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If you find yourself climbing the walls on Monday due to the impending storm, check out this website that is a companion to our math program! Pearson Successnet! I have created a login username and password for each student in room 313. (see below for your child's log in and password) Once your child is logged in, there are preloaded tests, tutorials, and games for students to complete. Everytime your child logs in and completes an assigned task, I will receive a notification via email. For now, all students have been assigned the same activities. However, once we are all familiar with the site, I will assign different activities based on each students needs and abilities.
Pearson Successnet is a wonderful tool to help reinforce the math concepts that we are learning in class and a fun and interactive way for your child to build math fluency. The tutorials are especially helpful if your child is struggling with a new concept or perhaps needs some support with a concept taught previously. My own daughter tried out the site tonight and I was most impressed with her thought process and test taking strategies. Speaking from a parent's perspective, it's quite interesting to see how she processed her thoughts and eliminated answers. Feel free to have conversations as to how they came to choose the answer they did and how they might possible narrow down thier choices. One last bit of advice, I recommend having a scrap piece of paper and a pencil handy for students to use to work out their math problems. Don't take my word for it, check out the site for yourself and ask your child to start tomorrow! Hoping you have an uneventful, Mellow Monday! STAY SAFE and enjoy some Hurricane Homework! Pearsonsuccessnet Each student has a login username: last name, first initial and 22 (year they graduate) password: memorial22 Example for Riley Webster: username: websterr22 password: memorial22 Let me know if you have any difficulty logging in! Coming Soon: Beginning on November 1st, I will also be introducing students to another POPULAR math website, IXL . We will begin to use both websites at school and I strongly encourage you to allow your child to utilize these websites at home. I will be adding both website links to this website for you to access at your leisure. IXL offers a 30 day FREE membership to teachers for their students. November is a month full of 1/2 Days and Days off, it's the perfect time to try out this website to keep the students engaged in learning, even when they are not at school. Stay tuned: I will post students username and password for IXL on Nov. 1st! Dear Families,
We had so many exciting things happen this week it was hard to decide exactly what to write about. Mrs. Webster made an executive decision... we worked together as a class to share our favorite memory or the HIGHLIGHT of the week. Read below to find out more about our lives in the "oval office". What was your best memory (seed story) or the highlight of the week ending 10/26? #1 - "Seeing how the Wampanoags ate by cooking over a fire. One Wampanoag was eating mussels." Field Trip #2 - " I think the highlight of the week was making our pilgrim hat's and choosing our names" Social Studies #3 - " I am getting ready for math MCAS by underlining key words and showing all my work." Math #4 - "Ooh aaah, said the class when we saw the new SMARTboard. We used it to practice cursive." Classroom #5 - "I got Principal's Pride this week for my tree house story." Writing #6 - "I read One Hundred Dresses with Mrs. Jokela. From the book I learned that Wanda sat in the back corner." Reading/Daily 5/ Book Club #7 - "Picture Day because everyone got their pictures teaken in the library on the second floor." Special Program #8 - "I read a book called One Hundred Dresses. We read the first chapter. We learned that Wanda sits in the last row in her classroom and we're trying to find out why." Reading/Daily 5/ Book Club #9 - "My favorite part of the week was getting the brand new SMARTboard 800 mounted to the wall." Classroom #10" - "We did a non-fiction text scavenger hunt. I searched for italics, or bold words in a non-fiction text. I found them in the book American Revolution." Reading #11 - " I think that the highlight of this week was the field trip, my favorite part was having to do the scavenger hunt and my group finished it." Field Trip #12-"I learned that my assigned character, Katherine Carver, died in the 1st winter while at Plimoth Plantation. She was a Pilgrim woman who came over on the Mayflower" Social Studies & Field Trip #13 - "This week I learned that the wetu is made out of sticks. The beds are made out of animal skins." Field Trip #14 - "On the field trip, I learned the houses were made out of bark, sticks and string." Field Trip #15-"While discussing the candidates I learned that Mitt Romney had 18 Grandkids and 5 children. That's 23 all together! We also learned more about Mitt Romney and Barack Obama's life and childhood growing up." Social Studies #16 - "The Wampanoag made mishoons by burning logs from trees." Field Trip #17- "While reading chapter 1 of the book 100 Dresses we learned that Wanda, the main character, sits in the last row. We are trying to figure out why she is sitting in the last row." Reading/Daily 5/ Book Club #18 - "On the field trip, I found my pilgrim, George Soule's house. There was a pilgrim women cleaning it." Field trip #19 - " Waking in the room and seeing the bolted SMARTboard. Love at first sight." Classroom #20 - " Highlight of my week was the Wampanoag homesite and learning about the winter homes and what fur and supplies they used." Field Trip #21 - "The thing I enjoyed the most was reading the poem of the week, Stress About the Test to the class." Poetry Pal, Job of the week #22 -"My highlight was learning about adverbs. Adverbs are bully words, they bully verbs. For example: walk quickly." Daily 5 mini lesson/ Reading #23-"During Daily 5 we went on an adverb scavenger hunt. While reading our books we had to use a sticky note and write down the adverb and verb that went together." Daily 5/ Reading #24 - "On the field trip, seeing the fireplace in the wetu in the Wampanoag Village." Field Trip #25 - "It takes a week to burn a log and make a mishoon." Field Trip The results are in, most students highlighted events and spoke of new learning from our field trip. It was an absolutely perfect day that connected our classroom discussions and helped paint a better picture of how life was for the Native People and the Pilgrims over 400 years ago. This weekend I will post pictures on the website from our trip to Plimoth. Be sure to check them out! Next week our Book Commercials are due! I had planned to assign dates to students, but the week got past me. On Monday I will ask for volunteers who would like to go first. If your child is ready they may volunteer to go on Monday or Tuesday. I will also be sending out conference schedule dates and times to those who signed up at Open House or took advantage of the online conference form. It's not too late to sign up! If you would rather do a PHONE conference please indicate this to me on the comment section and I will accomodate your needs. Another successful week was had by all students in room 313 Win, Lose, or Draw? This seems to be the common theme of this week's look into the "Oval Office". From Presidential Election to Box Tops for Education, Wampanoags to Pilgrims, and Student vs Student in Capture 5 on the 300 chart. The same questions was reoccurring, Who Will Win?
Democrat, Republican, or Independent. Mrs. Pittorino led an open discussion as she introduced the two main political parties (NOT the Candidates) and what they stood for. She then posed a question: Based on this information we've discussed, do you feel you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent? Interestingly enough, the class vote was split almost perfectly into thirds! Students were also given a brief history lesson of how the logo for each party came to be. Ask your child if they remember how the Donkey or Elephant became the logo. Fast fact: An Eagle is the logo for Independent voters. As a follow up to this lesson later in the week, students read Scholastic News and then discussed and shared their opinions of the two candidates for election. Next week we will continue to learn about the process of electing a President. Box Tops, Box Tops...Box Tops, Box Tops...Yeah If you hear your child chanting or humming a tune that sounds like this don't be surprised. We collected and turned in 206 class Box Tops this week alone! That's $20.60 in one week that was donated BACK to our school! Hard Work ...pays off. Soon we will find out if our class collected enough Box Tops to put us in the Top 3. As we anxiously await the news, KEEP CLIPPING and shopping online via the website! Thank you for supporting this charitable PTO initiative! Move over Wampanoags, here come the Pilgrims. After learning about the life and times of the Native People we have shifted gears and moved onto the Pilgrims. Students are reading from several sources and comparing texts to learn more about this time period. Did you know that a second ship called the Speedwell also set sail, however due to a leak it had to turn back. Find out what else happened while on board by asking your child. Next week we will travel back in time and see first hand how they lived and what life was like for the Wampanoags. Our field trip to Plimoth Plantation is scheduled for Wed. 10/24 RAIN or SHINE! A reminder notice will go home on Monday for students and chpaerones. (Check this out!) Math skills and fact fluency continue to be reinforced as we have moved into adding and comparing numbers into the 1,00's. Students reviewed rounding and estimating this week as well as adding 3 digit numbers. We are preparing to be better test takers as they number each step in the question and label each part of their answer to ensure that all parts are complete. If the problem asks students to write and equation, solve the problem and show their work...each step is numbered 1,2 and 3. Completing multistep problems has always been an area of challenge at this time of the year, we are learning quickly the importance of underlining key action words in the question. (write, solve, show) Moving around the 300 chart using landmark numbers was introduced and played this week. Next week the game capture 5 on the 300 chart will be sent home for your child to play as home work. In addition, a username, password, and directions for your child to access our Investigations Math online resource tools will also be sent home. Beginning the week of Oct 29th students will be asked to utilize this program to play the math games, use the math tutorials, and take quizes online that will be sent electronically to me. This is one more way to meet all the needs of our students and help build math fluency. Last Call for BOOK Orders! I extended the online book orders until tomorrow! Lots of great books on Rocks and Minerals and the Election to support our curriculum and extend your child's thinking. Head over to the Book Order Link and have fun shopping. You'll receive a $5 coupon good towards a free book pick just for shopping online! Coming up: Monday: I will be attending a Reading and Writing in the Common Core workshop presented by Lucy Calkins author of Pathways to the Common Core Mrs Pittorino will have a substitute in the room but will be in full control of the day. Tuesday: Music Class don't forget recorders Wednesday: Meet at 8:15 in the cafeteria for our field Trip to Plimoth Plantation Pick up between 3:30 - 3:45 in the Cafeteria Thursday: School Picture Day Friday: Spelling test! We are still looking for Sock donations and or soft gloves or mittens that can be used as erasers for our white boards. Mrs Henderson has some exciting MAD science experiments planned for Oct. 31st and has also asked to have a sock sent in for each student as we open up our very own GEODES. I'm Mrs Webster and I approve this message Last week I had a wonderful and rare opportunity to step out of the classroom for 3 days while Mrs. Pittorino completed her take over week. I wore many hats, as I bounced from classroom to classroom-teaching mini reading and writing lessons throughout the building. On one occasion, I filled in for Mrs. Horn and played Temple of Doom with a 4th grade class. I loved every minute while away from my classroom, but I am thrilled to be returning home to room 313 on Monday!
As for the students in room 313, life as they know it was familiar, but there was a new sheriff in town! Mrs. Pittorino reviewed and built on place value number sense in math as we continue in Chapter 3 of our Investigations unit. During our Every Day Counts Calendar math program the students are working with Time, Isosceles and Equilateral triangles, measurement of centimeters, meters and decimeters, and with money and making change. After a mini lesson on writing friendly letters and using commas in a series, the class wrote letters to Marc Brown, Mrs. Swain, the Memorial PTO, and Megan McDonald, the author of Judy Moody . The letters are going to be finalized and sent out this week. Students also finished their summer stories, personal narratives, and started to describe their tree house drawings. Men, woman, and children of the Wampanoag tribe was the topic of discussion in social studies as the class looked at how they lived. This week Mrs. Pittorino will wrap up this unit before heading onto Pilgrims. Rocks and Minerals, a geologist's dream! Special THANKS to the PTO for providing our third grade with an amazing Rocks and Minerals program. The class participated in a hands-on workshop exploring and testing rocks and minerals in a number of ways. Mrs. Henderson continues to provide our class with rich lessons on Rocks and Minerals. Mrs. Pittorino introduced William Steig, our author of the month. Students are reading Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and trying to earn their own magic pebble by completing a Text Connection activity. Did you know that William Steig wrote the original book Shrek? By the end of the week, Mrs. Pittorino was happy to have had the experience...but even happier to know I would be back in the classroom next week. Being alone in a classroom with 25 students is not an easy task. I told her that sometimes I feel like I am on a treadmill and someone turned the speed up to 9.0! I am impressed with her ability to keep everything running smoothly while still keeping up with the fast pace of our curriculum and daily schedule. In a very short time she has experienced a lot! Next week we will continue to write descriptive narratives about our tree houses, we will take a closer look at Non Fiction Text features as we begin to look at our Presidential Candidates running for office, we will wrap up Wampanoags and begin to look at Pilgrims as we prepare for our Field Trip to Plimoth Plantation, and we will continue to work with numbers and number sense as we reivew rounding, adding, and subtracting larger numbers. CH-CHING UPDATE!!!! The students are going to be cashing in their September Cha-Ching this week. If anyone has any unwanted odds and ends, "chachkies" that might be good for our prizes... please feel free to send them into school. You'd be amazed at what the kids get excited to buy. No item is too small or too quirky...last year someone donated little glass animal figures that were a huge hit! Please remember, NO FOOD donations are allowed. Think outside the box, extra birthday goodie bag items, any type of smaller yard sale item, slightly used or like new items are welcome too. I usually try to hit up the dollar section of Target or JoANNe fabrics to find items for our "store". THANK you for taking the time to read this! As always...Comments are encouraged and welcome! |
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