We have a new student!  His name is Isaiah!  Welcome to Room 37, Isaiah - home of Ms. Maryclaire's most wonderful students in the world!  We're so glad you are going to join our class!

 Happy New Year to Room 37 families!  We are entering the second half of school and we have lots to do!  We will be diving into our studies of famous Explorers of North America: Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Christopher Newport, and Jacques Cartier.  We will be learning about energy - what, where, when, how.  I will focus a great deal on wind energy. We are starting our Multiplication Unit in math.  Please download the Timez Attack game from Big Brainz on your home computer.  We will be reading and writing poetry - a favorite of mine - and as usual, working with the computers in a variety of ways - word, powerpoint, kidspiration, animationish, and stationary studio - the latter two are fantastic software from Fablevision, a company owned by one of our favorite authors: Peter Reynolds!

More than anything, however, Room 37 will be READING!  We are each going to attempt to read 20 books by June 12th!  That's right.  The teacher has to do it too!!!  Current research suggests that lots and lots of independent reading makes for good readers - and this involves time.  We will be taking lots of time to read this semester - and in the end, we will be better at EVERYTHING!!!!

Well, as you can see, we DO have a lot to DO!!!!!  How can you help us?  Feed us well.  Make sure we get exercise daily.  Make sure we only watch 2 hours of TV or computer games a day - no more please.  Make sure we get ALL of our sleep.  Make sure you take care of you so you can take care of the little ones!

Okay.....here we go.......

It's the 2nd quarter of school; the children should be working on their sight words: the fourth hundred, the fifth hundred, and the sixth hundred.  Testing has begun for the first three hundred words - the expectation is that your student will learn 300 sight words a quarter.  Your student may bring home a list of words from the first three hundred that he is unable to read within 5 seconds.  Please work with your student each night on those words; a re-test of these words will be given on Thursday, December 15th.  This is a large part of each student's reading grade; please make every effort to ensure that your child recognizes and can read each word within 5 seconds.

Sight words are important because they make up AT LEAST 75% of all the words your child reads.  As you can imagine, comprehension soars when the brain doesn't have to stop to decode/figure out words while reading.

Thank you so much, again, for helping us help your child!

Miss Maryclaire

Ms. Teresa and I would like to extend our wishes for you and your family to have a spectacular Thanksgiving filled with lots of love and good food!  For those of you going to see the Thanksgiving Parade in New York.......TAKE PICTURES and please, please wave to Santa for me!

I am thankful that I have your children in my classroom; thank you for entrusting your most precious things to my care - each day I strive to help them reach their goals and potential. 

Now.....where's that PECAN PIE??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Tuesday and Wednesday (11/15-16), the Star Chasers will be taking the Naglieri Nonverbal Test and the Cogat Tests.  These tests are not part of your child's grade.  These tests are given by the county and are sent out for results.  I will send home the results of the testing when I receive them.  The Naglieri Test is a nonverbal test of general ability.  The Cogat measures students' learned reasoning ability.

 Want to have some fun?  Take your child to:  www.buildyourwildself.com   Have everyone in the family make their wild selves!!!  What a great way to spend some time together AND learn some cool facts about all sorts of animals!  Print your wild selves and send them in to put on our "3rd Graders are WILD!" board!!!!

As you know, we are learning our spelling words by learning the rules of English spelling.  Please remember to review your child's spelling words with him every single night!  He should be able to write the rule AND every word correctly!  In order for a child to succeed, it is so very important that he get school support at home.  Thank you so much for your support of your child and therefore, the class!  Yea Parents!

Well, the 3rd grade is writing our very own Pourquoi Tale:  Why The Leaves Change Color In Fall.  We've mapped our story out:  we have the characters, the setting, the plot (what the problem is), and the solution.  Now, all we have to so is put it together!!!  You'll have to see if you are a good guy or bad guy in our story!  Look for it online soon!

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!  We were so lucky!!! A friend from the Federal Aviation Administration came to work with us on Monday!! We learned the 4 things needed for an airplane to fly: lift, weight, thrust, and drag.  We flew many different types of model planes with different types of wings and we kept data on the distance the planes flew and the time (in seconds - because hours just didn't make sense) in the air of each plane.  We made graphs too!  Did you know some things are lighter than air?  It's true!  Helium is lighter than air; you can see that if you fill a balloon with helium.  The balloon will float in the air.  If you fill the balloon with air, it just falls to the ground.  We found out that when a plane takes off, it takes off into the wind.  The wings are a certain shape.  The air moves under and over the wings.  The air moves faster under the wings.  There is a WHOLE LOT of stuff going on when a plane flies!!!  It was a great day for us!  Oh - and did you know.....a propeller is a screw - which, of course, is a simple machine.

One of the many great subjects we study in Science, Simple Machines is probably the most fun!  There are 6 simple manchines:  the wedge, the lever, the screw, the inclined plane, the wheel and axel, and last, but not least, the pulley!  When you are with your child, ask him what simple machines he sees all around him. Is someone moving furniture out of a moving truck - there's an inclined plane.  Smile - there is a mouthful of wedges!  Ooooh - check out that Jaguar - so shiny and new - it uses wheels and axels to move.  You'll be amazed at what you find if you keep your eyes open - and that will open your child's mind!

 So, just what is an autobiography?  It's a book about you!  It's a book by you!  That's right!  It's a book that you write all about yourself!  You get to be the star!  

What's so great about writing an autobiography is that you get to write about the one thing that you know more about than anyone else in the whole world!  That makes it easy to write!  People who have been writing books for a long time always give this advice:  "Write what you know."  Well, you know yourself.

This fall, we will be writing our autobiographies!  In order to get organized, we are going to mind-map our own selves!  What fun!  Using that map, we will be able to write a seven paragraph essay about our big, bad selves and show the world just exactly how wonderful we are!  

Wouldn't it be fun if mom and dad could listen to the story of you on their way to work?  Well, when you make a podcast of your autobiography, they will be able to do that!

Are you ready?  Put on your author hat....

 Welcome to Room 37!  3rd grade is GREAT!  We will do so many things this year from simple machines to habitats, and Ancient Civilizations to Economics!  This year we learn to write in cursive and learn our multiplication tables!  C'mon - jump on in with me and we'll chase our North Stars together!

Hey there Room 37 families!

Please have your child play some of the QUIA games and take the quizzes that I've put on QUIA.  The kids love to play them and it makes computer time a learning time!!!  Print out their score and I will give....EXTRA CREDIT!!!

As we get closer to the SOL tests, using QUIA will give your child the edge he/she needs to pass!!!

PLEASE start using the QUIA link today!

Is your child reading at home?  Here's an idea:  Have a family book club!  That's right - we don't need Oprah!  Go to the bookstore as a family and choose a few books everyone thinks they'd like to read -- not long ones - make it easy reading - then, each night, the family reads a pre-chosen amount of pages and then, they talk about it!  Who is your favorite character?  Can you re-tell the story using 5 fingers?  What is the setting?  Is there a problem the character has to solve?  How did he/she solve it?  What a GREAT way to get the family together.  Send in a picture or video of your family book club and earn an extra "A" in reading AND we'll put the picture up on our website!!!!  Been anywhere special?  Send those pix in too and we'll get them online!

Always Read,
Miss Maryclaire

 Hey! Have you noticed over there on the right is a section called "Quia Quizzes?"  This is where you will find all sorts of games and quizzes to help master the 3rd grade curriculum.  Please encourage your child to spend some time using this section.  Remember! If you print out the grade from the quiz/game, I'll give your child extra credit in that subject!  SO COME ON!!!!  Check out QUIA!!!!

THE BEST WAY TO STUDY IS THROUGH FUN AND GAMES!  THAT'S WHAT MISS MARYCLAIRE LIKES TO DO IN CLASS.  CAN YOU BEAT YOUR PARENTS IN A HOT GAME OF "SIMPLE MACHINES JEOPARDY?" DON'T FORGET THAT THE ANSWER IS ACTUALLY THE QUESTION!!!!

EXAMPLE:  

QUESTION:  CURLY-HAIRED, SILLY TEACHER WHO TELLS THE WORLD THAT HER STUDENTS ARE THE GREATEST!!

ANSWER:  WHO IS MISS MARYCLAIRE?

CHECK IT OUT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE UNDER "CLASS FILES."

The students are learning to make powerpoint presentations and podcasts.  Please keep checking back to enjoy the students' presentations!

Please notice the many stories in our "Podcasts" section.  These are the stories the children have said they love the best.  Most are read by Miss Maryclaire, however, others are read by a variety of people who care about Room 37.  Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude is read in two voices - Miss Maryclaire and, of course, a cool motorcycle dude! 

Anyway, check 'em out!  I think the children will really like them!

Lots more are coming, so watch for them!

All students are required to read for 30 minutes every night. It is the ONLY homework the students will have this year.  The booklog attached to your child's homework folder is to be filled out every night.  In the morning, when your child gets to school, a teacher initials that the reading was done.  The booklog is worth 4 grades each week!!! That's more than a test  ALL research points to reading at least  30 minutes a night as the one factor that will increase students' success across the board in school.  Please help us help your child by setting aside 30 minutes a night for him to read.  Please have a comfy place for him to read where you can keep a bit of an eye on him to ensure that he is actually reading and not "fake" reading.  Please ask him what happened on the page he just read.  If he cannot answer, you know there is a problem.  Please don't hesitate to contact Miss Maryclaire should you have any questions about your child's reading and how, together, we can make sure that your child reaches his full reading potential this year.  I would like all students to be on grade level by the end of the year.

Play Jeopardy, Millionaire and others for a GREAT way to study!

Astronaut Sunita Williams pictures of Earth -- this is so amazing!

A variety of powerpoints that correspond to what we are doing in class. Check them out!

Proficiency in Writing a Sentence

Kansas Writing Strategies - Fundamentals of Writing a Sentence