Stone Fox

We just finished reading Stone Fox (thanks to the recommendation of Ms. Andrews, one of my fellow teammates!), and the kids LOVED it! It started of kind of slow, the first three chapters introducing the main characters. After Chapter 6, the kiddos BEGGED me to keep going! They didn't even want to go to recess!

 Stone Fox is set in the late 1800's on a farm in Wyoming near the Teton Mountains. The protagonist, Little Willy, learns his Grandfather has given up on life because of the amount of debt owed to the State in taxes. Little Willy decides to enter into a dogsled race with his dog Searchlight to win the prize money and pay of the debt. I focused on Characters and Character traits. Little Willy is a strong little boy, perfect for students to think of character traits for. Also, Grandfather's character changes as a result of certain events in the story, the making a perfect example of how characters may change in a story and how events influence it. I tried to focus on adjectives to describe the characters, but will eventually incorporate the likeliness of a character doing certain actions ( I can't recall what the term is right now, my brain is fried!) 

Also, to make text to media and text to world connections, I pulled up articles and videos from the annual Alaskan Iditarod. The kids LOVED watching stories about the different dogs, and reading about dogsledding! I believe there is a Disney movie called "Eight Below" that might be fun to watch as a wrap up to our Stone Fox.

 The book never mentions the outcome of the tax situation, Grandfather, etc. which was pointed out by one of my students, so tomorrow I'm going to have them write an "Afterword" as some authors include in their stories. I just love books that have students (and me!) begging to no more about the character and also not wanting the book to end! As a writing assignment as well, I had the students write an encouraging letter to Little Willy to try and offer condolences about his grandfather and possibilities of how he can raise money to pay off the debt. The kids came up with some great letters!

Parent Night 9/15 5:30-6:30 p.m.

The teachers will be hosting "Parent Night" on Thursday, September 15, from 5:30-6:30! This is a great chance to meet all third grade teachers, other parents in the grade level, find out student objectives for the next 9 weeks, information about agendas, "HomeFun," and much more! Please feel free to come. There is rumor PTO will be selling Papa John's Pizza slices for $1! So come and join the fun!

Objectives for 9/19-9/23

Parents! Hopefully every week I will post the objectives for Language Arts and Math for the following week. Please talk to your student about these objectives and help them if needed!

Reading: I can make connections between two texts (text to text). I can use and understand how prefixes (un-, non-, pre-, re-) and suffixes (-ful, -less) change the meaning of words.

Writing: I can read and spell words with the vowel pair "ea." I can produce a personal narrative by using the writing process. I can use, write, and understand verbs in the past, present, and future forms.

Math: I can measure temperature by reading and using a thermometer. I can read and tell the time on an analog and digital clock. I know and understand place value up to 9,999.



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Red Apples Pictures - Pictures
Next week, I will also be starting a 2-week apple theme in our classroom! We'll be studying plant and fruit adaptations, measuring the mass, comparing physical properties, making "glyphs," and practicing reading and interpreting data from student made graphs. We will also be studying capacity in 2 weeks, and will make homemade applesauce as a reinforcement activity! Lots of yummy and fun activities to learn with while studying apples.

New Camera!

Well, my camera officially pooped out so it looks like I'm going to be investing in a new-to-me point and shoot camera. I figured I'd start looking in pawn shops and on ebay. Hopefully I don't have to spend more than $100! I just need it to take a picture or video, be able to upload it to my computer, and post it on my blog! I guess I'll see what I find! Oh....maybe garage sales too!

First Day of School!!!!!

Welcome to Ms. Riddle's Class! I am so excited to be working with a GREAT group of kids. I am so thankful and blessed that I have an AMAZING group of students this year! I'm so pumped up and coming back to my old self! When everyday I seriously could not WAIT for the kids to come to school and sad to see them leave! I hope they like me, too, because they don't switch and have lovely me all day! My kids are pretty cool, so I think they'll like me too.

I was so nervous about being in a new school and new grade level today! With all the new rules, procedures, etc. I kept feeling that I forgot to do something! I will get used to it, and so will the students! I got so lost today as well...geez I think they purposely made our school a maze to get us critical thinking subconsciously! Oh, little tid-bit and idea I want to incorporate in the classroom. I want to include a cross word puzzle or some logic puzzle that will only take a few minutes at the end of the day. Does anyone know of a good site with kid friendly cross-words?

Today I started teaching the kids how to count in French! They were SUPER excited! Hopefully they will motivate me to do my lessons more often! Even a student that was very sad, scared, and nervous all morning perked up, sat up, and was even pronouncing the numbers as well!!!! I'm so thankful for my class. I also learned that I have a class of writers and artists! SO awesome! With that thought, I asked the third grade teachers from my old school if they would like to participate in doing pen pals! I always dreamed of having one when I was growing up!! And eventually I would like to Skype and the kids will be able to finally meet with each other and interact with each other! Wouldn't that be totally fabulous?

So excited about this wonderful school year!

B.O.Y. Craziness!!!!!

Numbness. That's about all my brain keeps telling me. I am so excited to be starting in a new school and I love how proactive my administrators and amazing team members are! HOWEVER, it still doesn't mean that I'm not so overwhelmed that I am just sitting like a bump on a log talking in circles or not talking at all! Integrating the new programs and ways of teaching is the most overwhelming. Second in line is BRAND new curriculum, all subjects. Yikes. But, the sun will rise regardless and I will continue to do my best to take in as much information as possible and do the best I can do for my students.

So we're supposed to integrate a new philosophy of teaching called P.E.A.K. (Performing Excellence for All Kids). I think PEAK is a great tool for teaching and will help students reach their own potential much quicker than other forms of teaching. BUT, it takes ALOT of time, planning, and collecting of materials for the teacher. There are 5 levels of exposure to information (conveniently related to weather!). First is the CLOUD. So just as a Cloud starts to form foreshadowing an upcoming storm, the information of an upcoming unit or new information is posted somewhere in the classroom(2-4 weeks prior to scheduled unit). Just as it is in real life, the SPRINKLE is next. There are brief references, activities, or thoughts 2-4 minutes long presented 2 weeks before the new material is scheduled. Next comes the SHOWER of 3-5 minute activities that can be used as movie "previews" or "commercial breaks" during transitions 1 week before the scheduled unit. The GENTLE SOAK is during the actual scheduled unit which includes whole group lessons, activities, projects, discussions, etc about the unit. The final DRIP, DRIP, DRIP of PEAK are the reteach small group or mini lessons, or reviews that occur up to 2 or 3 weeks after the unit has been taught.

LOVE the idea. Dislike practically needing to plan my whole year in the next three days before school starts. However, it WILL make me a stronger teacher and stop me from procrastinating :) Wish me luck!!

Smilebox! First Day of School All About Me

I happened to stumble upon a most glorious, FREE photo sharing website called Smilebox! It's AMAZING!!!! and FREE!!!! You can create scrapbooks, slideshows, invitations, NEWSLETTERS, and much more! It is very easy to use and the newsletter formats are so cute! Perfect to implement on blogs or to share with parents. Possibly a great idea for a gift from each student to their parents on Christmas???? You can email it, post it on a website such as facebook, blogger, twitter, etc,  burn it on a DVD, or print it! SO much to do! for free! Enjoy :)

A free scrapbook design by Smilebox