Happy Holidays!

Maternity Leave

Baby Aaliyah arrived on November 23 at 11:55 am. I will be out until February 4, 2013. Please direct all questions or concerns to long term substitute, Amanda Foster afoster@usd232.org

Thanks and Happy Holidays!

Student Created Video Games

The students have been working on designing their own video games on Sploder. The purpose of the project is to integrate writing, math, reading, and creativity. The students had to blog about their video games, explaining their thought process behind their initial design. They had to talk about the problem solving skills they used and the goals behind their video game. Next, they had to play another students' game with the purpose of evaluating their game and making inferences from different levels. Afterwards, they had to read the evaluation, then talk about what they would change and implement for their next video game design.

When I return from maternity leave in February, we will continue with this project.

Aidan S.(The Zoo you don't want to go to): http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l5j
Lauren: (Score) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l65
Alec: (Mission Impossible .6666) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l6d
Bridget: (The Dark Knight Rises) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l6k
Kylee: (Help Me!) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l6n
Paiten: (Monster Infested) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l6r
Macayla: (Vampire Bats) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l6v
Carson: (Beasts) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l6y
Jack De.: (Masters) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l71
Evan: (Monsters) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l74
Zach: (Unbeatable Robots) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l79
Kate: (The Awesome Game) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l7c
Jack B.: (Pass the Missions)http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l7n
Noah: (Mission 864) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l6h
Meredith: (Superman) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l7q
Khalel: (Superman Next Generation) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l7t
Ben: (The Awesome Defeat) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l7x
Gabrielle: (Mission Accomplished 116) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l8g
Jack Da.: (The Return of the Samurai) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l89
Aiden L. (Battle) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d0036l8f
Mary: (Dark Awesomeness) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d00373to
Caleb: (Get Me Out of this World) http://www.sploder.com/?s=d003755l

On the Campaign Trail Filming

The kids had a great time filming their reading movie, "On the Campaign Trail" at Mill Valley High School. They did a fantastic job rewriting the story and learning all their lines!

 

 

Caleb Team Leggett MVP November 11-16

Caleb is really funny. He always makes everyone in the class laugh. He loves to read and is a friend to everyone. Caleb is a wonderful person.

By Team Leggett Publicists: Paiten & Macayla

Gabrielle Team Leggett MVP November 5-9

Gabrielle is a really nice friend. She is really helpful. Gabrielle always helps out with the class pets. Gabrielle plays soccer and volleyball. Go Gabrielle!

By Team Leggett Publicists: Macayla & Aidan

Pay it Forward Thanksgiving Crafts

As one of our class Pay it Forward initiatives, the kids made Thanksgiving crafts and cards for the residents at the Medical Lodges of Gardner nursing home in Gardner, Kansas.

Curriculum Update November 26-30

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends. Please remember the Clorox Power a Bright Future grant voting continues through December 19. Please text and go online and vote each day. When voting online, you can go to www.vote232.com. You have to register the first time. You can text 1044pbf to 95248 each day too.

On Friday, the third grade will have Tourism Day from 9:30-10:30. Your child has become an expert on a state and will become a tourism director, sharing the information with other grade levels. You are welcome to attend.

Reading
We will begin Theme 7, "On Moving Ground". The comprehension strategy is fix-up strategies. The vocabulary words are anticipate, realize, favorite, surface, and volcano.

Spelling
The spelling lists for this week is synonyms and antonyms.

list 1:  aim, loss, empty, male, female, profit, heavy, light, scare, full
list 2: vacant, purpose, provide, furnish, attack, clutch, grasp, guard, frighten, startle
list 3: (uper, sur (over, above, beyond) superb, superimpose, superintendent, superior, supervisor, surcharge, surplus, surprise, surreal, surtax

Writing

We will continue working on personal narratives with quotations.

Math
We will begin Topic 6, Multiplication Facts: Use Known Facts in math. This week we will cover the distributive property, 3 as a factor, 4 as a factor, 6 and 7 as a factor, 8 as a factor, and multiplying with 3 factors.
 

SS
We will continue our geography unit. The students each have a state they have been conducting research on. They also have been learning about different types of maps, continents, oceans, lines on a map, how to create a map, features, map keys and symbols. On Friday, November 30, they will have a tourism day culminating everything they have learned. They will also have a geography test on all the continents, oceans, compass rose and intermediate directions.

Have a fantastic week!

Geography State Cookies

The kids created geography state cookies. They iced them drew the outline of the state they have been studying. Next, they put some sprinkles representing major industries in their state. They sprinkled another kind of sprinkles for population, used blue icing to draw lakes and rivers, and places a white chocolate chip on to represent their state capital. In the end, they were able to eat their state creations.

Curriculum Update November 12-16

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Please remember theClorox Power a Bright Future grant voting begins on Monday. Please text and go online and vote each day. When voting online, you can go to www.vote232.com. You have to register the first time. You can text 1044pbf to 95248 each day too.

Please also remember we will be going to Mill Valley on Tuesday to film our reading movie. The kids will need a sack lunch.

Reading
We will begin Theme 6, "Roads to Travel On" this week. The comprehension skill is creating images and reviewing monitor understanding. The vocabulary words this week are frontier, transit, elegant, technology, construction, agriculture, explore, fuel, adventure, and aviation.

Spelling

The spelling lists for this week is a study of the silent consonants w, h, b, g, gh

list 1: wrist, thumb, wrong, ghost, honest, comb, plumber, honor, bright, eight
list 2: daughter, weigh, crumb, subtle, drought, sleigh, doubt, through, written, rhyme
list 3: sub (under, below) subconscious, subcutaneous, subdue, subfreezing, subirrigate, subject, submarine, submerge, subordinate, subway.

Writing

We are working on personal narratives with quotations. We will also write back to our Kentucky pen pals.

Math
We continue our multiplication facts: using patterns this week. We will multiply with 0, 1, 10, look at patterns for facts, multiplying by multiples of 10, and answering two-question problems in problem solving.

 

We will also complete our video games, blog about them with the focus on (steps used for problem solving, summarizing game, evaluating game, inferring and talking about how to take it further when developing the next game)

SS
We will begin our geography unit. The students each have a state they are doing research on. They also are learning about different types of maps, continents, oceans, lines on a map, how to create a map, features, map keys and symbols. On November 30, they will have a tourism day culminating everything they have learned.

Have a fantastic week!

Halloween Party

A special thank you to Carol Phipps for leading and planning the Halloween party. Thank you to all the parents who sent in items and helped out at the party. The kids had a great time! The kids and I really appreciate all your time and efforts. Thank you very much!

Curriculum Update November 5-9

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I can't believe we are already in November!

Thank you to everyone for sending in candy and stuffed animals for the troops. We were able to send letters, cards, candy, beanie babies, stuffed animals, and USA magnets to the troops. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Please remember the Clorox Power a Bright Future grant voting begins on Monday. Please text and go online and vote each day. When voting online, you can go to www.vote232.com. You have to register the first time. You can text pabf7339 to 95248 each day too.

We will be recreating and acting out one of our Rigby stories at Mill Valley High School on Monday. A permission slip will be coming home in your child's Monday folder. Please make sure they bring a sack lunch this day because we will be missing lunch.

Reading

We will continuing week 2, Theme 14, "Every Vote Counts" in Rigby this week. The comprehension strategy is still creating images. The vocab words are announce, opportunity, approximate, approve, and deadline. Our grammar focus will still be on adverbs.

Spelling

The spelling lists for this week is a study of the suffixes ful, able, less.

list 1: breakable, mouthful, careless, painless, readable, tireless, colorful, fearless, comfortable, helpful
list 2: respectful, worthless, wasteful, peaceful, restless, heartless, excitable, likeable, delightful, breathless

list 3: contra, counter (against, opposite) contraband, contradict, contrarian, contrary, contrast, counterbalance, counterclockwise, counterexample, counterfeit, counterintuitive

Writing

We will publish our descriptive writing pieces and personal experience writing, focusing on description and dialogue.

 

We will also write back to our Derrick Thomas Academy pen pals. 

Math
We will complete topic 4, focusing on problem solving, writing to explain Monday, test review Tuesday, test on Wednesday, and beginning topic , 2 & 5 as factors and 9 as a factor on Thursday and Friday.

SS
We will continue our government unit. The students will learn more about the election process. Kylee will represent our class in the third grade class election on Tuesday.

 

Science

In Science, we learned about different types of weather last week. The students watched a video about things they could do to stay safe in a tornado, tsunami, flash flood, lightning strike, or extreme weather.

 

The students also learned about different types of clouds. After learning about them, we created a cloud in bottle by mixing hot water, a match, and ice cubes.

 

We will continue learning about the effects of different types of weather this week.

 

Students are watching the cloud being formed. They also learned about condensation and fog.

 

Have a fantastic week!

 

Noah, Team Leggett MVP October 29-November 2

Noah is a great friend. He is really funny and always has something to share with the class. Noah is a hard worker and really talented. Congrats on being a great MVP, Noah!

By Team Leggett Publicists: Aidan S. & Macayla

Class Election!!!

We have been studying about government in Social Studies. The students have learned about elections, ballots, campaigns, speeches, protests and candidates. The class selected four students as candidates for our classroom president. The rest of the class was broken into campaign teams, making signs and other promotional items for their candidate. On October 31, we had our class election.

 

 

Congratulations to Bridget and Kate, class representatives, Carson, Vice President and Kylee, President. Good luck to Kylee as she runs for the third grade class president on November 6.

 

 

Kate (third from left) with her campaign team, Aiden, Jack D., Paiten, Mary



 

Carson (third from left) posing with his campaign team, Jack De., Gabrielle, Noah, Caleb

 

Bridget (third from left) posing with her campaign team, Aidan, Alec, Lauren, Jack B.

 

Kylee (third from left) posing with her campaign team, Zach, Macayla, Meredith, Ben, Evan

Class Candidates
Kate-Class Representative
Kylee-Class President
Bridget-Class Representative
Carson-Class Vice President





 

Carson's Speech 

 Kate's Speech

 

Bridget's Speech

Kylee's Speech

 

 

Curriculum Update October 29-November 2

I hope everyone had a wonderful and enjoyable weekend.
Some key highlights this week are:
-The Halloween party will be on Wednesday. The parade will begin at 2:45 pm. Please remember no makeup is allowed. If you are setting up for the party, the desired time is no earlier than 2:30 pm. Thanks!
-Prairie Ridge needs your support for the Clorox Power a Bright Future grant. We are trying to win $50,000 to improve our technology. We won't be able to do it without your support. Please look for more information about ways you can help. We will really need you and all of your friends to vote twice a day through texts and online. THANKS A LOT!!!

Reading

We will begin Theme 14, "Every Vote Counts" in Rigby this week. The comprehension strategy is creating images. The vocab words are encourage, protest, speech, civic and crowd. Our grammar focus will be on adverbs.

Spelling

The spelling lists for this week is a study of the suffix ly.

list 1: ahead, neatly, badly, outside, enough, soon, gladly, worse, nearby, quickly

list 2: often, tomorrow, hourly, exactly, easily, aloud, nowhere, patiently, sincerely, seldom

list 3: co, com (together, with) coexist, cohesive, coincidence, combine, commiserate, committee, communication, community, compare, compatible

Writing

We will continue to work on our descriptive writing this week. The students are working on writing from the point of view of one of the animals in the classroom. They have to be very descriptive about how they feel about being in a cage in the classroom.

The students will write to their Texas pen pals this week and write a persuasive letter to their favorite meteorologist. 

Math
We will take the Topic 12 test on Monday. We will begin multiplication on Tuesday. We will work on multiplication as repeated addition, arrays and multiplication, the commutative property, and writing multiplication stories.

SS
We will continue our unit on government. Last week, the students completed their government trees. This week, will be talking about elections and campaigns. We will have a class election on Wednesday from students nominated by their peers as role models in the classrooms. They other students will work on their campaign. On November 6, we will have our third grade class president election.

 

Here are photos of the students with their Three Branches of Government trees.

 

 

Science

We completed our stars constellation projects. We will now begin learning about different types of weather and studying weather patterns throughout the week.

 

Here are our star constellation projects. When the lights are off, they glow in the dark.

 

 

Have a fantastic week!

Hispanic Heritage Trading Card Project

We partnered with Mrs. Kremer's classroom to study different contributions Hispanics had made to society in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. The kids researched a different individual, inferred character traits, then went to bighugelabs.com to create their own trading card. The students then shared information about the individual they researched.

Postcard Exchange Project

Our postcard exchange is going strong. We sent out our first round of postcards on Thursday. The kids were pretty excited. So far, we have received 14 postcards from classrooms throughout the country. The kids are really learning a lot about the different geographic areas!

The class is posing with completed postcards from our classroom they are sending out to other classrooms throughout the country.

This is the bulletin board where we are keeping track of postcards received.

 

Curriculum Update October 22-26

I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend. Please remember the solar house project (house and write up) is due on Tuesday, October 23 when the students return back to school. Please make sure this stays a student project so they can apply what they learned throughout the solar energy unit.

The spelling test will be on Thursday this week because I will be presenting at math conference on Friday. I will send the new spelling list home on Thursday so they can have it over the weekend, along with their graded spelling test.

Reading

We will continue Theme 13, Week 2 in Rigby this week. We are still focusing on the government theme of, "We the People." The vocabulary for this week is justice, govern, candidate, politics and authority. We will continue to use the comprehension strategy, "Monitor Understanding." These are these the students do before, during, and after reading to help them better comprehend the text. (rereading, making connections, inferring, predicting, creating images, asking questions, synthesizing and summarizing.

Spelling

The spelling lists for this week is a study of pronouns.

list 1: himself, them, itself, she, our, yours, mine, they, their, anyone

list 2: anybody, whichever, whose, everyone, which, someone, several, either, yours, another

list 3: quad (four) quadrangle, quadrant, quadrennial, quadriceps, quadrilateral, quadrisect, quadruped, quadruple, quadruplet

Writing

We will continue to work on our descriptive writing this week. The students wrote picture poems and are turning them into word mosaics. They will begin adding more figurative language in their writing and using powerful verbs. 

The students have received letters from their pen pals in New Jersey & Texas. They will be writing them back this week. 

Math
We will continue our unit on time this week. We will be looking at units of time, elapsed time, and working backwards with problem solving to figure out a problem. The topic 12 test review will be on Friday with the test on Monday.

 

SS
We will continue our unit on government. The students have been learning about the different branches of government. The students will apply what they have learned by making government trees. We will be talking about elections and campaigns. Students will nominate students for a class election. These students will campaign and read their speeches on Monday, October 29. On November 6, we will have our third grade class president election.

 

Science

We will continue our study of stars by making constellation art projects. Then, we will begin a study on weather. We will be observing, describing, and recording daily seasonal weather changes and learning about different types of weather.

 

Have a fantastic week!

Kate, Team Leggett MVP

Kate is a really funny person. She always makes us laugh in class. She is helpful and always willing to be kind to anyone. Kate is generous and always smiling. She is also really athletic and loves soccer. Kate is just an awesome person!
By Team Leggett Publicists: Ben & Bridget

Curriculum Update October 15-19

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and was able to stay dry after Saturday's torrential rain.

Please look for information about Cool the Earth coming home in your child's Monday folder. The school goal is to complete at least 2,000 actions. 

Please remember there is no school on Friday and the following Monday (19th and 22nd). The solar house project is due Tuesday, October 23. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Reading

We will begin Theme 13, making laws in Rigby this week to go along with our government unit in SS and the upcoming election.  The comprehension skill will be monitor understanding.
The vocab words are debate, granting, officials, representation, legal.

Math
We have completed Topic 4 in enVision. We will review on Monday and have the test on Tuesday. Next, we will begin time. We will measure time to the half hour and quarter hour and time to the minute.

SS
We will begin a unit on government. Students will be learning about local and national officials. They will also learn about the roles of the different branches of government.

Science

We completed our solar energy unit. Thank you for sending in all the materials for the solar cookout. The baked apples were a big hit. The nachos needed some stronger solar energy to melt the cheese. This week, we are going to be learning about the moon and stars before we begin our weather unit.

Spelling

The spelling pattern this week is contractions.

List 1: I'll, it's, let's, she'll, here's, they're, they'll, wouldn't, won't, can't

List 2: doesn't, haven't, you'll, we're, you're, they've, shouldn't, wasn't, that'll, couldn't

List 3: tri (three) triangle, triathlon, triceratops, tricycle, trilateral, trilogy, trio, tripod, trisect, trilingual

Writing

We will continue to work on our descriptive writing. We will also begin our post card exchange where we will write information about Prairie Ridge and Kansas. We will send them out to classrooms in 50 different states. So far, we have received post cards from classrooms in Iowa, Indiana and Kentucky.

Have a fantastic week!