Sorry!!!

Hello! I'm sorry that I have been neglecting my blog. Things have just seemed to be extremely busy for me! I apologize. Please remember that this Thursday is Grandparent Night. I hope to see everyone there! Thank you for returning mid-terms so quickly. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about grades or AR goals. It is amazing that we are already half way through our first grading period! :)

Parent Volunteers

I am so excited that I will have two parent volunteers next week. :) Thank you for filling out the forms about volunteering. If anyone else is interested in coming in to help with small groups, please send me a note because I feel like an extra hand is always needed. Today we went to the computer lab, and I introduced the kiddos to a new website. www.arcademicskillbuilders.com They loved it! If you have a chance, check it out. There are all kinds of educational activities for kids. :)

Blogging

I am sorry that I haven't posted something on here every day. It is difficult to remember when I get home. My son doesn't let me grade papers very much, so getting online to blog about our day is sometimes a difficult task. Please remember that our spelling test will be tomorrow. I gave the pre-test last week, so your child has had extra days to study their words. I am hoping that his will help with the spelling test scores. Please let me know your thoughts on this. Remember that lists are always available on spellingcity.com if your child forgot his/her list at school.

This week...

It is amazing how quickly this week is flying by. I cannot believe that we only have two more days left. Last week, we took our STAR math and STAR reading tests. These tests help me determine the level that your child is able to work on in those subjects. The scores help me to determine leveled groups and areas of strengths and weaknesses. If you want to know more about STAR scores, please send me an e-mail or write a note in your child's agenda. :) The story that we are reading this week is a very cute story. It is called A Fine, Fine School. Make sure that you are reading this nightly with your child. We will test over the story on Friday. Our spelling test will also be on Friday. You can find our spelling lists online via spellingcity.com. All you have to do is search the teacher name and you will find the lists. :) Good luck!

Classroom iPad!!!

I am very excited because I found out on Friday that I get an iPad to use in our classroom! I have an iPad at home that I use for games, internet, movies, etc., but I've been weary about bringing it to school. Now I won't have to think about it because I will have my own school one!!!! This is exciting because I can find apps that the kids can use in the classroom. If you know of any apps that have been beneficial to your children, please let me know!

Day Two

Well, I can say that we had yet another successful day of third grade! I am very excited about the personalities of this class. Although they are a little more social that most... I know that we will have a fun year. Today, we discussed a book that we read in class yesterday, and completed some activities that related to the book Miss Nelson is Missing. We also made the venture down to the computer lab to take the STAR Reading test. This test shows me a round about level that your child is capable of reading. Tomorrow we will be taking the STAR Math assessment, and then on to the weekend.

First Day of School

Wow! It is hard to believe that today was the first day of school! I had an amazing time with my new third graders, and I hope that they had a good time too. I am so excited for this year because I already know so many of the students. I feel like this year will be extremely successful. Today we went over class rules, and read several books aloud. We also did some other first day activities. I hope that your child was able to share some of the things that we did! Remember that I did assign homework for tonight. (I know that I am mean...) Hopefully the homework wasn't difficult. Your child needed to find 3-5 items to put in a 'ME' bag to help with getting to know each other. I made a sample 'ME' bag today, so hopefully it wasn't too difficult. I am hoping for another great day tomorrow!!!! You can enjoy looking at the posts from last year, and hopefully I will be better at posting more often this year!!!

ISTEP+

Remember that ISTEP testing begins this week! If you have any questions, please ask! In order to help your child do their best, please make sure that he/she goes to bed early and eats a healthy breakfast. Thank you!

IREAD and ISTEP

Another teacher at school introduced me to a website today. If you are looking for extra practice for the upcoming standardized tests... you can follow the link to a wonderful website that we stumbled upon. This website was not created by anyone at my school, but it is a public page that everyone can access. Hopefully you find it useful! https://sites.google.com/site/mstoddroom10/istep-iread-test-prep-practice

Acuity

Today we finished our last Acuity test. Acuity tests are designed as predictor tests for ISTEP. We took this test three different times throughout the year. There were two sections, Language Arts and Math. You will most likely get your scores within the next few weeks to see how your child performed. These are just 'predictions,' so please take that into consideration when you look at your child's scores. Acuity has many instructional resources available. If you go to https://www.acuityathome.com/index.jsp your child can click on the 'Study' icon to access different activities that will help him/her master skills based on the Indiana Standards. There are games and other activities. If you have any free time, this is a great helper for your child. :) Another great online resource goes along with our math series. If you do a google search 'Math Connects,' and click on the McGraw Hill site, it will take you to our book resources. This has online games and lessons that go along with what we are learning in math. :) IREAD and ISTEP are coming up next month. Please let me know if you have any questions!!!

Science Website

Hello! I hope that you are enjoying the extra day off today! Last week I gave each student a red sheet of paper with a new username and password that they can use to access materials that go along with our Science series. Enjoy exploring!!!

Welcome Back

Welcome back to school! This week is flying by!!!! I hope that everyone enjoyed the winter break. I know that I did. I was so glad to see everyone back at school on Monday. We have started the week work on division in math. Many students are getting the hang of it quickly. :) I noticed on my newsletter this week that I had part of my e-mail address cut off. Please take note of this because I wrote out the entire e-mail address on this week's newsletter. If you have been sending me e-mail, and I haven't been responding... I am so sorry!!!!