12-16

Don't forget to cast your vote at the top of this blog!

 Dear Parents,

 The holiday season is in the air! Just a reminder that our poetry program is tomorrow (Wednesday) from 12:45-1:15. The kids have worked really hard memorizing their poems, working on expression, and making props for our time together. I'm proud of their hard work and I know you will enjoy watching them tomorrow. If anyone videos the program and can put it on a DVD for us, it would be great! Also, our class party is Thursday, beginning at 12:30, parents are welcome to come.

  Reading For read aloud I have been sharing favorite picture books of mine with the kids, we will continue The Kingdom Keepers after the holidays. We have also been working on fluency with our poems.

 Math We are continuing our study of landmark numbers.

 Writing We will continue our study of Explorers in Social Studies after the holidays. The kids will practice different styles of writing to describe the life of an explorer that they choose. They will also create a Voki of their explorer on our web page. I'll send you the link as soon as we have them all posted.

 Social Studies 

We will continue a study of the Explorers.

 Technology

We will be making Vokis of our explorers that the kids will embed on their  web pages and the kids will also create a Power Point presentation of their research.

 Important Dates <----click here 

 Super Fun and Safe Sites: (these sites are always on our favorite links page)

 December sites: http://tconstantine.wiki.hoover.k12.al.us/December+Links 

Kids News: National Geographic

To practice fluency at home, here are more poems: http://www.gigglepoetry.com/

Multiplication 4 in a row, play and log instead of a math game:

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=29

  Have a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!

Tanya Constantine

November 25

Dear Parents,

Only 24 days until our holiday break, hard to believe! We have had a great November. Thanks to everyone who helped us with our Native American Swap and our field trip to Camp World Song. The Fun Run was a success, I believe we are only 100 dollars away from Mr. Singer and Mr. Lawry shaving their mustaches!

Reading We are finishing our unit on inferring and about to begin a unit on questioning during reading to monitor understanding. Have the kids explain and model these strategies to you when they are reading at home. In read aloud we are enjoying a book called The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark!




What an exciting book. We've just started it so we will let you know how it turns out. We are also reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and we will be able to compare and contrast it with the play next week. Also next week, we will be starting a 2nd round of poetry in order to practice our fluency. We recorded our last poems onto our Ipods and copied them to the network so that our book buddies can enjoy hearing us read to them whenever they want to. We also made booklets so that they can follow along with the text. Our next set of poems will be "holiday" poetry. After we're fluent with these poems, we want to invite you to come to our classroom to see us perform, Wednesday, December 17th, from 1:00-1:30.

Math We will continue to work on fluency with the multiplication tables and exploring division. We are also beginning an investigation called Landmarks in the 100's. A separate letter will come home explaining this study.

Writing We will be using our study of the Explorers in Social Studies, to inspire our writing. The kids will practice writing in 1st person to describe the life of an explorer that they choose. They will also create a Voki of their explorer on our web page. I'll send you the link as soon as we have them all posted.


Social Studies We will begin a study of the Explorers.


Technology We finished recording our poems on the Ipods. We also Made a "Photo Story" of the book Fly Guy by Ted Arnold for Mrs. Shepherd's 1st grade class. We are learning how to use our flash drives to save our work. Thanks to Amanda Stone for supplying us with these. Soon we will have slide shows added to our web pages .


Important Dates <------click here


Don't forget to cast your vote at the top of this blog!


Super Fun and Safe Sites:
(these sites are always on our favorite links page)



Kids News: http://www.kidsnewsroom.org/

Our tech coach's list of sites for 3-5 grade: http://www.teacherstone.com/3-5links.htm

Fun Brain: http://www.funbrain.com/kidscenter.htmlo

To practice fluency at home, here are more poems: http://www.gigglepoetry.com/

Practice parts of speech with Mad Libs: http://www.funbrain.com/brain/ReadingBrain/ReadingBrain.html

Another great site o practice multiplication, the kids have used it: http://www.brainormous.com/online/loader_multiflyer.html

Thanksgiving Fun: http://tconstantine.wiki.hoover.k12.al.us/Thanksgiving



Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Tanya Constantine

October 24, 2008

We have both happy and sad news! Joshua Parvin and his family have moved to the Middle East on a mission trip, we will miss having him in our class. He still has his epal email address, so we're hoping he will keep in touch with us! And on a happier note for us, we have a new student. Welcome Nishanth Yuvaraj and his family to our class!

 Can you believe the first 9 weeks of school are already behind us, the cool air has set in, and we have our site set on the upcoming holidays? The kids have done a great job with all of the transitions that the new 9 weeks bring...a new reading log, new spelling homework, and new committee jobs. They didn't miss a beat. Here are a few more things that are going on in our classroom;

 Reading We have reviewed making connections and mental images and discussed how important these strategies are to making meaning. Now we are studying inferring. We are looking at how to infer the meaning of a word by using context clues and we are exploring how to infer characteristics of the main characters in our books. Have the kids explain and model these strategies to you when they are reading at home. We just finished reading Poppy by Avi in our "read aloud". I think the kids really enjoyed this book and a few are wanting to check out the sequel Poppy and Rye. Ask them to tell you all about the brave mouse Poppy and how she saved her family, sassy Erethizon, and the selfish owl, Mr. Ocax.

Math In math we are continuing to investigate things that come in groups. We have explored multiplication in many different ways and will continue to do so. Starting next week, we will begin to work on fluency with the multiplication tables. Fluency means that a child can give the answer to a multiplication sentence in 3 seconds or less. We will start with x2 and x4. The quiz will be next Friday. Here are some ideas for helping your child build speed:

1. Good old-fashioned flash cards (we will be making these in class and for homework with index cards and the children can bring them home to study).  2.  Multiplication games (any that we’ve played so far), an easy one is multiplication war with cards, or if you want to practice a certain table, have your child draw a card from the deck, and multiply it by whichever table he/she is working on. 3.  You can also print extra work sheets from the link below (or you can just make copies of the sheets I send home each week for homework).   Our goal is to eventually be able to solve each problem in a couple of seconds.  4.  Have your child count by the multiples of a given table, for example, if we are working on fluency with 4’s, ask your child to count by 4’s (12 times) until he/she can do it with ease.  We will start out with 2’s and 4’s (every other 2 is a 4) Talk about these connections with your child and share any connections you have with the tables.

Writing One of the ways we learn about writing is in writing workshop. In our workshop we have learned how to keep our binder neat and organized, we have added lots of things to our "ideas" section: we drew a map of our favorite place, marking many places on it that have memories, we've made lists and lists of things we can write about, like a list of things we are experts at, a list of places we have visited, a list of "bad" ideas, a list of things we like, etc. And we have been having a great time studying author's craft and using it in our memories book. We now know that authors use things like ellipsis, commas, descriptive adjectives, sensory words, and lots of detail to make their stories more interesting.

Social Studies What fun we have had learning about the Native Americans and how they used what was around them to survive. Ask your child to tell you about the Northwest or Plains natives, the natural resources they used, the houses they built, and how they "got around" so long ago. Next week we will begin learning about the Southwest region and we will end our study in our neck of the woods, the Eastern Woodlands. Next Friday we will have a Native American swap with the entire 3rd grade. It will be a whole day of enjoying Native American crafts and cooking. Thanks to Tina Lindsey and the moms who will be coming in that day to help us with the activities!

Technology is integrated into everything we do. I'm so lucky this year to have so many parents who have been able to help me out! The kids will begin making their own web pages next week. We're working on tightening up our math strategies so that we can begin producing math casts. Our book buddies are choosing favorite picture books so that we can practice them and make audio files with our ipods on the network so that they will have access to them at all times. (We will be working on fluency as we do this, but shhhhhh, they will just think they're having fun!) We are also going to produce a movie about our school to put on our web site for new students and epals.

Important Dates

Super Sites: (these sites are always on our favorite links page)

http://oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/mathsmulti.html This is great to practice a multiplication table, use with 2's and 4's next week!

http://www.quia.com/pages/labs.html Our computer lab home page

http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/keyboarding.htm#third_grade Sites we've been using with Mrs. Lindsey to practice keyboarding

http://www.dumpr.net/ Some fun we had with pictures

http://www.brandextract.com/catbowling/ October fun

http://www.mrnussbaum.com/nativeamericans.htm Native Americans

http://www.ahsd25.k12.il.us/curriculum/nativeamericans/ Native Americans

http://www.aplusmath.com/Worksheets/Multiplication.html  Print out sheets to practice multiplication

Have a happy last few weeks of October!

Tanya Constantine

3-10-08

Dear Parents,

We are heading into a new nine weeks, spring break, and longer days, life is good! Testing will begin after our break. Please reassure the kids that they will do fine, I know a few are a little apprehensive. I will be sending a few testing tips home that you can go over with your child.

We will go back to our spelling books, start back daily math, and discontinue DOL for the last nine weeks of school. I'll send a new reading log home and the kids will be doing a short book study. I will ask that they read and discuss the book with you. It is a very short book that prompts some good discussion. You can read the book with your child, or seperately. The important part will be the discussions you have. Details will be coming home.

Our read aloud is Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Rober O'Brien:

The kids are really enjoying it, ask your child about "the plan" of the rats of Nimh and how they became so smart. I think I've read more read aloud books about rodents :) this year than any other year, but it has brought on some meaningful text to text connections and the kids have really begun relating to the characters and it seems they have a deeper understanding because of the common theme. I model and we discuss reading strategies during read aloud as well as during our reading mini lessons. We've practiced connections, mental images, re-reading, predicting, using context clues to figure out the meaning of words, and inferring to name a few. The kids are fluent with these terms and better yet, they are getting to be experts at using these strategies in their own reading. During independent reading time, some of the kids are reading books on ipods, reading with a buddy, some are in a book club with me, and some are just enjoying a book on their own.

In writing we are studying different types of poetry, we began with free verse and are now branching out to more structured types. It is fun investigating, experiencing, and trying out these forms of poetry. All of our poems will be published in the Student Treasures book. If you have not sent back your signed form or a picture of your child, please do so as soon as possible. Everyone will receive one free copy but I have to have the signed form to get it.

We are working on fractions and division in math, they go hand in hand, and the kids are beginning to make connections between the two. We have not run into remainders yet, well let's just say the kids just do not quite believe a problem like 12/5 can be solved, but we are getting very close. A math game called "Leftovers" will be coming home soon to help practice this concept.

Although technology is integrated into all areas of our curriculum, here are a few highlights: The kids are still working on publishing their online video tutorials, we have about 6 so far and I will be adding them to the tutorial link on our site soon. We also continue to Skype with our pals in Italy, this Friday we will continue sharing math strategies. Last week Hoover's math coach, our tech coach, the reading coach, our vice principal, and other classes all joined us to observe the strange Italian accents that were coming from our room. Our kids felt very important!! Sherry Parrish, our math coach, was impressed with the math strategies we shared with our Italian friends, and everyone was impressed with our multicultural connections! We expect more visitors this Friday!

We have a trip to DeSoto Cavern's coming up in April. More information will come home soon.

As always, thank you for your support and have a wonderful spring break with lots of quality family time!

Tanya Constantine

Important Dates: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=2bcvmamhc3752ej4tsltk671sk%40group.calendar.google.com&title=Mrs.%20Constantine

Site of the week: this is the site that some of the kids are making tutorials on: http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/students/

Have your child go here to practice vocab words and donate rice to the poor for each correct answer! Add the total grains to our "help us learn link" on our web site, click on Free Rice, then type the password constantine to add your total grains to our class total: http://www.freerice.com/

1-7-08

Dear Parents,

Spelling will look a little different this nine weeks. There will be less words but the kids will be responsible for knowing the spelling and the meaning of the words. Our class work and homework should be practice enough but they will also be written in agendas incase you would like to review with your child.

We are also doing DOL (daily oral language) this nine weeks. We will go over this in class and have a quiz on Fridays, but you are welcome to ask your child to bring it home at any time, just make sure it is returned the next day.

Instead of our Daily Math we are solving glue and do’s or daily word problems and number talks in order to continue to practice computation and problem solving. Although we are finished with our multiplication unit, we will continue to work on speed and fluency with each table.

This week we will practice 3's and 6's. We are beginning a unit called Combining and Comparing which will strengthen our subtraction and addition skills, a seperate letter will come home explaining more about this unit.

Our read aloud is The Tale of Despereaux by Date DiCamillo. I downloaded it from itunes and since I have never read this one, we will be listening to it together, I've heard it's wonderful. I have also found that I need to work on my listening skills, I do better when I am reading the book myself! We are also doing an author study on Faye Gibbons, ask your child about the books we have been reading and how their similarites tell us so much about this author.

The kids are finishing up a project on the computer comparing elephants and mammoths, each group has produced a Power Point to share their findings. We are also learning how to use a digital camera and sync pictures with our computers to be used in projects. When we finish studying Native Americans, Mrs. Stone will be team teaching with me for a unit of Simple Machines. She will be helping us to integrate technology into this unit, we're excited about her working with us!

We have a field trip to Vulcan at the end of January, more information will be coming home soon.

Thanks and again, have a wonderful 2008!

Tanya Constantine

Important Dates: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=2bcvmamhc3752ej4tsltk671sk%40group.calendar.google.com&title=Mrs.%20Constantine

Site of the week: http://www.gdbdp.com/multiflyer/play_online.html another great site to practice a certain table or mixed facts, the kids know how to get to each.

11-19-05

Dear Parents,

December is approaching! Can you believe it? And what a busy and exciting time it will be.

We are still studying “Things that Come in Groups”. We are about to start using arrays to help in our investigation of multiplication. Arrays give a nice organized visual of what multiplication is. I will be sending home one set of array cards with directions for how to play 2 different array games. Make sure that your child is playing these array games as much as possible until you see that they have become ‘easy’ for your child. We will also begin working with fluency for some of the tables in multiplication. For the next nine or ten school weeks your will have written on Monday in his/her agenda which multiplication table (s) will be tested for fluency on Friday. Your child can practice these in whatever way is most effective. I love this site to practice because you have to get 20 problems correct in 1 minute and this is what is considered fluent. Just make sure your child shows you that he/she got 100 percent correct before leaving the program. If you child gets nervous about beating a clock, you can try comparing it to a video game, this worked for my son. You can also use flash cards and look at patterns in each table.

http://oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/mathsmulti.html

In reading the kids want to do a group book study of Squanto since we are studying Native Americans, so we will begin that in the next few days. While reading, we will practice writing in 1^st person and assuming the character of Squanto while writing his journal. Print the bookmark below for reading strategy reminders for your child.

We are continuing our study of Native Americans. The children will take quizzes on each region of Native Americans that we study. If your child is listening in class, the quizzes are easy A’s. However, if you have any concerns, you may ask your child to periodically bring home their Social Studies folder to go over the content. The children have been interested in seeing how different resources and where the Native Americans lived affected how they lived.

On December the 17^th we will have a Poetry Program and parents are invited. If you cannot attend please make sure someone comes to watch your child. It can be a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or a neighbor. Let me know if you cannot find anyone to attend and I should be able to help. The children will be acting out winter poetry and will need to dress up/bring props to “show” their poem. They will be choosing their poems this week.

As always, thanks for all of your support!

Have a great week!

Tanya Constantine

Site of the Week: http://oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/mathsmulti.html Get faster at a multiplication table!

Reading Strategy Checklist Before Reading I… Ø Think about the cover, title, and what I know about the topic. Ø Skim, looking at and thinking about pictures, photos, graphs and charts. Ø Read headings and captions Ø Read the back cover and/or print on the inside of the jacket. Ø Use the 5 finger method. Ø Ask questions. Ø Make predictions During Reading I… Ø Make mental pictures. Ø Identify confusing parts and reread them. Ø Use pictures, charts, and graphs to understand confusing parts. Ø Identify unfamiliar words and use context clues to figure out what they mean. Ø Stop and retell to see what I remember, reread if I need to. Ø Predict, then adjust or confirm. Ø Raise questions then read on to discover answers. Ø Jot down tough words and page it’s on, then find help. After Reading I… Ø Think about the characters, settings, events or new information. Ø Discuss or write my reactions. Ø Reread parts I enjoyed. Ø Skim to find details Ø Reread to find support for questions. Ø Draw a Venn to compare characters, events, books. Ø Write a review for your class. Ø Write a letter to the author. Ø Write a reader’s theatre (play) script. Ø Do a book report for your class. Ø Make a story map. Ø Write discussion questions. Ø Make a cause/effect chart.

Important Dates:

December 17^th 9:30-10:15 - Holiday Poetry Performance - This is just a short time for us all to be together and enjoy the season. Siblings are welcome. If it is impossible for you to come, feel free to send a relative or friend, I would like every child to have someone special at the performance.

December 18^th – Holiday Party – 12:30-2:30 Parents are also welcome to come to the class party, please let one of our room moms know if you can help with set up, the centers and/or clean up for our party. You can send a note through me if you wish.

Check our class calendar for other dates: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=2bcvmamhc3752ej4tsltk671sk%40group.calendar.google.com&title=Mrs.%20Constantine

Have a great week,

Tanya Constantine

10-24-07

Dear Parents,

What a great year we are having, I am so proud of the kids, they are really working hard and doing a good job. I was impressed with thier first week of the new reading log and spelling menu I can tell they worked hard. Can you believe the first nine weeks are already over?

Thanks to everyone who will be able to help with our Fall Festival. I know the kids are going to have a great time. I just hope the rain will be over.

Here are some things we have been working on in class:

Reading-The kids worked and worked on thier fluency to publish a great collection of audio books for our 1st grade book buddies. We posted the MP3 files on the network so our buddies can have access to these audio books from any computer in the school. We recorded over 60 books of their adopted reading program and our buddies shared it with all of the other 1st grade teachers for thier kids to use also, our 3rd graders are very proud of the work that they did and how much it will help the first graders. They will be presented a community service award (if approved by Ms. Fenton) at the end of the year for thier efforts.

Continue to make sure your child is "sticking with a book" at home. We're still practicing text to text connections and we will begin text to world connections soon.

Writing-We have been working on collecting ideas for writing in our binders and adding detail to our writing pieces. Sticking to a topic will continue to be a focus. Next week we will begin collecting memories to put into a memory book. We will explore different ways to write about these memories. Please help the kids send in memories as often as possible starting next week. They will be glued into a book so if you do not want to part with original pictures, just print a copy and send that in. No bigger than about a 4x6.

Science-We have been learning about the human body and all of its systems. So far we've learned about the skeletal system and our muscles. Next week the Body Trek will begin for our entire school. We had an orthodontist come in and speak to us and Evan's mom will share her knowledge with us next week.

Math-We are still working on multiplication, the kids have compiled lists of things that come in groups and made multiplication riddles with them that I will compile into class books for each child to solve. Next week we will begin skip counting by 2-12 and look closely at patterns in each table.

Technology-The kids have thier emails up and running! They have emailed thier epals in Italy and the teacher said they are working on responding to us. I've just realized that in order to email the kids, you must have an epal account, the kids really want parents to email them so if possible, please log on to www.epals.com and set up an account so that you can email your child. I have already gotten several emails from them and it has been really fun! I have stressed to them the importance of editing before pressing send, especially to our epals in Italy who barely speak English.

I showed the class this link today: http://kidspeak.podbean.com/ where a class of 5th grade students made some "how to" videos of some "fun stuff" to do on the computer. We plan on making our own help videos similar to these very soon.

Sincerely,

Tanya Constantine

Important Dates:

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=2bcvmamhc3752ej4tsltk671sk%40group.calendar.google.com&title=Mrs.%20Constantine

Sites of the week:

Our tech coach's page: http://www.teacherstone.com/3-5links.htm

Our computer lab home page: http://www.quia.com/pages/labs.html

Practice keyboarding from any computer: http://www.nimblefingers.com/

Just some October fun! http://www.dedge.com/flash/hunt/scavenger.html