Simple Machines: a song about pulleys

What's a Pulley?

Graphs Practice

This week we are reviewing what we learned about interpretating data and creating graphs. Here are some fun ways to practice what we've learned.




INTERPRET DATA

READING AND CREATING PICTOGRAPHS

DATA PICKING GAME


I hope you'll enjoy using some of these websites for Math Practice this week!

Can you believe it's already December tomorrow?!

Halloween Safety

Here is an article you might want to read about staying safe during Halloween activities.

Playing It Safe on Halloween

3rd Grade Dances to Review

Rounding to the nearest ten & hundred: Video Lesson

Today we used the Smart Recorder on our Smartboard. This feature is probably (in my opinion) one of the coolest things our Smartboard does! You definitely need to watch it (or just part of it) to see how neat it is!

Below is a video we created on our Smartboard today of our lesson on how to round to the nearest ten and nearest hundred. This is a great thing for your child to watch to review the rules of rounding (estimating).

KEY WORDS FOR ROUNDING: round, estimate, about

ENJOY!!!

How to Prepare Your Child for College.

Check out this article by Dr. Schwall on ways to prepare your child for college:

http://www.coolkidschannel.com/e-tips/college

Have a great evening!

Schoolhouse Rock: practice learning the Preamble to the Constitution!

Dear Parents & Students:

Please practice reciting/singing the Preamble of the Constitution using this video from Schoolhouse Rock:




Be sure to practice saying the Preamble each night this week so you will be prepared to recite it by Friday! :)

some fun back-to-school downloads.

Hey guys!

Just thought I would share some fun links I came across today:

Back to school sticker labels:

http://familyfun.go.com/printables/craft-templates/printable/bts-sticker-lables/bts-sticker-lables.html

(Print them out onto sticky printer paper for some fun labels!)

This book belongs to labels:

http://familyfun.go.com/printables/craft-templates/printable/bts-labels/bts-labels.html

Cute! Lunchbox survey:

http://junepfaffdaley.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-love-back-to-school.html

(Scroll down a little to see the survey--so cute!)

Lunch notes for every day of the week:

http://www.oliebollen.com/funstuff/index.html

Cute book labels:

http://www.oliebollen.com/funstuff/index.html

Hope you all had a great weekend despite the rain!

--Mrs. C.

To get a free ticket to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs:

Check out this website that tells you how you can get a free ticket to see the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs:

http://www.moneywisemoms.com/2009/09/free-ticket-to-cloudy-with-chance-of.html

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a story we read every year in our Reading textbook, so I thought it was neat when I saw it was being made into a movie for kids. Hopefully we'll get to read it before the movie comes out this year!

Hope everyone is enjoying their 3-day weekend! I know I am!

Welcome 3D--class of 2009-2010!

Dear Students and Parents,

We have sure gotten off to a great start this school year! I look forward to getting to know each and everyone of my students and what unique gifts they have to share with our class.

Please take the time to "subscribe to" or "follow" our class blog, as this will be one of our main forms of communication this year in 3D.

I am working on an instruction sheet on how to subscribe that I will send home soon.

Thanks so much for your support as we partner together this year to help your children succeed!

Check out these great articles/videos from Dr. Schwall over at Cool Kids Channel:

About fairness between siblings:
http://www.coolkidschannel.com/parentingtips/siblings_fairness

About classroom behavior:
http://www.coolkidschannel.com/parentingtips/classroom_behavior

Back to school crash course:
http://www.coolkidschannel.com/parentingtips/back-to-school-crash-course

Homework Assignment for Wednesday.

Students,

Please answer the following 2 questions in a Comment. Remember to choose "Anonymous" from the drop-down list if you do not have a Google account to log-in to.

1) What was your favorite article in today's Time for Kids magazine, and why?

2) Based on today's article about kids' health, why do you think so many kids are becoming overweight, and what are 2 things we should start doing to get healthy?

**HINT:
Your comment should read something like:

1) My favorite article was "____________" because _________________________.

2) Kids are getting overweight because _________________. To help us get healthier, we should __________________ and _____________________.

Have a great night, 3d! You rock!!

Love,
Mrs. C.

Charlotte's Web Reader's Theater

Please check out our two awesome performing groups as they present their Charlotte's Web Reader's Theater! I hope you enjoy their performances; they had a blast and worked very hard!

GROUP 1: Sebastian, Andrea, Connor, Jackson, Georgina, Jacob, Austin, Alex D.

GROUP 2: Carson, Lindsey, Alex W., Sara, Justin, Jordan, Jackie, Robyn, Eduardo

Homework for Tuesday.

Parents,

I would like to sometimes assign the students homework by way of our class blog. Basically that would just mean watching a short video or reading a blog entry, and then making a comment on that entry. I am placing a new Poll on the right sidebar of the blog for you to let me know how you feel about this. In the meantime, I'm asking the students to do the following for homework tonight:

3D Students,

My favorite thing about our Smartboard so far is all the many activities I have found online that we have been able to use in class. I especially like when we can pull up the pages from our Math textbook and then write on top of the page on the Smarboard to work out each problem together. That is way cool, and much more exciting than just looking in our textbook!

INSTRUCTIONS: Please click on the link below that says "COMMENT," and answer the following prompt using complete sentences: What is your favorite thing so far about our Smartboard?

Coming home today...

Today you child should bring home:

1) A letter & envelope for a program we have joined through Gamestop in which we earn technology $$$ for our school by recycling old video games;

2) Picture envelopes with your child's proof (unless your child was absent on picture day);

3) Family Internet magazine

I hope you have a wonderful and restful weekend! Be sure to keep washing hands frequently to stop those germs from spreading! Take care,

Mrs. C.

Field Trip Postponed!

Our Bowling Field Trip has unfortunately been cancelled due to the Swine Flu going around. As soon as the date has been rescheduled, I will let you all know.

Thanks for going with the flow during this time! The end of the year is always a bit stressed, and the flu is just adding to it! Luckily, we made it through the TAKS tests!

Thanks a bunch, as always.

3D's How to Multiply Video

Please check out this video our class made together that shows us how to multiply 2 digit x 1 digit numbers AND 3 digit x 1 digit numbers! We had a lot of fun trying out our awesome SmartRecorder!

Field Trip Reminders

Paper copy will be coming home tomorrow, but here are a few reminders for Friday's bowling field trip:

*We'll leave the school around 8:45 am.
*We will have lunch and recess at Kid Kountry from approximately 12:00-1:00.

IMPORTANT:
***Your child needs a sack lunch, a drink, and a snack (disposable items are preferred). The snack must be separate from the lunch, as these things will be traveling separately. =) Also, please CLEARLY LABEL each of your child's pieces with his or her name.

***Your child should wear a Lakeside shirt or a red shirt if possible.


I think that's it for now! Thanks so much, and we will get some fun field trip photos posted when we can!!

Multiplication Practice

Students: please check out this fun tool for practicing your multiplication facts!



It is so important that you keep up with these over the summer so that you're super prepared for 4th grade math next year!

Week of April 27th

Hello there!

Here are a few reminders for this coming week.

***Please have your child VOTE using the Poll on the right sidebar of this blog. They just need to click on their answer, then click Vote. Thanks!

Monday we will begin Spelling groups again. Our Spelling test will be on Thursday this week, as Friday we'll be on our Field Trip.

Tuesday is our Math TAKS Test! One down, one to go! I know our students will do amazing on the test if they remember to use all of their helpful strategies and check over their work CAREFULLY! We will have breakfast in the cafeteria again (sausage biscuits) for those who want it. Otherwise, students should have a healthy breakfast at home!

Friday is our Bowling Field Trip with Mrs. Bladl. We will be having our sack lunches at Kid Kountry after bowling (around noon), and parents are welcome to visit with their children at the park if they'd like.

Friday will also be Jackie's last day with us, as her family is moving to Frisco. She will be missed very much, and we wish her the best of luck at her new school! We are so glad she was part of our class this year.

You will soon be receiving information about our upcoming 3rd Grade Field Trip, which will be on May 15th. We will be going to the Ballpark in Arlington, and parents are welcome to attend with us. More information on this soon.

Thanks for everything, and have a great weekend!

Test-Taking Tips from Dr. Brad Schwall

http://www.coolkidschannel.com/parentingtips/test_prep

Please check out the above link to view some advice on how to help prepare and de-stress your child for a day of test-taking. There is also a video you can watch of an interview Dr. Schwall gave on Channel 8.

The need for technology in education.

This video is a little long (7 minutes), but well worth it. (You will want to scroll down & click the pause button on our Music Player so you can hear the video.)

Have a great Tuesday!

Activities & Reminders for the Week of April 20th.

Parents,



Don't forget: Tomorrow, April 20th, is Group Picture Day! I have only received money from 2 students to order pictures, so don't forget to send yours in if you'd like to order some this time around!


This Tuesday we will be taking our final TAKS practice, a released test from a past year. Please encourage your child to work as hard as he/she will on the actual test next week and to use ALL of the strategies we've learned in class. This is the only way we'll get a true picture of how they will do on the actual test.

Wednesday: Charlotte's Web projects are due!

Wednesday is EARTH DAY! Students are encouraged to either walk, ride their bicycles, or carpool to school that day. We would also like them to wear green that day!

Wednesday we will begin a week-long Investigation in Science using mini-sprouters and various seeds. Ask your child about this Wednesday night! I will try to get some pictures and post them on the class website.

Friday morning we'll have our Spirit Assembly for the month of April. Please feel free to join us in the Gym!

Friday we will have our final quiz over Charlotte's Web, which will include a cumulative review of all of the vocabulary words we have studied. Please look for a Review Sheet to come home Monday night that will help with studying the vocabulary. I would recommend studying 10-15 words each night this week. The students seem to be very familiar with certain words and not with others, so you may give them an "oral quiz" to see which words they need more work on, therefore eliminating the need to study words they already know.

I am looking forward to a wonderful week in 3D!

Earth Day Links

Please find some fun links to websites to celebrate and learn more about Earth Day, which is coming up soon on Wednesday, April 22nd.

Friendly reminder that our Charlotte's Web projects are also due the 22nd.

If your child has a project that is computer-based, and you would like for me to print it at school, I am happy to do so if you will email it to me.

Thanks, as always!

http://www.scholastic.com/actgreen/

http://www.seussville.com/main.php?section=home&isbn=&catalogID=&eventID=

http://www.seussville.com/lorax/

Welcome to our class blog!

Dear Parents & Students, Welcome to our 3D Class Blog on blogger.com! This blog will be a means of communication between school & home, and I hope it will be a helpful & informative tool to keep everyone in the loop about what is going on in our classroom. Please visit often. Coming soon are directions for how to set up an account on bloglines so you will be alerted to new posts on our blog & where you can also keep track of ALL the blogs you read in one place. I am very excited about this new opportunity for learning!