Happy Fair Day!
While everyone is off having a good time, we teachers are here in our classrooms planning for another exciting week! I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing, l-o-n-g weekend! It'll be fun to hear about everyones adventures on Tuesday when the kids come back to school.
Now, here's what we've been doing... and a little of what we WILL be doing...
LANGUAGE ARTS: We are continuing our focus on the "during reading" strategies. Each child has been practicing with books at his/her reading level. I want the students to read carefully while they're enjoying a book...the more they think WHILE they read, the better they understand what they're reading. They need to slow down and process what they're reading. They need to make connections, ask questions, visualize, infer meaning, synthesize, and use fix up strategies to better understand what they're reading! The kids are getting really good at reading a book and using a post-it to mark a strategy they're using. Next week we'll continue with these skills along with "after reading" strategies. This will entail writing summaries of what has been read. We'll be doing lots of practice with this!
MATH: We had so much fun this week making graphs! I was excited to see that so many of us knew what a graph needed and how to make one! I now know where everyone likes to eat in Urbana!!! We will continue with graphing - bar graphs, pictographs, tally charts, etc. - next week.
WRITING: We are still focusing on the Ideas writing trait. I WANT DETAILS is something I'm sure your child has heard enough of! This will continue next week with Ms. Wilde using the Promethean Board for some writing practice. Ask your child what this great piece of technology is!
WORD STUDY: The /k/ sound is still our focus. We'll be working with different endings that make this sound.
SOCIAL STUDIES: Our brochures of different states are still in the process of being completed. I think one more day in the computer lab using CultureGrams will be enough for everyone to get all of the information they need. This information will then be turned into a brochure of that state. Very cool stuff!
As always, I sooo enjoy this class! They are a group of very unique individuals that make me smile every day!
Thanks to all who check this blog and bookbags and take-home folders and agendas and homework!! Wow! Also, please remember to initial your child's agenda daily and sign your child's checklist and send it back.
Again, have a wonderful weekend!
Faith Humerick
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Happy Weekend!
Please remember that we have a short week coming up! Thursday is a two-hour early dismissal day, Friday the students have no school, and Monday is no school for everyone! Enjoy!!
LANGUAGE ARTS: Ms. Wilde has been reading lots of good books to model Synthesizing for the class. When students synthesize they are changing their minds based on what they have read. We will still be working with this Reading Strategy next week. It flows nicely into writing summaries, which will be our focus soon.
MATH: The class took a Unit Assessment on Thursday. Unit 2 will begin on Monday - Surveys and Line Plots. I'm really looking forward to it! We'll be gathering data and using different ways to represent it. Where is your favorite place to eat in Urbana????
WRITING: Our focus is still on Ideas. One word - DETAILS! The class has been scoring their stories with an Idea Rubric. Higher scores are earned when there are details!
SOCIAL STUDIES: We've been focusing on directions, parts of a map, and states/waterways that border Maryland. Next week students will use what they know to write brochures! Can't wait to see them!
WORD STUDY: Our focus this week and next week are words that have the /k/ sound.
CURSIVE: This week we've worked with u, w, e and l. Next week, we'll be reviewing all letters we've done so far.
I just have to say again how lucky I am to have your child in my class. They are responsible, polite, and respectful. I'm so proud of their behavior and how hard they work!
Again, PLEASE check your child's agenda, take-home folder, and homework daily! You should be initialing the agenda and signing/returning the Friday checklist. Thanks!
Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Humerick
Please remember that we have a short week coming up! Thursday is a two-hour early dismissal day, Friday the students have no school, and Monday is no school for everyone! Enjoy!!
LANGUAGE ARTS: Ms. Wilde has been reading lots of good books to model Synthesizing for the class. When students synthesize they are changing their minds based on what they have read. We will still be working with this Reading Strategy next week. It flows nicely into writing summaries, which will be our focus soon.
MATH: The class took a Unit Assessment on Thursday. Unit 2 will begin on Monday - Surveys and Line Plots. I'm really looking forward to it! We'll be gathering data and using different ways to represent it. Where is your favorite place to eat in Urbana????
WRITING: Our focus is still on Ideas. One word - DETAILS! The class has been scoring their stories with an Idea Rubric. Higher scores are earned when there are details!
SOCIAL STUDIES: We've been focusing on directions, parts of a map, and states/waterways that border Maryland. Next week students will use what they know to write brochures! Can't wait to see them!
WORD STUDY: Our focus this week and next week are words that have the /k/ sound.
CURSIVE: This week we've worked with u, w, e and l. Next week, we'll be reviewing all letters we've done so far.
I just have to say again how lucky I am to have your child in my class. They are responsible, polite, and respectful. I'm so proud of their behavior and how hard they work!
Again, PLEASE check your child's agenda, take-home folder, and homework daily! You should be initialing the agenda and signing/returning the Friday checklist. Thanks!
Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Humerick
Friday, September 11, 2009
September 11
I was excited to see the parents who came to Back To School Night on Thursday! I hope you left the classroom feeling good about your child and his/her third grade experience. If you were unable to attend, your child will be bringing home a folder with important information and a postcard that can be put on your fridge with important contact information.
PBS: We've had an excellent week! We're still earning lots of "Soaring With Pride" stickers - I guess I'll need to find another way to display them since we've filled up my poster! Please speak with your child about respectful cafeteria behavior - they seem to be having difficulty with this.
Language Arts: We're still reviewing Reading Strategies. We've covered making connections, visualizing, asking questions, fixing-up reading, and inferring. Next week we will be working on inferring and synthesizing. Inferring is when a reader takes information that is read, adds what he/she already knows, and comes up with a prediction. I used this to explain it: The road is wet. Cars have their lights on and wipers going. People are carrying umbrellas. What can you infer???? It's raining! We read The Stranger by Chris Allsburg to practice this skill.
Math: The class has been learning some new games from Ms. Wilde using money, estimation, and digits to get to 100. Next week we're using those skills to figure out word problems. We've also been looking at what math facts we know quickly and which ones we really need to practice.
Please check over your child's math homework when it's given.
Social Studies: Ms. Wilde has been talking about Maryland and the states that border it. They've used maps to find major cities and bodies of water. Soon each student will be producing a brochure showing geographic concepts.
Cursive: I try to do at least 4 new letters a week. So far we've done i, t, and u. I can't get over how neatly these kids write!!
Writing: IDEAS is still our focus. Coming up with a big idea and "funneling" it down to an idea that is easy to write about. For example: Dogs - puppies - golden retriever puppies - my puppy - taking care of my golden retriever puppy.
Water Bottles: Because of our proximity to a water fountain, I previously haven't allowed students to bring in water bottles. BUT... to prevent students catching any germs, I've told them they can bring in a labeled bottle of water and use it when they need to.
Book Orders: The first book order of the year has gone home. I love doing these because I earn points that I can use to buy new books for our classroom library! Thanks in advance if you order some!
Mrs. Humerick
PBS: We've had an excellent week! We're still earning lots of "Soaring With Pride" stickers - I guess I'll need to find another way to display them since we've filled up my poster! Please speak with your child about respectful cafeteria behavior - they seem to be having difficulty with this.
Language Arts: We're still reviewing Reading Strategies. We've covered making connections, visualizing, asking questions, fixing-up reading, and inferring. Next week we will be working on inferring and synthesizing. Inferring is when a reader takes information that is read, adds what he/she already knows, and comes up with a prediction. I used this to explain it: The road is wet. Cars have their lights on and wipers going. People are carrying umbrellas. What can you infer???? It's raining! We read The Stranger by Chris Allsburg to practice this skill.
Math: The class has been learning some new games from Ms. Wilde using money, estimation, and digits to get to 100. Next week we're using those skills to figure out word problems. We've also been looking at what math facts we know quickly and which ones we really need to practice.
Please check over your child's math homework when it's given.
Social Studies: Ms. Wilde has been talking about Maryland and the states that border it. They've used maps to find major cities and bodies of water. Soon each student will be producing a brochure showing geographic concepts.
Cursive: I try to do at least 4 new letters a week. So far we've done i, t, and u. I can't get over how neatly these kids write!!
Writing: IDEAS is still our focus. Coming up with a big idea and "funneling" it down to an idea that is easy to write about. For example: Dogs - puppies - golden retriever puppies - my puppy - taking care of my golden retriever puppy.
Water Bottles: Because of our proximity to a water fountain, I previously haven't allowed students to bring in water bottles. BUT... to prevent students catching any germs, I've told them they can bring in a labeled bottle of water and use it when they need to.
Book Orders: The first book order of the year has gone home. I love doing these because I earn points that I can use to buy new books for our classroom library! Thanks in advance if you order some!
THANKS to all who check take home folders and agendas daily. Remember, you need to initial the agenda for your child after you've checked everything!
Have a wonderful weekend - hopefully the sun will shine on all of us!
Mrs. Humerick
Friday, September 4, 2009
It's the end of the SECOND WEEK!!
HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND!!
The weather is supposed to be beautiful! Spend some time outside and enjoy it!
We've been having another great week! We earned 14 "Soaring With Pride" stickers from other staff members last week and we have almost passed that! Hopefully your child will tell you this week that we got more!
Language Arts - we've been discussing and practicing what we should do before we read. The three P's - purpose, preview, and plan - will help your child understand what he/she is about to read. We've also started reviewing "during reading" strategies. We've made connections to ourselves (text to self), to other texts (text to text), and to things going on in the world (text to world). We also had fun on Friday "visualizing" the story, We Eat Dinner In The Bathtub.
Next week we will be continuing to work on "during reading strategies". We'll be asking questions and inferring to help us comprehend/understand what we read.
Math - the class is so awesome using different strategies for adding/subtracting 1-, 2-, and 3- digit numbers. I've seen 100's charts, 200's charts, 100's grids, counters, blocks, adding by place, and other strategies being used! Their number sense and knowledge of place value is really coming along!
Next week we will work on facts that they know quickly and others that they need to work on.
Social Studies - Do you know what a hemisphere is? My class does! Miss Wilde (my Hood intern) has been filling your child with interesting facts about our world. They even got to see Urbana Elementary on GoogleEarth!
Next week we'll be talking about directions and important American places - especially in our community.
Cursive - we started with i's and t's today.
Word Study - most everyone did an excellent job on their tests. Next week the list will be words that contain /f/ sounds.
Type to Learn - we've started type to learn in the computer lab. Expectations are that each student keep their fingers on home row!
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT - Our BTSN is from 7-8 on Thursday, September 10th. It is for parents only and it is where I will have the opportunity to tell you more about what goes on in our classroom and answer any questions you may have. If you know a question you'd like answered, please email me ahead of time so that I can be well prepared...thanks!
Faith.Humerick@fcps.org
This Tuesday, President Obama is giving a speech to America's students. I am not broadcasting this speech. It begins 10 minutes before our lunch and it, unfortunately, does not fit into our day. I am, however, recording it at home to show my own son that evening. If you would like more information about this speech, want to know what channel to record, or would just like some questions to use with your child before and after the speech, please follow this link... http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/academic/bts.html#faqs
PLEASE check your child's homework and initial his/her agenda. This week is also the first week for checklists. I had the students complete theirs in pencil. It was fun to see how they perceived themselves in the classroom. Mine is done in ink so you can see what expectations need to be worked on. PLEASE sign this and return it to me on Tuesday.
I just need to say that I am loving this class!!! They are respectful, responsible, and fun to be around - thanks for having them!
Have a wonderful, LONG, weekend!
Mrs. Humerick
The weather is supposed to be beautiful! Spend some time outside and enjoy it!
We've been having another great week! We earned 14 "Soaring With Pride" stickers from other staff members last week and we have almost passed that! Hopefully your child will tell you this week that we got more!
Language Arts - we've been discussing and practicing what we should do before we read. The three P's - purpose, preview, and plan - will help your child understand what he/she is about to read. We've also started reviewing "during reading" strategies. We've made connections to ourselves (text to self), to other texts (text to text), and to things going on in the world (text to world). We also had fun on Friday "visualizing" the story, We Eat Dinner In The Bathtub.
Next week we will be continuing to work on "during reading strategies". We'll be asking questions and inferring to help us comprehend/understand what we read.
Math - the class is so awesome using different strategies for adding/subtracting 1-, 2-, and 3- digit numbers. I've seen 100's charts, 200's charts, 100's grids, counters, blocks, adding by place, and other strategies being used! Their number sense and knowledge of place value is really coming along!
Next week we will work on facts that they know quickly and others that they need to work on.
Social Studies - Do you know what a hemisphere is? My class does! Miss Wilde (my Hood intern) has been filling your child with interesting facts about our world. They even got to see Urbana Elementary on GoogleEarth!
Next week we'll be talking about directions and important American places - especially in our community.
Cursive - we started with i's and t's today.
Word Study - most everyone did an excellent job on their tests. Next week the list will be words that contain /f/ sounds.
Type to Learn - we've started type to learn in the computer lab. Expectations are that each student keep their fingers on home row!
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT - Our BTSN is from 7-8 on Thursday, September 10th. It is for parents only and it is where I will have the opportunity to tell you more about what goes on in our classroom and answer any questions you may have. If you know a question you'd like answered, please email me ahead of time so that I can be well prepared...thanks!
Faith.Humerick@fcps.org
This Tuesday, President Obama is giving a speech to America's students. I am not broadcasting this speech. It begins 10 minutes before our lunch and it, unfortunately, does not fit into our day. I am, however, recording it at home to show my own son that evening. If you would like more information about this speech, want to know what channel to record, or would just like some questions to use with your child before and after the speech, please follow this link... http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/academic/bts.html#faqs
PLEASE check your child's homework and initial his/her agenda. This week is also the first week for checklists. I had the students complete theirs in pencil. It was fun to see how they perceived themselves in the classroom. Mine is done in ink so you can see what expectations need to be worked on. PLEASE sign this and return it to me on Tuesday.
I just need to say that I am loving this class!!! They are respectful, responsible, and fun to be around - thanks for having them!
Have a wonderful, LONG, weekend!
Mrs. Humerick
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