Field Trip!

Here is a look at all the fun things we got to see at WSU on Friday.  I was very proud of our class.  They listened well, asked thoughtful questions and were very respectful, responsible and safe on our field trip.  Great job!

 We started our day by visiting the art museum.  They were featuring exhibits about biodiversity.  That's a big word, but we learned all about it and how living things are different and how important that is to our world.

 We inspected the art and asked questions...

 Next, we took a tour around the whole campus.  We saw many old and new buildings.  Our legs were TIRED from all the walking, but the exercise kept us warm since the wind was a bit chilly!

 We were amazed to see that the student center had real restaurants.  Like Pizza Hut and Chick-fil-a!

 There was even a bowling alley in the basement.

 So cool!

 We heard about many myths and legends that surround different statues and areas on campus.  Like, if you step on the shamrock near the engineering building, you will marry an engineer!

Abstract art in front of the library.  We thought it looked like a saddle.

The new construction on the student center...

We got to visit the arena where the Shocker's play.  It was so awesome and HUGE!  

At the end of our day, we heard a college student speak about what college is.  It was fun to see that in college you need to read and do math.  Just like we are learning to do right now!

It was a great day.  I had never been on the WSU campus, so it was a learning day for me as well!
Mrs. Lafferty

Writing: Showing, Not Just Telling

I told my kiddos that I would share some of the "showing" sentences that they came up with on our blog. We have been using mentor text (books that wonderful authors have written) in our classroom to identify great "showing" sentences.  We are working on being experts at writing exciting, not boring sentences.  We read Night Noises by Mem Fox and listened carefully for exciting, descriptive sentences.

Afterwards, we did a structure called Centerpiece.  Everyone did they best thinking and changed my boring sentences into exciting ones.  Here are a few examples:

I was nervous. (boring)

I was so nervous my sweat could fill a pool. 

I was so nervous I hid behind my mom's legs.

The dog ran fast. (boring...)

The dog ran so fast I fell on my face in the mud when I caught him.

It was windy.

It was so windy that I blew all the way to China!

I was cold.

I was so cold I just turned into a big, giant icicle.

I was scared.

I was so scared my scream was like an earth quake.

I was so scared my knees were knocking.

I was tired.

I was so tired I could fall asleep even when someone was screaming in my ear.

There were TONS more of great sentences.  We didn't put our names on our lists since everyone was adding to many lists at their team, so I don't know whose sentences I just wrote.  I am so excited for our writing time next week.  I can tell that our stories are about to get far more exciting! 

Happy Reading (and writing!)

Mrs. Lafferty

Book Fair Books - THANK YOU!

Every year teachers are asked to come to the book fair before it starts and fill out a wish list.  Sometimes I feel guilty doing this because I don't want anyone to feel like they HAVE to buy our classroom a book.  This year, I felt like I had a pretty long list.  There were just so many good books.  How could I even begin to pick and choose?  Well, I have to say a big THANK YOU to those kiddos and their families who bought books off our wish list.  I am so excited to read these books in our classroom.  I have already had many requests from kids to be on the list to read one of the new books.  I love that.  Kids WANTING to read and getting excited about a new author or series.  

Look at all these great books!

Happy Reading,

Mrs. Lafferty

p.s.  Don't feel bad if you didn't purchase a book.  You will have a chance sometime during your child's career as a student to bless their teacher with a book.  Just think.  You have until 2023 to do that! (see previous post and you will get my joke lol)

Technology in the Classroom

It was a pretty exciting day yesterday!  Mrs. Hansen came to help us finish getting logged on to the laptops!  She came last week to get us started, but we ran out of time.  Yesterday we learned how to log on to our computers, and then, log in to our google accounts!  Now we are all set up and ready start doing projects and some assignments on the computer.  Mrs. Hansen and I will have to do some brainstorming about what those projects will look like, but that's why she is the computer guru.  I can ask her for advice and she always has awesome ideas.

One thing that is very exciting for me as a teacher is google drive.  Once kids are logged into their google account, they can create a document (which could be their writing story) and send it to me!  I can make comments, suggestions and even changes in real time to their work.  Mrs. Hansen had a student send me a test document yesterday, and we were all amazed at how I could type ON his paper from my computer!  Mind blowing.  AND, google drive saves their work every 5 seconds, so no more lost writing!  *(On a side note, part of the kiddos login is their graduation year.  This is the class of 2023.  Can you believe that?! Let's see, in 2023 I will be....nope.  Not going there.  lol!)  

We are encouraging kids to use their keyboarding skills and type with ALL their fingers as they put in their username and password.  This will help them develop good habits and be able to type faster in the future.  I'm sure all of you parents out there know how important efficient keyboarding skills are!  I think there will even come a time in the near future when our students are asked to type answers to questions on the state assessments, even here at the elementary.  So, it's good to start off with learning to type the right way. :)

Here as some pictures of us at work:
 

I have to brag on my kids a bit.  They did an AWESOME job of listening and following the directions while Mrs. Hansen was explaining how to do all of this.  I was so proud of them!

Happy Reading!
Mrs. Lafferty

P.S.

The One and Only Ivan is based on the true story of a real gorilla who actually lived at a Mall in Tacoma, Washington.  Click here to meet the real Ivan....

My Personal Reading Goal: The Newbery Challenge

This summer one of my teacher friends, Mrs. Harder, introduced me to two blogs which I have totally fallen in love with!  You can check them out here: http://mrschureads.blogspot.com and here: http://sharpread.wordpress.com.  Mr. Schu is a librarian in a k-5 building and Mr. Sharp is a 3rd grade teacher.  I have been inspired by their LOVE of books and how they desire to put a "just right" book into the hands of every student they meet.  These guys embarked on a challenge to read all the books on the Newbery Award list and invited others to read along with them.  I decided to join in the challenge!  It is my goal this year to read more of the books that my kids are reading, so that I can have quality conversations with them about what they are reading.  I also want to be able to recommend books to my students that they might not have ever thought about reading!  Now, not all the Newbery books are appropriate for 3rd graders, which I am realizing  as I work my way through the list.  However, I am finding some great ones that I know my kiddos will enjoy.

 Currently, we are reading The One and Only Ivan, which is the 2013 Newbery winner.    I LOVED it when I read it this summer, and I am hoping that my kids will connect with Ivan the gorilla as much as I did when I read it.  Mr. Schu makes these fabulous book trailers that kids can watch to get them interested in new books.  I can't wait to show my kids this one for The One and Only Ivan. If you go to this link, scroll down a bit to get to the trailer.  It's worth watching!


Here is a list of the Newbery books that I have read so far:

2011- Moon Over Manifest
2010 - When You Reach Me
2000- Bud, Not Buddy
1999 - Holes
1996 - The Midwife's Apprentice
1994 - The Giver

How am I deciding what to read next?  I have discovered the Sunflower e-library, which is the state of Kansas' online library.  I can check out books on my Nook for free!!!  I am working my way through the books that the e-libary has.  That is why my list is so random, and not in order at all!  If you are interested in finding out about how to check out library books on your Nook or Kindle, you can go to
their website here.  They have kids books, grown up books, audio books and much more!  You will need a library card number from your local library.  The Hesston library has instructions that you can follow that tell how to download the software that you need.  My mom just got an iPad (woo hoo Mom!) and has figured out how to check out books on her iPad.  If she can do it, so can you!

I have many more to go, but I'm in no hurry.  I want to take my time and enjoy each and every book.  This trip is not about the destination and just checking off all the books (although I do enjoy a good list and checking off things. :)  It's about the journey and each individual story.

Happy Reading!
Mrs. Lafferty

Something new I learned today...

Today our Third Grade team met with our tech guru Mrs. Hansen.   She showed us MANY cool things that we can be using our classroom iPads for.  (more on that to come later).  One thing that we were excited to learn was how to post videos to youtube, so that we can share them with you!  Here is a link to the Fluency video that I tried to post WAAAAYY back in an earlier post.  Cross your fingers that it works!


Fluency Practice


Happy Watching!
Mrs. Lafferty

Math Centers (and how they saved my life) Kidding. But only kind of....

Ahhhhh math.  It happens at the time of the day when we are all a little (ah-hem) tired.  Lunch has been eaten, we have relaxed for read aloud and then BAM! It's time for math and time to get our brains back in gear.  That can be hard.  Even for the teacher!  So, this year we have been trying something new.  Math Centers.  So far, I am in love!  We start our math time with me teaching the lesson and main concept to the whole class.  This takes 20 to 25 minutes.  Then, we break into our groups.  Every student gets to go to each center each day.  It keeps things moving and there isn't time to get bored or too far off task!  Our 3 centers are:

Teacher Time:  This is where students get to practice the concepts of the lesson in a small group with me.

Another center students rotate to is called Lesson Work.  This is where they do a review Math Box page from their math book.  This is done independently or with our para, Mrs. Vogt.  Once kids are done with the page and have checked it, they have been playing math games.  This week we have played addition Top-it.

Students playing Top-it.

The favorite center by far is the iPad center!  Students have been practicing their math facts on the Xtra Math website.  When they are done, they can play a math game on Hooda Math.  It is amazing how quiet this center is as everyone is totally engaged.

So, there you have it!  A peek into our math time in the afternoon.

Starting next week, we will be practicing our multiplication facts and taking a timed test on Fridays.  I'm glad we have fact practice built into our day.  I think that will really help the kids master their facts faster this year!

Until next time,
Mrs. Lafferty

Science Fun

We have been studying the scientific method in preparation for starting our unit on water next week.  To practice the steps in the scientific method, we did a few fun experiments!  Here are a few pictures of our experiment with water, pepper and dish soap.  It is called "Pepper Freak-out"!  Ask your kiddo if they can tell you what Quick Hide My Piece Of Candy stands for.  If they can't remember, I'll tell you the answer at the end of this post....:)


First, we gathered our supplies:

Then, we sprinkled pepper all over in the water.

Next, we had a brave soul put the q-tip of dish soup in the water...!

 We were all amazed as the pepper "freaked out" and ran away from the soap!

I wish I had taken pictures of the first experiment we did.  We used milk, food coloring and dish soap.  The milk ran away from the dish soap and make the food coloring into a tie-die awesome creation on our plate.  It was pretty cool!  You can try that one at home with your kiddo for fun. :)

Mrs. Lafferty

Fluency Pictures and Tip, Tip, Tell, Re-ask

Since I wasn't able to upload the video of us doing our fluency practice, I took a few pictures the other day of kids reading with each other.  They are doing a GREAT job of whisper reading and recording errors and correct words per minute for their partner.

This morning we also spent some time learning a strategy for helping each other figure out answers without just TELLING the answer right away.  I thought I would share it with you as parents so you could use it at home when you are helping your child with homework!  It is called Tip, Tip, Tell, Re-ask....

If they don't answer a question correctly, give them a tip. "Think of what sound that letter makes..." (or whatever applies to what you are doing)

If they don't answer correctly again, give them another hint or tip.

If they are still stuck, just tell them.  That's ok!  Sometimes you just have to be told what the right answer is.  But, here is the most important part:

Re-ask!!!

Always ask them to repeat the answer back to you, now that they know it.  It's the repeating that helps them cement the information in their brain. :)

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Lafferty

Getting into the swing of things...

We have spent the first days of school learning all the routines that will carry us through the year.  One of the things that we have spent some serious time learning is how to practice our fluency!  This little video shows our class doing an awesome job of using whisper voices and reading to a partner.  One person is the "recorder" and the other person is the "reader".  Partner A reads for one minute while partner B listens carefully for accuracy, marking any works that are not correct.  Then, we switch jobs.  Partners read the same story all week.  The goal is to read more words correctly each day.  We are graphing and recording our progress.  It has been fun to see how quickly they picked up this routine!

****Rats!  For some reason Blogger doesn't want to cooperate and upload my video tonight.  I will try again another night.  Sorry!!!*****

I took this picture to help remind me where all my kiddos sit when we gather at the rug.  I thought it would be fun for you to see where your child sits!

And, last but not least for tonight (since tonight is the first night reading logs went home).  My kids laugh every time I say "researchers say..." BUT IT'S TRUE!  Researchers say that the best way to become a better reader is to just plain READ!  Here is a little visual that I found on Pinterest.  This pretty much sums it all up!

Happy Reading!
Mrs. Lafferty