Catching Up!

I hope everybody is enjoying their break. It's been a while since I have had a chance to post to the blog, so I wanted to catch you all up on our school happenings before we left for break.

The last story we read in our reading classes was "The Go-Around Dollar." In this story, we learned all about how money is made and ways the government keeps people from counterfeiting. (Ask your child what that word means. He/She should be able to answer you right away!)

We added a little science to our reading lesson regarding the dollar, and shredded a dollar bill in a blender. Using a super strong earth magnet, we were able to extract some of the iron from the ink in the dollar bill. We learned a dollar bill is made from special paper and special ink, and iron is just one little special element they add to the ink. Our story said if you send a destroyed dollar to the Federal Bureau of Engraving and Printing, they would replace your dollar bill. We wrote a letter and packed up the shredded dollar, and will see what happens!

We had two very exciting homeroom days before we left for the holidays. Breakfast in PJ's was fun (Thank you Angela's mom and Cyrell's mom for volunteering) and then we made candy cane cards and ornaments our last day in school.

Check out the slideshow to see all of the fun we have had in the month of December!

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Stuff the Stocking

We will "Stuff the Stocking" at our holiday party on Tuesday, Dec. 20th. Please have your child bring in a stocking by this Friday to decorate the classroom. At our holiday party, we will fill the stockings with treats!

Please bring in 20 small items for your child to put in each classmate's stocking. These items do not need to cost a lot of money. It can be candy canes, pencils, inexpensive ornaments you can buy in bulk, stickers, etc. All items are due to school on Monday Dec. 19th (the day before our party.)

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season so far! 

Happy Turkey Day!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

Safe travels if you are on the road this week/weekend!

Couldn't Resist This Photo Op.

Our students have been studying bicycle safety in P.E. For sanitary reasons, they all wear shower caps under their bicycle helmets. Needless to say, I love P.E. days!

Food Chains and Food Webs

Our Imagine It unit has focused on Animals and Their Habitats. A couple of weeks ago, we read a story titled Wolf Island. In the story, a family of wolves move away and it causes problems with the food chain on the island. To go along with our story, we learned about food chains interactively, and then made our own food web. We learned how animals are interdependent on one another, and how the disappearance of one species can have a horrible effect on the food web. Here are a few pictures.

 Interactive food chain

 Morning class makes their food web

 The afternoon class makes their food web

 Devean had some problems...

Devean still having problems! :) 

Nobody is quite sure how he got tangled up in the food web, but

we were all very entertained by it.

Good news: Devean managed to get free!

Homograph or Homophone?

We have been busy learning about homographs and homophones over the past two weeks. This can be a very confusing concept! Here are some ways to remember the difference between the two:

• A homoPHONE: We talk on a phone. When we talk on the phone we HEAR SOUND. So we can remember a homophone sounds the same, but is spelled different and has a different meaning!
• A homoGRAPH: When we use a graph we have to LOOK at it. So we can remember a homograph looks the same (meaning it is spelled the same), but has a different meaning and can sometimes (but not always) sound different.

Still confused? Watch this video for some examples!

Don't Forget to "Fall Back!"

Happy Halloween!

We had a couple of surprise visitors to our class today! A ninja, and Michael Jackson!

M.J. (aka Harlon)

Ninja Cyrell

We had our own milestone at the Owen house: Madelyn's first Halloween! She was a little ladybug!

Hope you all had a wonderful evening. Don't eat too much candy! :)

Joe Budd 2011

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Joe Budd

PICTURES ARE COMING SOON!

Mrs. Owen is checking with Mrs. Henderson to see who has photo permission for the Internet.

Pictures will be posted as soon as we have this information.

Stay tuned!

Imagine It Tests

Exciting news! We are now able to take our Imagine It! tests online! Every Friday, we head to the computer lab and log onto the Imagine It website and complete our weekly assessments. It is way more fun than the paper/pencil way, and it's easier for parents to view grades!

To access the Imagine It website go to www.sraimagineit.com. Your child has a username and password stapled into the front of his/her agenda book. The login page will look like this:

Once you have logged in, click on the green "Progress Reporter" button. This button will take you to a page that looks like this:

You can then select a test to view. The tests will say "Submitted" when they have been turned in, and "Complete" when they have been graded. Double click on any test and it will show the percentage grade, and you can scroll through to see what items were missed. You can click on the "reports" tab to view your child's success as well.

Please feel free to contact me if you ever have any questions or need help with the website. I am happy to help!

Welcome to Third Grade!

To all of my new third graders, I am so excited to welcome you to my class! You are now the "big kids" of the school, and I am looking forward to a fun an exciting year.

As many of you know, when we left for summer vacation last year, I was expecting my first child. She arrived July 12th. Her name is Madelyn Brooke Owen. Since she is still very little, I will be taking some time off to be with her. Mrs. Taylor will be filling in for me in the meantime. I will return to school September 6th full time. Mrs. Taylor used to be a teacher here at Springwood before retiring, and still substitutes frequently at our school. Mrs. Taylor and I have been planning together to make sure the first few weeks of third grade are phenomenal!

Please be sure to bookmark this page on your home computers, as we will communicate frequently through the blog. Parents, this blog is a way for you to have "eyes" into our classroom. I post pictures and information frequently on here to keep you informed of what is going on in our classroom. Students, there are links to fun games on here, and you never know when your picture might show up from one of our field trips or special days. It's always fun to look back at what we did as a class!

I know we are going to have a wonderful year together!

She's Here!

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Happy Summer!

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer so far, and are surviving the heat! Hopefully you have had some time to go to the beach or swim in a pool to stay nice and cool and have some fun.

We found out this week Madelyn will have a definite birthday if everything goes as planned. She will be here a week earlier than we thought! We are scheduled for her to be here July 12th!

Be sure to check the blog in the next few weeks for a special announcement and pictures! We are very excited to meet our "Little Ladybug."

Who Will Show Up Tuesday?

We have completed our fairy tale study and are preparing for the annual Third Grade Fairy Tale Brain Brawl. We not only want our class to WIN, but we also want to show outstanding TEAM SPIRIT!

Don't forget to dress-up as your favorite fairy tale character Tuesday. We want to fill our school with lots of mythical creatures, ogres, princes, and princesses! Maybe we can surprise our Little Buddies with a character parade after the competition!

Remember, you don't have to spend a ton of money on a costume. We talked about ways to make a homemade costume in class. Remember, paper bags are always great for hats or vests, and all you have to do is ask the person bagging your groceries if you can get a few. They're always happy to help!

Get your game face on, and let's show Mrs. Owen's class has the best fairy tale knowledge!

The Truth Behind the Legends

We have started the story Johnny Appleseed this week in our Imagine It book. We are talking about legends, and how they can be based off of real people, but the stories have been told and exaggerated so many times, that they have become "tall tales."

After some research, I found a page on ancestry.com that helps explain the true stories behind some of these legends we have heard about over the years. Check out the link! We will be doing some activities this week with this!

The Truth About America's Folk Heroes

Saturday Movies

If you were tuned into the ABC Family Channel this afternoon, you probably noticed they had on the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie, and directly following was the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie that we will watch in a few weeks. Do you think the TV station knows we are studying this book right now? I think they may be spying on us!

I have never really cared much for the new movie, probably because I am old school and love the one I grew up watching, but I sat down and actually gave the Johnny Depp version another chance (it's still not my favorite.) It is really funny to me how different the new movie is from the original movie, but the reality is, it follows the book a lot more than the old movie. Even the songs the Oompa Loompas sing in the new movie are the actual lyrics Roald Dahl wrote in the book! I recognized the "Augustus Gloop" song right away since we just finished that chapter a few days ago!

Another movie based off of a Roald Dahl book will be on at 8:00 tonight on the same channel: Matilda! We read this at the beginning of the year. If you get a chance, tune in and see if you can find some similarities and differences to the book version.

Oompa, Loompa, Doopety, Doo!

Our class is Roald Dahl obsessed! We have read some of his great masterpieces such as Matilda and The BFG.  Our latest Roald Dahl novel the class requested was my all-time favorite: Charlie and the Choclate Factory.


Once we have completed the book, we plan to have a special "Willy Wonka Day." We will use this day to do some activities based off of the book, learn about the real Wonka brand candies, and we will watch the original movie. For those who have seen both versions, you probably know the Johnny Depp version is more like the original book, than the Gene Wilder version. Because of that, we will use the old movie to do a compare and contrast of the story versus the movie (plus it's one of Mrs. Owen's favorites, and she likes to see how children react to old movies they are not familiar with!)

I have found some Willy Wonka/Roald Dahl links, and wanted to post them for the children. Also, there is a BrainPop about our beloved author. We watched it in class a while back, but we may want a refresher to remind us about the life of this whimsical man. Enjoy!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Quiz

The Oompa Loompa Songbook (from the book, not the movie!)

The Offical Roald Dahl Website

I Gotta Feelin'...

The day we have all be anticipating will arrive in just a few short hours. All of our third graders should be fast asleep by now (and if they're not, please make sure they get in bed immediately) and resting up for our big "Show What You Know" day tomorrow. 

Don't forget to make sure your child eats a good breakfast, is at school on time, leaves all toys, cell phones, noise makers, etc. at home. Remind them in the morning to underline their reading and number their paragraphs. Remind them to look for key words in the questions and in their stories.

Most importantly, though, remind them that you love them, their teachers love them, 

and that we are all here to support them all the way. 

Let's ROCK the FCAT!!!

One Fish, Two Fish, Rainbow Bass, Catfish

What a great way to spend the day before spring break! We went to Joe Budd for a field trip full of fishing and hiking. We all know Mrs. Owen loves to fish, and if you have ever taken a kid fishing, it is quite the experience. It was so much fun to watch the children learn to cast a rod and reel, bait their hooks, and to hear the screams and excitement as they started reeling in the fish. Each student averaged anywhere from 7-13 fish caught today! All the fish were released, but if you ever want to have a good fish fry, take these kids to the nearest pond and they can show you how it's done!

A special thank you to our chaperones. You all were great, and a BIG help with the bait and getting the fish off the lines. As much as I love fishing, both of those are Mr. Owen's job when we are out on the boat! :) Thanks to our wonderful chaperones, I didn't have to touch anything slimy, and got to take lots of pictures!

Speaking of pictures, be sure to check out the slideshow from our trip. 

Lots of great shots and plenty of evidence to back up those fishing stories you have heard!

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More From Tallahassee's Past

We had a great time looking at old pictures of FSU, and comparing and contrasting past FSU to present FSU on Edmodo. As we continue to talk about changes in our community, I wanted to share some more pictures I found online of "old" Tallahassee. Enjoy!

 Apalachee Parkway 

(I learned this used to be referred to as the "Jacksonville Highway")

This is a view driving towards the capitol.

It looks a lot different now!

McDonald's on Tennessee St.

The "Golden Arch" does not look like that anymore!

Are my eyes deceiving me, or does that sign say hamburgers are 15 cents???

Will 15 cents buy us anything anymore?

A historic restaurant that sadly closed its doors a few years ago: The Silver Slipper.

Some of you may have had the chance to eat here before it closed. 

If so, you know the sign did not look like that when you went there!

A Piece of Our Community

Whether you love FSU (like Mrs. Owen) or hate FSU (like a few Gator lovers in our classes), there is one thing we as Tallahasseeans cannot escape: the fact that it is a major part of our community.

As we dive into the 2nd lesson of our unit, Communities Across Time, we want to take some time to not only learn about the communities talked about in our Imagine It book, but to also look at our own community.

We talked a lot last week about things we thought may have been in place of some of the houses and businesses we have here today (the students said trees, Native American camps, or even the old wooden houses we have seen pictures of in movies and books.) We also discussed changes in our community in the last few years: road construction by Lake Jackson, houses being built, even houses being sold in our neighborhoods! We talked about the changes in the Tallahassee Mall the past few years and how that has affected our community as well.

So, back to my original statement about FSU. I promised the class I would do some research and find some pictures of "old time" Tallahassee. I figured a great place to start would be with Florida State, as the university has a ton of history just waiting to be explored. Here are some things I have found:

FSU's origins began as "The West Florida Seminary" back in the 1880s. This building was located where the modern day Wescott building stands.

The Wescott Building in the past. 

I'm not sure the date of this picture, but if you look closely, you can see a car parked in the right hand corner. You cannot drive up to the Wescott Building anymore. You have to park in a designated area, and there are bricks all around the fountain, honoring graduates (Mrs. Owen actually has one there representing her graduating class. It was a gift from one of her professors!)

 Modern day Wescott. 

You can see what I was talking about earlier. All brick, and there is now a large marble plaque in front of the fountain.

Chemistry students in the early 1900s at FSU

Engineering students learning about surveying in the early 1900s. 

Do students still dress like this when they go to class?

Florida State Football then (circa 1902. Also, they were called Florida State College)

Florida State Football now... what a difference a 100 years makes!

And here is a MAJOR change in our community we were all a part of! 

The retirement of Bobby Bowden! 

Here is Bobby with FSU's new head coach Jimbo Fisher. We witnessed history, folks!

It's a baby....

I promised the kids I would post on the blog tonight whether Baby Owen is a boy or a girl. They all knew I had to leave early today to find out, and were anxious to hear the news (they've been speculating and coming up with names ever since they found out I was having a baby!)

 So... the verdict is in, and we are having a GIRL!

Our New Unit

Can you believe we are already on Unit 5 this week? It seems like this school year is flying by in front of our eyes!

Our new unit is called Communities Across Time. If you check out your child's Edmodo account (www.edmodo.com) you will see there is a poll asking if the students think their community has changed over time. We will have fun seeing what they say and using this unit as a social studies extension to research how Tallahassee and the Lake Jackson area has changed over time.

As we are all aware, FCAT is coming soon! We have completed a lot of FCAT practice together in class in both the whole class setting and in small groups settings during center time. We are now moving into more independent work with FCAT to really begin preparing for the test to come. Expect some FCAT practice pages to come home for homework, and even a few to be posted on Edmodo. We will begin taking an FCAT Practice test every Wednesday for a grade. Please be on the lookout for these to come home in the Monday Folders. Please look over these and go over them with your child. The graded tests will help give you an insight as to what types of questions your child may be struggling with, and can help you pinpoint skills you may want to work on with your child at home.

Phases of the Moon

We have just begun our new story for the week (Unit 4 Lesson 3) titled "The Moon Seems to Change." We are learning all about the phases of the moon in both reading and science class! Check out these links to some cool interactive moon websites!

• Kids Astronomy
• National Geographic: Quiz Your Noodle
• How to Make Moon Cookies
• NASA: Why We See One Side of the Moon

Our comprehension skill this week is comparing and contrasting. Here is a link to a compare and contrast game: http://harcourtschool.com/activity/trophies/rsr/build1/RR_e_4_9.htm

Take a look at the moon tonight. Can you tell the current moon phase?

Our Spelling Test Surprise!

Mrs. Owen surprised the class with a special bonus word on Friday's spelling test. When the class heard the word "baby" for number 18, they all proclaimed, "That's easy!" However, when they heard the sentence to follow, they all froze. "Mrs. Owen is going to have a baby."

The room quickly filled with questions. "For real?", "Is it a boy or a girl?", "Are you going to bring it to school?", "Are we going to have a sub?"

So, let me address all of those burning questions! Yes, it is for real. Mr. Owen and I are expecting our first child. The baby is due July 18th. We will hopefully find out if it is a boy or girl at our next doctor's appointment in February, if Baby Owen will cooperate! Hopefully, there will be no need for a sub, since the baby is not due until we are on summer vacation. I told the kids I would bring him/her to school to visit, but we will have to stop by their FOURTH GRADE classes next school year!

I must say, the highlight of my day was some of the "advice" the students offered. I was told I was going to be grouchy and that I need to really get my rest. I overheard one child tell another student in his class, "We really need to take care of Mrs. Owen, now." I was told by several I need to eat... A LOT! Some of the "mother hens" of the class were planning my baby shower during recess! (They had some very interesting ideas!) A few students have named themselves uncles and aunts, and one so honestly said, "I noticed your belly had gotten bigger, but I just thought you were eating too many cheeseburgers!"

You have to love third graders!

Tech-get-ti Dinner

Don't forget our Tech-get-ti Dinner is being held at Springwood from 6pm to 8pm Tuesday, January 18th. Tickets are on sale NOW! Pre-sale tickets are $6 per person, or a special family price of $25 (for up to 6 people.) Tickets at the door will be slightly higher: $8 per person, or $30 family price.

Come join us for some yummy Olive Garden and Pepsi products, and help Springwood earn money to bring more technology into your children's classrooms!

Reminder!

Don't Forget!

HOLIDAY HOMEWORK PACKETS ARE DUE THIS FRIDAY!

If your child misplaced his/her packet, please let me know immediately so I can get him/her another one ASAP. 

Thanks!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back! I hope your break was relaxing and filled with great memorable holiday activities! I am ready to start 2011 with a bang, and I hope you are too!

Before we left for break, there were A LOT of things going on in our classroom! Thanks to those parents who cooked for our holiday breakfast and to those who volunteered in our classroom the last week of school, whether it was stopping by to see if we needed any help, chaperoning our field trip, or helping keep the children fed and drinks poured during our big breakfast. Your help was greatly appreciated!

Please view the slideshow of some pictures from these great activities we took part in before we left. There are a few from Challenger, the spelling bee, our breakfast, and one of us singing Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer to our Little Buddies.

A special congratulations to Symone Hunter, our first place class spelling bee winner, and Justin Stubbins, our second place class spelling bee winner. They went on to the school competition and were wonderful representatives for our class! Great job!

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