Friday! {Stations}

It's Friday - time for Stations!  Students (and teachers) were especially ready for a fun afternoon of learning through stations after our busy week of taking the Iowa Assessment Tests (ITBS). 

Stations this week included working on science research/brochures on the laptops, creating fall artwork, and catching up on math assignments/playing math games.  3H students earned a behavior reward, so they also got to have a "free station" in which they got to choose an activity. Most chose to type a story or play games on the websites linked to our blog.

Reading Reward

Many third graders met our class goal of reading 200 minutes at home during the month of October - way to go!  Students chose to watch an "extra" episode of their favorite math mystery show, Square One, to celebrate.  

For the month of November, students set individual reading goals. Please help your child remember to read and record minutes read at home so that he/she can meet their new goal!  

Blogging!

Students got a sneak peek into something new we're going to be doing in 3rd grade - blogging!   We talked about what a blog is, blogging etiquette, and rules for safe blogging.   Mrs. Hartsock learned all about a website called Kidblogs.org at the Iowa Technology conference in Des Moines in October.  This great website will allow our students to blog in a safe manner (all content is password protected).  

Look for an informational note regarding our blogging endeavors to be sent home soon - we hope to get this exciting project up and running soon.

Reading with Miss Flynn/Mrs. Hartsock

We've taken a break from our reading series this week, as we have taken several of our Iowa Assessment tests (ITBS) during our reading time.  

We have gotten to start something fun this week - both reading groups have started a novel unit for which we are reading Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.   It is very interesting to learn about life in pioneer days!

Reading with Mrs. Bender

Even though we had testing this week we did still manage to get in a few reading lessons.   In our anthology there is a section about writing directions.  This skill is going to be very important in science over the next few weeks, so we thought we would practice.  The assignment was to write directions for making a peanut butter sandwich.  The kids all thought that would be easy, but they found out adding details is important!  Like remembering to add you take the bread out of the bag and to only use two pieces.  We had some interesting sandwiches.

We also began our novel unit, Little House on the Prairie.  We reviewed what happened in Little House in the Big Woods which they read last year.  The kids did a great job remembering the characters.

Alice in Wonderland

On Monday, October 31, Kalona Elementary was visited by the Mid-Prairie High School Drama Department with their play Alice in Wonderland.  The kids enjoyed watching the performance.  The play will be performed this weekend at the high school.

3B Reads with Ms. Spring's room

On Monday, October 31, our class had the pleasure of reading to Ms. Spring's kindergarten class.  Each kindergartener picked their favorite book to share.  We also had many yummy treats!

3H reads with KB

On Monday, October 31, 3H students were invited to read with Mrs. Billup's KB kindergarteners!  As is tradition in kindergarten at KE at Halloween, the kindergarten students were asked to dress as a favorite book character.  Students create a "costume" using a paper grocery bag and a paper plate.  The third graders got to meet the kindergarten "characters," and then read the books with them. 

 Mrs Billups even provided a yummy snack of pumpkin cookies and apple juice. Yum!

Assembly {Alice in Wonderland}

KE students and staff were treated to a fun performance on Monday afternoon of "snippets" of Alice in Wonderland, performed by M-P High School students.

If your family is interested in seeing this fun play at the High School, here's more info from the drama department:

On November 4th and 5th at 7:30 p.m., we’ll feature Alice in Wonderland. This production appeals to all ages. It’s not the scary Tim Burton version with Johnny Depp; in fact, no kid will have nightmares with this play. The script is downright playful.