Mrs. Jones' Reindeers

As I was walking down the hall, I saw the CUTEST reindeers in the world! The students in Mrs. Jones' class were nice enough to let me take pictures of them and record their voices in this VoiceThread. I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Holidays to All!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Trying Out a New 'Widget'

That's right, 'widget', not 'gadget'. A widget is a small program that runs on a blog or website. A gadget is, well for me at least, a toy -- normally a techy toy!

Here's a 'widget' I discovered:


Are you reading this JoHnathan???

How Sweet It Is

From ATypical3rd

Glancing around my room during snack time I noticed that some of my students were drinking some pretty sugary drinks. And voila! A teachable moment was born!

The following day, armed with sugar, a kitchen scale, and various drink containers collected from my class and some of the other 3rd and 4th grade classes we proceeded to find out exactly 'How Sweet It Is'. My students took turns reading the nutrition label on the sides of the containers, measuring out the sugar on a kitchen scale, and putting the sugar into ziploc bags. Those results are on display in the hallway outside of the classroom and BOY! were they (and I) amazed by the results!

I decided to take the project one step further and sent out a Google Forms (click here for the form) to colleagues in schools around the states (and the world) to see how much sugars were in their drinks. I hope to have the results posted by next week.

Read Up (or 'Watch Up') on the Swine Flu

Our school district subscribes to BrainPopJr. and I always receive their informative monthly newsletters. In this month's newsletter they provided some code that I am using to embed (that's just a fancy word for 'put in') a movie about Swine Flu into the blog. Thanks BrainPopJr.!

Open House

Today is Open House. This is a time when we welcome our parents to our classroom. We have put together a VoiceThread to welcome you. We hope you enjoy it!

The Week in Review: September 9 - 11

Granted it was a short week, but we did A LOT!!!

We took a vote and named our two new 'classmates' (hermit crabs). The larger one is named 'Wacky' and the smaller one is named 'Stripes'. We read the book, 'Hermit the Crab' and found out that hermit crabs like company. Even though we have two hermit crabs, we think that the smaller one is too small to be a playmate for Wacky so Mrs. S is going to get another hermit crab when she goes to the pet store.

We played 'Beat the Teacher'. Using between 6 and 8 letters you have to make as many words as you can and write them all down on your paper. Mrs. S does the same (and she plays to win!). When Mrs S thinks she has all the possible words written down she goes to the board and writes them all down. As she writes them down, she says them and if we don't know what one of the word means, we ask and we end up learning lots of new words. Once Mrs S has all the words on the board she turns around and shouts, 'Beat The Teacher'! That's when we have a chance to tell her words that we wrote down that she missed. BOY!!! Mrs S makes funny faces and groans when we come up with a word. For each word we (the class) gets that Mrs S didn't write on the board we get a point. On the first day we got 7 points!!! Our goal is to get 235 points (that's when Mrs S will host a pizza party for us!). We finish the activity by writing two sentences that each have two words from the board. If the sentence is interesting or unusual, Mrs S puts a 'www' on it -- this means that our sentence will be posted on the wiki!

The first day of school was September 9, 2009. You can also write this as 09-09-09. Mrs S gave us a challenge: When is the next date that you will be able to also write it as 09-09-09. The only hint Mrs S gave us was that it would be a September 9th. If you think you know, write it in the comments below.

Hmmmmmmmm, wonder what the next week will bring?

Phew!

From Misc

The first day of school is over and I am EXHAUSTED!!! I absolutely LOVED welcoming all my students to our class. The poster above is what was waiting by the door in the hall (along with me of course!). We only had one 'adjustment' of desk/chair to make.

I read aloud the story, 'Hermit the Crab' -- yes, we have two hermit crabs in our classroom (and I'm thinking of adding another one since one crab looks like it belongs in Pre-K and the other looks like a 4th grader!!!). We learned that crabs need a warm place, a little food, but most importantly water. We came up with some possible names for our crabs, we voted, and tomorrow I will announce the names for our hermit crabs.

Math-a-magician and I showed the class how fascinating math can be. A student had to guess a number between 1 and 31, they shared the number they chose with the rest of the class while I 'la-laed' (I do not sing very well) out in the hall (just to make sure I couldn't hear), then I came back in and simply by telling me whether the number the chose was on any of the five posters I showed them, Math-a-magician and I were able to 'guess the number'. There's a smaller set of those cards on the window ledge. I'm challenging the students to figure out how I'm able to 'guess the number'.

Speaking of challenges, today was a VERY unusual day. Being September 9, 2009, you can write the date as 09-09-09. How cool is that?!? Here's the challenge to my students. When is the next time that the date can be written as 09-09-09? If you think you know, write the answer in the comments section below, or e-mail me the answer -- my e-mail address is on the label inside the green (go-home, go-to-school) folder. Good luck on that challenge.

Mrs. S

Ready, Set, Go!!!

I'm getting ready for 'my' first day of school. That's right! Teachers go in tomorrow, September 8th. If you want to get a 'sneak peak' at our classroom, please stop by. I can't promise that I will be in the class when you stop by, but you never know!

I'm also bringing in two new 'students'. Can you guess what they might be? Leave your guess in the Comments area below. (AND REMEMBER!!! Stay Safe Online! NO last names.)

If I don't see you tomorrow, I'll see you Wednesday morning!

Now go and enjoy the last day of your summer vacation!

Mrs. S

Some of My Favorite things...

Are you excited about Wednesday yet? I know I am! Are you a little nervous? I know I am! I think it always helps if you know a little something about the person you are about to meet. So here are a few things about me:

Favorite color: PURPLE (of course!), closely followed by green
Favorite candy: Twizzlers (only the red kind)
Favorite holiday: Halloween
Favorite food: Tacos
Favorite number: 7
Favorite subject: Math
Favorite 'animal': Dragonfly
Favorite thing to do: Learn new things on the computer

Now that you know a little about my favorite things, please share some of your favorite things in the Comments below. (REMEMBER!!! Stay Safe and use ONLY your first name.)

Getting Ready!

I spent time last week in our classroom. It took some muscle and sweat to transform it from a room filled with boxes waiting to be unpacked to a classroom that is just waiting for you. The slideshow below shows you how our classroom changed over the course of a week.

Now the final touch will be YOU! Can't wait to see you on September 9th.

Commenting on Blog

All comments on the blog are 'moderated'. This means that all comments are seen by me before they are posted to the blog.

We 'stay safe' online and as such I will not publish any comments which have last names in either the comment or in the 'signature'.

The class and I would LOVE to see all the comments, but please make sure to 'stay safe' and not reveal any last names.

If you have already commented and last names have been included, I have 'rejected' the comment, so PLEASE resubmit your comments!

Mrs. Sharoff

Welcome!

That welcome is not just for you, but for me as well! I'll be back in the classroom, 3rd grade, as of September 2009. My mind is already brimming with ideas, the first of which was to create this blog.

Notice the title -- you can read it as 'a typical third' or as 'atypical third'. Either way, it's bound to be an extraordinary year!

Check back often as I (and my students) share our travels through 3rd grade!