Ohhhhhh this rain!!!!!!!!!! My students were very alert today and paid attention much better than I thought. Personally I had rather stay and bed and pull the covers up over my head. I thought they might feel the same way, but we made it and actually got a lot accomplished.



Halloween week is always a week of great excitement. We don't get to have Halloween parties at school, but we will have a lot of fun activities Friday and some gruesome snacks.



I have graded papers ready to go stuck in a corner. I have forgotten to send them home for about 4 days now. Someone remind me when this happens again. (I am sure it will). I thought if I write this I will be sure to remember tomorrow.



Have a great rainy afternoon. Study hard for science test on Thursday. Students that have passed 4 multiplication fact mad minute tests are moving on to 8's. Remember 4's are double 2's and 8s are double 4s. Spend just 10 minutes a night and you will memorize the facts in no time flat. Some students are finishing in about 30 seconds. That is how fast you will have to be to complete 100 facts in 5 minutes. You can ALL do it, I know you can.

M. Powell

Oh yea, the blog!! It has been a few days. This week has flown by. We have been reviewing a lot this week. Lot's of independent reading going on. Some students are getting near the 50 point mark in AR. I don't think I have ever had a class that enjoys AR this group. One reason is they are competing with each other. Gracie is leading the pack. She has over 50 AR points. Will and Montavius are hot on her heels and several others are closing in. I could possible loose my desk for 20 days. (the reward for 50 points is to sit at the teacher desk all day one day). I wonder how far this will put me behind.

Today we planted seeds. This went surprisingly very smooth. No lost microscopic seed to find. None of them went up noses or in ears! Amazing! Bees will come to pollinate these flowers soon. I assured the students that none of them will be stung. I have not had a student stung yet. Our flowers will not be able to make seeds without the honeybee pollinating the flowers. We have been learning the importance of the honeybee as a natural resource. Ask your child what are the three classifications of all natural resources. See if they can name a few resources in each classification.

We are busy memorizing our multiplication facts. We have spent two weeks learning about multiplication. What is multiplication? Now we need to become fluent with our facts. We need to know them like the back of our hand. All students have passed the 2's. We are now memorizing our 4 facts. Only 5 students passed mad minute tests with 5's. Next week we will be learning our 8s. Don't get behind. You will be left behind and it will be up to you to catch up.


Students are in art. They will be bringing home school picture proofs today. They all look so cute. I have the best looking class in the school. (Always) I don't know how that keeps happening. Have a great weekend.
M. Powell

As my mother-in-law would say, "Well if I ever did!" Apparently the planets are in alignment today. Try this at home and see if you can get it to work.

Each nine weeks 3 students are selected for Good Citizenship. Representing our class is: Julia Counts, Will Almon, and Gracie Russell. I know they will represent us well. Each child should continue good behavior and they will have a chance to receive this award at the end of the next nine weeks.

We have a bug of some type that has hit our room. We are averaging from 3 to 5 students out each day. Blake Sherrill is in the hospital. We will make him cards today and I will visit him this afternoon.

We are coming along nicely with multiplication. I think most students have an understanding of what multiplication is. We will proceed next week with activities that will help us to begin the multiplication fact memorization process. I would love to have 100 % of my class learn the facts this year. It makes math soooooo much easier to have those facts memorized like the back of your hand.

Hope to see you all at the ballgame tonight. I hope the rain holds off!! GO TROJANS!! We have 100% spirit today. I wonder if we will win back the Trojan Flag??:)

M. Powell

Who will be the first one up in space? Not Mrs. Powell that is for sure!!

Thank you Mrs. Thompson for sending me the pictures.

We had a really great Monday. Mrs. Grissom visited with us all morning during reading. We now have smart board lessons ready for reading at McBride. All the third grade teachers have been working really hard on these. I bet you didn't know that teachers have to go to class too.

Smart Board keeps students interest because it can be so interactive. I don't have an actual smart board yet. I didn't win the draw. Maybe next time. We just use the white board and the mouse.

We are really getting into multiplication. Students are learning that multiplication is a quick way to add equal groups of things. Until we memorize our facts we can find the product, or the answer to our multiplication sentence by skip counting. Example: If I have 3 cars and each car has 4 tires I can skip count by 4 3 times. 4, 8, 12. 12 i tires is my answer. We can also use repeated addition. Example: 4 + 4 + 4 = 12 tires in all. 3 x 4 = 12 The first number in the sentence is the number of groups, the second number is the number in each group. Students are doing fantastic. We will work on this for 2 more days and take a little quiz on Wednesday.

Have a great week. I can't believe it is going to rain again all week. Let's pray for sunshine.

M. Powell

Homecoming Friday

My two nieces Alison and Mary Hannah. Alison is in the bottom on the middle in the top picture, and Mary Hannah is in the bottom picture. They are the only reason I ever get to do girl things!! What a beautiful homecoming parade, and what great weather.

We had fun at the Space and Rocket Center. I have never had a guide before and I enjoyed it 10 times more. What history. Just to think that a child that is now eight or nine years old will be chosen as an astronaut for the Mars Mission just blows my mind. But, who would want to? I mean how long will that journey last anyway?

Our tour guide Lynda said our group asked some of the best questions and was the most well behaved of any group she has ever worked with. Way to go boys and girls! She was a retired science teacher from Bob Jones High School. Who would have ever guessed. I thought she was awesome. I will post a picture (if some parents will be nice enough to send me some) I bet they will!

Have a great weekend. I wonder if we will beat Russellville? Hope so, especially since they messed up our pretty field and everything.

M. Powell