Holiday Paragraph

A while ago the 403 Scholars began taking notes on different winter holidays. Next, each Scholar chose their favorite one and turned their notes into a paragraph. Today we were able to share our paragraphs with our classmates! Here are Ella's and Kai's fabulous and informative paragraphs!

Day of the Dead

By Ella

Day of the Dead, also known as Dia de los Muertos, is a time to cook, clean, and celebrate the ones who died in the past. In Mexico and some parts of the United States Day of the Dead is celebrated. It is not a time for spooky stuff like Halloween, it is a time to remember. On Day of the Dead almost all the houses fill with the smell of rich chocolate and warm chile. If you need to get ready for Day of the Dead go to the markets. They will be filled with candy and food. November 1st and 2nd is when Day of the Dead is celebrated. It's time, it's time to celebrate DAY OF THE DEAD!!

Here is Jack complimenting Ella on something she wrote in her paper!

Veteran's Day

By Kai

Veteran's Day is a holiday to commemorate (and honor) soldiers...who died in wars and to honor soldiers...that are still alive. Only celebrated in the U.S., on November 11th, it was originally called "Armistice Day". (Armistice /@r.mI.stIs/ means a pause in fighting brought about by agreement between the two sides.) Barely anyone actually celebrates it except actual veterans. Few non-veteran citizens of the U.S. celebrate. As for citizens of other countries, they don't celebrate at all. Now, as I was saying, barely anyone actually celebrates. But you still get a day off.

Kai is most likely pointing out his awesome double header to Cate!

Here the Scholars sit in inner and outer circles in order to share their paragraphs with many classmates!

Pen Pal Party!!

WOW!! Yesterday the 403 Scholars met their Pen Pals from UNC. All of the students AND all of the Pen Pals were there - how fantastic! We wanted to make a great first impression. Here are some of the things we did to get ready for the Pen Pals...

Our reading hour ends at 1:30 and the Pen Pals were scheduled to arrive at 1:45. That means we had to wait an excruciating 15 MINUTES for them. Alexandre and Zoe could barely contain their nerves!

Finally the Pen Pals arrives and were greeted with great excitement, conversation, and hugs! We spent the rest of the afternoon sharing stories, interests, and personal treasures with them. Here is a look at the Scholars hanging out with their Pals:

What a truly awesome experience for everyone! We can't wait to keep writing letters and we hope to see the Pen Pals again in the Spring. We send a special thank you to the parents who helped us get ready, Miss Hensler for all of her hard work, and the Pen Pals for taking the time to meet with us!!

Plant Website!

We've begun to study plants in class. This cool website takes you on your own plant mystery. Help Detective LePlant solve the cases while learning fun facts and playing cool games! Have fun!

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/gpe/index.html

Volunteer Thank You!

Room 403 has been so fortunate to have many helpful volunteers for the first part of the year. We had four Juniors from the UNC School of Education who helped and observed in the classroom twice a week. They recently spent their last days with us before finishing up their semester at school. We will truly miss Miss Kriska, Miss Hensler, Miss McMurray, and Miss Nelson. We also had Ms. McGee, a volunteer who helped for the math hour once a week. What a lucky bunch of Scholars to have all this support. Thanks!

Miss Kriska and Miss McMurray get a BIG group hug on their last day. We'll miss you!

Multiplication Practice

It's time to practice those multiplication facts! Use the websites below to play games and use flashcards to help you practice!

http://multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm
Have fun playing a variety of multiplication games!

http://www.aplusmath.com/flashcards/index.html
Choose multiplication (or addition and subtraction to review!) and click the start over button to begin using flashcards to quiz yourself.

Game Day Party

The 403 Scholars filled the class pom-pom jar! Everyone nominated ideas for what the class reward should be and then voted. It was overwhelmingly decided that we would have a game day party! It was a huge success!

Zoe and Camden explore a new matching game.

Aye Tar makes a move in a game of checkers with Thein.

Shunte' and Jack give Alexandre a skeptical look during a game of Guess Who?

Planting the Garden

A few weeks ago we planted our garden with A LOT of help from parents and community members. Here are some photos of the Scholars digging in to help! Thank you to all who came out to support us!

Carly and Moo work together to cover the plant with dirt.

Rosie and Ms. Hitt, our garden coordinator, dig a hole in the garden.

The finished garden!

A BIG thank-you for your help with the garden!

First Quarter Perfect Attendance

Congratulations to the 403 Scholars who had perfect attendance for the first nine weeks of school. What an accomplishment! Way to go Zoe, Thein, Oh Kler, Pema, Timmeya, Alexandre, Shunte', Lara, Cate, and Camden!

How To Solve a Word Problem

We've been practicing math word problems GALORE! In order to help us remember the steps to solving a word problem we created a quick poem. Check it out!

Lyrics:

Read the problem,

Underline,

What is it I need to find?

Pick a strategy,

Show my work,

Check my answer, be sure it works!

Rounding Rap

We have been working on rounding numbers in math to help us add and subtract. The Scholars learned a Rounding Rap to help remember the steps to rounding. Below Oh Kler, Moo, Thein, Caleb, and Kyrin perform the Rounding Rap:

Then, Kyrin and Caleb REALLY broke it down for us:

Lyrics:

Find the place value and circle that digit,
move to the right and underline, get it?
Zero to four, circle stays the same,
Five to nine, add one is the game.
Now flex your muscles like a hero,
digits to the right change to zero.
All the other digits stay the same,
yo, you're a winner in the rounding game! Word.

Out and About

The 403 Scholars are always working so hard in the classroom. Here is a look at what they like to do in their free time!

Caleb participates in a Capoeira Dance assembly.

Shawn shows off his riding skills on his horse, Star.

Ella and Aixa pause to pose for a photo!

Kyrin, Alexandre, Caleb, and Shunte' love playing basketball with a few kids from Ms. DeCarlo's room.

A happy bunch of 403 girls!

A few of the 403 Scholars enjoying the sunshine!

403 Scholars Book Recommendation

Have you ever seen a monkey in ladies bloomers? How would he get there? We read The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen. It is about a circus ship traveling to Boston when suddenly it crashes into an unexpected rock. What will happen to all of the animals? You should read this fictional book because it is funny and has excellent illustrations. Read to find out what happens next.
-From the 403 Scholars

Buzzing Bees

We have started buzzing during Reading Workshop. When we buzz we share our thoughts about our book in a small group. Here is how a couple Scholars feel about buzzing:

"I feel happy because I get to share my thoughts with my group." - Shunte'

"I like buzzing because it tells other people how I feel about books." - Shawn


Pema listens closely as Caleb begins to buzz about his book.

Oh Kler, Lara, and Shunte' are busy buzzing.

Sydney is so interested in Aye Tar's book!

Look at all those notes! Jack and Kyrin are excellent buzzers!

First Week of School

The 403 Scholars just finished their first week of school in third grade! We have had so much fun building our classroom community. We've built glyph houses, completed a class crossword, and a class puzzle! We already know so much about each other. What a wonderful group of third graders!

The 403 Scholars being silly on the first day!

Rosie, Camden, and Shawn work together on the class puzzle.

Hard at work designing their puzzle pieces!

The completed puzzle!

Can you tell who is who?

Come visit our room and you'll learn a lot about us from our community glyphs!

Last Week of School!

The year is coming to an end. It's the last week of school and we're getting the room ready for the next 403 Scholars! We're also saying good-bye to the old ones. The scholars are having an award ceremony to celebrate the end of the year and to give everyone awards! We have another way to celebrate... a movie to watch with Mrs. McFarling's class!

Posted by Lizzie Mabe

Community Chant

Here is the 403 Scholars community chant. We learned this in the beginning of the year and have used it at the morning pep rallies as well as in our own classroom. We hope you enjoy it!

Chant:
C-O-M-M-U-N-I-T-Y
We're all a part of a community, yes YOU and I
WE SAID:
C-O-M-M-U-N-I-T-Y
With each others' help we all get by
Our scholar community is room 403
A fun and caring, safe place to be! Yea!

10 Pound Box!

In math today, the 403 Scholars made a 10 pound box. We estimated the weights of different objects to try and equal exactly 10 pounds. We put in:
-blanket
-4 pencils
-camera
-magnetic letter
-baby powder
-clorox wipes
-one shoe (Jeneice's)
-2 white boards
-hand santizer
-1 eraser
-Maite's lunch box
-1 cup
-1 book
-and a coupon holder

That is what we put in the box. It equaled 10 pounds exactly!

Posted by Caleb and Jeneice

Read-A-Thon WINNERS!

The 403 Scholars won the 2010 Carrboro Elementary Read-A-Thon by reading an amazing 15, 232 minutes for the week. WOO HOO! Our prize was a gift certificate to the new local bookstore in Chapel Hill, Flyleaf Books. Some of the students and I spent an afternoon browsing their selection and choosing books with everyone's interests in mind.

Here's the link to Flyleaf Books: http://www.flyleafbooks.com

Lizzie, Anna, and Tallulah logged the most minutes read for the week. They came with me to choose all of our new books!

A big thank you goes out to Flyleaf Books.

The Scholars can't wait to start reading!