Well the carnival is over. So is the wedding that I was in this weekend, and some other crazy mishaps that may have occurred Friday through Sunday. Hopefully you got some sleep and escaped the heat through all of it.
Speaking of heat, we will be watching the heat index carefully each day to make sure it's safe for your kiddos to be out. Please send water bottles with them to school if you can.
Religion
We are starting to talk about the 10 commandments. This will be our memory work for the next 10 weeks. Please continue to work on the Books of the Bible when you have a chance.
Math
We will be making a polygon book this week, as well as working on other skills that need to be reviewed from last year. The big ones right now are:
-time
-measuring
-calendar
-speed of addition facts
Language Arts
We will have our first "regular" week of reading with spelling lists, grammar, etc. The story this week deals with writing letters. Find a friend or family member to write a letter to and say hello.
Science
The next two and a half weeks will be all about bones and muscles. I will be teaching muscles to our class while Mr. Fishburn teaches bones to his. After we finish up those sections, the classes will switch teachers so they get both topics covered. We will have a test at the end, but there will be fair warning given.
Art
Thanks for helping your kiddos find time to do their art this last weekend. It turned out really great. Come see it all down in our hallway.
Have a great week!
Miss Besel
P.S. No school next Monday
Monday, August 25, 2014
Friday, August 22, 2014
Try to look at everything like it's ART!!
I did not personally like Art until I got to college. I always thought that I was horrible at it and I could never come up with good ideas. I was lucky enough to have a wonderful professor in my "required art general education class". He never judged our work on how lovely or professional our product turned out. He gave us suggestions and taught us how to look at things. He then judged our work based on personal progress and following directions. I loved that because it made me feel comfortable and I could try, fail, ask...repeat. Finally I would grasp the concept and make personal progress. That is my goal for your kiddos. I have attached the rubric for how every project this year will be graded.
Elementary Art Rubric
My first lesson in Art is always a little challenging. It's personal, it connects them to their world, and it forces them to look at space differently. It also makes it very clear if they did or did not follow directions. I love using their names to start off with because it helps me see how they view things. This project may take awhile and they will probably need reminders at home. Here are the directions and examples that I gave them at school.
Elementary Art Rubric
My first lesson in Art is always a little challenging. It's personal, it connects them to their world, and it forces them to look at space differently. It also makes it very clear if they did or did not follow directions. I love using their names to start off with because it helps me see how they view things. This project may take awhile and they will probably need reminders at home. Here are the directions and examples that I gave them at school.
There should be absolutely NO white left on the page. In between the letters must be filled in as well.
Monday, August 18, 2014
The 1st Monday of the year
I cannot tell you how much I am already loving my class this year. Your kids are so much fun to be around. Here are some little tidbits of information to help get the year going smoothly.
Mr. Donze
We have a wonderful teacher aide helping us in 3rd grade this year. Kevin Donze will be floating between both rooms every room to help out. If you get a chance to say hello and introduce yourself please do so!
Memory
We are learning the theme verse this week and it is posted on the memory page of the blog. Your kiddos can find it in their Bibles or look it up on the blog. They all wrote down the reference in their planner this morning. It always helps to have them write it down, so have them copy it from their Bible into their planner.
Religion
We have been learning the "10 Ways to Pray" this week and your kiddos have already started volunteering to pray in class. If they seem nervous about it, give them an opportunity to practice at dinner or before bed in front of family. That way they aren't always in front of such a huge crowd.
We are also learning how to look up verses in the Bible, which means we are learning the books of the Bible. Here's a song to help. (It's seriously catchy.)
Mr. Donze
We have a wonderful teacher aide helping us in 3rd grade this year. Kevin Donze will be floating between both rooms every room to help out. If you get a chance to say hello and introduce yourself please do so!
Memory
We are learning the theme verse this week and it is posted on the memory page of the blog. Your kiddos can find it in their Bibles or look it up on the blog. They all wrote down the reference in their planner this morning. It always helps to have them write it down, so have them copy it from their Bible into their planner.
Religion
We have been learning the "10 Ways to Pray" this week and your kiddos have already started volunteering to pray in class. If they seem nervous about it, give them an opportunity to practice at dinner or before bed in front of family. That way they aren't always in front of such a huge crowd.
We are also learning how to look up verses in the Bible, which means we are learning the books of the Bible. Here's a song to help. (It's seriously catchy.)
Morning Routine
Our morning routine in 3rd grade is very important. This is the time that I can help your kiddos get organized and have a chance to ask questions. Everything takes a little longer right now, so please make every effort to allow them the time to get organized before school starts. This really helps them feel less stressed the rest of the day and they can focus on class.
Everything Else
We will be hitting the books pretty hard next week. This week we are reviewing a little bit and doing a lot of introductions to the subjects. Let me know if you have questions. Have a great week!
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Who am I? Collage
The first homework assignment is meant to be a "get to know each other" type of assignment. Your child should have brought home a plain and empty manilla folder in their homework folder. Here's how to have them set it up:
Follow this link to Mr. Fishburn's blog where you will find pictures and directions for completing the assignment.
http://cclsfishburn.blogspot.com/
The idea is that we will hang these up in the hallway for other people to stop and play our "game". The kids are more than welcome to use real photos, copied photos, drawings, magazine clippings, etc. Let them make it their own so that we can really see who they are. They may need help coming up with clues and making them look nice and neat on the front. You may offer help with typing or writing if they need it, but please just guide them when coming up with the clues.
I can't wait to see how they turn out! Thanks for all of your help in making our first couple of days great!
Follow this link to Mr. Fishburn's blog where you will find pictures and directions for completing the assignment.
http://cclsfishburn.blogspot.com/
The idea is that we will hang these up in the hallway for other people to stop and play our "game". The kids are more than welcome to use real photos, copied photos, drawings, magazine clippings, etc. Let them make it their own so that we can really see who they are. They may need help coming up with clues and making them look nice and neat on the front. You may offer help with typing or writing if they need it, but please just guide them when coming up with the clues.
I can't wait to see how they turn out! Thanks for all of your help in making our first couple of days great!
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Week of May 12th
Hi Parents,
We are almost done with the year and here are all the things you will need to know (or at least what I can think of right now).
We are almost done with the year and here are all the things you will need to know (or at least what I can think of right now).
- Friday 5/16- Field Day Bring in $1 for Ted Drewe's if you haven't already
- wear good tennis shoes
- bring extra socks and shirt/shorts (they will get wet)
- Monday 5/19 - Forest Park Field Trip (leave at 9:15am and return by 2pm)
- Please bring:
- sack lunch
- good tennis shoes
- wear CCLS spirit shirt
- Thursday 5/22 - Graduation at Concordia Kirkwood at 7pm
- Friday 5/23 - Last Day of School
- Closing chapel at 8:45 am with Installations for Mr. Butterfield, Mrs. Shirley, and Miss Besel (Webster campus)
- Early Dismissal at 11 am
Book Club
We are doing a book club for Language Arts until the last day of school. This really won't involve much homework. Ask your child about the book their club is reading right now!
News Stories
Last week your kiddos did a research project on issues around the world. They then wrote news scripts and recording their own news broadcast reporting on an issue. Check out my Reading page to watch their videos!
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Zoo pictures
"My child took pictures at the zoo and now says they are supposed to do something with them? Help?"
Thank you to everyone who sent a camera/device for their student to use. Finding animals within ecosystems and taking photos for science helped enrich the field trip, but now for the information about what to do with those photos...
Preferred Option:
It would be very helpful if you would be able to download them into your child's Google Drive. Here are some helpful tips on how to do this:
1) Your student will need to log in to their Google account (just go to www.google.com and click sign-in in the top right corner). They should know their username and password (same as what they use for Chromebooks).
2) Go to Google Drive (you are now logged in to the Google platform) and I would recommend creating a new folder (Create --> folder) and naming it something like Zoo Pictures.
3) Once you are in this folder click on the little up arrow next to the "Create" button. This is the upload button where you can select file or folder and access individual files or folders on your device, select, and "open" to download them into Drive.
You can select more than one file at once by holding down the shift key while clicking files to use and then "opening" them all at once into Google Drive.
2nd Option:
Send your child to school with their device, preferably on Wednesday, (with any USB cords necessary) and I or Mr. Fishburn can help them move their pictures to the correct location.
3rd Option
Email the photos to me, and I can forward them on to the students and we can get them into Google Drive.
If your child shared a device with someone, once we get their photos into their Google Drive, it will be very easy to share them with your child. If something happens that we cannot get your students photos, it will not effect their grade; it might just mean a little extra work and being resourceful to get what we need from others.
Thank you to everyone who sent a camera/device for their student to use. Finding animals within ecosystems and taking photos for science helped enrich the field trip, but now for the information about what to do with those photos...
Preferred Option:
It would be very helpful if you would be able to download them into your child's Google Drive. Here are some helpful tips on how to do this:
2) Go to Google Drive (you are now logged in to the Google platform) and I would recommend creating a new folder (Create --> folder) and naming it something like Zoo Pictures.
3) Once you are in this folder click on the little up arrow next to the "Create" button. This is the upload button where you can select file or folder and access individual files or folders on your device, select, and "open" to download them into Drive.
You can select more than one file at once by holding down the shift key while clicking files to use and then "opening" them all at once into Google Drive.
2nd Option:
Send your child to school with their device, preferably on Wednesday, (with any USB cords necessary) and I or Mr. Fishburn can help them move their pictures to the correct location.
3rd Option
Email the photos to me, and I can forward them on to the students and we can get them into Google Drive.
If your child shared a device with someone, once we get their photos into their Google Drive, it will be very easy to share them with your child. If something happens that we cannot get your students photos, it will not effect their grade; it might just mean a little extra work and being resourceful to get what we need from others.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Week of May 5th
I'm starting our countdown to the end of 3rd grade. Summer is always exciting and much needed, but I will be a little down in the dumps when your kiddos aren't in my class in 13.5 days.
Zoo pictures
Thank you so much for everyone's help with the trip to the zoo and providing cameras. I know some kids took a ton of pictures and some kids only took a few. No matter how many they took, it was great to see them thinking about what we have learned. If you could help them email their pictures to their school accounts that would be a big help. We will be sorting and adding to them in class on Wednesday.
Forest Park Field Trip
Monday 5/19 - I have quite a few parents, but can always use extra hands. I will be sending out a list of things that I need help collecting next week. These are pretty simple items, but we will need them to do our amazing race. I will keep you posted.
Guest Teacher
I'm sure most of you have heard about our guest this week. In case you didn't, my sister will be here all week helping me. She will also be teaching the literacy block this week as an end to her education classes. This is her final project before she goes to student teach in the fall. Her name is Kierstyn, but since she will be teaching the kids, I will be having them call her "Miss B". She didn't like the idea of having two Miss Besel's (it's just too confusing for all of us).
Book Clubs
Next week we will be doing another 2 week book club to end the year. It will be a lot less homework, but a lot more independent reading in class. This also means that we will have no more spelling tests, but just work on things in class. I will be giving a partial spelling grade based on how well they apply their skills to the rest of their daily work.
Field Day
There is a note coming home today about field day. Please watch for a blue sheet in your child's papers.
Have a great week!
Miss Besel
Zoo pictures
Thank you so much for everyone's help with the trip to the zoo and providing cameras. I know some kids took a ton of pictures and some kids only took a few. No matter how many they took, it was great to see them thinking about what we have learned. If you could help them email their pictures to their school accounts that would be a big help. We will be sorting and adding to them in class on Wednesday.
Forest Park Field Trip
Monday 5/19 - I have quite a few parents, but can always use extra hands. I will be sending out a list of things that I need help collecting next week. These are pretty simple items, but we will need them to do our amazing race. I will keep you posted.
Guest Teacher
I'm sure most of you have heard about our guest this week. In case you didn't, my sister will be here all week helping me. She will also be teaching the literacy block this week as an end to her education classes. This is her final project before she goes to student teach in the fall. Her name is Kierstyn, but since she will be teaching the kids, I will be having them call her "Miss B". She didn't like the idea of having two Miss Besel's (it's just too confusing for all of us).
Book Clubs
Next week we will be doing another 2 week book club to end the year. It will be a lot less homework, but a lot more independent reading in class. This also means that we will have no more spelling tests, but just work on things in class. I will be giving a partial spelling grade based on how well they apply their skills to the rest of their daily work.
Field Day
There is a note coming home today about field day. Please watch for a blue sheet in your child's papers.
Have a great week!
Miss Besel
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