Class writing project - 'Twas the Night

***Authors often get ideas for writing stories from events that happened in their lives.

After reviewing 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, we used events from our lives to write our own version of the poem.

'Twas the Night Before the First Day of School

'Twas the night before the first day of school,

When all through the school,

All the teachers were stirring,

Trying to make it look cool.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of teachers and homework danced in their heads.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I ran to the window to see what was out there.

The school bus was outside,

A miniature bus and eight tiny children

I cried, “OH NO! I’m late!”

I brushed my teeth and combed my hair,

But when I made it outside,

The bus wasn’t there.

I yelled through the house, “I’m sorry, Mom, I missed the bus. Can you take me to school?”

So we hopped in the car,

And took off with a flash!

“Oh mom, are we lost? We’re gonna be late!” I giggled with a grin.

Mom laughed, “I’ll take out the map and see where we are.”

“I see my school; I think we went past it.” I exclaimed.

We turned around and made it just as the bell rang!

When I got to my class,

The teacher took roll-call,

She hollered, she hollered,

She hollered them all.

“Where’s Ella, Jonah, Kobe, and Aidren?
Now Reagan, Brett, Genna, and MJ.

Please have a seat Mari, Cody, Jacob, and Amelia.

Face forward Bethany, Shane, Courtney, and Austin.

Good to see you Isaiah, Phing, and Elijah too.

Has anyone seen Makenna’s shoe?”

We started with writing and spelling,

Whoo-hoo,

And then math,

Science and social studies too

I made it through the first day of school,

Even though I was late,

Only 179 more days to go!

YAY!

Our week (12/10-12/14)

This past week we have been learning about dialogue in stories. To practice writing with quotation marks, I asked everyone to write a response to my question: "What was one thing that we did/learned this week?" (And since 'said is dead' they had to get creative with their responses.) Here's what they wanted to share with you:

"We had our last Music class before our Winter Program and we did awesome," Ella cried.

"Said is now dead," Elijah whispered.

"We learned how to cross country ski in gym," cried Amelia.

Jonah yelled, "We did a different version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and changed it to 'Twas the Night Before the First Day of School."

"On Thursday we made ornaments," whispered MJ.

Genna yelled, "In science, we made goo."

"We made snowmen," yelled Aidren.

"We went cross country skiing this week," Phing howled.

Brett exclaimed, "This week we played kickball in gym."

"This week I got to bring in a cool show-n-tell," Jacob exclaimed.

Bethany called, "This week was funny because we wrote a story and this is my favorite part, 'good to see you Isaiah, Phing, and Elijah too, Has anyone seen Makenna's shoe?'"

Austin howled, "We finished our 'Twas the Night Before the First Day of School poem."

Isaiah whispered, "Hey, said is dead guys."

"Tuesday in phy. ed. we were cross country skiing," Makenna cried.

Courtney exclaimed, "We learned not to use said too much in a story. On Thursday we made elves and snowmen. On Tuesday we learned how to cross country ski."

Reagan exclaimed, "We learned this week a new unit in math."

"We just finished the 'Twas the Night Before the First Day of School poem," Shane laughed.

Cody yelled, "Oh no, said got old and died!"

Kobe replied, "In science we made goo."

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's a haiku snowstorm!

Last week we listened to "Night Before Christmas" and illustrated our own version of some of the scenes in the story.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

This is the end of the first week in DECEMBER!

"We made haiku poems for winter."
      - Reagan

"On Friday, we had awards."
      - MJ

"We all did good on our spelling tests."
      - Amelia

"We read 'The Night Before Christmas'."
     - Austin

"We finished our 'Night Before Christmas' pictures."
     - Elijah

"We learned about polygons."
   -Genna

"We made our classroom into a winter wonderland"
     - Mari

"We had a math test!"
    - Makenna

"We had Bruno Express make their first delivery."
    -Phing

"All of us received letters from our kinderbuddies."
       - Ella

"We learned the difference between two books: The Night Before Christmas and The Night Before The Night Before Christmas."
    - Bethany

**Next week Wednesday is Aaron Rodgers Day!! Show your support by wearing Packer apparel or green and gold!

November Awards

Eleven students met their reading goal last month! WOW! Let's all work hard on our December goals.

Ella, Jonah, Reagan*, Genna*, MJ*, Mari*, Jacob*, Amelia, Bethany, Austin, Phing and Makenna* all received awards for having NO late work during the month of November.

Kobe, Aidren, Reagan*, Genna*, MJ*, Mari*, Jacob*, Shane, Isaiah, Elijah and Makenna* all received Above The Line awards for NO warnings during the month of November.

Students of the Month for November are.....

Genna and Mari!!!

Holiday Party Info

Dear Parents-

          Our classroom holiday party will be on December 21 at 2:30.  In past years, we have had a gift exchange.  This year, we are going to try something a little different.  We are asking that each student bring 20 (the number of students in our class) of something.  These 20 things can be pencils, erasers, small candy, etc.  The students will then bring those items to school and put one in each student’s stocking.  At our party we will dive into our stockings and explore the variety of items!   Please have you child bring their “20 somethings” by Wednesday, December 19th.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.  Thank you!

Happy Holidays!

Miss Jensen

Spelling List 12

List 12 contains words with 'oy' sounds (oi, oy). The /oy/ sound can be spelled with "OY"or 'OI'.

Yellow List

1. boy
2. coin
3. foil
4. toys
5. voice
6. join

Blue List

1. coin
2. loyal
3. foil
4. moist
5. join
6. toys
7. voice
8. boy
9. point
10. annoy
11. noisy
12. choice

Green List

1. annoy
2. destroy
3. noisy
4. choice
5. joyful
6. boiled
7. moist
8. voice
9. loyal
10. boy
11. point
12. foil

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

I have some exciting news! Our class collected the MOST box tops out of all of the classes at Riverside for the month of November. You are all so awesome. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard this news!

November comes to an end...

Only 15 more school days until winter break! November is over so it's time for awards again! Our Unit 3 awards will be happening this Friday. Stay tuned for more on that.

We will be celebrating Christmas Around The World on Monday, December 19th.
Our third grade Winter Music Program is on Thursday, December 20th.
Our Holiday Party will be on Friday, December 21st.

Spelling List 11

List 11 contains words with the "aw" sounds (o, ou). The /aw/ sound can be spelled with
these patterns:
          •o, as in song
          •ou, as in cough

Yellow List

1. off
2. cost
3. soft
4. cough
5. song
6. thought
7. enough
8. young

Blue List

1. cloth
2. bought
3. cough
4. cost
5. soft
6. off
7. thought
8. song
9. enough
10. young
11. strong
12. across
13. wrong

Green List

1. across
2. along
3. sought
4. wrong
5. strong
6. frost
7. enough
8. young
9. thought
10. bought
11. cough

List 10 Spelling

The "aw" sound can be spelled with these patterns:

• aw, as in lawn
• augh, as in caught
• au, as in cause
• al, as in talk

Can you think of some other words with similar patterns?

Yellow List-

1. money
2. upon
3. because
4. walk
5. draw
6. also

Blue List-

1. draw
2. walk
3. because
4. taught
5. crawl
6. also
7. hawk
8. caught
9. money 
10. upon
11. daughter
12. author
13. pause 

Green List -

1. daughter
2. author
3. calm
4. pause
5. awkward
6. sauce
7. money
8. upon
9. because
10. caught
11. taught

Angles, Angles, Angles!

RIGHT ANGLES-

Right Angel is one corner of a square that is purely 90 degrees.(Genna)

To a right angle there is a vertex, two lines two arrows and they are doing the vertex with their feet, and the arrows with their arms.   (Ella)


OBTUSE ANGLES-

Obtuse angles have to be over 90 degrees and can’t be less than 90 degrees. (Genna)

An obtuse angle is bigger than a right angle. It is 2 rays that intersect with a vertex. Jacob, MJ, Courtney, Brett, Phing, Jacob and Shane did an obtuse angle with their arms. On a clock, examples of an obtuse angle are 12:30, 3:45, and 8:15. (Phing) 

An obtuse angle is bigger than 90 degrees. On the picture, it is like a straight line. (MJ)

ACUTE ANGLES-

 

An acute angle is smaller than a right angle. There are lots of acute angles on a clock. (Phing)

Amelia, Ella, Genna, Elijah, Makenna, and  Bethany are forming acute angle. Amelia and Bethany make the vertex and Makenna and Elijah are the lines. Ella and Genna are the arrows. Acute angles have to be less than 90 degrees. (Amelia)