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With the Packer victory last night my record now stands at 6-1! Next week's game is going to be much tougher though - Bucs vs. Colts.
In class today we started our SOAR tests after our math lessons. We finished two verbals tests and the students felt pretty good about their performance. Tomorrow we'll do the last verbal test and start the first of three non-verbal tests. Before the tests we learned about another help in doing story problems. We practiced using the "Change Diagram Box" to help us do the type of problems where there is a beginning amount and an ending amount. You'll see what I mean in tonight's math homework page. I hope it will be helpful.
Mrs. Florko will describe our afternoon:
During our read aloud today we started coloring the characters from James and the Giant Peach that we will be using for our art project on Friday. We will be making a small mobile and cutting them out and coloring them to display on Friday. After the read aloud we took our social studies test together as a class. We read the directions and had the student answer the questions themselves. We did the last question which was an essay together as a class. After recess Mr. Salzman came in and talked to the class about tattling and how we could fix our own problems in and out of the classroom. To close the day we ended with a quick spelling review by doing a crossword puzzle on the board.
For homework tonight we gave a math page to review their math routine this morning. It shouldn't take too long to finish.We also handed out an internet and media release form that your child needs to have back by Friday Oct 3rd. Don't forget book orders are due by Friday also.
Have a great night!
How 'bout that shocking performance by the Cougars this weekend? Is it too early to mention the words "Rose Bowl"? They look awfully good so far...next week is the coachless Arizona Wildcats.
Tonight's Monday Night game pits the Packers at the Bears. Neither team is off to a hot start, but at least the Packers have the potential to finish strong, so I'll take the Packers tonight and hope to improve my record to 6-1.
Today at school we started the morning, as usual, with math. We worked on the parts-total diagram box to help us solve those always tough story problems. We also passed out a "Guideline to Story Problems" paper to keep in our notebooks that should also be of help. Tomorrow we will continue working on story problems with the help of another diagram box.
After reading time, we filled out the first test form for SOAR testing that begins tomorrow. Please see the little half sheet that should be in your child's notebook that will give you some more details. We also sent home our first Scholastic book order of the year. The orders, which are optional, will be due on Friday but may be turned in beginning tomorrow.
I'll let Mrs. Florko tell you about the afternoon:
We continued our reading aloud today and finished 3 more chapters. The students are really paying attention to the book, and really sem to like the story. For social studies we started our rough drafts for our "Environmental Postcards" we are making to share with the other 3rd grade class.Today we began the letter by brainstorming our environment, and writing 3 descriptive sentences that described the environment. Some students finished and others will continue editing tomorrow.
After social studies we took our spelling pretest on the short "a" and long "a" sounds. Their homework tonight is the spelling worksheet, and they are supposed to correct the misspelled words with their parents by using corrections marks to show me they did the homework. Parents can also sign the paper showing me it was completed.We are doing the homework box every Friday before first recess for students who bring back all their homework thoughout the week. This has show some positive reinforcement for a lot of the class and has peaked and interest in completing their assignments each night.
One more reminder to parents is that our snack cupboard is becoming bare. If anyone can send in a snack for the class ( 25 students) it would be greatly appreciated!!
Have a good evening!
We enjoyed our Friday. You'll notice that I added two new links to our "links" box to go along with the second project we added to our math curriculum for Fridays. Not only do we determine the length of daylight each Friday, but starting today we found the difference in temperature between the hottest and coldest U.S. cities (excluding Alaska and Hawaii). Today, for example, the hottest U.S. city (on Thursday actually) was Death Valley, CA with a temp of 113 degrees, and the coldest was Bondurant, WY at 20 degrees. Several of the students successfully determined the difference was 93 degrees. We then went to MapQuest (see the link) and found the exact location of each city.
We also enjoyed our Time for Kids magazine and highlighted "when" words as well as had a good discussion about hurricanes. The morning ended with the final spelling test...in fact, thanks to Mrs. Florko, they are already corrected and back in your child's notebook.
This afternoon we celebrated our great start to the year and finishing the book The Lion, the Wtich, and the Wardrobe by watching the animated version of the story. After the exciting movie we celebrated Jeff's birthday (have fun at Safeco on Saturday night, Jeff) and met Brent's new dog and bird.
The undefeated Seahawks have a bye this weekend, so I guess my record of 5-1 will stay intact until Monday night. Unfortunately I'll miss the Cougar game on Saturday...Anyone care to make a prediction?
Have a super weekend!
For math this morning we used the "function machine" for the first time to help us practice our addition and subtraction. The function machine adds one more step of problem solving as well. We ended the morning with writing practice. We used how, where, when and why words to make our sentences more interesting. For example I wrote the "barebones" sentence "The leaves fell, " on the board. The students, like Jeff, then used what we have learned and turned it into a sentence like this: The leaves fell like crazy on the ground after I woke up. Much better wouldn't you say?
Mrs. Florko did the rest of the subjects, so, once again, here's Mrs. Florko to tell you about it:
For reading today we learned how to read a picture essay by using the captions, labels and callouts to help us identify the main idea of the story. The picture essay was all about horses and we used the captions and labels to identify charactersitics of different horses. The class also found some similarities between the story we read yesterday and today and made a T chart to show these.
After we came back from lunch we started a new read aloud book entitled James and the Giant Peach and the class was pretty excited, although most have already seen the movie. I expect the book to be much better though!
For social studies today we finsihed our last lesson in our environment chapter on "Outer Banks"
We learned aboud islands, hurricanes, tornado's and blizzards. We also discussed how these elements can change and environment very quickly, unlike the canyon lands that change slowly overtime.
To end the day we practiced a little more for our Spelling Test tomorrow morning. I think almost everyone is ready to go! Tonights homework is a spelling page where they proofread and write the paragraph, and find two spelling mistakes. They are also supposed to use proof reading marks to correct the mistakes.
We're looking forward to Friday. Have a good night.
I watched the bitter end of the Mariner's game and season last night. It was an exciting game that I thought the Mariners were going to win. With their loss the M's knew the A's had just clinched the West and also realized that the Red Sox have to only win one of theri last 4 games to send the M's home for the postseason once again. I think I'll jump on the Twins bandwagon for the playoffs, although I have to admit that I've always liked the Yankees.
Things got a little tougher this morning for math. We talked about extending the basic facts. Rather than give an example here, I'll refer you to tonight's math homework page. It was a pretty difficult concept for quite a few students to grasp, so if your child struggles with the homework page please cut it a little short. Since we got interupted for pictures, the only other subject we got done this morning was reading.
I'll let Mrs. Florko tell you about the rest of the day:
Today in reading we reviewed the story from yesterday called, " Born to Rope" by going over some comprehension questions from the story. Reading was cut short due to pictures and we had to stop for PE at 11am. After lunch we started the social studies lesson on canyonlands. We read about the new environment and learned how canyons were formed (water, wind), and we wrapped it up by discussing how environments change slowly over time.
For spelling today we played a fun game of "Around the World." Each student had a chance to read a sentence and fill in the missing spelling word that was on the board. They had their backs facing away from the white board and when I said "go" they answered the question. It turned out to be a lot of fun and the class really enjoyed it. My goal was to try something new where they could hear and see the words out loud and used in a sentence and it worked well.
Well said, Mrs. Florko. Have a good night, everybody.
Thanks to an outstanding performance by the Broncos last night my record is now 5-1. You'll also notice that I've added a new link for the sports fans out there. It's a great page for getting the latest scores fast.
In math today we practiced addition and subtraction facts by using fact families or fact triangles. You'll see what we did when you do tonight's math homework page. In reading we read a story from our reading book called "Born to Rope" and Mrs. Florko will discuss with the students tomorrow. We ended the morning by adding the "why" triangle to our sentences. So instead of writing: "The boy practiced." We now write: "The boy practiced so that he would be ready for the show."
This afternoon we cut our various pictures of animals and put them into the correct classification group. The students did a great job of identifying the traits for each group. We ended the day with more spelling practice from Mrs. Florko. Don't forget that tomorrow is Picture Day.
Have a good evening.
Well, well, I'm now a very respectful 4-1 on my Seahawks/MNF picks! Thanks of course to fine effort from our new and improved Seahawks. That was the first time in a long time (maybe a decade!) that I was actually standing on my feet to watch the end of a Seahawk's game. The Mariners brought me to my feet on Friday and Saturday, but laid me low on Sunday. It's almost over for our M's.
Tonight it's the nasty Raiders and Broncos. Now to be honest, I've never liked either team. I know the Raiders have a great record on Monday night and I'm not sure Plummer is healthy. But, I guess I'll plug my nose and take the Broncos at home.
Meanwhile back at school, we did our usual work today. We did take our first math test of the year, and I'm glad to report that the scores look great. In reading we talked about understanding the author's purpose and will practice more tomorrow. We ended the morning by writing even more interesting sentences by adding "when" words.
This afternoon Mrs. Florko talked about the environment of the Rocky Mountains and then did the spelling pretest with the students. Tonight's homework is, of course, to correct the prestest with your child and begin practicing the words that were missed.
Have a good MNF evening.
We're having a good Friday here at Chattaroy Elementary. We started our Sunrise, Sunset graph today (see the new link to the left) in math. Every Friday we will enter and graph the data for our local sunrise/sunset and then (here's the hard part) determine the amount of daylight in hours and minutes. There's a lot of great learning that takes place to find the anwer (telling time, a.m./p.m., subtraction, graphing). By the way there's 12 hours and 24 minutes of daylight today.
We also enjoyed our Time For Kids magazine and took our final test in spelling.
This afternoon Mrs. Florko will lead us in a drawing lesson and then direct our Show-n-Tell time.
I hope everyone has a good weekend. The Seahawks are playing the Rams in Seattle. Brent, from our room, is going over for the game and is rooting for the Rams. I hate to disappoint Brent, but the Seahawks are going to beat his beloved Rams. He should enjoy the new stadium though...it really is beautiful. I haven't seen a game in it yet, but I did get a nice tour of it and that view to the north is incredible...the tall scoreboard and the Seattle Skyline behind it. I'll have to get over for a game when my boys get a little older. On the baseball scene, will the Mariners even win a game at Oakland
There is another change in the "links" section (there's actually two changes, but I'll alert you to the other one in October). You'll notice that the first entry now is a "Contact me!" link. If you click on it it should bring up your mail program so that your're ready to send off an e-mail to me. If you have questions or comments that you would not feel comfortable posting on our public comment page, then please click on "Contact me!"
Since tonight is Open House I won't blog much. I'll wait to see you tonight and fill you in on the details. I will let you know that tonight's homework is a spelling practice page.
I hope to see you later. The room will be open from 6:30 to 7:30 with my presentation scheduled for 6:50.
I want you to notice that I added a new link to our math text under "links" on the left When you get to the page click on "Lesson Links" on the left panel, then click on the third grade workbook, and you'll get to a site full of math games for your child to play (they are even organized by units...we're currently in unit 1).
For math today we continued to practice money by pretending to buy three different items and then compute the change with a calculator. We also discussed the importance of estimating and how often we use it. If you would like some more money practice check out the money game at the math website. We took a comprehension test over the story we read yesterday in reading, and then ended the morning with more sentence practice.
This afternoon we started learning about environments. We learned that the word environment means "everything around you." The first environment we looked closely at was the Everglades. Your child should be able to tell you a couple of ways that the Everglades is different than our environment in Chattaroy. We ended the day with Mrs. Florko and spelling practice. Homework tonight is more math practice. Enjoy!
Don't forget Open House is tomorrow night 
(see the note that went home tonight for more details.) Enjoy your evening (don't ruin it by watching the Mariners!).
My win streak has come to an end, 
but I'm glad it did 
. It was a great football game and my Cowboys pulled it out in an exciting overtime. I'm glad to be 3-1.
At school today we started with our math and reviewed how to write, show, and compare money. During reading we enjoyed James Marshall's version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We drew some conclusions from the story and talked about using synonyms to help us understand new words. We ended the morning by adding "how" words to our sentences to make them more interesting.
This afternoon we talked about how scientist classify all animals into two groups (backbone and no-backbone). We saw that there a lot more no-backbone animals in the world than backbones. After science Mrs. Florko led the class in some spelling/phonics practice. Tonight's homework is math Home Link 1.8. You'll need a deck of cards or some dice to complete the page.
I hope eveyone has a good night. Can we put a fork in the Mariners yet? 
We made it through Monday. I think the fair might have worn us out. Anyway, in math today we learned how to used our calculators to skip count and to solve number puzzles. For reading we discussed drawing conclusions from the facts the author gives us. For example if the author tells us that the boy in the story put on a coat and made a fire we can draw the conclusion that the weather outside is cold. We ended the morning with more sentence practice.
During the afternoon we cut out our world maps and glued them on to black paper. We hope to have them up out in the hall for your viewing pleasure Thursday night. We ended the day with spelling (Mrs. Florko is now doing the spelling lessons). Tonight's homework is to correct the spelling prestest and begin practicing the words that were missed. Please remember it's okay if your child missed quite a few on the prestest because they haven't had a chance to practice them. In fact the purpose of the pretest is to alert each student to the words they need to spend time practicing during the week.
As I'm sure you're all aware I'm now 3-0 on my football picks. It looks like the Seahawks might be for real finally. Tonight it's the Giants and Cowboys. Now when I was a little boy my favorite team was the Cowboys...I still miss that Cowboys beanie I use to wear on those semi-cold days in Richland. But to keep my win streak in tack, I'm going to have to go against my 'boys and pick the Giants.
Have a good Monday Night.
We had a nice end to the week. After finding the difference between two numbers on a hundred's chart, we read our first issue of Time for Kids. You and your child can check out their website (see our "links") anytime. It's an attractive magazine with interesting articles...check out this week's issue in your child's notebook. Next week we'll begin using our highlighter to locate who, what, where, when, and why words. We ended the morning with our first final test in spelling.
Watercolor painting was the highlight of the afternoon. We located the continents and oceans on a world map and then watercolored it. When you come to Open House next Thursday, make sure you look for your child's beautiful creation on our hallway bulletin board.
I hope everyone has a good weekend. The Seahawks play the Cardinals in Arizona. I'm picking the Hawks to start the year 2-0. By the way no homework on the weekends of course! 
Sorry, I had a meeting after school and don't have time to blog today. Homework tonight is a spelling page for practice on tomorrow's first final test.
Have a good evening.
There's a lot to write about today besides the usual curriculum stuff. Let me start off with an important letter that went home with your child. Make sure you check your child's notebook and find the green letter from our new principal, Mrs. Rowse. The letter concerns the addition of a new third grade classroom to be housed at Riverside Elementary. We're asking for volunteers who would like to be a part of the new classsroom. Please fill out the bottom portion of the letter and send it back to school with your child as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please call one of the numbers listed on the letter.
Next I wanted to let you know that we now have a student teacher in our classroom. Her name is Mrs. Barrie Florco (I hope I spelled her name right 
). She is a student at EWU who lives with her husband and 4 year old boy in Deer Park. She'll be with us until Thanksgiving and you'll get a chance to meet her next Thursday at Open House.
In the classroom today we made a tally chart and graph of our first and last names. Your child can continue practicing that skill tonight with the math homework page (See the Home Links page in your child's notebook). We discussed some comprehension questions in reading today and also practiced identifying nouns and verbs in sentences.
This afternoon we talked about locating directions on a map by using the map's compass rose. We also identified the continents and oceans. This Friday we hope to water color and label a map of our world. We ended the day with some spelling practice.
Have a good night 
!
Well, I'm sure you noticed that I'm now 2-0 on my football picks. It's going to be a great year!
On the school front, we had another productive day. We started with our usual math lesson and practiced telling time to the nearest 5 minute and even practiced some measuring. Tonight's homework is our first Math Links page (Math Links 1.4). After math we read our first story out of our reading book entitled "How I Spent My Summer Vacation." We enjoyed the story and practiced fluency. Each student also wrote a little story about where they would like to go if they could go anywhere for summer vacation.
This afternoon we introduced our science unit of animals by reading a little blurb about pandas. We discussed some reasons why they are endangered and colored a little picture of one. We finished off the day by practicing our spelling words.
Have a good night.
It was a busy Monday. We started our morning in the usual way with math. We took some time to explore our Math Reference books and learned how useful they will be to us throughout the year. We also played a couple of fun, educational math games (Addition Top-It and Less Than You). After math we did our first lesson out of our new reading series. (Notice the previous words are a link to our new series web page. Also notice the "links" sections to the left). We talked about noticing the sequence of a story by the order words the author uses. We also practiced writing sentences making sure we used capitals, ending marks, and had complete thoughts.
This afternoon we learned how to use symbols and a map key to make drawing maps easier. We then ended our day with our first spelling pretest. I emphasized to the students that pretests help us to see what words we need to practice before Friday's final test. Tonight's homework is to correct the pretest and begin practing the words that were missed. (See the bottom of the student page for more instructions. It should be in their notebooks behind their spelling divider).
Have a good Monday Night Football evening! (I'll take the world champs to start the new season off with a victory. Was I right with the Seahawks yesterday?)
We had a good first Friday. We used our hundreds chart to add and subtract numbers. We also finished our reading placement tests.
After some show and tell, we went to an assembly and met our new principal, Mrs. Rowse. There are a bunch of new students in our school as well as several new teachers. I think we're in for a good year.
Don't forget to leave me a comment sometime. Enjoy the first weekend of the NFL season. The Seahawks will be playing the Saints. I'll take the Hawks to start their season with a win.
On day two we started some curriculum. This morning we did our first math lesson. We discussed various kinds of numbers (whole, fractions, decimals, and negative) and we put them into four different categories (counting, measuring, codes, and reference frames). It was just an introduction so don't be surprised if your child can accurately define a fraction or a negative number!
We finished the moring by taking several placement tests in reading and trying our hand at some writing. We wrote some sentences about our favorite part of summer, our favorite game or activity, and our favorite animal or pet. I'm glad to report that I saw several well-written sentences.
This afternoon after reading a chapter from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, we did our first social studies lesson. We start off each year learning about maps. Today we learned that a map is drawn from the perspective of above like a person in a hot air balloon. We learned that not everything we can see has to be included in a map. We don't have to draw objects that move or are too small to be recognized. We even practiced drawing a map on a worksheet page that should now be in their notebooks. I haven't assigned any homework yet, but if you're looking for something to do tonight then drawing a map together would fit in perfectly.
I hope you all have a good night, and go Mariners!
Congratulations! You've found our blog. I hope this website we'll be of use to you. At the bottom of this post you'll notice the word "comments." Just click it and another page will pop up where you can leave a public message. I'll try to check the comments nightly and respond as soon as possible. Do take note that everybody will be able to read your post, so if you have a message for me that is more on the private side please send me an e-mail at salzanoh@riversidesd.org.
Our first day went well. We have a full house, but the students were well-behaved and happy. We spent most of the day going over all sorts of rules and procedures. We played a name game to help us meet some of the new students. There are also a ton of papers for you to see in your child's new notebook.
Have a good night and leave me a comment sometime.
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