Holiday How-to's

The past week we have studied Procedural Reading. These readings are meant to have the reader create or learn how to do something. For example, cookbooks, art crafts, and simple directions are all types of procedural readings. We have learned the various features such as: introduction, materials/supplies/ingredients, steps, transition words, pictures, tips/suggestions, and of course a conclusion.

As we match our reading with our writing, students have written a "How-To" this week on something they consider themselves to be a master at. They wrote using each of these features to teach a person the skill they have mastered. Topics ranged from making brownies to riding a scooter. They have really enjoyed sharing their knowledge.

If you need some extra activities over break below are some crafts to make. See how well you can follow directions and bring your craft in to share in January.

Enjoy!

Winter Crafts

Crafts for Kids

Helping out the Humane Society

To foster our holiday spirit, our class has decided to help out the Jacksonville Humane Society. After discussing different ways the children can help out the community, they voted on helping out this wonderful organization. Students thought the best way to help is to adopt one of these wonderful cats or dogs, but there are many other ways to help out the shelter. We will be delivering all of the collected items on the 17th after school. We would love for the children to meet us there and really understand the impact of giving.

Below is the list taken from the Humane Society website of items they are in need for.

Humane Society

-We accept unopened bags of dog and cat food.
-Circulating fans (20-22 inches in diameter)
-A/C window units
-Misting systems
-Kiddie pools
-Puppy Milk Replacement (Esbilac)
-Kitten Milk Replacement (KMR) in Powder form
-Dog Crates (Medium & Large)
-Kuranda Dog Beds (40x25) (Click the link to donate directly from Kuranda)
-Cat Carriers (Small & Medium)
-Dog/cat Treats
-Cat Toys
-Stainless Steel Food & Water Bowls (small & large)
-Towels
-Blankets (no stuffing) (please no sheets or pillows)
-Paper Towels
-Clorox Bleach
-Dawn Dishwashing Liquid
-Laundry Detergent
-Playtex Rubber Gloves
-Tug-a-Jug Interactive Dog Toys
-Hard Rubber Dog Toys (Kong)
-Heating Pad

-Meaty Bone Flavor Treats (18 oz)
-Lamb Meal & Rice Biscuits (24 oz)
-Milk Bone Crunchy Mar-O-Snacks (24 oz)
-TBonz Filet Mignon Flavor (22 oz)
-Milk Bone Chewy Chicken Drumstix (9 oz)
-Liver Treats Hollywood Stars (4 oz)
-Pup-Peroni Original Beef Recipe (25 oz) List of Needs for Maintenance
-Shovels
-Power Blower
-Lawn Mower
-Weed Eater (w/blade attachments)
-Chain Saws
-Pitch Forks

As you can see they are in need of a wide range of items. We appreciate and are grateful for whatever you can give. Happy Holidays!

Rap Stars are Born

This week the students were taught the various rules for making nouns plural. Students were shown how nouns get an 's, es, or ies.' However, there of course are those tricky oddballs that change completely ( tooth-teeth). The were given a cheat sheet that they glued in their Language Arts folder that explains each rule and provides an example.


Rules:
-most nouns you just add an 's'-apples, cars, students

-nouns that end in 'ch, sh, x,s,ss, or z' add 'es'-brushes, waxes

-nouns ending in consonant+y drop the 'y' and add 'ies'-pennies, nannies

-nouns ending in a vowel+y just add an 's'-toys, plays

Next, Miss Evanko entertained/scared the class when she demonstrated her mad abilities to rap about the rules for making nouns plural. Then, students got to join in the fun. Feel free to rap away all weekend and learn your plural noun rules! Or, get some practice on the website below.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Plural noun game

Matching the correct pair

Student in the Spotlight

Get ready for a new section in our weekly newsletter! Each week we are going to spotlight a different student. This student will be selected based off of their performance during the week. Students can be spotlighted for behaviors, attitude, improvement in grades, showing kindness, respect, and responsibility. We will be looking for great role models and are excited to select our first student. Get ready this week for the first student to be spotlighted! Will it be you?

What's a homophone? Is it a cell phone? Is it expensive?

Homophones are not the newest technology in phones. However, you can get your hands on them very easily! Homophones are very common. These are words that sound the same, but mean different things. Students are aware of many of the homophone pairs/pears yet are not always sure on which/witch one is spelled a certain way/weigh. See what I mean?

As we learn and become more aware of them, below are some AWESOME games and fact sheets to help your child.

Are there/their/they're any you aren't sure of yourself???

Fact sheet that teaches homophones

learn and play games with homophones

Test your homophone skills

Homophone quiz

Jeopardy Homophones

Cause and Effect SNAP SNAP

This week we will work on finding cause and effect relationships in our readings. Every effect is caused by something. As readers, we need to be aware of the causes for the characters actions. This skill aids reading comprehension as it requires students to first think about what is causing the things to happen in a story.

Readers will learn a catchy little tune in class this week. Feel free to sing along..... Remember The Adam's Family Song????

"Cause and Effect SNAP SNAP
Cause and Effect SNAP SNAP
You will know the cause it came first.
It caused the effect to burst.
So read before to learn why.
If you look back the text won't lie!"


The book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie has many examples of cause and effect. We will be watching a DVD this week of this story and recording the examples we find. Be sure you ask your growing reader to find an example of cause and effect in their book.

Cause and Effect practice
Quiz your skills
Which is the best cause and effect?
Matching activity

Happy Monday!

We've got the main idea in our hands!

This week we have been studying how to decide on the main idea of a story. The main idea is often hard for students to grasp as it is not usually stated in a story. Students need to think critically about what everything was about. They were told to look at their hands to help them visualize this process. Their palm is the main idea and their fingers are the supporting details.

For example, if the main idea of a story is that they had a tasty lunch, the 'tasty lunch' is the palm of their hand. Their fingers would be the details that prove and support the good lunch such as: pizza, favorite drink, or whatever makes a good lunch.

Students are asked to find the main idea and supporting details on every reading test. Finding supporting details is a skill that requires them to GO BACK..... GO BACK..... GO BACK into the text. Yes, it takes more time, but is worth finding the correct answer. Encourage your child to discuss the main idea of their readings to you. Ask for details to prove their thinking.

Here are some practice sites for finding the main idea and details in a story. These are great tools for your child to use to help increase their reading comprehension. You can log these stories and they can count for your daily 20 minutes of reading as well.

Finding the Main Idea

Short paragraphs for Main Idea

See you on Monday for Open House!

Subject and verb refresher course

During our Skills Block this week, we have talked about finding the subject and verb (predicate) in a sentence. Any sentence has to have these two parts to be a complete sentence. We spent time looking through the book we studied that day, Saturday and Teacakes. Using reading material students can see and access is the best way to teach them how to use the skills being taught in school.

As they read for the 20 minutes required each night, quiz them! Ask them to find the subject/verb (predicate - rich/delicious vocabulary word) of a sentence. It is extremely important that students are able to find these parts in a sentence as they are expected to write in complete sentences.

Would you like some extra practice? Sure! Here is a great "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" type game they can practice finding the subject/predicate. Enjoy and study for our quiz Friday. :)

Subject and Verb Contest Game

I got a Referral today.....

Don't be surprised if your child comes home saying they got a referral this year. We are busting down on behaviors more severely than ever before. POSITIVE BEHAVIORS though!

Each week we reward a student who has earned a positive referral. We discuss with the class why this child earned this award. Next, it is sent Mrs. Phillips where she reads about the wonderful choices and behaviors the student had demonstrated. What an amazing way to know the 'Big Cheese' of the school is reading about one of our students.

Students can earn these referrals by showing: Self-control, responsibility, respect, kindness, a positive attitude or great improvement.

I bet you never thought you'd be happy to hear the words, "I got a referral today!"

What's your flavor of reading?

Flavor.... One small word but so there are so many options when it comes to flavor. You can go to the store and get just about any flavor of ice cream these days. It really depends on your mood which one stands out to you. Well, in Readers Workshop this week we learned there are MANY flavors of books. In reading, fiction and nonfiction are like the chocolate and vanilla. However, we learned this week there are many more!

Students were exposed to the variety of genres under each fiction and nonfiction. For example, fiction can be broken down to fantasy, realistic fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, mystery. Nonfiction can be broken down into information, autobiography, and biography. Poetry is a special genre of its own though. During the next week we will dip into these flavors more to really figure out which flavor suits us as we may have not tried them all. Students are recommended to make sure they are getting a variety of these flavors each week to make sure they don't get bored. Perhaps this week they may find they have a new favorite.......

Practice your new reading skills!

Reading Genre Quiz

Welcome to our Garden of Learning

Are you ready to grow? We know that our 3rd Graders sure are! It was so refreshing for us to see such smiling and eager faces enter the class today and greet us. We were amazed on how friendly, kind, and excited everyone was to meet each other. What a fabulous orientation we had and we look forward to getting to know each of our little seeds better so that you can grow into a beautiful, intelligent flower. Everyone was a bit nervous but the laughs were heard all around the room. Also, thank you parents for taking time to attend and introduce yourself to us.

Just a few reminders for parents:

-Please return all papers and supplies in the folder you received today as soon as possible

-We are asking you bring one reusable bag for your child to store their books in they will use for daily readings. - Prepayments for lunch begin the 31st. Send in a daily amount with your child in a labeled bag/envelope with their first/last name.

- Your child will be receiving their Chets Creek t-shirt on Monday. Please have them wear it Tuesday.

-Read through the Connection and our Newsletter for important upcoming dates.

We will see you bright and early at 9am on Monday to begin the year! Let's make it a great one.

A final farewell!

Tear, tear, tear....It is that time again! As school has come to an end we were all full of emotions: sadness, joy, excitement...well mostly sadness for Mrs. Tsengas and I! There were tears sweeping all over the classroom as some of us part for the first time in 2 years. It has been an amazing journey for all of us. Many of you have been a part of our class for 2 yrs now and we have all grown into a very close family. You will all do fabulous next year and I am SO PROUD of each one of you. I have loved being able to see you grow and develop.

Have a safe and thrilling summer. Don't forget to keep up the phenomenal reading. Here is a link to suggested summer reading books as well.

Summer Reading Books

Remember to always keep in touch and stop by and visit next year!

Writing our Book Response

As we have been busy writing our responses to Bill Peet books, we learned the strong parts in every paragraph: A topic sentence, reasons, details/support from the story, and a concluding sentence. Below is a group work activity we did to capture each part before independently working.

Each group was given one part of a strong paragraph. In their groups, they were to create an example of what it would look like. For example, the 'topic sentence' group had to create a topic sentence...etc. Students need to be actively involved in writing lessons to ensure they fully understand. Plus, it is a great way for them to help and learn tools and skills from each other.

Excellent group work class!

Figurative Language

How do you add some spice to your writing? Well, this week students have learned how to add different types of figurative language into their writing response. Figurative Language is the use of words that go beyond their ordinary meaning. It requires you to use your imagination to figure out the author's meaning. We have noticed Bill Peet uses many types of this language in his books. This type of language is more humorous and adds life to his stories. Authors use this language to engage the reader. Therefore, students were challenged this week to do the same as great writers learn from what they read! Below are common types we discussed in class.

Simile
A simile uses the words “like” or “as”to compare one object or idea with another to suggest they are alike.Example: busy as a bee

Metaphor
The metaphor states a fact or draws a verbal picture by the use of comparison.A simile would say you are like something; a metaphor is more positive - it says you are something.Example: You are what you eat.

Personification
A figure of speech in which human characteristics are given to an animal or an object. Example: The rain screamed down the window.

Alliteration
The repetition of the same initial letter, sound, or group of sounds in a series of words.Alliteration includes tongue twisters. Example: She sells seashells by the seashore.

Onomatopoeia
The use of a word to describe or imitate a natural sound or the sound made by an object or an action. Example: snap crackle pop

Hyperbole
An exaggeration that is so dramatic that no one would believe the statement is true.Tall tales are hyperboles.Example: He was so hungry, he ate that whole cornfield for lunch, stalks and all.

Idioms
A group of words that have a meaning that is different from its ordinary meaning. Example: Put a lid on it! Means-be quiet.

Cliche
A cliché is an expression that has been used so often that it has become trite and sometimes boring. Example: Many hands make light work.

Practice your skills and test your knowledge of these great tools to add to your writing!

Figurative Language Quiz

Relating to the World

During our author study on Bill Peet, we have been reading many of this stories and seeing the connections between not only his stories, but our lives as well. Despite the fact many of his books are fantasy fiction stories, we learned how to relate the feelings, situations, and experiences to our lives and the world around us.

In a recent lesson we studied how to make a text-to-world connection. Text-to-world connections are made when readers relate topics or situations in a book that they know from the world around them through things from the television, movies, magazines, and newspapers. An example of a text-to-world connection would be when a reader says, "I saw a program on television that talked about things described in this book."

Text-to-world:What does this remind me of in the real world?How is this text similar to things that happen in the real world? How is this different from things that happen in the real world? How did that part relate to the world around me?

Here are some sample paragraphs relating a Bill Peet book of their choice to the world!

The writer related to idea that many people farm in the world just how the make believe dragon Doofus did.

The writer related to the problem of pollution that the fantasy story mentioned. The writer gave details and supported her idea with specific references to the text.

The last writer made a text-to-world connection with the story Ella. The writer discussed the similar events in the world such as the circus and trains. Next, the writer connected to the feelings people can have that were similar to the character's feelings.

Keep up the superb connections young writers!

Vivid Vocabulary

Our room has been bursting with new and advanced vocabulary words lately. Students have been challenged to apply all the recent words we have learned from our last read aloud, Bunnicula.

During each reading, we would stop, predict, and search for clues for those unknown words. This skill is VITAL in their vocabulary development as well as reading comprehension. As students reach higher reading levels, it is up to them to stop and decide the meaning of unknown words. Often, students will read right over them and keep on going. As a result, they end up missing part of the story or this affects their comprehension of the plot.

Each day as we read, we'd make sure to signal if we heard a word we weren't sure on. They learned the fact that not knowing what a word means does NOT mean you have to be embarrassed. There should be about 2-3 unknown words per page if the book they are reading is a 'just right' book.

A common game we have started to play is called, "I have.....who has?" During this game, students are given a card with a vocabulary word on each side. A student first describes the word. Another child in the class has that match and says, "I have..."and then they say the word. Next, they flip their card and ask, "Who has the word that means...." and describe the other word.

For example, if I had a card that had the word "tranquil" and "obliged". I would respond when someone asked, "Who has the word that means peaceful?" I would respond, "I have tranquil. Who has the word that means thankful?" Finally, the child who had obliged would answer, "I have obliged. Who has...and so on and so on. The students LOVE getting active practice seeing, applying, and forming clues with these words. Check the newsletter weekly for the new words we are learning and play some, "Who has..... I have" yourself!

Meet Bill Peet!

"I drew for hours at a time just for the fun of it, and yet I was hoping to find some practical reason to draw for the rest of my life. But when I entered grade school, my drawing habit suddenly became a problem." Bill Peet

Today we began a new author study on Bill Peet. We learned many exciting facts about his life and style of writing by exploring his books today. During our author study we will examine his special crafts, techniques, reoccurring trends, and themes.

Have you ever seen any of these movies?
The films listed below are movies were Bill Peet did storyboards for.

THE SWORD AND THE STONE
101 DALMATIANS
SLEEPING BEAUTY
PETER PAN
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
CINDERELLA
SONG OF THE SOUTH
DUMBO
FANTASIA
PINOCCHIO
JUNGLE BOOK

Find out more about this talented man at his website below!

Bill Peet's Website

Here we come to rock the FCAT!

Be confident! You can do it!


This week students will take the Reading the Math FCAT test. Reading will be Tuesday and Wednesday for 60 minutes. Math will be given on Thursday for also 60 minutes. Students are ready to prove just how well equip they are with plenty of reading and math strategies. Mrs. Tsengas and I are so proud of every student this year and we know you all will do fabulous!

Below are some tips and suggestions just to calm and reassure your child, and yourself, about what to do the days prior to testing.

*Encourage your child and pump them up about how well they are going to do. A positive outlook helps children do their best.

*Arrive at school early or on-time.
*Make sure that your child is well rested and eats a good nourishing breakfast. Thank you for the parents who have donated animal crackers, small candies, granola bars and juice as a nice way to refresh before the test begins. We appreciate your generosity!
*Give your child a well-rounded diet. This will help ensure a healthy body and a healthy, active mind. Try not to throw off their regular diet on these days.
* Realize that your child may seem more tired than usual after each day of testing.
*Help your child de-stress by reading a simple book to them before bedtime. Children STILL benefit from being read to nightly. :)
* Express your support and confidence in your child to do well on FCAT. Slip a positive note to them in their lunchbox or backpack. Small gestures really do go the farthest.
*Help your child understand that testing is a part of the instructional process, and there is nothing to be feared.

PARENTS, STUDENTS, AND TEACHERS: Take several deep breaths and try to be calm. Remember it is only a test and all the hard work and studying has already been done!

Language Arts Skill Practice

Each week we focus on a different Language Arts skill. These skills can range from punctuation marks, homophones, word choice, parts of speech and verb tenses. Knowing these basic skills is a direct transfer into their writings. Skill practice sheets and quizzes are usually on pink paper to help keep students organized throughout the week.

One suggestion is to review these sheets weekly with your child. Ask them questions about what they learned and where they see examples of these skills in their nightly readings. For extra practice, I have a great website where you can search the topic and view various games to enhance your child's grades.

Skill Games

Just type in the topic, such as, "commas" and the results will show up in seconds!

I hope you enjoy this great resource. :)

Florida Achieves...YOU ACHIEVE!

Are you ready to sharpen up your reading comprehension and language arts skills? I HOPE SO! This is the FOCUS website. First, go to http://www.florida-achieves.com/, log in to the FOCUS side of the website (the right side).

Your sign in name will be your last name and first initial (For example, if your name is John Smith, your sign in would be smithj)

Once you have your sign in, enter your password which is the number 16, the first four letters of your last name and your birthday month, then year. (For example John Smith, born on January 1st would have the password of 16smit0101)

Once you have logged in, you can choose any link to work on. These assignments align with topics and skills we have gone over in class. They all build reading comprehension. Also, the reading skills correlate with the types of questions on weekly reading tests and on the FCAT.

Don't forget FCAT night is Tuesday, Jan. 26th from 7-8. It will be held in the Media Center. Please come to be well informed on this important test. General information will be presented along with tips and suggestions to help your child.

See you there!