ScootPad Directions

I'm sending home directions for your child to use this website at home. I've set up activities so your child can improve their reading and math concepts. We're using the program here at school too. Here's a photo of the directions that should be in your child's folder today.

Math News

Last week, the students learned about probability. This week we've been learning about plane shapes. We've been talking about sides, angles, square corners and vertices. The students reviewed square, triangle, rectangle and circle. They also learned about hexagon, trapezoid, and parallelogram. With the pattern blocks they student learned which shapes can make trapezoids, parallelograms, and hexagons. They loved exploring new shapes with the pattern blocks. We will have a test tomorrow on planes shapes. Check out some of the shapes we made with triangles and parallelograms.

Matter Changes

We've been learning about how matter changes. On Wednesday morning we put water in a plastic container and drew a black line to show the water level. We put the container in the freezer and then looked at the container at science time. The students noticed that the water turned to ice and when we drew the red line we noticed that the water expanded. We had a great discussion on how water changes.
We talked about evaporation and condensation too. The students washed their desk tops and noticed that in about 1 minutes the wet surface was dry. They watched the water evaporate into the air. Our next activity was to see condensation so we added ice cubes to the blue water and waited for the glass to "sweat". We had a lot of great discussions about how water changes from a solid to a liquid and to a gas.

Xtramath News

Congratulations to Liam for completing subtraction in Xtramath!

Science News

We are learning about how matter changes. We made lemonade today and watched a powder dissolve into the liquid. We also took cereal, mini marshmallows, pretzels, and chocolate chips and made a mixture. We looked at what happened to the pieces after we stirred them together. Everyone enjoyed the snack and they loved learning about how matter changes!

Prism Projects

Many students have worked really hard on their Prism Projects. They'll be checked to see if they have everything they need. Often students forget to add the paragraph that tells what they learned from the project. They will be on display on Thursday, February 21st.
Check these out!

President's Day

We've been learning about President's Day and talking about what traits make a good president. The students wrote an opinion paper about why they would be a good president. A few students made a campaign promise that I'm not sure they can fulfill. It was a fun writing activity. Check out their work.

Math Test Tomorrow & Pizza Lunch

We have been learning about calendars and students need to know how to write the date correctly. I sent home the review sheets today.
We'll be having Papa John's Pizza tomorrow too.
After lunch, we'll be decorating our Valentine boxes!

Magic House 2013

I hope you enjoy our video!  Magic House 2013

Science News

We've been learning about solids, liquids and gases. The students enjoyed our activity today as we learned about gases. We wanted to prove that gas takes up space and has mass. We measured balloons without air. Then we blew up the balloons and measured again. When we used the balance scales and unifix cubes it didn't show any difference, so we measured again using beans. We know from an earlier experience that the beans weigh 1 gram. We measured the flat balloons and they weighed the same as 12 beans. Then we blew up the balloons and the balloons weighed the same as 14 beans. We learned the gas in the balloon made the balloon weigh just a little more - 2 grams.

Telling Time

The students have been working hard as they learned to tell time. Students are able to tell time to 5 minute intervals. The telling time test will be coming home tomorrow. We are continuing our study of time and learning about calendars.
A special thanks to Mrs. Stanton for sending in a telling time bingo. The students have enjoyed some of the telling time apps on the iPads too. I know students see a lot of digital clocks so it's important to practice telling time on an analog clock.

Xtramath News

Congratulations to Kai and Brian for completing division in Xtramath. Wow, that's absolutely amazing! I'm so proud of your hard work. Your 3rd grade teachers are going to be so excited too.