Multiplication War

We learned how to play Multiplication War this week. We are trying to memorize our multiplication facts. Want to play the game at home?



Enjoying every moment,
Cindy Schimel

Spelling

Students that are in my reading group in the afternoon received a spelling list on Friday so they could practice their words before the pre-test on Monday. Any words missed will be re-tested on Friday. This weeks words are:
1. between
2. own
3. below
4. country
5. plant
6. slip
7. lunch
8. pond
9. from
10. thump
11. inch
12. convert
13. stored
14. motion
15. expanded
16. calculate


Enjoying every moment,
Cindy Schimel

9's Multiplication Trick

We are working on memorizing our multiplication tables and could use some extra help at home. We are focusing on everything from 1x1 to 10x10 for now (up to 12X12 later).

Here is a video to help us with our 9's.

Art Work

Here is a poster I made during the first week of school that everyone is really enjoying, so I wanted to share it with you too.



Last week we finished our pumpkin paintings. First we drew the pumpkins and then traced those lines with Elmer's glue. After the glue dried, we painted our pumpkins trying to shade them so they would look 3 dimensional. What do you think of our art? Did you ever draw or paint pumpkins when you were growing up? What did they look like?















Enjoying every moment,
Cindy Schimel

Place Value

We are learning about place value and made these foldable a to help us.



Enjoying every moment,
Cindy Schimel

Summary of Our Week

Each morning we start our day by reading a short article from Tween Tribune. As we read we jot down words of interest or words we don't know. We also record our thoughts that we have. Then we all come together and discuss the article.

We started painting fall pictures in preparation for a trip to the pumpkin patch! We will be going with the morning kindergarten class on October 22nd. Each student will need a permission slip and $3.00. Click here to open the permission slip.



Friday we had our school pictures taken. I love this day as we are all looking our very best!

And something about combs and mirrors make us a little goofy.

Then came the best day of the week, Friday! Not because it is the start of the weekend, but because it is time for our weekly Minute to Win it competition. Our goal was to stack as many dice on our Popsicle stick as we could in a minute.

 I have the best students ever and I love that we get to spend a couple minutes each week to see who has a hidden talent. SA was our CHAMPION this week with a whopping record of 7 dice stacked!

 

  Enjoying every moment,
Cindy Schimel

The Great Cheeto Toss

Today was our first "Minute to Win It" competition for students that met their behavior goals.

What a blast! Kids were laughing, working together, and cheering each other on.

 

They thought the Cool Whip felt weird.

 

AG tossed 13 Cheetos onto AO's head in a minute, to earn them the title of CHAMPIONS in our Minute to Win It competition.

 Other great competitors.

 

 We had a fantastic week getting to know each other and beginning our routines.

We can't wait for more.

 



Team Building

Today we scored a Bingo with our awesome behavior. Now we just have to decide how we want to celebrate. Some ideas are: snack, free time, read with a buddy, have a race.


It was exciting!


We used the Expressions today to get use to how they work.



A sample of our journal we are keeping that goes with our chapter story we are reading.


We are learning how to use spell check on the computer.


Then we did a team building activity that was a BLAST!
This was the team that built the tallest tower in 7 minutes. Way to go!

Where Shall We Meet?

The first day of school is arriving and I realized that I didn't tell you where we will meet. Let's meet at the primary recess doors. As soon as you hear the bell, walk quickly to where you use to line up when you were in 1st and 2nd grade and look for me. Be careful because all the other 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders will be going the other direction. I'll see you soon!

Welcome to 3rd Grade!

Please click here to fill out a short form to make staying in touch easier.

All Kinds of Fun

We had a GREAT day at the 3rd grade track meet Wednesday!

 We learned a new game called Spiral that helps us learn our multiplication facts. All you need is  a deck of cards, a die, and a couple game pieces. This would be a good summer time game to help keep those math facts sharp.

 We have been saving photos throughout the year and today we placed them onto a large background making these really cool memory posters.

 Here is every ones on display in our hallway.

Bucky

Look who dropped into our room today!

Wednesday is our 3rd grade track meet, WEAR A BLUE SHIRT IF YOU CAN!

Science - Rubber Egg

Today we started a science experiment. We are going to turn a regular chicken egg into a rubber egg. We placed one egg in a glass of water (h2o) and one egg in vinegar.

 Nothing seemed to happen to the egg in water, but the egg in vinegar looked like this within seconds.

Then after about an hour, this is what we saw.

This is a close up.

 We are hypothesizing, observing, and predicting as we record the changes of our experiment.

Bonus! Bonus!

We are also reviewing many of our math concepts that we have learned through out the year. We are actually able to do some double digit multiplication, even our second graders! See if they can work this problem for you. 34 X 4 = ?
Have them bring it to me with your signiture and it will make my day!

I am so impressed with each students growth and understanding. I just love math.....and science.....and reading.....and oh my, you should hear some of our writing projects. Maybe we can upload some of them for you soon. Would you like that?

Grandparents Day

Grandparents and other older adults are very special people in children’s lives. Children feel a sense of pride when they know people in their extended family are interested in their school day. Again this year at McKay Elementary we are celebrating this special relationship at our “Grandparents” Lunch on May 24th and 25th. Students in grades 1st--2nd will have an opportunity to invite grandparents and other special guest to lunch on May 24th and grades on 3rd--5th on May 25th.

 Our Buy One Get One Free book-fair will be operating during these days for “grandparents” who wish to take their students to purchase a book.  Also, the McKay Parents’ Club will be offering photos with Bucky and McKay window decals for sale.
The price of an adult lunch is $3.25. Grandparents and other invited guests may use their student’s lunch account # or pay as they go through the lunch line.

Basket Weaving & Van Gogh

We read Basket Moon this week and learned how a father and his sone made baskets for a living.  Since I am a Longaberger fan, I shared the life story of Dave Longaberger ,who is also a basket maker. 

So we gave basket weaving a try and look how nice they turned out. 

 In the afternoon, Mrs. L came in and taught us about Vincent Van Gogh's art.

 Then we painted a bowl of fruit on real canvas. Thank you Parents Club for wonderful art lessons.

State Reports

Thank you to all our family members that were able to sneak away from their busy schedules to come in and be our audience for our State Reports.