Mrs. Powell's Third Grade Blog

2010-08-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

It is already the 4th week of school. We are off to a very good start. We will not have math homework tonight because we finished it in class today. Remember students are to read half of their story on Monday night, half on Tuesday night, the first half again on Wednesday night, and the last half again on Thursday night. They can read the whole thing if they would like. Read it out loud. This helps third grade with fluency as well as with comprehension.
We started reading groups today. This will be practice for a couple of days, then students are held accountable for workbook pages not completed during seat work time. This might mean some workbook pages will be coming home for homework. Those students that work hard will have time to complete the pages in class.
Our rocks and minerals AMSTI kit arrived Friday. We are looking forward to the fun activities that we will be participating in for the next few weeks.
Some review questions for today: 8/30/10
How do you know if a story is realistic or fantasy?
What are two strategies we learned today that can help us solve a math reading problem?
Answers will be in tomorrows blog. I hope you all remember
MaryCalvert participated in a gymnastics competition in Birmingham this weekend. She said she had fun and placed pretty high. If any of you have outside activities you are involved in you would like me to post about just let me know.
Until tomorrow,
Mrs. Powell

TOP AR REWARDS

2010-04-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

TOP AR POINTS SO FAR!!! MISS GRACIE RUSSELL 158. Montavius is closing in with 153. Let's read to the end!!

What Excellent Readers

2010-04-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

Look at all the students with over 50 AR points. Some of them already have more than that. I think we may have around 11 students get the 100AR point award on Awards Day. If we do that will be a record for my classroom. Come on Boys and Girls Read. Cut off for AR tests is May 14th.

AMSTI Human Body/ Owl Pellet Activity

2010-04-23T07:34:00.000-07:00

The rest of us:)

2010-04-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

We are enjoying our AMSTI Human Body Unit. All students are working really hard. I am very proud of them. When we come to the end of the year it is easy to goof off and not work hard. This is not the case with this group.

2010-02-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

Kristen getting ready to throw a big snow ball!!

How often do we get to try to catch a snowflake in our mouth? Natalie made a snowman!!

Playing in the snow Snuggle up close! It is cold and wet out here!!
We had fun in the snow today. It was kind of hard to get focused for all concerned this morning.
Maybe we will see some real snow before winter is over. Mother Nature keeps trying to give us one. See you tomorrow boys and girls.
Mrs. Powell

Catch-up Part four

2010-02-03T11:52:00.000-08:00

Catch-up Part three

2010-02-03T11:46:00.001-08:00

Fun at the "HOP"

Catch-up Part two

2010-02-03T11:34:00.001-08:00

A few more science project photos:)

Catch-Up

2010-02-03T11:29:00.001-08:00

Just some pictures of fun learning activities before Christmas. Plenty more will be on your DVD at the end of the year. I forgot all about the blog after Christmas. Remember I told you I probably would forget about it, or not have time sometimes. It has been one of those times. I will try to do better from now until the end of the year. Some more will follow from before Christmas!!

Thanks,

Mrs. Powell

Busy Week in Third Grade

2009-11-20T09:08:00.000-08:00

We are glad to have Blake back. He was voted "Best Dressed Turkey" by secret ballot.

Very generous students thinking of others as Christmas draws nearer!!

We have been working on problem solving in groups in math

Geography Awareness Week

2009-11-18T13:42:00.000-08:00

While the girls were making signs for the boys to wear today, the boys are showing off an endangered animals of Europe project they completed yesterday with geography students from UNA. My son Ryan helped my students with this project as part of Geography Awareness Week. We will be learning all about animals in science after Thanksgiving.
Today in math we learned about equalities and inequalities. Students must make these equations true. Watch for the signs. For inequalities there is more than one answer most of the time. For equalities. There is usually just one answer that will make the equation true. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving Lunch with our parents tomorrow. I am looking forward to eating with a group of students also!! Have a great afternoon.
Mrs. Powell

More 50 Point AR Students

2009-11-18T13:36:00.001-08:00

I am loosing my desk three more days. Greyson Thornton , Meredith Simpson, and Will Almon all now have 50 AR points. Who will be next?? Seven students now have over 50 points. Students will need to be at least to the 50 point mark by the end of first semester if they want the 100 point Award on Awards Day. Read, Read, Read boys and girls.
Mrs. Powell

Can Food Drive Over!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-11-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

Well, the boys lost the Can Food Drive Competition. They are sporting lovely signs in the picture below the girls created that said "Girls Rule" to PE and Lunch. They were such good sports. We collected the most cans of all the third grade classes. Thank you all for your generosity. I know many people will have a much better Thanksgiving because of all your efforts. Greyson brought in the most single cans, so give him a hand for being such a good sport and wearing a sign!!
Mrs. Powell

AR Point Awards

2009-11-12T13:12:00.001-08:00

Gracie has over 75 AR points and is gaining quickly. Julia, Montavius, and Mollie have 50. Many others are getting close. Who will sit all day at the teacher desk next? Will anyone catch Gracie? Stay tuned to find out!

Buzzzzzzzzzzzz Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2009-11-12T13:07:00.000-08:00

Bad Picture taking Day!! Almost all my pictures are blurry. The bees came to polinate our flowers so we can have some seeds to grow new plants with.

Halloween

2009-11-12T13:03:00.000-08:00

We had fun learning about bones. We will learn more about this later in a fun and interesting AMSTI Science unit.

2009-10-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-05T13:37:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-09-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-11-20T11:14:00.000-08:00

We have been busy today. We are having fun with Miss Hernandez. UNA students also taught us about endangered animals today and where they are located in our world. See if you can find your self. What does it mean if an animal is endangered? What does it mean if an animal becomes extinct? Give me two important facts you learned about your animal yesterday. Come on let me hear from you boys and girls.......

The Bees visited our room last Wednesday

2008-11-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

Teachers Learning How to Blog

2008-11-06T13:51:00.000-08:00

Kess helping Mrs. Powell learn how to upload pictures to my blog.

Teachers have to still take classes too!!!

2008-10-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hi,
Today we had a special visitor in reading. Mrs. Grissom our reading coach taught small reading groups. We think Mrs. Grissom is fun. We learned many things in class today.

Reading: We learned how to use a dictionary to look up words we do not know the meaning of.
We read to determine how characters grow and change.
We also learned how to spell some compound words.

Math: We learned that multiplication is repeated addition. We also learned that we can use
multiplication facts that we know to help us with facts we have not memorized yet.
We worked on our "6" facts and "7" facts. We also practiced addition facts and adding
3 digit numbers with regrouping. We learned a new and interesting way to check our
addition.

Language: We are learning that some nouns can't be made plural by adding s. These are called
irregular nouns. Such as: man/men; woman/women; deer/deer; What are some
others can you tell me?

Social Studies: We read a Scholastic News. Read at home and complete for 2 points added to
your social studies grade.

Yes, Yes, Yes!!!!! Our book order arrived today.

Bye for now
Mrs. Powell