Happy Thanksgiving!

This week with there only being two days of school, there was not a poem or a spelling list. Next week, we will add to the amount of homework your child will receive.

Starting next week, the first week of December. Your child will be bring home their poem (still needs to read it to someone 5 times and have them sign the back), their spelling practice page (still needs to write each word 3 times), and now they will have a series of math problems to complete each night. All three homework assignments will be due on Friday.

Math- In math Ms. Wild read the book Each Orange Has 8 Slices and completed a worksheet to follow the book. On the worksheet, students created their own multiplication story problems.

Reading- This week Ms. Wild worked on comprehension packet with the students. They worked really hard to locate and highlight information in the text to use to answer their questions about traditions.

Writing- This week Ms. Wild completed a series of activity sheets, students continued to work on their "Roll a Dice" story and wrote a how-to piece of writing titled "How to Cook a Turkey."

Science- This week the students continued to work on chromatography. The students were able to create their own inventions. Many wanted to take these home. Some opted to leave them here and create snowflakes to decorate our classroom. 

Upcoming dates:

Wednesday, November 27th- Friday, November 29th- No School, Thanksgiving Break


Monday, December 2nd- I will be gone 12:30-3:30 for a PBIS coaches meeting at Grant Wood AEA, Ms. Wild will be teaching and Mrs. Randall will sit in the back of the room. :) 
Tuesday, December 3rd- Happy Birthday Hope and Ms. Wild!
Thursday, December 5th- Happy Birthday Ian! Ideas and Inventions test for Science.

Monday, December 9th- I will add areas of teaching each day. 
Wednesday, December 11th- 1:15 Early Dismissal
Friday, December 13th- I will be leaving early for my 20 week ultrasound (Hopefully, we can find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I will share with the kids after winter break, as I am making my family wait to find out on Christmas.)

Friday, December 20th- Ms. Wild's last day, winter party

Monday, December 23rd- Thursday, January 2nd- Winter Break, NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 3rd- No School unless we have a snow day.

Have a great Thanksgiving break!
Mrs. Jodie Yuska and Ms. Wild

Ms. Wild's first full week of teaching

I have been sitting in the back of the room and listening to all the wonderful things happening in our classroom. However, I am already missing being in the front of the room and leading these fun activities and lessons. I will anxiously be waiting to jump back in the second week of December. 

This week we welcomed a new member to our class. Welcome Ajiyah! We are so excited to have you in our room! 

Thank you to everyone who attended conferences this week. We look forward to visiting with the rest of you on Monday! 

This past Wednesday, the kids had a chance to celebrate their hard work on the fall fundraiser with a Big Blast Party. A GREAT time was had by all! :) 

Math- In math continued working on multiplication and discussed how multiplication is combining equal groups. Once they heard "repeated addition," that we are just counting the same number over and over, it seemed to make more sense. We solved multiplication problems; figuring out how many groups we had and how many items were in each group to determine how many items we were counting in all.

Reading- This week we read Technology Wins the Game by Mark Andrews. 

Our story discussed the "Science of Sports Engineering." We looked at how Sports Engineer will take problems with design could change how you play your favorite sport. Along with how sports and sporting goods/ gear has changed through history. Did you know a tennis racket was originally made out of wood? In the 1960's a metal racket was developed. Today tennis rackets are made out of very light materials and provide more power than the old ones. Tennis balls have changed in development too. The first tennis balls were made from leather and stuffed with wool or horse hair. Now tennis balls are rubber and covered with felt. This helps it bounce better and higher. Along with tennis rackets and tennis balls, we read and discussed the history and development of high jumpers and pole vaulters, how a track has been developed to help people run faster, when a wheelchair racer competed in the Boston Marathon, and how running shoes have changed from first running in bare feet to now having running shoes with extra cushioning and spikes. Last but not least, we read and  discussed how safety features have changed over time. This includes playing football without helmets, to wearing a leather helmet, adding padding and a face mask. Now some football helmets have computer chips inside them to document when a player hits their head. Other safety features we read about were how skiers have sensors to mark their location in case of heavy snowfall or an avalanche. Next time you play a sport, think of all the changes and developments it has made over the years.

Writing- This week the students have been working on a "Roll a Story" piece of writing. Students rolled a dice to determine the characters, setting, plot, and the problem. Students then planned and created a story from the story elements they rolled with their dice. 

Science- This week in science the students continued to experiment with Chromatography. They conducted an experiment to figure out the Mystery Pen. They also completed a study guide for the test. The test is currently scheduled for Thursday, December 5th, but may get pushed back depending on the lessons we have yet to finish about reflections.

Upcoming dates:

Monday, November 25th- Conferences 3:30-7:30

Wednesday, November 27th- Friday, November 29th- No School, Thanksgiving Break


Monday, December 2nd- I will be gone 12:30-3:30 for a PBIS coaches meeting at Grant Wood AEA, Ms. Wild will be teaching and Mrs. Randall will sit in the back of the room. :) 
Tuesday, December 3rd- Happy Birthday Hope and Ms. Wild!
Thursday, December 5th- Happy Birthday Ian! Ideas and Inventions test for Science.

Monday, December 9th- I will add areas of teaching each day. 
Wednesday, December 11th- 1:15 Early Dismissal
Friday, December 13th- I will be leaving early for my 20 week ultrasound (Hopefully, we can find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I will share with the kids after winter break, as I am making my family wait to find out on Christmas.)

Friday, December 20th- Ms. Wild's last day, winter party

Monday, December 23rd- Thursday, January 2nd- Winter Break, NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 3rd- No School unless we have a snow day.

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Jodie Yuska and Ms. Wild

We are starting multiplication! :)

This week Ms. Wild will take on full time teaching for the next few weeks. I am very impressed with how much she has learned and think she will do a wonderful job! :)

Math- We had a few days of discussing equal groups, things that come in groups, and how when we multiply it is a matter of determining how many groups x how many in each group. Another way to solve until we learn some facts is repeated addition. I am including 10 ways to practice multiplication from the blog TeachingWithSimplicity.com. 

1.  Use the traditional flash cards to play a game of Sparkle, multiplication style.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Instruct students to stand at their desks or in a large circle facing one another. Depending on the configuration, the game will progress up and down the rows or clockwise around the circle.
   • 2
     Use Sparkle to practice spelling words. Select a child to start and choose a word from the week's spelling and vocabulary list. If the word is "learn," for example, the first student will say, "l." The second student will say, "e," the third will say, "a" and so on.

2.  Students roll two dice, then multiply the 2 numbers they rolled together.

3.  Create a memory game–one card contains the factors, the other contains the product.

4.  Dominoes-students draw a domino that is face down.  They multiply the dots on either side of the domino together.

5.  Play Pick-a-Card with a set of flash cards.

6.  Number Draw-no materials needed except your fingers!

7.  Play Ask-n-Switch which is a whole class game using flash cards.

8.  Multiplication War with a deck of cards.  Students each draw two cards, then multiply them together.  The student with the largest product wins the round.

9.  Math Poke-A-Fact.

10.  Multiples pyramid-students practice writing the first 12 multiples (or amount of your choice) for a given number.

 *I will send a packet home this week containing the directions and pages for Pick-a-card, Number Draw, Ask-n-Switch, Poke-A-Fact, and a multiples pyramid.

Reading Since we had a unit test this week, we used some extra time to read a few Text Talk books. We read Grandpa's Teeth by Rod Clement. 

This is a story about a grandpa who wakes up to discover his teeth have been stolen. He suspects the whole town of stealing them. Everyone in town has to smile all the time to show they are innocent. The mystery is solved when it turns out that the dog had taken them. Words we discussed were: complain, description, mystery, suspect, conspiracy, and sleuth. Our second text talk book was Dear Mrs. LaRue by Mark Teague. 

This story is written from the dog's perspective of an event versus how the newspaper reported it happened. Words we will work on are: despair, obedience, melodramatic, misconception, neglected, and persistent.

Writing- This week we spent most of writing time working on our cursive. We are hoping to try and get it completed before winter break if possible. 

Science- This week we were detectives, we played a game called Mystery Prints. Students were placed in groups and took their index print and middle finger print. Then they selected one member of the group to be a "mystery person." This person added only one print to the Mystery Print card. As cards traveled to different groups, they had to solve who's print it was by looking at the patterns.

Students were also introduced to chromatography this week. Chromatography uses water to carry pigments from one place to another. Today the kids learned chromatography separates a mixture of pigments in watercolor inks. The process of water moving through paper is called wicking. We marked cut stripes of coffee filters, marked them with a marker and let the water move and separate the pigment.

 

Upcoming dates:

Wednesday, November 20th- BIG BLAST PARTY (from our fundraiser)

Thursday, November 21st- 1:15 Dismissal, Conferences 1:30-5:30

Monday, November 25th- Conferences 3:30-7:30

Wednesday, November 27th- Friday, November 29th- No School, Thanksgiving Break


Just a reminder conferences are this Thursday, November 21st and Monday, November 25th. Please try to show up on time as conferences are scheduled every 15 minutes. I will do my best to stay on time also! :) 

 

Have a great week!
Mrs. Jodie Yuska

Time flies when you are busy!

Sorry for the delay, this is was a crazy week and weekend for my family and I. On Monday, I was at an all day meeting covering another tier of our PBIS (our school districts behavior support plan). Then on Tuesday, I was home with a sick child.  On Friday, I was sitting at my desk frantically trying to schedule conferences and talk to teachers in other buildings. I am so excited to have received notice back from just about everyone in our class about a conference time. This made things go very quickly, yet is now a little bit of a challenge for some of you who asked for extra time, or to coordinate it with another building. Things are pretty much full. but, please rest assure, I am doing  my best and hopefully we can come up with something. 

The weather this week is like a roller coaster. Please make sure you send your child with a coat, hat, and gloves. There are many students still outside in t-shirts. I try to catch them on their way in, but unfortunately when they go from lunch or special (which is almost always) I don't get to see how they are dressed. With that being said, our classroom stays very warm all winter long.  Last year, and so far this year we have had the windows cracked open every day. Please feel free to send your child either in layers or have them leave a sweatshirt in their locker or on their chair during the week. 

Math- Last week students worked on place value and finding numbers on the thousands chart as well as a 300 chart. They are currently learning a game called "Capture on the 300 chart). With this they will continue to work on large number story problems, as well as different strategies for breaking apart the large numbers to assist in their solving.

Reading- Last week we read Young Thomas Edison by Michael Dooling. 

With this story the kids learned Thomas Edison was the mastermind behind many inventions that are taken for granted today. He invented the light bulb, the phonograph, the movies, as well as many other inventions. This story explores the origins of Edison’s scientific genius: his interest in mixing chemicals – sometimes with explosive results – his diligence in his work as a paperboy, and his difficulty paying attention in school making a portrait of the man who has been called America’s greatest inventor and entrepreneur.

Writing- Last week the students created "Ouch" stories. Some are true, while some are quite fictional. :) This assisted the students in adding transition words to their stories and prewriting. We used transition words such as: first, next, then, later, and last.  Towards the end of the week, we read The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush and the students created their own color poem. These we are finishing up and they will be in the hallway on display for conferences.

Science- So far in Science we have been discussing using different rubbing techniques to create different textures. The students have performed rubbings on coins, fabric squares, and leaves. Last Thursday, students were introduced to the second section of our unit which is carbon printing, also known as fingerprints. :) Carbon Printing is when you transfer carbon (or graphite which is used in place of lead in current day #2 pencils) on a piece of scratch paper by scribbling. Then students rubbed their fingertips along the surface. The fingertip is now like a printing plate and can transfer the residue. We placed tape over their fingers to collect as much carbon as we could while leaving the finger print impression. After taking our fingerprints we looked at the finger patterns. Everyone's fingerprints are unique, but they usually have one of the three basic patterns known as arches, whorls, and loops.

Whorls- go around and around like a spiral

Loops- start at one side, go up to the middle and back out the same side

Arch- goes up, through the middle, and out the other side. It looks like a hill.

 

Upcoming dates:
Tuesday, November 12th- Proposed date for report cards to be sent home. There were some printing issues, hopefully these will all get resolved and you can see your child's progress this week. 

Wednesday, November 20th- BIG BLAST PARTY (from our fundraiser)

Thursday, November 21st- 1:15 Dismissal, Conferences 1:30-5:30

Monday, November 25th- Conferences 3:30-7:30

Wednesday, November 27th- Friday, November 29th- No School, Thanksgiving Break


Just a reminder conferences are this Thursday, November 21st and Monday, November 25th. Please try to show up on time as conferences are scheduled every 15 minutes. I will do my best to stay on time also! :) 

A conference slip with the day and time to meet with me will be in report card envelopes going home on Tuesday (hopefully, unless I get asked to wait). If you need an extra copy of the report card please let me know.

 

Report card rubrics:

Reading-  Understands 3^rd Grade Vocabulary & Comprehension

90% and above 4

80%-89% 3

70%-79% 2

69% or below 1  

Fluency- On Grade level in a Guided Reading text and independently Reads a 3^rd Grade Passage  - uses DIBELS score

Writing- 

* Able to develop number notes, simple statements, and a question statement

* Uses correct grammar

* Capitalizes beginning of sentences 

* Capitalizes proper nouns  

  * Uses correct punctuation at end of statements, exclamations, and questions

* Use conventional spelling for high-frequency words  

 

Math- 

We used a percentage from 3 assessments the students have been given this year.  

•  Place Value and Rounding Test
• 2 and 3 digit addition with and without regrouping
• 2 and 3 digit subtraction with and without regrouping

Have a great week!
Mrs. Jodie Yuska

A week of treats

Hopefully, your child does not over do the sugar this week. However, it has been a week full of treats, with multiple birthdays and Halloween. :) 

Our Halloween party was a big success, thank you to everyone who donated, or helped out with our party.  I have added a link to some pictures at the top of our blog with a page called Halloween Party. We were running low on time, so there are not as many pictures as I would have liked. The parade took twice as long as usual, but I am not complaining. I love seeing all the different costumes. If you were able to join us at all on Halloween, you may have noticed minions invaded FMI! Gru and Dr. Nefario weren't to shabby looking either. :)

Meet Ms. Wild- 

     I would like to introduce myself, my name is Pam Wild; I am Mrs. Yuska's student teacher from Mount Mercy University and will be in your child's classroom until December 18th. I am very excited to be working in third grade and in the classroom everyday with your children. I love working in the classroom with students and that is why I decided to go back to school and become a teacher. I have started teaching math already and we have a class project going on, finding out what 1,000 items look like. So, if your child asks you to save pull-tabs from your cans, that is why. 
      I am also a parent; I have 3 children and live in Marion. My son Zach is a junior at Iowa State this year, my daughter Lauren is a senior at Linn Mar High School, and my daughter Elizabeth is in 8th grade at Excelsior Middle School. I am also a pet lover; I have 2 dogs and 1 cat and talk about them often. So, if you hear the names Layla, Simon, or Apollo at home, those are my pets' names.
 

Math- This week students continued to work with their collections of pop tabs. As of Wednesday, we were at 2,160 pop tabs. The kids have decided they would like to continue to collect and see how many they can get while Ms. Wild is here. :) 

Students have also been working with base ten blocks and redistributing different ways to answer story problems with addition and subtraction in story problems. On Wednesday, they reviewed estimating numbers and moved to estimating big numbers by rounding before adding or subtracting. 

Reading- This week we read Kamishibai Man (Ka-Me-She-By Man) by Allen Say. Next week, Ms. Wild will take over reading.

We learn that kamishibai, a traveling 'paper theater', was a well-loved form of entertainment for children in Japan, mainly from the 1930s to the 1950s, when television superceded it.

The Kamishibai Man of this story is called simply Jiichan (jee chan), meaning Grandpa: he belongs to all children who will listen to his stories. His wife is Baachan (bah chan), Grandma; and she too has an important role, but behind the scenes: she makes the sweets that Jiichan hands out to his audience. As the book unfolds, the story shifts from the present to the past and his memories of kamishibai themselves become the theater's storyboards. He takes us, his readers, with him as his audience - until we are jolted back into the present by the shouts from the audience in the story-an audience not of children but of adults remembering their lost childhood. The book explores how things we love but take for granted in our childhood become precious in later years; and the importance of handing down our cultural heritage to future generations. Jiichan returns home at the end of the day, a day which has been caught on film and broadcast via the very medium that brought about the end of kamishibai. With this story, we discussed cause and effect can have a positive and negative result to our culture.
 

Writing- This week used time to catch up and finish different writing samples. This included a paragraph showing how to use a T-chart and color coding our ideas. I will use these as an artifact in their conference folders. Below you will see our wonderful Frankenstein we came up with as a class. I had wanted to type these, but timing didn't quite work out as I had hoped. Sorry!

Somewhere on the way home, Frankie lost and ear. :(

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In a castle on Blood Avenue, lived Frankie Frankenstein. Frankie was covered in green skin. He had red eyes and black hair. Under his chin, two bolts stuck out of his neck and for some odd reason, he seemed to have stitches, which never went away. Frankie might of looked mean, but he was actually quite friendly. Every time Frankie would smile at someone, he would show off his pink braces.

       On Halloween night, Frankie decided to have a party with some of his friends. He invited Wanda the Witch, Bruce the Bat, Walter the Wolf, Patricia a piece of Paper, Doug the Dracula, Sally the Skeleton Archer, Zander the Zombie, Ms. Frankenstein, and of course Riley, the boy who lived next door. At the party, Frankie served all of his favorite foods. There was a table lined up with bones, brains, and various kinds of hands and feet from any trespassers who dare to enter the castle without permission.

       During the party, the guests were all busy dancing to “The Monster Mash,” bobbing for apples, and feasting on all of Frankenstein’s favorite foods, they almost didn’t hear the loud thud at the back door. When Frankenstein went to the back door, the door was open, but no one was there. As he went to turn around he tripped on the Invisible Man and accidentally swallowed Riley. I guess you could say their party ended with a belly of a good time, except maybe for Riley. 

Science- On Monday, Ms. Wild introduced our new science unit called Ideas and Inventions. She talked with the kids about mistakes people made, which were turned into inventions we used. She will continue to not only complete some fun experiments with the kids to try and show them things they an not see with just looking at it, but also dive into different inventors and inventions of past and present. Today, the class discussed rubbings and completed rubbings of different leaf samples. Next week they will continue to discuss rubbings and things they may notice like textures, venation patterns, or seeing things they may not have noticed before the rubbing.

Upcoming dates:

Sunday, November 5th- Daylight Savings Time ends, sleep in an extra hour! :) 
Monday, November 4th- I am at Grant Wood AEA all day for a PBIS meeting 

                                        (Mrs. Bullis and Ms. Wild will be teaching)

Tuesday, November 5th- Picture retakes (please bring packet of pictures in), SuperSkate Night

Wednesday, November 6th- Happy Birthday Noelle and Rebeckah!

Friday, November 8th- No School, teachers will be at school working on report cards. 

Wednesday, November 20th- BIG BLAST PARTY (from our fundraiser)

Thursday, November 21st- 1:15 Dismissal, Conferences 1:30-5:30

Monday, November 25th- Conferences 3:30-7:30

Wednesday, November 27th- Friday, November 29th- No School, Thanksgiving Break

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Jodie Yuska