Language Skills

This week's spelling words included the long e or long a sounds, but did not include the "magic e" spelling pattern.  We had some tricky words that use an e in their spelling, but make the long a sound (neighbor, weigh).  Students continue to identify and correct sentence fragments, and to identify the subject and predicate parts of sentences as our grammar focus.

We've also started our first process writing project!  Mr. Wegter introduced and reviewed the proper way to write a friendly letter.  Students then began drafting (or writing a "sloppy copy") of a letter using Pages, our word processing program on the laptops. We saved our letters on our flash drives, and the next step will be to edit any writing errors.  Students learned some of the common proofreading symbols, and we edited some students' work together. Next week we will rewrite/publish our letters.

Typing friendly letters

Walk to School Day - October 3

Dear KE Parents/Guardians:

In conjunction with the Healthiest State Initiative campaign (http://www.iowahealthieststate.com/healthiest-state-walk) and the Safe Routes to School Grant we received we will be hosting a “Walk to School Day” at Kalona Elementary on October 3, 2012. We are hoping that, as many students who are able to walk to school will take advantage of this fun and exciting opportunity.

THIS WILL ONLY TAKE PLACE IN THE MORNING. NORMAL BUS ROUTE LOADING WILL RUN IN THE AFTERNOON.

All of the buses will be dropping off students in the parking lot of the Kalona Mennonite Church and students will walk down 6 street to school. The City of will assist with closing 6th street north of G Avenue. the route to assist students along the way.

We are also asking all parents who typically drop their children off at school to drop them off at the Kalona Mennonite Church parking lot so they can participate in walking to school. You are also invited and welcome to walk along with your child on that day. We will have school personnel at the driveway entrance on October 3 directing traffic to the Kalona Mennonite Church.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation and participation in this Walk To School Day / Healthiest State Initiative activity.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at school. 

Sincerely,

Jim Cayton, Principal

Watermelon Day/Stations

We enjoyed an "extra fun" afternoon today in third grade!  Today we celebrated Watermelon Day and students participated in several watermelon themed activities.

Everyone gathered in the library to listen to directions and to enjoy a yummy watermelon treat. Many thanks to our great parent volunteers for helping out with this fun event.

Stations included seed spitting (and measuring the distance the seeds traveled), math/catch up time, creating a watermelon craft, and laptop time.

Language Skills

Students took their first end of the theme graded spelling test (a longer test which covers words from all of the lists we've studied in theme one).  I was impressed by their scores!  Students who didn't test as well as they would have liked were given the chance to retake the test (and then I average the scores of the first test and the retest for a final grade).  Many students who retested did a great job studying at home and were able to significantly raise their scores - way to go!

We also spent time learning about and identifying the subject/predicates of sentences, and reviewing the grammar skills that we've covered in theme one.

Finally, Mr. Wegter and Mrs. Hartsock reviewed the writing process and the correct format for writing a friendly letter.  Students are working on typing friendly letters.

Social Studies

This week we began talking about the upcoming election, and learned about the candidates by reading Time For Kids magazine.  Students also learned how maps show boundaries, and that some some boundaries are natural and some are man made.  We also used our compass skills to locate states in the United States and to record states that share boundaries.

(and I forgot to take pictures this week - oops!)

Mrs. Hartsock's Reading Group

We wrapped up our first reading theme (unit) this week, and read two stories.  We compared Radio Rescue, a realistic fiction story, and Sybil Ludington's Midnight Ride, a non fiction story, and reviewed many of the reading and comprehension skills that we've covered in theme one (sequencing, cause and effect, and inferencing). We discussed test taking strategies, and practiced taking multiple choice tests (eliminating "silly"/wrong answers to narrow down our options, and then picking the best option). Students also took the first theme test (look for results in Friday folders next week - I am still grading/recording the tests).

Sequencing activity

Practicing eliminating choices and picking the best choice on a multiple choice "test"

We made our mark...

Loved seeing all the creative ways the kids used "to make their mark" on Dot Day!  Now...we will see where it leads them!  (HUGE thanks to the Kalona Boosters, J.W. Foods and Mr. Cayton for making the day possible!)

Math

The kids did a great job going shopping this week.  We worked on adding and subtracting large numbers, estimating and rounding when working with money, how to figure out change, along with counting out the coins to make change.  Most of the students could identify the coins, but some extra work on what the coins mean (i.e. a quarter is worth twenty-five cents) would be helpful.

Science

This week we learned that evaporation can occur without heat.  The kids placed several containers around the school, in the chilly rooms, and they still evaporated!  Some were even placed in the milk cooler. This helped them understand that the water cycle works year round...even in the winter.  They are now working on how surface area affects evaporation.  We had many interesting predictions, we will find out the results next week.