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Our reader’s workshop group just finished reading a classic book called Little House in the Big Woods. This was the first in a series of books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder about her life on the frontier. As a wrap-up activity the students wrote a letter to Laura’s Grandparents from the point of view of one of the characters in the story.

The complexity of trying to rotate the videos so they could be viewed normally proved to be too much.  I suggest either laying on your side when you watch them or turning your monito on its side :)

Please leave a comment that the learners can read to know what you thought of theri work!

Here are the students that chose to share their letters with you.

Homework Week of 1-4-10

 

 Name _________________________

Investigators Homework

 
 

Week of 1-4-10

 

As a third grader, you are expected to complete 30 minutes of homework each day.  Listed below are this week’s assignments.  The starred (shown in red online) are the priority assignments for each subject area. Additional assignments listed in each subject area are to be worked on as time permits.  Working diligently for 30 minutes each day, you may not complete every assignment, so start with the starred assignments and include the other assignments as you have time.

 

Each Friday, please bring to class:

* one assignment of which you are particularly proud and would like to share with our class
This may be a story to read, a math sheet, a science project, etc.
* your homework cover sheet, with each completed assignment initialed by a parent

 

A Note to Parents:  I appreciate and support parents checking and grading all of their student’s work at home and reviewing incorrect problems.  This is much more helpful to the students than waiting a week to have me look over their work.  Grades are based on whether homework is completed to the student’s best ability and not on amount of correct and incorrect answers.  It is the process of learning that is our focus and that can be reinforced daily as you support your child’s completion of homework. 

 

 

Reading  – You MUST read every single night for a minimum of 15 minutes.  Nothing is more important to your reading success at school than your reading at home

 
 

 
 

  • Read a book of your Choice (READ EVERY SINGLE NIGHT) Everyone should be reading a chapter book. From now on forever and Ever you should always be in the middle of a good chapter book and read it every single day. What book are you reading? ___________



 

 

Spelling

  
 

 

 Spelling is nightly. Look at your spelling folder for the particular words to do that night. In addition you can do any of the following practice activities or find one that works well for you.

 

Math  

  • Do the attached Power Drill

    • Practice you math multiplication facts every single night.


 

Writing

  • Make a Checklist of daily reminders of things that should travel from school to home and home to school. Write down the system you have at home that accomplishes this.
  • Write Thank you note to the generous people who gave you gifts.

 

 

Other

  • Share with your parents the goals you made in class on Monday. Every goal should have the goal a plan and prrof of accomplishment. Every student made atleast 1 goal in class.

 

 

 

Have you replenished your school supplies????

 

 


 

Thank You

Thank you very much for the wonderful class gift.  It showed thoughtfulness on what I like and included all of my indulgences.  Dark chocolate, coffee, beautiful books, and plants.

Holiday Party 2009

We had a wonderful Holiday party yesterday.  Major kudosto Mrs. Wright who had to pass hte reins of the party of ot the rest of her elves as she had to take a more important role as nurse to a sick child.   However, she was so well organized that everything was ready and it went perfectly.  Thank you to her and to all of the other wonderful helpers!

We played games, at a years worth of sugar and exchanged Christams wishes.  Sorry for the lack of pictures — apparently I was too busy enjoying it.

Math Facts Practice

Over break, you have the opportunity to turbo boost your math facts study with a little practice. Working with your parents, you can complete and pass as many of the Match fact tests as you care to study and test yourself on. Have a parent time you for each test and then and sign it if you pass it. Remember, to pass a test you must have completed all 40 problems absolutely correctly with 0 mistakes in less than 60 seconds.

When you return to school, show me all the signed tests that you passed. Then you will retake the last test completed at home as verification that you are ready to proceed.

Keep proper track of dates test taken and passed in your math folder.

You may find a pdf with copies of all the tests at our website mrhamons.wordpress.com on the documents page. If you have any questions feel free to email me at ophamons@smsd.org.

Final rush before halftime

I often use a sport analogy to describe our school year to the students. In this analogy — Winter Break is halftime. And if that is the case — then Monday is like Overtime before halftime :)

Actually — it will be nice to be able to spend Monday wrapping up some details and going at a slower pace because today was 90 miles per minute all day long.

One of the fun things we did was solved mysteries of nature during an incredibly good program put on my the Ernie Miller Nature Museum.

Homework Week of 12-14-09

 

 Name _________________________

Investigators Homework

 
 

Week of 12-14-09

 

As a third grader, you are expected to complete 30 minutes of homework each day.  Listed below are this week’s assignments.  The starred (shown in red online) are the priority assignments for each subject area. Additional assignments listed in each subject area are to be worked on as time permits.  Working diligently for 30 minutes each day, you may not complete every assignment, so start with the starred assignments and include the other assignments as you have time.

 

Each Friday, please bring to class:

* one assignment of which you are particularly proud and would like to share with our class
This may be a story to read, a math sheet, a science project, etc.
* your homework cover sheet, with each completed assignment initialed by a parent

 

A Note to Parents:  I appreciate and support parents checking and grading all of their student’s work at home and reviewing incorrect problems.  This is much more helpful to the students than waiting a week to have me look over their work.  Grades are based on whether homework is completed to the student’s best ability and not on amount of correct and incorrect answers.  It is the process of learning that is our focus and that can be reinforced daily as you support your child’s completion of homework. 

 

 

Reading  – You MUST read every single night for a minimum of 15 minutes.  Nothing is more important to your reading success at school than your reading at home

 
 

 
 

  • Read a book of your Choice (READ EVERY SINGLE NIGHT) Everyone should be reading a chapter book. What book are you reading? ___________



 

 

Spelling

  
 

 

 Spelling is nightly. Look at your spelling folder for the particular words to do that night. In addition you can do any of the following practice activities or find one that works well for you.

 

  • Type your word 5 times. Can you type it with your eyes closed?
  • Try to memorize how to spell your word backwards.
  • Write each letter of a word on a post it note or other scrap of paper. Them ix up all the letters for all your words and try to put them back together.
  • Write each word you do not know 5 times
  •  

     

     

Math  

  • Do the attached Power Drill

    • Practice you math multiplication facts every single night.


 

Writing

  • Write a story about a lost reindeer


 

Author Signing

I appreciate all of the families who made it out to enjoy all of the great literary displays.

The students work very hard on these books and it means alot to them for you to come out and see them.

Sorry for the lack of pics.  Camera is not working today.  Instead I will share numbers.

76 – The number of books published,

41 – The number of people adults in the room at one time when I counted yesterday.

19 - The number of smiles from students knowing you came to see their books!

Today we had a rare luxury in our fast paced, curriculum driven classroom.  30 minutes of solid reading time.  We have a school term for this — DEAR - Acronym that stand for Drop Everything and Read.  I thought it was beautiful that during this time – the only thing I could hear was the chirping of crickets!

Notice how not even one student looks up from there book?  A sure sign that they have become completely engrossed in their stories.

Does anybody want to share how they can get this kind of all encompassing reading at their homes?  I know it easier at school — I do not have to compete with TV, Xbox, Wii and Computers.  Can this happen at home too?

In an uncharacteristic drift away from my own personal ban on mingling commercial enterprises with school functions – I have volunteered to be a guest reader at the Barnes and Noble located in Oak Park Mall at 11 am.

I will be reading from “Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder – a book we are doing a novel study on during Readers’ Workshop.

Mrs. Gill is reading at 10am.

I hope to see you there.

 

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