Jan Brett Author Study

This week, as you know, our Text Talk is on Jan Brett's retelling of a Ukrainian folktale, The Mitten.  We already read the story today, and the kids loved it!

Throughout the week, we will be studying Jan Brett and many of her other books.  We will visit her author website when we head to the Computer Lab on Thursday, and hopefully we will learn more about her writing and illustrating  process.

Students will also have the chance to compare and contrast The Mitten to another story by Jan Brett.  I will choose a few of the best examples to showcase on our class blog.

Please check out some of the great winter books by Jan Brett below.

Fall Poetry Celebration

Thanks to parents and children for a very successful poetry reading this past Thursday!

The students seemed very proud of their hard work, and I was very proud of them, too!

I was glad so many parents and other family members could make it to the celebration, and for those who couldn't attend, here are some pictures of the event!

Hope you enjoy:

Happy Fall, Ya'll!  :)

Hats On Day!

Friday at Lakeside was "Hats On Day," where students could wear a hat if they brought in some change to donate to charity.

Well, what a success Friday was!

Lakeside raised a total of $1,071.52 for our charities!  How amazing is that?!

The total will be split and sent to The Pink Heart Fund, a charity that helps make wigs for children with cancer, and The Foundation for Children with Cancer. 

Mrs. Kubinsky already spoke with our representative from the Pink Heart Fund, and she was told that $500.00 will help to make 2 wigs for children, so they were very excited about our donation!

Thanks to all students, parents, and teachers, who donated to these great charities.

2nd Grade's Donation Cans--overflowing!!!

Mrs. Todd, we missed you Friday!

(More photos to come!  Mrs. Darcy took some great photos of 2A with their hats on, so I will post those soon!)

To learn more about these amazing charities:

Pink Heart Fund

Foundation for Children with Cancer

Poetry Fun!

Today we worked on our fluency with a poem called "Five Little Pumpkins."
We had a lot of fun reciting our poem, and a lot of us even memorized our parts!

Hope you enjoy our little performance!!

Bat Week!

Last week, our book for Text Talk was Stellaluna.  Therefore, we focused all week not only on the book, but also on studying all kinds of bats.

We read other books about bats to find more information, and each day, including today, we added more information about bats to our "bat lap board."

Check out some books we read on bats below, and enjoy the pictures of our completed bat lap boards.  We had a blast making them!

Surprise!

We had a fun surprise at the end of the day today!

We read a story together called:


 (Click on photos to enlarge)

Our Teacher's Having a Baby
by Eve Bunting





We listened VERY intently to the story...



At the end of the story I said, "Mrs. Cockrell's going to have a baby, TOO!"  Their little faces were so surprised! 


My favorite part: One student said, "I saw your tummy got bigger!"


I said, "Raise your hand if you saw that my tummy was bigger," and more hands shot up! LOL!

 
Baby Cockrell is due May 25th.  I am hoping for a normal, healthy pregnancy so that I will only have to miss the last couple weeks of the school year.  Mr. Cockrell and I are very excited to be preparing to meet our first little one!



Applesauce Friday!

Today I peeled and sliced LOTS of apples...but it was for a good cause!

I also had lots of willing helpers to get our applesauce cooking!  (I can smell it cooking as I type this!)

We hope to enjoy our homemade applesauce a little later this afternoon, and we hope you enjoy our pictures from this morning's fun!

Dr. Brad Schwall: Helicopter Parenting!

Please take a few minutes to read this short article by Dr. Brad Schwall:

I think the main points are that it is GOOD to be involved in your child's life and in their academic life.  The problem lies when parents try to protect their children from natural consequences instead of letting them learn lessons that will help them as they continue in their lives and enter "the real world."  Of course, it's natural to want to protect your children, but when we try to protect them from everything, we only do them a disservice by making them think the world will always alter itself to fit their needs and wants.  And we, as adults, KNOW that is not the case!  :)

Here is the article: 

http://momsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/09/whats-wrong-with-helicopter-pa.html



Have a super day!

Doubles!

This week, we are learning all about doubles.  To introduce the concept, we read One Potato, Two Potato, a book about a poor farming couple who discover a magic pot that doubles whatever you put into it!

Check out these fun videos that practice making doubles:

Science: Rolling Spheres

The past few weeks in science, we have been exploring the properties and causes of force, motion, and balance.  After doing several experiments with how to balance objects using counterweights, we did an experiment about how spheres roll using foam runways, marbles, and tape.  We explored the different ways we could make our marbles travel depending on how we varied the position of our ramp(s).  We had a great time!

Johnny Appleseed Week!

Here are some books we will be reading next week for our unit on Johnny Appleseed.

You can even purchase them by clicking the links below if you'd like!

Pinwheels for Peace

Tuesday, September 21, was International Day of Peace, and thanks to Mrs. Narez & Mrs. Warren, our school participated by creating "pinwheels of peace."  We displayed our pinwheels in the school yard that morning to let the world know that we support a peaceful world!

We hope you enjoy our pictures from Pinwheels for Peace. 

Pinwheels for Peace

Lakeside will be participating in the Pinwheels for Peace Project where we will be displaying 500 handmade Pinwheels (made in Art class) on the school grounds on Sept.21, the International Day of Peace.   The project has been around since 2005 and this year they expect to have 3 million pinwheels spinning around the world to send a message of peace. For a video, a map of participants or to make your own pinwheels go to:

http://www.pinwheelsforpeace.com/pinwheelsforpeace/home.html

Welcome to 2A!

Hello all,

I am so excited about our class this year. We have gotten off to a fabulous start in 2A, and we have a lot of amazing things in store for this school year.

I will use our class blog to post information, photos of our class, videos of class projects and special events, super student work, and other such things.

I hope that our class blog will be an additional, fun form of communication between parents, teacher, and students.


I will begin posting pictures soon!

Thanks for everything you have already done this year to make our classroom a great place to learn.

Summer Fun Survey

Dear Former 3D Students,

Please complete the survey below! All of the questions may not be visible in the box, so to see the other questions, click on the survey box, and scroll down. Then you can click in the box to answer the next question. Click Submit when you are finished. :)

:) I hope you are all having LOTS of fun this summer so far! I know I am enjoying lots of time in our pool in this hot weather!

Love, Mrs. Cockrell

First Day of School Survey

Wonderful Work Created by 3D Students:

The last couple of weeks, we have been watching videos by Jeff Corwin, in which he visits many exotic locales and explores the ecosystems there. We have gotten to see some pretty exciting clips, such as him petting a leopard in the jungle (!!) and holding a wild monkey from the rainforest! Jeff Corwin is apparently much braver than I am. Ha!

Here are some awesome Circle Maps created by some of our amazing students while watching Jeff Corwin's video that was shot in the Amazon aquatic ecosystem.

(NOTE: Circle Maps are used to "define" a topic, so these maps are in essence, defining, or telling all about the Amazon ecosystem. You can click on an image to enlarge it.)



Jimena:



















David:



























Madisen:

























Eashana:

Field Day Pictures!

We had a BLAST last Friday at Field Day. Thanks to all the parents who volunteered to help at events, who walked around with our class, and who helped pick up, deliver, and pass out lunches from Sonic. The kids really enjoyed themselves!

Getting Techie!

Here are some more photos from spirit assemblies and of our class getting technological!

Teacher for the Day Assembly

Sorry these pics are getting put up so late!

Hope you enjoy!

Field Trip to the Ballpark

Check out some photos from our awesome field trip to Rangers Ballpark today!

Star Student Work!

Quite a while ago we completed an assignment in the computer lab about the "3 R's" of helping the environment: Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle. I chose 3 students' work to showcase here on our class blog, but I forgot to do so! Here they are now. These 3 students thought of many examples for each way we can help out, and they put in lots of effort.

(You can click on each image to enlarge it.)


Addie:





















Deniz:






















Matt:

How to help prevent bullying

Please take a few minutes to view the video interview on Channel 8 with Dr. Brad Schwall of Coolkids.com:

Bullying Prevention

Science Talk: Growing Seeds

Hope you enjoy this video filmed by our awesome 3D students, explaining what we've been up to in Science lately!

Free Crafts for Kids!

Lakeshore Learning Store, located off of 635 and the North Dallas Tollway, offers free crafts for kids on Saturday mornings beginning April 3rd. Ages 3 and up; No reservations are necessary.

Please see the schedule below if you might be interested.
Hours are 11:00-3:00 each Saturday.

April 3 Silly Bunny Puppet
April 10 Personalized Door Hanger
April 17 Earth Day Bag
April 24 Spring Picket Fence
May 1 Shady Sun Visor
May 8 Mother's Day Jewelry Holder
May 15 Mini Megaphone
May 22 Tear-Art Tambourine
May 29 Let's Play Tic-Tac-Toe
June 5 Summer Sunglasses
June 12 Portable Storage Pouch
June 19 Father's Day Notepad Holder
June 26 Summer Fruit Basket

Lakeshore Learning Store
13846 N. Dallas Pkwy.
(972) 934-8866

Video: Relationships

This video focuses on all different types of relationships. It also focuses on the difference between positive and negative relationships.

FYI, there is a section on intimacy with family and others and it talks about appropriate and inappropriate touching. It is up to you whether you want to touch on that with your child.

E-Learning video

Video: Stress

Another great video dealing with stress. Yes! Even 8 and 9 year olds get stressed sometimes! :)

E-Learning Video

Bullying.

Check out this video on Bullying.

E-learning Video

We Sing, We Dance...

Hope you enjoy this little ditty--brought to you lovingly by Mrs. Cockrell's 3rd Grade Class!!!

Perimeter and Area Practice

Please check out the website below for some amazing practice calculating the perimeter of a shape (add all sides to find the distance AROUND) and finding the area of a shape (multiplying Length x Width to find the space INSIDE the shape).

AREA & PERIMETER WEBSITE

Please remember that time on this website can be counted toward your 45 minutes of weekly math practice--record in agenda to get credit!

Our lesson on multiplying 2 digit x 1 digit numbers!

Please take a few minutes to watch our video of when we learned how to multiply 2 digit by 1 digit numbers. We learned 2 different ways, so take your pick as to which way is easier for you.

Practice Multiplication Facts with fun videos/songs!!!

Check out this video and rap for the 0's, 1's, 2's, and 3's!! Thanks to Mrs. Danzinger who created the rap and put it on YouTube to share!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3pq1ay8l-4


I love this video for the 2's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yvf3YbFAew
Schoolhouse Rock video for the 2's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1vtR3_EuKk


Schoolhouse Rock video for the 3's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMJyzAp7I5w


Schoolhouse Rock video for the 4's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA7LArb30sY
Song for the 4's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlN14fxE3-A

Interesting idea (learning 4's through the drums!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrIHyATuTBU


Schoolhouse Rock video for 5's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzYpuv5bfCI
Song for 5's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bLEUThK_8E


Cute Schoolhouse Rock video for 6's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwkgNf69ihY


Schoolhouse Rock video for 7's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kayb743y6jY


Schoolhouse Rock video for 8's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iChjFqFO1ik


Schoolhouse Rock video for 9's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0o_gXn7bl4


Schoohouse Rock video for 11's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxEQiI2C1WI


Schoolhouse Rock video for 12's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-yp0QaecO0

Song for 12's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rer1upUlIXg

3D Videos for your viewing pleasure...

Let's hope this works; I've been having a difficult time getting our videos to show up for some reason! Hope for the best!

SHARING OUR THINKING:

On this day, we made thinking maps about Benjamin Franklin.