We finally won the coveted spirit flag. The pep rally was a lot of fun. I might not be able to hear for a week, but the students had a blast. If we do not win tonight, it won't be from a lack of spirit.

Have a great weekend. Go BAMA!! and of course Auburn!

M. Powell

I see Sunshine!! Maybe we can go out on the track for a little while this afternoon and run off some energy.

Muscle Shoals High School won the WHNT Pep Rally. Tomorrow is black-out day. Wear black. I hope to get some good pictures. (If I remember my camera!!) I think someone said we should be on the 6:00 P.M. news.

Curriculum wise - Next week we will begin multiplication!! This is a unit on what multiplication is. We will not be memorizing facts just yet. It never hurts to start early at home though. We begin with multiplication as repeated addition. This will be solely an AMSTI unit. Students will not be working in workbooks, but worksheets. Some nights they might not have math homework at all. On these nights you could review some facts start with 2's. Then 4's are double 2's, and 8's are double 4's. Then 3's, 6's are double 3's 9's are triple 3's. This unit is designed to teach students that multiplication is a fast way to add equal groups of things.

Don't forget next Tuesday is Fall picture day. This will be the picture that will appear in the yearbook. We will probably also get our group picture made that day.

Well, we are off to complete our first major science test of the year.

Mrs. Powell

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day. I guess you'd say, what can make me feel this way. My STUDENTS!!

We had a great day. Chase is sitting in the Caribbean in this picture. I can't be there, but I sure can wish!! I am ready for some sunshine!!

I have a picture of the students with the peace pinwheels I am waiting on. As soon as it gets to me I will post it.

In reading today we talked about character traits. How can we know what a character is like that we are reading about. (By what they say and do) Recognizing character traits helps us to have a better understanding of our reading. In math we practiced estimating sums. When is it OK to estimate? When we do not have to have an exact number. We use estimating a lot when we go shopping. Can you think of other times in real life when we need to estimate? We can estimate two numbers and add them together. Sometimes in math class we will have questions such as estimate to the nearest 10 and nearest 100. It will really mess us up if we do not read the question carefully. Sometimes it does not matter. In this case we can use front end estimation. 140 + 260 = 300 (Just use the front numbers) This is not a very good way to estimate because it could get us waaaaay off. We talked about compatible numbers. 234 + 292 (200 + 300) + 500. What numbers look good and close that are either nearest 10 or 100 if the question does not stipulate. In science today we made fossils. We learned about three kinds of fossils: molds, casts, and imprints. Ask your student to tell you how we made a mold and a cast. What kind of rock do we find fossils in? How do fossils form? Are fossils better preserved if covered up quickly or slowly? Plants mostly make imprints. Animals footprints are also imprints. Study those study guides for the science test on Thursday. Have a great day! I'm off to read The Flat Belly Diet. I am determined. (for the 100th time)
M. Powell

Rain Rain Go Away!!

My students have gone to the library. We have some students racking up those AR points. About 4 students are approaching the 20 mark. Remember 100 or more will be recognized on Awards Day.

Boy, there is a terrible lightning storm going on. I feel my fingers tingle. I will be out tomorrow for a VERY minor medical procedure. We will have all the regular tests. Miss LaBlanc will be my substitute. She is very young and VERY pretty.

If you are reading this remember to send your child in red and black to school tomorrow. We are still trying to take the Spirit Flag away from Mrs. Hagle. She has gotten it every week so far. The cheerleader still comes out in her.

The crystals will come home today. Remember to send your field trip money by Monday.
We can't be late this time only.

Mrs. Powell

Hump Day

Hi, Everybody,
We are reading an adventure story about a little girl named Molly Moon. She is an orphan that learns to hypnotize. She has some pretty wonderful adventures. I will read close to 100 AR points in class this year. In other words if your child is a good listener they will get 100 points from books read in class. This is an award that is given on Awards Day in May.
I hope you have seen our picture on McBride's Web Page for winning the SPIRIT stick for showing our spirit last week. That is one thing I can say about this class. We do have a lot of SPIRIT ( in more ways than one).
I think I will start including a few questions from the day for you to ask your child while sitting around the dinner table (LOL). Seriously ask: What are the three kinds of rocks found on the Earth's Crust and how do they form? Of the three rocks, which one is found the most in the Earth's Crust. How does one kind of rock turn into another kind of rock? We have gone over this information several different times. Hopefully some of it is beginning to sink in.
Our crystals are coming along nicely. Come in to take a look. Your child will also be bringing these home shortly.
We are going to the Space and Rocket Center October 1st. We have to have the money in ASAP. This happened for 2 reasons. One, we waited until it cooled off some, and it is the end of the fiscal year for our System. We have to have everything closed out quick. The school's fiscal year begins again in October.
Tomorrow we will be performing a scratch and streak test on 4 minerals we observed today in class. That is always a lot of fun. I hope you don't get anything scratched up at home after this test!!! Students usually like to recreate some activities in their own way at home you know.
Have a great afternoon. I for one am ready to feel that crisp fall air.
Mrs. Powell

Yeah!! We won the Spirit contest. Look on the Schools web page and you will see our picture. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and there we are!! We have the Cheerleader's spirit stick for one week. We will take a picture of it and post it later. That old flu bug is hitting us again. We had 3 students out today and one more check out. Our school had another bad day with sickness. We had as many students out today as we did Swine Flu Tuesday!! We will all just do the best we can. My room is fogged every Tuesday and we spray about 3 times a day with a special flu bug KILLER.

We had a great day. I don't think anyone even got a check. Our first behavior reward will be October 16th. Movie and BYOS (Bring Your Own Snack) afternoon. We will be voting on a movie to watch. So far everyone in my class will get to participate.

Our first semester field trip will be to the Space and Rocket Center. Cost is $38.00. This includes the bus ride, 3-D movie, experiments, guided tour, and lunch. I know this sounds like a lot, but this is really a good deal if you consider all that the students get to do. Parents will pay at the door. I think around $25.00 if you want the movie too. We will be going Thursday, October 1.

We have crystals growing in our classroom. All parents are welcome to come in in the afternoons and see how they are progressing. We are having fun with our AMSTI
Earth Materials Unit.\
Until next time!!
Mrs. Powell

Friday Dance Day

Well we can do the Friday Dance.
Boy we sure took a lot of tests today.
We had 10 100's on the spelling test and lots of 95's

These pictures are of students observing a Water Test on the mock rock we have been looking at. We are trying to see if there are some minerals we can't see. We added water to the sand and shook it up to see if some mineral would dissolve in the water. If it does on Monday we will pour the water into a dish and let the water dissolve. Maybe we will have some crystals left over that will prove some minerals were in the rocks other than the (red, green, and shell looking minerals). It is always exciting to wait and see.
My students are in Art making penwheels for the wetlands.
That should be interesting to see when all are finished. Come up and take a look when that project is completed. Have a great weekend. I have to go and finish grading all these tests.
Mrs. Powell

Hi everybody,

Last year I played around with blogging in my classroom. I am going to do my best to get this going this year and you can follow along with your child's school day. I probably will not get this done each day, but, I will try my best. I know I will not always have pictures.

Today we went out in the fog and took our SPIRIT pictures to post on the MSCS email to try to win our place on the web. We collected $22.00 for hat day, but still did not get the popcorn!!

How much does it take?

I am excited to finally have reading groups every day and math groups are getting started. We will only have time for small group math on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Of course students receive individual attention during whole group time each day. Today in reading groups I asked the following question, "How did Murete know Saruni wanted a bike if he did not tell him?" Don't you just love those names?? Anyway, students said that his mom told him. The following were some statements that were made:

Mom's are never good at keeping secrets.

My mom is! She always keeps secrets.

......... Let's just say we ended the discussion there. Third graders are so innocent and fun!!!!

Well, the gang will be back from PE any minute. We are going to begin a pretest for Math

Chapter 1. If students can complete this, they will do very well on the real thing tomorrow. Same kinds of questions, just different numbers. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Until Next Time,

Mrs. Powell