Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Dear Reader January 27,2015

I have been reading this book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.  By Judy Blume.   I thought that you would want to know about it.   It’s really funny and good. I like it because it close to my grade.  I am giving you this reatell of my book cause i thought you would like the book.

In Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing First  he wins a Turtle,  but his mom said owning a turtle is a lot of work. But Peter gets to keep the turtle.   And that day Peter’s dad Mike Warren Hatcher anouced that his friends were coming to stay at their  little apartment for a week.   And that ment that Peter had to sleep in Fudge’s room for a week witch he hates because Fudge  makes noises when he sleeps.  Finally Peters dad friends leave because Fudge won’t stop being bad and so they just leave after breakfast.  Then Sheila comes in to the story.The Auther discribed Sheila as weird, mean ,acts like a preschooler.  And Peter can’t stand Sheila.   But this is the this Sheila lives in Peter’s apartment above him.

Then Peter and his friend Jimmy Fargo go to the park to play secret agent at this speicl rock they found but when they get to the rock Sheila is there so they say get of our rock we found it first but Sheila refused to get down.  Then when fudge came running by Peter knew that his mom was there. About 2 seconds later his mom stoped and said hi.   So then Sheila opened her mouth and said,oh mrs.  Hatcher you have got to let me watch Fudge but Peters mom was not shere she wanted to leave here little boy with such a yough girl.  so she left Sheila,   Jimmy and Peter in charge but Sheila gofed off when Fudge climbed up on the playground.   But he thought he could fly but he can’t of course he can’t he is a humand.  He jumped of the highest point of the playground and landed on the ground Sheila,Jimmy and Peter could hear Fudge crying and ran over.  He had blod all over his body and when he told Peter what happend Peter saw something that was missing.   Fudge’s to front teeth were missing.  Jimmy paniked and went to go get Peters mom they came back quick.

I really think what the Auther is trying to say is always be a good brother.

At the end Peter realizes that little brothers can be good after all.

                              Yours truly, Hailey

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul

dear reader,

i,am going to share a book i read. It  is diary of a wimpy kid the long haul .In the book his mom told the  family they were going on a road trip.  So its  about a crazy road  trip. In the book greg had to share his shoe .Also had to sleep in a really bad hotel too. Will he survive the car trip.

 Diary of a wimpy kid the long haul is  also about   you never know what is going to happen on a trip .Because Greg had to sit in the back of the car with lots of bags and some more stuff like that.Plus he also  had to deal with some kids who were ramming into a wall with a cleaning  cart .And he told them to stop. And one of the kids  got his dad to  get Greg. Because greg made the kid cry too.

from ivan.please read this book if you do i hope you will like it

Judy Moody Gets Famous

Dear Reader

Have you ever heard of Judy Moody?  Well I’m reading Judy Moody Gets Famous by Megan McDonald. In the book,Judy want’s to get famous, It all starts out with Jessica wins the spelling bee and gets a crown and wheres it all morning when she has nothing to put in the “Moody hall of fame”.  Also to make it worse,in spelling she keeps on talking , gets called on and does not know the word and so she guesses the word and gets it wrong and in science, her mealworm sails across the class and landed on not the teacher but Miss Queen Bee,Jessica.  Judy forgets about getting in trouble and waves her hand at Jessica. (the mealworm is on her pony tail!)Then it starts. the bad day. Days later, She tries to get famous by winning the pet show but instead she sees her elbow  in the paper.  And she tries breaking the worlds record.  And instead she  brakes Frank’s finger while stink is annoying and petrified .  At the hospital they meet a   girl whose name is Laura and her heart has to be replaced.  She finds dolls that needed to be fixed or mended . Then in the hallway she asks Stink for his backpack and tells Stink to tell their Mom that she forgot something. She  brings the dolls home to fix without her parents knowing because she would be in trouble.With Stink she fixed them with making hospital gowns,hair,slings and casts. she mailed the dolls back to the hospital .  And then later on, Jessica asked her if she  wants to come and play. She decided to go and play if she got to put Jessica’s arm in a cast. she goes to her house and starts ripping up a sheet of paper then she saw four words they were,PHANTOM,STRIKES and HOSPITAL.She goes home and sees her family reading the paper .Will Judy get famous or be grounded?

I think Judy Moody is very good at connecting with because Megan Mcdonald makes Judy’s moods Just like regular moods with other kids. Like the evil eye and being loud here are some examples , in the book Judy gets mad because she has nothing to put on the fridge and because her brother has a LOT of stuff on it.Also when judy’s  brother got her spelling word right  and she got her spelling word wrong. I would not want that! Also in the book Judy got irritated with Jessica Finch,(or Flink as Judy likes to call her!)won the N.V. spelling bee when she had nothing to the fridge( Judy has not good thoughts about that!)

I hope you get a time to read this book because it is a great story about a creative third grade girl who likes to have fun also.

Sincerely,

Evie Mae

The Report Card

I know you like a good book so I decided to share my reading  book with you.

   I am  reading  The Report Card by Andrew Clements.  In this book Nora Rose Rowley is a genius but don’t tell anybody she has made it to the  fifth grade without anyone finding out she is a genius   even her parents.  but then she brings home a report card  with Ds and a C and boy did her dad get mad about that.   Later on she sees her test and it has a big fat no good ZERO on it then all of the sudden  the  attention  she never wanted was on her.   My opinion is that Nora is smart and weird.

Some reasons why I think Nora is smart because when she was in kindergarten she could read and the work was to easy for her.   Also when she smart talked metron  when he shared  not true facts.   also when she took a IQ test and she got  hundred sixty six but since she was much younger and it was so high for a eleven year old so they raised her score to hundred eighty eight. Another example was when she was able to go to the chelborn academy.  Also she was able to trick her parents that she was sick but of course that didn’t work out.   These reason support my opinion because has anyone heard of a eleven year old that got   hundred eighty eight on a test?

Some reasons why I think Nora is weird because she got a bad grade on her test and on her report card on purpose so her secret was safe. Also when she tried to mess up on her IQ test but boy did that not work. Also when she said that Ds  were a pretty shape boy did the teachers not fall for that one. Also when she didn’t tell her parents why she got such terrible marks .And she could of been put in the chelborn academy ages ago. To bad Nora didn’t let the world know she was a genius in the first place then none of these horrible things could of gone so wrong. Like seriously she could of went to that academy ages ago but she didn’t tell anyone     that she is a genius. That she was sick these reasons support my opinion because who would want Ds on a report card?

I think  that being smart helps you later on in life a but being a little bit weird sometimes is OK but all the time is a little bit annoying.

From

Julia

Big Nate and Friends

Dear reader, January 28,2015

I know you love books and I want to share a new book with you.   Big Nate and friends.    By lincoln Peirce this is a Hilarious book filled with exciting things and fails and adventures.   In the story Nate Francis and Teddy are three  kids.   they are friends they play soccer,they study together,they play basketball and more.  At school Nate has a over full desk,and locker.  But to solve it he in stalled a vacuum cleaner,once he sucked up Francis.  Francis and teddy on the other hand there desks and lockers are clean.  They try to act like they do not like books,Example:  One day Nate and Teddy were on summer break and they said they will not read For all of summer.   Then Francis came running at them and said the new Harry Potter!!.  Then they all sat down and read the book.  I think that the author is trying to say that friends are good people to hang out with.                                   And every new year's day they get together and play monopoly together.  Once they were playing football together and Nate ran home and grabbed a  snack and watched TV.  latter Francis came in and said perhaps you misunderstood me when I said” go long .”   And Nate said,I did not want to play anymore.  Once Nate was playing at the beach with Teddy and.  Teddy said snack bar.   And Nate said yes I am starving so they went to the snack bar.   And Nate did the math to see if they could both get a drink and a ice cream cone and a hot dog and Nate was doing math on summer break,Nate said wait a minute!what am I doing?.   Teddy said what are you doing,Nate said math I am doing math on break!!!.  After they got up to the snack bar Nate handed the money to the guy that worked there and said, Here you figure it out.

BY Carl

The Secret of the Snow

Dear Readers, January 27

I  want to share a book that I read  called The secret of the snow by Thea Stilton she is also a character in the book.  The characters in the book are Thea Stilton,Colette,Violet,Paulina,Nicky,Pamela and Will Mystery.  People call Pamela pam for short.  Thea is there Teacher and she is a very nice teacher.  I think the authors message in this book is to help others when they need or want  help.

Here are some examples of reasons I think the authors message is to help others when they need or want help.   like when Will mystery asked Thea and the Thea sisters to come to Japan to help him find out the creature that is making the lotus flowers disappear.   

On their way through their journey they ask some of the creatures they meet to help them.  

This shows that the people in the book help each other when they need or want help.  When the ask for help they ask nicely so the people they are asking might help them because they are being nice to them.   

I hope you read this book and it is also kind of a mystery book if you like mystery books  you might like this one.  I like this book so much that I could keep on reading it.   

from

          

             

         Aaliyah           

I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake

Dear reader

What is your subject if it is reading then  I survived the san francisco earthquake by Lauren tarshis  is a good book to read.  Flech and Wikie stole his gold that his dad gave him (his dad is dead) he tried to get it back by dressing up as a ghost from the california gold rush who had collected a lot of gold.  He was robbed at night and killed. People say that he still roams the street.  He scared Wikie but not Flech.  Then morris burst into the room. Then the earthquake started the building started collapsing. Flech Morris and Leo escaped but Flech left Wikie to die.Later Leo and morris unbearded Wikie.

I think that Leo is smart and kind because he soaked himself and a blanket and jumped through flames to save his friend Morris. It was kind and smart because he could of just of left him to die. Also he could have not soaked himself in water if he had not he would cot on fire and died!

Also he let Wilkie be friends with him even though he used to be Flechs assistant.He could of not let Wilkie be friends with him just because he used to be Flechs assistant.People can change.    

      from

            charlie

The Never Girls: The Woods Beyond

Dear reader,

Have you ever heard of the Never Girls? Well I’m reading The Never Girls The Woods Beyond by Kiki thorpe. In the book The Never Girls The Woods  Beyond, Lainy wakes up and rushes to her swimming lessons even though she hates them. After, Lainy goes to her best friend Mia’s house. When she got there Gabby, Mia and Kate were waiting for her. Wants Lainy got their they ran up the stairs to Gabby's closet  because that was were the portal to never land was. When they got up stairs, Mia, Gabby and Kate talked while Lainy snuck to never land. While she is in never land, she thinks she hears a rabbit talking to a fox while chasing a deer, after she finds a tunnel , in the tunnel was a bunch of beds, tables and chairs almost like a house. Are the never girls really the only kids in never land? You’ll have to read The Never Girls The Woods Beyond. I think the authors message is to follow your dreams and never give up.

One example for never give up is when Lainy was in the woods and got lost in the woods beyond pixie hollow,  in fact she was on the edge of never land to be exact. Lainy didn’t know where she was, but she didn’t give up. Another example of never give up was when Lainy was scared to go swimming but she did it even though she couldn't swim.

An example for follow your dreams is when Lainy followed her dream to talk to

animals and she is still trying.  

I hope you read The Never Girls The Woods Beyond.

                                        

                                                             

              from,

                                   Brianna

Snow Motion Podcast

Here's a repost of Mr. Berry's podcast about our latest excursion to the slopes:



A HUGE thank you to Mr. Godfrey, Cochran's Ski Area, and all the parent helpers who made this possible for us!

Grade 3 Library Classes: Book Trailer Mentor "Texts" #TCRWP #resvt #cesuvt #vted

This is a guest post from our teacher librarian, Beth Redford.

One mentor "text:" The Terrible Two book trailer  professionally produced by Abrams Books

As part of their current unit on persuasive writing, third graders will be writing book trailers to convince their classmates to read the books they recommend. A book trailer is like a movie trailer: it's a short video advertisement that tells an audience a little about a book. The third grade scholars have been watching book trailers made by professionals who work for book publishing companies, and also book trailers made by other students around the country. These book trailers will be their mentor "texts," examples they can refer back to, when they start to write their own. The third graders have already come up with some great lists of things to include (and avoid) based on these mentor texts.

We can't wait to see the book trailers written by our own scholars!

 The links below will take you to some of the other book trailers we have been watching in library class. We hope you enjoy them with your families.

 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cabin Fever - made by students in Florida

http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/Cabin+Fever+Student+Book+Trailer

 Charlotte’s Web - made by students in Florida

http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/Charlotte%27s+Web

 More student made book trailers as examples

http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/Home+Student+Book+Trailers

 I Don’t Want to Be A Frog professionally produced book trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vdHUr7TwH0

The Terrible Two professionally produced book trailer

http://youtu.be/simJG3Omyvw

The Dark by Lemony Snicket professionally produced book trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGva3mF5Ojk

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made professionally produced book trailer

http://youtu.be/ch6eXUoe-RY

The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School professionally produced book trailer

http://youtu.be/RZrT-MGu7X0

Electricity Up Close

Earlier this month, we were lucky to have folks from the Vermont Electric Cooperative join us to help kick off our new Electricity unit in Science.  They shared with us the different ways that electricity is created for us to use, how we use it, and how the lineworkers stay safe while working on the lines in the aftermath of big storms.  In fact, several of us saw these lineworks firsthand last month in the days after the big snowstorm!



 

How does electricity get to us?

Learning about renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy.

 

Trying out the safety harnesses that lineworkers wear to work on the lines...it is HEAVY!

Thank you to the VEC for taking time from your busy schedules to share your work with us!

Snow Motion, Week 1

On Friday, third graders had the opportunity to ski and/or ride at Cochrans Ski Area for the first time.  After getting the basics from the lodge, skiers headed out to the Mighty Mite to show off their skills before being grouped with other skiers/riders and a volunteer to head out to the big hill via the T-bar.



Other students wrestled with their ski boots for the first time (those bindings are TRICKY!) and then made their way out to Mr. G to try their hand at skating with one and then both skis before making their way to a mini-hill to try out these skills downhill.  Eventually, most students made their way to the Mighty Mite where they were able to continue practicing skills on the rope tow.  We'll keep building these skills when we return to Cochran's later this winter.



 

One of the most important skill our new skier and riders learned (and we'll keep reinforcing in the weeks to come!) is not only how to fall safely, but also how to get back up on your skis!!



 

By the end of the day, even though we were tired, we were exhilarated to learn a new skills and smiles were abundant!



 

THANK YOU, Mr. G & Cochrans Ski Area for allowing us this opportunity and to all the parent volunteers who helped to make this program possible.  We'll see you on the mountain...

Exploring Squishy Circuits!

As we dive into our Electricity unit in our classrooms, Mrs. Rankin is helping us to explore in new and creative ways during Enrichment class.  Last week, we built on our knowledge of circuits by exploring with Squishy Circuits!  Using conductive and insulating dough, we explored various ways to create circuits to light LEDs, run fans or even small motors!  Exciting times...and a great start to our new unit of learning!

 

Thank you to all of our dough-making volunteers!  We're still looking for volunteers to make more dough to add to our classroom makerspaces, please let your child's teacher know if you willing to make an easy batch.  We'll provide you with an easy-to-follow recipe!

Dough Needed for Squishy Circuits!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Image from www.sciencebuddies.org[/caption]

 

Starting this week, third graders are beginning an exploration of electricity as one of our science units during Theme time.  Earlier this year, we received a grant from UVM's Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering to bolster this unit with a makerspace and corresponding activities.  One such activity is "Squishy Circuits."  In order for this to happen, we need YOUR help to make conductive and insulating dough from an easy-to-follow recipe.  Please sign up on the Sign-Up Genius link or leave us a comment and we'll be sure to get the recipe to you quickly.

 

Big Bad Bob...Another Storytelling Adventure! #tcrwp

Just prior to our holiday vacation, 3rd graders were treated to yet another story by our very talented Superintendent John Alberghini!  This time, he shared with us the much anticipated story of a bull frog he once met and named "Big Bad Bob."  

And a huge THANK YOU to our Principal Michael Berry for capturing this story on video for us to watch again and again!

Authors' Breakfast & Guest Readers

On Tuesday, December 23rd, 3rd graders celebrated their hard work as information writers with an author's breakfast. Family members and other guests stopped by to enjoy the 3rd graders' information books about animals. Titles ranged from Similarities and Differences Between Lemurs and Monkeys, to What's Special About a Koala, and Getting Ready for a Guinea Pig, or Dogs Helping People in Need--and much, much more!



 

 

After the author celebration scholars enjoyed stories read by special guests. Family members, teachers, and other educators came into classroom to share their favorite children's books. It was a great way to celebrate literary accomplishments!

Email Accounts

Today, Mrs. Ayer's class was formally introduced to their email accounts.  Scholars learned about the expectations around the use of school emails.  They will be coming home today with a letter outlining those expectations.

http://

Learning from an Author! #tcrwp

Yesterday, Juli Brenning visited RES and spoke to us about her process as a writer.

We learned that when she writes stories, it starts with an idea and then, using her imagination she transforms the story into one that will be a wonderful children's book.   In 3rd grade, we talked about how we can start writing a true story by taking a small moment and zoom in to tell all the little details of a story.  Juli's story, Maggie and Milo, is a small moment from a time Juli visited family in Richmond!

Also, Julie shared that it takes a million rewrites to get the story nearly perfect.   In writing workshop, we're always working to revise our writing, adding little bits here and there to improve our writing.  How reassuring to know that we're learning the process that published authors use!

Juli, thank you for sharing your story with us and talking to us about your writing process.  Mrs. Redford, thank you for making this possible for students at RES!

Studying Geology at RES #STEM

As part of our study of Geology this fall, scholars were tasked with researching the impact of water on the land around RES.  To begin this task, we first approached Mr. Berry to find out his expertise...he shared the following video with us:

Then, small groups from each classroom explored these areas, took photographs, and thought about how to share this information with others.  Using our Chromebooks, we tried out a new app (Movenote), but ran into some "technical difficulties" while working on it.  Scholars exhibited lots of flexibility as we worked through these problems together.  And, as is often the case with newer technology, sometimes it doesn't go as planned.

Here are some of the videos students created.  We would LOVE to hear your feedback about our research...please leave us a comment with your thoughts or questions.  Thanks!

Erosion Around the Edge of RES

Erosion Behind the RES Sign

Erosion at the RES/CHMS Hockey Rink

Erosion at the RES Playground

Erosion Behind the 3/4 Wing

Finding Creative Ways to Teach

Today, our scholars watched a short video clip explaining the importance of studying World Geography!  Studying and knowing geographical terms will help them to survive a zombie apocalypse!

Introducing...Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBACs)

This Spring, 3rd graders will be taking a new assessment aligned with the Common Core State Standards.  This assessment will be an online test that students will take using their Chromebooks.  As we progress through this school year, we are giving students an opportunity to become familiar with their Chromebooks, learn touch-typing skills, and practice tasks similar to those expected with the SBAC.

In the RES Podcast this week, Mr. Berry highlighted some of the important aspects of these tests in his conversation with Michael Hock, Director of Assessment from the Vermont Agency of Education.  (It's the second half of the audio, about 4 minutes.)  As the year continues, RES staff will be attending conferences and discussing how to best prepare our students for these assessments.  We'll be sure to share this information with you, too.



In the meantime, you can check out some of the released practice items for this assessment.  Sample SBAC Questions:  Preview questions (not necessarily Grade 3) in a format similar to those that will be asked on the SBAC assessment.

As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Words Are Forever #RESreads

Today, we welcomed Betsy Emerson & Anne O'Brien from Beacon Light Grange #557 to our classrooms. Each year, Grange members participate in a number of volunteer activities in our community including giving each 3rd grader a dictionary of their very own!


Scholars were delighted to find the longest English word (with over 1,000 letters!) among the treasures in their new books!

Thank you Beacon Light Grange members for "treating" us with dictionaries!!

Spotlight on: Grade 3 Library Classes #resvt #tcrwp

This is a guest post from our teacher librarian, Beth Redford.



 

Third graders have been visiting the library to find library books about animals as part of their current writing unit: Information Writing. These scholars will be writing informational books about hedgehogs, bearded dragons, mountain goats...and that's just the beginning of the list! They are using these library books to learn about the habitats, physical features, and life cycles of their animals so they have plenty of information to include in their own books. In upcoming weeks Mrs. Redford will be going to third grade classrooms to work with scholars during their writing times. Here are just a few of the books our scholars will be using:

 



 

 



 

Celebrating Small Moments! #tcrwp

On Monday, we celebrated the conclusion of our first writing unit of the year in a BIG way...we invited Mr. Alberghini back to share another story with us and he was more than happy to oblige.  Thankfully, Mr. Berry was also available to help us celebrate and was able to video Mr. Alberghini's story...so...

Without further ado, here is The Muskrat Story!



And, Mr. Berry also checked in with a few scholars and asked about their work in this unit. Here is a podcast of that conversation, including their very own "small moment" stories!



At the conclusion of this unit, we also wrote an "on-demand" story to demonstrate all that we've learned about personal narrative writing. We were amazed at how much our writing fluency and stamina have improved.

Coming up next for writers workshop:  The Art of Information Writing!   Stay tuned...

Cheese from rocks?

RES third graders went to Shelburne Farms to participate in their "Stories in Stone" educational program connected with our current geology study. Students learned about the three main types of rocks, igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary, and looked for examples of these types along the shores of Lake Champlain.  They discovered that shale, a type of sedimentary rock, is quite common and easily distinguishable do to its dark gray/black color and veins of white, which is made of calcite. Calcite is a calcium carbonate mineral. The educators at the Farms helped students come up with a story of how one might connect a stone containing calcite all the way to Shelburne Farms cheddar cheese, which contains calcium. Pretty cool! And the examples of weathering and erosion we found around the Lake Champlain shoreline were pretty amazing too.

Stories in Stone Slideshow

Our Place in the World

This post originally appeared on Mrs. Rankin's Enrichment at RES blog.

Third graders have spent the last few weeks of enrichment class thinking about their place in the world.  World geography is one of the social studies units which students will focus on in grade 3, and by starting with this project students had an opportunity to think about their geographical place on an introductory level.  This was also a great opportunity for us to get to know each other as a class of learners, and practice collaborative group work skills which we will use all year long! Students selected a place in this world they wished to share. Next they worked with a small group to design a three dimensional way to show that place.  Students used clay, popsicle sticks, maps, flags, cardboard, technology, and much more to create their place.  Once all of the creations were complete, we worked as a class to create an iMovie that shared our place in this world-- beginning with ourselves as a group of learners and then growing all the way up to our Planet Earth! Throughout this project students were engaged and enthusiastic, and they really worked as cohesive teams!

This work is a great foundation as we will spend time later in the year digging deeper into our understanding of world geography.
Third graders hope you will enjoy our iMovie Presentations!

Mrs. Ayer's Class:



Mrs. Ankerson's Class:


Miss Darby's Class: