Making Time to Read

It is no secret that parents and kids live very busy lives outside of school. We all have a million things to do and it's hard to fit in everything that needs to be done in a day, but it is so important that we are making time to read outside of school! Click here to read some of the reasons that reading is so beneficial.

We have set a goal as a class is to read at least 20 minutes each day for at least five days a week. That is a goal of 100 minutes a week. Starting next week, I will be requiring,as part of homework, that we are reading 20 minutes a night. I will be sending home a reading log on Friday that will be due the following Friday. This will give students the opportunity to read over the weekend when their schedule is a little more flexible. This reading log will count as a weekly homework grade. I appreciate your help in encouraging your child to read!

The grade scale for the Reading Log Homework Grade will be as follows:
100 minutes of reading-A
80 minutes of reading- B
60 minutes of reading- C
40 minutes of reading- D
anything below 40 - F

Here's a poem that I found about reading 20 minutes a day that I really liked!

Read to your children
Twenty minutes a day;
You have the time,
And so do they.
Read while the laundry is in the machine;
Read while dinner cooks;
Tuck a child in the crook of your arm
And reach for the library books.
Hide the remote,
Let the computer games cool,
For one day your child will be off to school;
Remedial? Gifted? You have the choice.
Let them hear their first tales,
In the sound of your voice.
Read in the morning,
Read over noon,
Read by the light of
Goodnight Moon.
Turn the pages together,
Sitting close as you'll fit,
'Till a small voice beside you says,
“Hey, don't quit.”

Homework, Division and Reading

Our brains are full of information in A106! We are learning so much and we are learning at an extremely rapid rate. It is necessary that we keep up this rate so that we are prepared for fourth grade and for the NJ ASK. That being said, it is VERY important that we are doing our homework EACH and EVERY night. It is also important that we are reading on a daily basis.

It is also very important that students are completing their homework independently. I encourage each of you to help your child with their homework, however I use math homework assignments to gauge your child's level of understanding for the topic. I then put the students into math groups according to how well they are performing on their homework. Therefore, if a homework assignment is turned in and the child receives a 100%, I will assume that they understand the topic at hand and place them in a challenging math group. While it is good to be challenged, if your student is not understanding the basic concept, he/she needs to be in a group where they can receive the additional support he/she needs. The same goes for Reading and Language Arts homework. The students need to be held accountable for creating their own sentences and answering their own questions. This will help us to become more independent thinkers and mature learners.

Tomorrow I will be sending home the log in for Pearson Success Net,which is our Math program. Logging in will allow you to view the student's text book, take practice quizzes, play games and watch the videos we watch in class. This should be helpful in helping your student with their Math without becoming frustrated and just giving them the answer. Check out Pearson by clicking on the picture below:

We are also going to be using a new online program called Book Adventure. Book Adventure is a free, web-based reading motivation program that encourages children to read great books, take quizzes and win prizes. Book Adventure not only rewards children for reading, but also enables parents and teachers to track  a child's progress and help develop his/her love of reading. I will also be sending home information about accessing Book Adventure tomorrow. You can browse the website for now at www.bookadventure.com

As always, I appreciate all your help and support! If you have any questions at all feel free to contact me at anytime at Ashley.McLoone@millvillenj.gov!

New Year, New Us!

Sheesh! My new year's resolution really should be to update the blog more! I haven't posted in almost a month. We were just so busy with the holiday concert, winter break, parties, etc. I promise to be back on track.

The next few months are very important in third grade. In the next few months, we don't have many days off of school or many interruptions. This means we will be working very hard to learn, learn, learn! The NJ ASK will be here before we know it and we need to make sure we can read those long passages, write well developed essays and solve tricky math problems.


Here's what's going on this week:

Reading- We are reading,The Stories Julian Tells, a realistic non-fiction story about a boy who finds an unlikely friend.
Language Arts- Spelling Words with the "ar" pattern, linking verbs, verbs that tell about the past
Writing-We are beginning our informative essay about The Planets
Math- We are beginning DIVISION!! It is now more important than ever that we have those multiplication facts memorized! If our multiplication facts aren't memorized, we are taking a very long time to divide.
Science- Continuing objects in the sky including a visit to the star lab on Tuesday 1/8/13!!
Social Studies- Geography of the United States

I will update with more details soon! As always, please contact me at ANY time if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Busy as a bee

We have been so busy, busy BUSY in A106! In the past week and a half, we been studying more multiplication facts, learning all about the solar system and the planets, recognizing common and proper nouns, creating our own similes and metaphors, blogging, reading new exciting stories, learning about onomatopoeia and much, much more! Whew! I'm tired from just typing the list! :)

The week ahead will continue to be busy! We have chorus practice on Monday and Tuesday afternoon to prepare for the concert. Then Wednesday at 10AM we are performing the Winter Concert for the entire school. On Wednesday afternoon at 1:30-2:00, we will be visiting the school Holiday Bazaar. Finally, the big show will be on Wednesday night at 7:00pm!

Here's a sneak peek into what has been going on in our class!

7 x 7 roaches on a vine, yucky and scary all 49

!

putting the roaches EVERYWHERE even in Kyra's hair!

They look happy to be covered in roaches!

Emily covered in roaches! We had to be extra careful so that the  roaches didn't slip down into her cast! :)

Before we begin the activity, we put the manipulatives in an array so we make sure we understanding the multiplication problem!

8 x 8, clips fell on the floor, pick them up, all 64!!!

3 x 6, pick up 18 sticks

I just love these pictures with the roaches!

6 x 6, 36 lollipops licks! I'm pretty sure this was everyone's favorite!

How to Blow a Bubble writing

3 x 8, 24 horseflies on my plate

Kanye thinks the horseflies look delicious! 

Rhymes and Times

Everybody knows that Miss McLoone LOVES a good rhyme/rap that can help us learn. I am always trying to find a rhyme or a song to make learning more exciting. That's why when the other third grade teachers introduced "Rhymes and Times" to me, I knew it would be a hit in our class!

3 X 4 = 12 knocks on the door

This week we have already learned the 0's,1's,2's and 5's times tables. We have also learned rhymes to help us memorize some tricky facts such as 3x4 and 6x7. Here are some pictures of us in action. We are having so much fun learning multiplication! Please practice with your child at home nightly. We are moving very quickly and it essential that we know these facts very well!

3 X 4= 12 knocks on the door

6 X 7, rings are new, shiny and bright ALL 42!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

I hope all of my students and their families are having a great Thanksgiving! Don't forget to enjoy your family and all that delicious food. Hopefully, in between all of that turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie, we are squeezing in some learning! :) Don't forget to share your Thanksgiving story bracelet with your friends and family.

The Thanksgiving Break SumDog Competition is officially underway! I'm so proud of you all for working so hard and really trying to master those math facts. Don't forget the winner will get a special prize! I updated the competition to be a little more challenging. I added multiplication and some harder addition and subtraction problems. Remember, being challenged pushes us to learn.

Don't forget about completing your test prep poster for Ms.Culp. The directions are to decorate the poster in any way you would like to help you remember what is important when it comes to NJ ASK. Ms.Culp is picking the best decorated poster!


The past couple weeks have been so busy with Parent/Teacher Conferences, half days, and end of the marking period days. I'm certainly happy to get back to a regular week next week! Here are a few pictures of things that have been happening in our classroom.

Kyra and her mom reading to the class! Thank you!!

Dylan being Dylan on his birthday!! Thanks for the cupcakes, Dylan!

Ready for Parent/Teacher conferences!

Working hard!

Emily typing her spelling words.

Mackenzie and Kyra partner reading.

listening to reading!

Next week we are starting Rhymes and Times to help us with our multiplication and we are really going to be focusing on our writing skills. We will also be reading Wild Shots, They're My Life!  See you all on Monday!

Finally a whole week!!

Let me just start by saying, I am SO happy that we finally have a full week of school!!  Because there are only two full weeks of school in the entire month of November, we will be working really hard this week. We want to squeeze in as much learning as possible!

I am also excited for Parent/Teacher conferences this week! I can't wait to meet with all of the parents and tell them about all the exciting things your child/children have been doing in school. Please contact me as soon as possible, if you are unsure of your conference time or if you need to reschedule!

Today we started our Star Student of the Week program with Kyra! Kyra brought in an awesome poster for us to display. She even put little stars on the poster that light up!! All of the kids in our class thought that was really cool.

HOMEWORK UPDATE: I really liked doing the "Book Bag" program however, we were having problems with books getting lost or destroyed. Rather than running the risk of ruining all of our classroom books, I set up new homework pages that go along with the Harcourt Story of the week .This will help us still make deeper connections with books and we will also do better on our Reading Comprehension tests! Basically, it's a win-win situation!!

Have a great week!
-Miss McLoone