College Colors Day

Finding Character Traits and Evidence in a Passage

Today we practiced finding character traits and supporting evidence in a cold read passage. The students will have a similar assignment on the test. Your child has a copy of this in their reading journal.
They can practice reading the passage, finding the traits, and evidence in the following passages.
African American Newsmakers

The students practiced their regions today by singing our Regions song with hand motions. Enjoy!

Have a great afternoon! Tomorrow is Friday, but today is Game Day... Go Gamecocks!

Finding Evidence in the Text: Jump

This is a great resource to review for the test. Your child will have this in their journal today. 

Here is a student example: 

Here is my model. (I took a picture of the computer screen) 

SC Regions Vocabulary

Study the Regions Vocabulary Chart at home each night. Here are a few examples. 

Character Traits

We are noticing character traits in reading this week. On Monday, we focused on Michael Jordan's traits in the text, Jump! The students noticed several traits on the Common Character Traits list; however, I had them narrow their choice down to one where they had to provide evidence from the text to support their answer.

 

Today, we read Tough Boris, written by one of my favorite authors, Mem Fox. Before reading the text, the students moved around the room to predict the trait based on the picture.

L

After this activity, we read the text together and compared our trait predictions to the text.

 

As an extension to the lesson, we "tweeted" a trait that best describes us. Check our Twitter page (located on the right) to see a few responses.

Week 2!

 

Newsletter
 

 Math Homework:

 You will find a weekly math homework sheet in your child's STAR folder. 

Each column is required to be completed on the corresponding day. You will see that there are two long boxes at the top and middle of the page. Your child can complete those boxes on Monday. On the back, there is additional space for the student to show their work. At the bottom, there is a section for the student to reflect on their work. This will be completed in class. Please contact me if you have questions. 

We used this chart today to practice how we can describe numbers in different ways. You can review this at home with your child. You will find a completed copy in their math journal. 

Social Studies: The students are excited to begin our study of South Carolina history; I am pretty excited myself! This week we will focus on the six regions of SC. 

Your child will bring home their SS Journals to study each night. 

Be on the look out for blog posts this week to see your ALL*STAR in action! 

 Have a great week!

Spirit Day!

We love Oakland! 

What do you know about South Carolina?

Today I posed the question, "What do you know about South Carolina?". The students wrote their
responses on sticky notes. 

I enjoyed their responses! 

We started our SC Dailies today. Ask your child what year South Carolina became a state. You will be impressed! 

Getting our minds and bodies ready to learn...

This makes me giggle a little! Good morning from our Crew! 

Because we all have a story to tell...

We read this book today and discussed all the stories that have yet to be told.

 The crew is excited to begin our Daily 5 block, where one of the stations is writing. In this particular station, the students will become authors, write little books, and place them in our classroom library for others to find and read. I hope to share a few published books in the next few weeks! 

Here we are giving our writers' workshop a whirl! 

First Day Success!

We had a great first day aboard our fabulous journey! This is a pretty awesome group of 3rd graders! I am one lucky teacher! 

We read The Giving Tree and discussed how important it is to give to others with a selfless heart. The students then created their own list of classroom expectations. Finally, they added their fingerprint to our Giving Promise Tree, which promises to always give to others and try our best. 

Look at this precious group! 

A little recess fun....

We even Saved Fred! 

At the end of the day, the students "tweeted" about what they think they are going to like most about 3rd grade. 

Usually I will post 1-2 tweets, but there were so many sweet comments that I had to share them all! I hope you can zoom in to see them. 

See you all for another fantastic day tomorrow! 

Who's Ready to Set Sail?

It was a privilege to meet each of our eager, curious, and ready to learn 3rd graders today! I am excited to begin an amazing voyage to a place where learning is FUN, dreams become real, friendships are made, and reading comes Alive! Most importantly, I hope to instill the importance of perseverance. If you have not already, please visit our Author's Corner. Our little duckling, Hope, is the example and result of perseverance!

Soak up these last few days of summer! I will see you all on Monday! 

Back to School for Me

It was my first day officially back to school, and I must say, the classroom was pretty lonely without each of you!

I look forward to meeting you all on Wednesday! 

As Promised...

Another busy day in the classroom, a short lunch break with my sweet friend, Mrs. Allen, and a trip to the District Office to share my passion for teaching with first year teachers. I will have to say this was a great day!  

There are still a few details left and one BIG one, the outside bulletin board. Other than that, stick a fork in it! It's done! What a relief! 

View from the door

View of the front of the room. This big rug will be where we will meet for our community building, shared reading, mini-lessons, pretty much it's like the family room of the house! 

This is the view from the front of the room.

I tried my best to make our desks look more like tables! 

This board is ready for your original work!

It also includes our CAFE menu. I'm excited to share this with you!  

Sit back and relax with a good book!

This spot is my ultimate favorite spot in the room, the guided reading table and the writing center materials. 

Tweet Tweet! I can't wait to share your knowledge with the world! 

That's all for now, kiddos! Hope you enjoyed your mini tour! See you Wednesday, August 13th!