CES Room 3

This blog's purpose is to keep you informed on the day-to-day happenings of our classroom. It's also a place where you can communicate with me. So please leave a comment, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 31, 2007 13:48 | link | comments |

Homework is sitting here on the reading table.  I got so busy passing out the student photos that I forgot about passing out the homework.  It's a page on finding the area.

We learned that all we have to do to find the area is multiply the length times the width.  That's a lot easier than counting all the squares.  We read a funny fantasy story in our reading book called "Guys from Space" and practiced finding nouns in sentences.  We ended the day by writing about Halloween/Fall. 

Speaking of Halloween, our school wide parade will start at 1:15 and we'll begin our party at the same time.  Thanks to all of you who are working to make it a great one. 

Look for two new book orders that went home tonight. 

See you tomorrow.

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 30, 2007 13:53 | link | comments |

Homework tonight is spelling practice.  Final test will be first thing tomorrow morning.

We read about the Yurok Indians this morning and practiced more perimeters in math.  We went to the library this afternoon and visited the computer room to take AR tests.

Tomorrow's Friday! 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 25, 2007 14:44 | link | comments |

Homework tonight is a page of noun practice.  We learned yesterday that a noun is a person, place, or thing. 

We also spent some time with the Bess beetles and compared and contrasted them with the crayfish by using a Venn diagram.  Ask your child what similarities and differences we discovered.  In math we measured the perimeter of various shapes in inches.

This afternoon we took a reading comprehension test and worked on writing clearer, more interesting sentences. 

See you tomorrow. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 24, 2007 15:00 | link | comments |

Homework tonight is measuring practice.  Third grade students often have a difficult time measuring to the nearest quarter inch.  They need lots of practice and encouragement. 

We learned that the Navajo Indians used the resources of the desert well.  We also read about carnivorous plants and practiced finding nouns in a sentence. 

Tomorrow will compare and contrast the Bess beetles and the crayfish.

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 23, 2007 14:50 | link | comments |

Homework tonight is the usual Monday night fare - spelling.  By the way, thanks to Mrs. Koski for leading a fine craft project on Friday morning. 

Here's this week's spelling words:

himself
afternoon
everything
grandmother
homework
outside
barefoot
bedroom
butterfly
grandfather
everybody
backyard
popcorn
everyone
anyone

Bonus Words:

cologne
competition

We're working on measuring in math.  Today we measured parts of our bodies like arm span and forearms and also various objects in the room.  We practiced estimating first and then used tape measures to get exact measurements in inches and feet.  Tomorrow we'll do the same with the metric system.  Feel free to give your child a tape measure at home and let them measure around the house. 

Have a good night.

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 22, 2007 14:47 | link | comments |

No homework tonight. 

Thanks for the great craft project, Mrs. Distel. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 18, 2007 14:43 | link | comments |

I remembered the homework.  It's a science page of finding similarities and difference between crayfish and other animals.  We hope to soon discover if the crayfish are territorial.  Ask your child how we're going to do that. 

We started a new chapter in math on measurement.  Today we learned why it's important to have a standard unit of measurement.  We created our own standard unit out of our shoe lengths and then measured various objects around the room.  Please make sure your child has a ruler as we're going to be using it a lot in this chapter. 

This afternoon we finished the reading and writing tests. 

I sent home the envelope for pictures tomorrow. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 17, 2007 14:44 | link | comments |

No homework tonight.  I forgot to make copies and not one student was mad. 

We were down to one crayfish but about 12 more arrived today.   They're already in their new homes battling it out.  We'll see who survives the night. 

A lot of testing today.  We tested in social studies, math, and reading.  Your child should sleep well tonight. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 16, 2007 14:53 | link | comments |

Homework tonight is NOT spelling but is a math page.  There's no spelling words this week because it's the sixth week and every sixth week is reading testing time.  We'll be testing comprehension, writing, and grammar.  Look for new spelling words next week.

Besides math we talked about Mexico City's use of resources in social studies and talked a lot about making our writing better.  We read various papers from our writing prompt that we did several weeks ago and discussed what made some papers better than others.  We then brainstormed for our current prompt of "Tell me two things you're good at or getting good at." 

We ended the day finishing up our art project from last Thursday.  That's right we did art! 

Look for a deal for Spokane Chief hockey tickets in a paper that went home today. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 15, 2007 14:45 | link | comments |

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 11, 2007 14:43 | link | comments |

Homework tonight is subtraction practice.  We've been making all the trades first and then subtracting.  You'll notice that we also make a ballpark estimate just like last night's addition. 

We observed the behavior of the crayfish this morning.  Ask your child what kinds of behavior he/she observed.  This afternoon we took a comprehension test and continued to work on making the subjects of our sentences more interesting. 

Whoops!  Homework tonight should have been spelling practice.  Our final test is first thing tomorrow morning.  So, practice those hard spelling words too if you get a chance tonight. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 10, 2007 14:40 | link | comments |

Homework tonight is practicing addition using the partial sums algorithm.  Here's an example of what the work should look like:

   327
+ 258
   500
     70
     15
   585

The "ballpark estimate" should be done first and helps the student know if his answer is in the "ballpark".  There can be several estimates that are acceptable.  For example the ballpark estimates of the above example could be:

300 + 300 = 600
330 + 260 = 590
330 + 250 = 580
330 + 300 = 630
300 + 260 = 560

Some estimates are closer than others but all of them get us in the "ballpark". 

Today we worked on a subtraction algorithm of "Trade First".  We'll practice that one tomorrow night. 

We also talked about recycling, read a story from our reading books, and practiced making the subjects of our sentences clearer. 

See you tomorrow. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 09, 2007 14:44 | link | comments |

Homework tonight is spelling practice.  Here's this week's words: 

bright
might
tight
sight
lights
my
why
fly
dry
sky
visit
picnic
winter
mint
interest

Bonus Words:

beginner
attention

Due to the LID day on Friday, our final spelling test this week will be on Thursday.

We finally looked at the crayfish this morning and studied their structures.  Ask your child what we observed.  We also spent quite a bit of time practicing the partial sums algorithm in math.  I'll have to send a page home tomorrow night because a lot students struggled with it. 

Have a good night. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 08, 2007 14:48 | link | comments |

Homework tonight is spelling practice.  The final test will be tomorrow morning. 

We did learn another graphic organizers in math for story problems involving two quantities and a difference. We learned about natural resources in social studies.   Ask  your child what three different kinds we read about today. 

This afternoon we went to library and wrote about why we hate being sick.  We used some exclamation points to express our strong feelings.

Book orders are due tomorrow. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 04, 2007 14:35 | link | comments |

Today is another math page of story problems.  We used a different graphic organizer to help us record the data and find the answer.  Your child should be able to show you with tonight's homework.

We took a comprehension test this afternoon and finished our writing prompt. 

Book orders are due on Friday. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 03, 2007 14:34 | link | comments |

Homework tonight is a math page of story problems.  We followed a step-by-step procedure for solving story problems.  The steps are:

1.  What do we know?  (write data in the diagram)
2.  What are we trying to find out?  (put a question mark in the diagram)
3.  How do we solve it?  (write a number model)
4.  Write your answer.
5. Does your answer make sense?

We discussed "germination" in science and took a little quiz.  Unfortunately we're down to only three crayfish.  I don't know if we got a diseased batch or if one of them is a deranged killer, but either way we don't have many to study. 

This afternoon we read "Herbie and Annabell" in our reading books and started a writing test.  The test will be scored by all the third grade teachers in our district on the LID day October 12.  We hope that will help us become more consistent in our grading of student writing and to better recognize a "4" paper. 

Have a good night and don't forget tomorrow is a late start.  School starts at 10:00. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 02, 2007 14:42 | link | comments |

Homework tonight is spelling practice.  Here's this week's words:

ranch
bank
thank
began
camping
afraid
trail
nail
aim
Maine
holiday
crayon
spray
today
gray

Bonus Words:

achieve
amphibious (pretty good one!)

We took a flight over our country today using Google Earth and looked at the various regions.  Ask your child what we observed.  We used "function machines" to help us practice addition and subtraction in math. 

This afternoon we talked about the reading skill "cause and effect" and took a pretest in spelling.  I also passed out this month's "Book-It" calendars.  Our goal this month is 300 minutes of reading at home.  We ended the day with a Hike-a-Thon assembly.

Don't forget book orders are due on Friday. 

Posted by: MrSalzano at October 01, 2007 14:48 | link | comments |