeff Shelly. This book is funny! The people in Squawk Valley were trying to find a turkey for Thanksgiving. They put up signs looking for a turkey to model for pictures and sculptures. Their plan was to eat the turkey on Thanksgiving but Pete (the model) was too smart for them. He camouflaged himself in the art work and escaped! He left a note saying Goodbye and he took the bird made of oatmeal as his modeling fee. The people of Squawk Valley were left to eat shredded wheat on Thanksgiving!
I made a connection to this book because I eat shredded wheat too, but for breakfast. On Thanksgiving my favorite foods are turkey and key lime pie!
By Sande

Election Day

On November 4th we voted in our classroom for the President of the United States. In our class, John McCain got the most votes. Before the election we read some books to get us ready. We read Grace for President, So You Want to be President, and Duck for President. We also made a K-W-L chart. I wanted to know if there is an arcade in the White House. It turns out that there isn't but there is a bowling alley, ballroom, and movie theater! We are also working on a Presidential PowerPoint. I've researched John Tyler who was born in 1790. Although Senator McCain didn't win the election, we are happy that Senator Obama will be our new president and we can't wait for Inauguration Day in January!
By Tyler

Pumpkin Math

On October 31st we had a day filled with Pumpkin Math! Ten wonderful parents sent in pumpkins of various sizes. The children split into small groups and estimated how heavy their pumpkins were, what the diameter and circumference would be, and how many seeds they would find inside. Our awesome parent volunteers helped the kids actually weigh and measure the pumpkins and then cut off the top so the children could count the seeds. When all data was collected and recorded the kids drew jack-o-lantern faces and the adults cut them out. At the end of the day the pumpkins were raffled off and sent home!

By Mrs. Morris

Painting our Literary Pumpkins

We read the book More M&M Math today in school. We painted our pumpkins like M&M's using blue, yellow, orange, green, red, and brown. We each got our own pack of M&M's and as we read the book we sorted them in colors and put them in lines (like a graph), and then we divided them into groups before we ate them. On Monday we will be taking the pumpkins downstairs to set up a display. Be sure to stop by the school to see them.

By Jared

Our Rome Day

Today we presented our Rome Reports. I dressed in my toga (actually a sheet tied with a rope belt) and made a wreath for my head. My report was on chariot races. I learned that the drivers carried a knife to cut them out of the chariot if there was a crash. Josh, Tyler, and Kaci brought in food for us to try. There was cheese, bread, grapes, and raisins and we had apple juice to drink. I also brought in some music that sounds like the horses hoofs hitting the ground during the chariot race.
By Nick

A visit from Delaney's Dad and his skinny friend

Delaney's dad came in to talk to us about vertebrates and non-vertebrates. He brought a skeleton with him so we could see what a backbone really looks like. We also saw x-rays and some pictures from his medical books. We passed around a 'real' shoulder bone and foot. His sense of humor kept us all laughing.
By Zaria and Mrs. Metzger

Operator Error

Sometimes my computer is so helpful. It saves me frum luking foollish when it spell checks my writing for me. But sometimes it frustrates me. Last week we had 6 new comments on posts that I needed to approve. I read the sweet one from Preston, Delaney's brother, and another one from AJ, one from Anna, and some anonymous ones too. Instead of hitting the button to approve all of our posts, I hit the reject button by mistake. I soon found out that there was no way of going back and retrieving the posts. Once they've been rejected they are gone forever. I apologize to our friends that read and comment on last week's posts. I meant to accept and publish them all. Let's just chalk this one up to lessons learned.
By Mrs. Metzger

King Tut Field Trip

This morning we went on a field trip to The Florida Theater to see a musical called King Tut. We learned that King Tut was only 9 years old. His uncle and another adviser wanted him to go to war with the communities surrounding Egypt and collect lots of taxes from the Egyptians. When King Tut didn't want to do these things they killed him!
After the field trip it was raining too hard to go to Metro Park, so we went back to school and ate lunch outside in the pavillion.
Next we're going to finish our learning pockets on Egypt.
By Naja and Mrs. Metzger

Open House

We had our Open House on Monday, September 22nd. After the parents arrived the children showed them our Book of the Month, DOL, DOG, the memoir people projects, work folders, calendar math, book log, and our blog. Everyone got a pack of M&M's. We all got a success ticket for coming. The parents liked seeing our classroom, especially the plants we are growing from seeds.
By Kaci and Mrs. Metzger

September Book of the Month

The book of the month is called the Amazing Pop-up Picture Atlas. When you open the book the first thing you see is the Earth and it spins around (because it's a pop-out). The book is organized by continents, beginning with North America. North America teaches you about the Native Americans, The Statue of Liberty, and when you flip open the page, you learn about languages (mostly Spanish and English), and it shows you the flags. The next page is about South America where people usually play soccer. There are also pages for Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. The pictures help you understand what each continent is like. We recommend this book for kids in school and adults.
By Zack and Mrs. Metzger

Memoir Projects

We have been writing memoirs in

school and we are creating ourselves out of posterboard at home. This week we'll put the two together for a splendid display in the hallway for Open House. Mine is about me being a piano player. I decorated my "person" using lots of colors. I can't wait to see lots of others!
By Anna

New Friends

The very best thing that has happened so far this school year is that I made a lot of new friends. Austin is a good friend because he's been really nice to me. Sometimes we play football together at recess. Brice is also nice because we had a reading conference together. I sit near Jared and can always count on him for help if I need it.
By Robby

Smokey and Pumpkin

This past week was really crazy. Our resources began and we met Mr. Jones, the new PE intern. I was student of the week and I brought in my two snails, Smokey and Pumpkin. Smokey wasn't out but Pumpkin was. Everybody loved the snails. By Delaney

The 'Fay'cation's over

Well, we've finished our first full week of school. What a wonderful class of third graders we have! They are polite, creative, and inquisitive. Mrs. Morris is teaching the class about the globe and contintents as we begin our adventure. Mrs. Metzger is kicking things off with a read aloud by Beverly Cleary, Ramona Quimby Age 8.

Beginning the School Year

We are anxiously awaiting our new students. We've been working on our classroom and feel ready. Tomorrow there will be subject area meetings. The next day we get to meet the new families that we will be working with this year!

Very First Post

Wow! We've joined the world of Blogging! Thanks to Melanie and Eric for their help.