Ms. Pyburn's Class: February 2014

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Snow make up

Just a reminder that next Friday, March 7th is a snow makeup and no longer an early release day!!!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

ARTS NIGHT: Arts Around the World!
Hands on Creativity
Thursday, February 27th
5:30pm - 7:30 pm

5:30pm - Join us to hear the Bluegrass Band, The Longleaf Pine Nuts in the cafeteria.
5:45pm - brief PTA meeting
Hands on Sessions will begin at 6pm, 6:30pm, and 7pm!

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Realistic Fiction writing

Brainstorming our characters 2/20/14

Outlining our story 2/24/14

Adding temporal words to our story 2/25/14

Word work words and weekly words 2/24-2/28

Word work words. We are learning their meanings but not nessisarly how to spell them.

After we learn or word work words they will go up on the board for the rest of he year so we can continue to use them. It is not as important to know how to spell them since they will stay up on the board.

Weekly words. Remember these are our "spelling" words. These words are words that third-graders should know/learn how to spell.

Dream Home Activity (area and perimeter)

Our directions. This activity will take Monday (2/24) through Wednesday (2/26) to complete.

A sketch of the rooms "I" picked aka the students had me pick. PS my cat's name is Bob and they think he needs his own room :)

Beginnings of my dream home. The students will have 6-8 rooms in their home.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Planetarium

Friday, February 21, 2014

Interims

Interims for 3rd quarter go home March 3rd

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Read to Achieve update

Here are the changes that were just made as of 2/13/14... I'll keep you updated with the future changes I am sure they will throw at us soon enough :/

http://www.wcpss.net/parents/guides/read-to-achieve/index.html

Monday, February 17, 2014

Cannot miss your nightly reading!!!

I thought this was interesting.

Arrays

Notes taken as a whole class today 2-17-14

Work that was done with partners today. 2-17-14 I gave them a couple of hits. Students were to finish this tonight for homework along with the journal prompt that goes with today's lesson.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Special Valentine Notes

Everyone drew a name today and took this sheet of paper home as an explanation for our Special Valentine note. I did this last year with my class and it was such a fun and kind experience to have with everyone. Please be sure that your student takes it seriously and spends time (perhaps lots of time because of snow) proof writing, adding to, editing, and decorating.

Special Valentine Notes

On a separate sheet of paper please make a special Valentine for the friend that you drew from the basket today. You should write a rough draft and have a parent or sibling read over it and edit it with you.

You may add more information than the outline below, but be sure to talk about the character traits your friend has and not his or her appearance (what they look like).

Your final draft is written neatly on notebook paper or on a card that you have decorated. We will be sharing this out loud with the rest of the class on Friday (2/14) and then presenting it to them. Please do not share any information with other students so this can be a fun surprise J

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, FRIEND!

TO: _________________________

FROM: ______________________

YOU ARE TERRIFIC BECAUSE _____________________________________.

THANK YOU FOR _____________________________________________.

SOME WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU BEST ARE ____________________.

I LIKE HAVING YOU IN MY CLASS BECAUSE_____________________________.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Area (distributive property)

Notes done as a class on 2/10/14

Close up of the example I did 2/10/14

Close up of the one students did with a partner 2/10/14

Pyburn News 2/10/14

Please check your student's folders for conference sign-up forms, mclass data and explanation sheet, Valentine class list, information about the changed skate party date, graded and non-graded math homework and classwork (sorry I did not get to it all), scholastic book order forms (due 2/21) AND a Valentine coupon stapled to one, and a vocabulary enrichment sheet (see below for more information).

In literacy we began a new vocabulary enrichment study. In the program the children will be learning tier two vocabulary words that we would like the children to begin to use in their writing and in their speaking. Along with the program, you will be receiving a parent information letter each week that tells you about the words for the week and how to use the words. Our goal is to help the children to become better readers and writers! :)

Please remember that this Friday is an early release day 1:15. We will have our 3rd grade eye exam at 9:40, lunch at 10:30, PBIS celebration from 11:30-12:00 and dismissal at 1:15. We will find time in there to pass out Valentine's and learn something :)

I have not heard the word on whether they are going to change Read to Achieve requirements yet but as of now we are taking the second week of test starting tomorrow. I have added the next two week objectives below. This shows you which test objective we will be doing when.

We DO have a snow make up next Monday the 17th which is a full day of school. The weather looks like we could be having more snow this week so continue to watch the news to see what is going on with that.

Thanks for all your support at home. I could not make all the progress in the class room without your help!!!

Carol Ann aka Ms. Pyburn

Important Dates:

Thursday, February 13th: Field trip money is due

Friday, February 14th: Early Release at 1:15 p.m., Valentine's exchange

Monday, February 17th: Now a school day (snow make-up day)

Thursday, February 20th: UNC Morehead Planetarium field trip

Friday, February 21st: Scholastic book orders due

Thursday, February 27th, 6-7:30 pm: Arts Night at Douglas

Thursday, March 6th, 6-8 pm: Talent Show

Friday, March 7th: Early Release at 1:15 pm

RL3.2 Feb 10-14	Retell stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures: determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.	When reading fiction such as The Magic Hat, The Paper Bag Princess, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Why Mosquitos Buzz, One Grain of Rice, Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale, etc., ask your child: · Identify the central message (lesson or moral) of the story. · How does the author share the central message (lesson or theme)? · Retell the story (beginning, middle, and end) and tell what the author was trying to teach us. · Find details in the story to support their thinking.
L3.4a Feb 17-21	Use the sentence as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase in that sentence.	When reading with your child and he/she comes to an unknown word, ask the following: · Read the sentence and think about what that word might mean. · What clues can you find in the sentence to help understand or find the meaning of the word?

Valentine's Day inspired weekly words

Vocabulary words for the week. Not focussing on spelling but the meaning and using these words as much as possible.

mclass data explanation form

Parents,

The children have made great growth in their reading! Hip, hip, hooray! J I am so proud of them, and I thank you for all of your support with their reading at home. I wanted to send with your Home Connect letters a brief explanation of the results. Of course we can go over this in more detail at our conference!

At the beginning of the year, midyear (now), and at the end of the year your student completes 3 mclass tests: The DORF, the Daze and the TRC. This may help to explain the “white reading/running men” on your home connect letter that tell you if your student needs most support, some support, goal, or advanced. Please also look at the information on the side next to the colored areas with the “reading men”.

The DORF (you will see 3 “reading men” for this test on your home connect letter) focuses on reading fluency. This is a measure of how many words your student is able to read correctly a minute. The number of words per minute is taken on three different stories and the middle (median) score is recorded. There is also an accuracy portion of the DORF where your student tells me all that they can remember from each of the 3 passages. They get an accuracy score based on how many correct words they recount when retelling the story. The last “reading man” tells of the quality of their response meaning how many details ~~did~~ they remembered, were the details in the correct sequence, and did they tell me the main idea of the passage.

The Daze is a 3 minute paper/pencil assessment that is given to the whole class whereas the other 2 tests are done individually with me. Students are given 3 minutes to read a passage. After approximately every seventh word, the student is asked to pick a word from a choice of 3 words to provide the correct meaning in the sentence. Students are scored on the number of correct words chosen.

The last, biggest, most important, and longest test is the TRC. In this test your student reads an entire story (fiction or nonfiction). I record “mistakes” made and what type of mistakes were made such as leaving a word out, adding a word, self correcting themselves, repeating a word or two, etc. I also add in what cues or why they made the mistake—it looked like the word, it didn’t change the meaning, it grammatically still made sense. I then ask them 5 questions orally about the book in which they can refer to the book to help them with their answers. Usually 3 questions that have a specific answer and 2 that are open ended. Lastly your student your student must provide written responses to 2 questions about the book. Written responses are a big part of reading comprehension. J

I hope this explanation is of help. Please let me know if you have any questions. Please continue to encourage your child to read a variety of texts each night for their twenty-five minutes of nightly reading and also alternate each night between fiction and non-fiction. Please have your child take their time and give their best work on the nightly reading comprehension homework—as this is great practice on the skills we are working on in class.

Thank you for all of your support! I feel so blessed to be working with such an amazing bunch of students and families! J

Carol Ann Pyburn