Rainy Daze

Well, who would have thought it would be raining of September 20th? I think this is the earliest I ever remember it starting to rain in Southern California.

Today we did our first major art project. You can see some of the examples below. It was tightly connected to what we had been reading in Open Court and to what we will be studying in Mathematics. We are currently reading a story called “Stevie” which tells the story of a young boy who is required to keep help his mother baby sit another child. He resents the boy until he realizes that he was “kind of little a little brother.” At one point the boy remarks, “I let my corn flakes get soggy just thinking about him.” Inspired by this line, we did a still life of soggy corn flakes.

I explained to the students what a still life is. We did preliminary sketches to practice making rectangular prisms and half spheres. The students also practice proper water color technique, particularly learning how to correctly apply the paint and wash the brush. I then had the students do the still life first in pencil. They then went over these lines in marking crayon. The completed by carefully water-coloring the paper. Some of the results were quite excellent. Just a couple of the best are shown below. I was still taking pictures of their work when the batteries in my camera died!

Math, as I predicted, confused some of the students who did in fact find exact answers instead of estimate. Tonight, please help them to carefully read the directions for each problem. We went over them in class, but after a day of rainy day schedule I’m not sure how much actually sank in!

Homework:  (1) Study spelling. (2) Science questions, page A28, numbers 1-7 only. Please copy the sentence. (3) Chapter Review, page 50 and Cumulative Review, page 51 in the math book.

Students began by looking at a still life of corn flakes and milk.
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Students worked on creating precise geometric shapes such as rectangular prisms and sphere.
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Some students have a particularly strong sense of color.
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Great Day

Today was another great day. We had a fantastically focused morning as we read the story “Stevie” in the Open Court book. I was really impressed by how students applied what they had learned about story structure and problem/solution to making good predictions about what might happen in the story.

For those people, who gave me email addresses, I sent you logon information about the Gradebook. If you haven’t given me an email yet, or if you would like to change it, please send a note to jbasse1@lausd.k12.ca.us and I’ll take care of that right away.

Tonight’s math deals with the very tricky subject of estimation. You child may need some extra handholding. Be sure to NOT find the exact answers.

Homework:  (1) Study spelling words for the week. (2) Types of Sentences, Reading and Writing Workbook, page 12 only. (3) Compound words, Reading and Writing Workbook, pages 17-18. (4) Estimation, Math, pages 38-39, all problems.

We're using Dr Kaplan's depth and complexity icon cards to help focus the enrichment of our learning.
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Restless Learning

Not every day is absolutely perfect.

We started today with a fire-drill and lunch procedures assembly on the yard, and it was just enough of a bit of weirdness in the day that the students never seemed to quite focus. Everything seemed to take longer than usual. I began to look at the clock and wonder when lunch would finally come….

Still, we have some solid learning to show for our day. About half of the students have completed their first complete Writer’s Workshop compositions. The others should be relatively close to a final draft soon. We took our spelling test, and the scores look excellent. We started to really analyze “Angel Child, Dragon Child” in Reading to understand how stories really worked. We learned important technical terms like “plot” and “character” and “setting” and “climax.” We talked about problem and conflict in a story, and how they are not always exactly the same thing. I challenged the students to find something in the text to back up their assertions about characters – that was really a new concept for them! So, I’m proud of the learning we’ve done.

I will be finishing setting up the Gradebook this weekend, and you should receive your email with logon and password by Monday morning. I think you will find this an invaluable tool.

I also changed the comment option on the blog so make it harder for strange comments to be automatically posted. You can still comment, and I’d love to see more comments, but you’ll need to type in the word you see on the screen, just like you have to do with Ticketmaster. It helps defeat the programs which automatically attach unwanted comments to blogs.

Finally, to all our families whose roots are in Korea, Happy Chu Sok.

Homework: As promised, just some math and the students had a chance to start it in class. (1) Predict & Test, page 45, all questions. (2) Add greater numbers, page 47-48, #2-44 only.

Students enjoy conferencing during Writer's Workshop time.
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Students doing relay races in PE. Here they were hopping instead of running.
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Patterns

Today we looked at patterns in different ways. In reading, we studied the patterns we saw in our Open Court blending words. We noticed the three ways of making the /k/ sound, and the different types of short vowel word patterns:  CVC, CVCC, VC, and VCC. We also talked about the predictable patterns we find in plots. We discussed how most stories have a problem or a conflict which needs to be solved or resolved. We looked at how the author did this in the story, “Angel Child, Dragon Child.” After we created a flow map of the plot, we then went on to storyboard the story using the different key plot points we had identified. In math, besides sharpening our addition skills, we learned the pattern of numbers in base 8:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10! The children have been counting the school days since the beginning of the year in Base 10, Base 8 and in Roman numerals.

Homework:  (1) Study spelling for tomorrow’s test. (2) Science, page A23, questions 1-4 only. Please copy the question. (2) Math, page 43, all problems. Skip the part about estimation – we will come back to estimation a little later.

Thanks for a Wonderful Event

A big thank you to all the parents who came last night to our Back-to-School event. I think, looking over the sign-in list, that at least 16 of our 21 families were represented. I had a really great time talking with everyone, and I am sure that the good communication we started last night will continue through the year.

If you did not have a chance to get the Internet Gradebook Program sheet to me last night, please get it in as soon as possible. I will be setting up accounts in the next couple days. Check that inbox!

Today was also our first library day, and the students did extremely well showing how well they remembered our library procedures and manners. I was very proud of them.

We will be having our first math test soon on place value. As I said last night, we may start grouping in math soon to make sure that everyone is appropriately challenged. For now, we will be skipping over chapter 2 for now to work on addition and subtraction. Remember, you can start working with your child on multiplication facts at anytime! You don't have to wait until it comes up in homework.

Homework: (1) Study spelling words. (2) Columnar Addition, page 37, all problems. (3) Add Three Digit Numbers, page 41, #1-10 only.

Tonight, tonight

Our meeting tonight will begin at 5:30. You can bring your children. Armando, who works with Ms Hutchinson, will watch them on the yard. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone!

Since most parents will be coming to our meeting tonight at 5:30, I’ll just briefly note the homework.

Homework:  (1) Study spelling words. (2) Do Chapter Review, page 14 and Cumulative Review, page 15 in the math book.

Monday Moaning? Not here!

It was a delight to see everybody back at school for our second week. Our class is starting to settle into their new routine.

We began our day with Reader's Workshop. Students are starting to have conferences with me after they read their books. We then continued on to our Open Court block. We completed our Concept/Question board just in time for a visit by Mrs Oh and the new "literacy coach," both of whom seemed reasonably impressed. We also discussed a little bit about point-of-view. This is a hard concept for students to really grasp. They superficially can scan for words like "I" or "me" or "our" to determine the narrative voice, but they start to get really confused when we add dialogue to the story. We'll be working on this all year. We concluded with some writing time before recess.

After recess, we continued our unit on plants by starting to study photosynthesis. We then took off to the Tech Center where the students began to learn touch typing. After lunch, we did some relay races as part of PE time. This was interrupted, though, by a power failure which caused the fire bell to rang. The students (and staff) were more than a little confused by all this, but room 19 students were calm and cooperative.

We're coming to the end of the first chapter in the math book. Again, though we've stressed the distinction between digits and numbers, the students will not have a really deep understanding of this for a while. We'll keep talking about place value until the very last day of school.

Homework: (1) Study the spelling list. (2) "Understand 10,000," Math book, page 11, all problems. (3) "Logical Reasoning," page 13, numbers 1-7 only.

First Friday

I'll write a little more about the day later, but for now here's the homework.

Homework: (1) Finish Science questions, page A 17. Do numbers 1-4 only. Copy question as well as answer. (2) Place value to 10,000, Math book, pp 8-9, numbers 8-54. We started this in class and did 1-7 together.

Place Value

One of the hardest concepts for students is, unfortunately, the one that begins our study of third grade math. And that’s place value.

Now, for adults, place value has become second nature. But for children, they do not at all get the distinction between 4 as a digit and 4 as a number. They look the same, so aren’t they the same?

We will be spending all year working to really get the idea. One way we will be doing this will be by exploring a couple different number systems. One is the Roman numeral system.  There’s nothing like having to figure out what MMDCCXXI is to appreciate the genius of our Hindu-Arabic numerals! The other is base 8, what we call Simpsons math since the characters on the Simpsons only have 4 fingers on a hand. Here children will learn to count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, and so on. I find that alternative basic really make us understand place value.

So, we begin our math each day by counting which day of school it is in each of the three systems.

Homework:  (1) Study spelling words for tomorrow’s quiz. (2) Math, pp 4-5, #1-30.

One of the portraits students did yesterday after they interviewed each other.
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Day Two

The second day is sort of the first real day of school. We begin to settle down into a routine and the students begin to actually use their books and start learning. I like the second day better than the first usually!

Today we started with silent reading. Most classes call this DEAR. We call is Reader’s Workshop because we’ll do it slightly differently. For today, though, we just practiced picking books and reading. We also started our Writer’s Workshop. Today students brainstormed possible topics and started rough drafts. We also began our Open Court work today, focusing on what we know about our theme of Friendship. We start our phonics component with a view of consonants and short vowel words. Today we practice blending short a phonograms.

After lunch, we started our first Science unit on living things. The six weeks we spend on this prepares us nicely for the next Open Court theme, City Wildlife. We also started our music today. At first, since we are spending time working on steady beat and rhythmic speaking, students don’t quite get that it’s music, but nothing is more fundamental than rhythm.

After lunch, we did relays in PE and discussed odd and even in math. I explained how my two dogs could divide by two and knew the difference between odd and even. They liked the idea of canine math.

Homework:  Students had about 15 minutes to start this in class so there should not be many questions.

1. Finish the Science questions, page A 9. Most students did finish these in class.


2. Write 4 statements and 4 questions. The content is unimportant here; I’m looking for correct use of capital and periods and to see if there are subjects and verbs in each sentence.


3. Do the subtraction facts worksheet. This should be fast if the students really know the facts and aren’t counting on fingers.


4. Do page 3 in the Math book. Write answers only on lined paper. This deals with odd and even.


5. Continue studying spelling if needed for Friday’s test.

Students hard at work on Day 1!
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The first day of school

The first day of school is always so hard for everybody, no matter how often you’ve done it. Children are nervous of course, but so are parents and teachers. Somehow it seems so important that the first day be just right.

Well, our first day went quite well, I think. All 21 of us showed up, and almost everybody right on time. Students completed Interest Inventories which will help me to guide them toward books in Independent Reading which will be just right for them. They also did a pre-test of third grade skills from the Open Court series. I took a little longer than I thought it would, but I was impressed by their seriousness.

We took a tour of the campus so they would know where to play during recess. We also practiced our line order and walking in line.

Returning to our classroom, we partnered up and interviewed our partners. We took the information we gained from the interview and wrote rough drafts. I corrected those and the students did final drafts.

After recess, I did our first portrait of the year. We will study this skill more in depth later, but for today we did a rough sketch of the person we interviewed and used crayons or oil pastels to color it.

I stayed with the students during lunch today so that they could get a feel for the lunchtime routine. This year we have three lunches, and it seemed much calmer and quieter than last year with fewer children eating at the same time.

After lunch, I gave the students who still needed to work on final drafts a little more time while the students who were done got a head start on the math homework. We then discuss the basic rules which apply in any classroom, including, of course, ours. Their wording of the rules was slightly different from mine, but the basic values and ideas were the same.

Tomorrow, we’ll start learning our daily schedule and the “how to” of each activity on the schedule.

Homework:  Homework starts our very easy at first. I like to give students a feeling of success and confidence. We can then decided how to make it more challenging for some students. For tonight,

1. Do the addition facts worksheet.


2. Study the spelling words – no need to write anything.


3. Bring in a photograph or a picture if you don’t have a photograph of you and a friend doing something together. This photo will be returned when the friendship unit is over. It is for our Concept/Question board.

Welcome

I’d like to welcome all the new students and their parents to third grade and to room 19. I am excited and looking forward to a very productive year together. This blog will be an important part of how I work with families and let them know what is going on in our classroom. It will not only tell you what we have done each day, but will also explain what the homework is.

Our first day of school, as you all know, I’m sure, will be Tuesday, September 6th.  Please arrive on time. Our school day begins currently at 8:05. Please understand that I do not have time on Tuesday morning to discuss your child’s needs and other things in detail. It’s not that I’m not interested, but there is just too much going on for me to really listen.

I have tentatively scheduled a parent meeting for our class only on Tuesday, September 13th, at 5:30 p.m.. Please let me know if it is impossible for you to come at that time. If we have quite a few people for whom this time does not work, we may need to reschedule the meeting.  

The best way to contact me is by email. You can use either my school account jbasse1@lausd.k12.ca.us or my home account johndavidbassett@comcast.net. I check both of them frequently so I’m sure to get your message and be able to respond fairly quickly.