Usborne Books and Links

Today, we started reading another Usborne book. We are still reading one for history, but now we have added Usborne Mysteries & Marvels of Nature to our science lessons. Whenever we read an Usborne book, there are videos and other interesting resources online through the Usborne Quicklinks (on the right on this blog). Once you click the link, search your exact book, then choose the pages we have been studying.

Book: Usborne Mysteries & Marvels of Nature
Today's pages: 14-15 (Mammals' Meals)

Here's what is available for pages 14-15 from today's reading:

We read about an anteater, aye-aye, giraffe, and tiger. We also watched our DVD scene of a giraffe and how a giraffe is one evidence that we have a "designer" (God!) because of the special way the giraffe is made. Science was very exciting today. Check out the Usborne links to see interesting animals for yourself!

Happy Learning!

Week in Photos ~ Week 2

Mrs. Dix was a treat on Tuesday with our first piano lessons for the year!

 We finished school a little early on Thursday, so we ventured out to the library.

I think we can all guess whose stack is whose.

Back to co-op pool party ~ so glad the weather cooperated. It was a beautiful day!

And, of course, Monday's solar eclipse was an interesting site.

Week 2 Overview

Here's an idea of what we studied or were introduced to during week 2:

Independent reading- We are up to 20 minutes sustained silent reading and have started logging our books. Everyone has finished at least one chapter book.

Bible & Fluency- Psalm 100 (We are also trying to memorize these verses)

Grammar- Diagramming short sentences with subjects, verbs, and helping verbs. We are memorizing the 24 helping verbs and gaining an understanding of what they do.

Spelling- Continuing our review of sounds and words with "in" and adding inflected endings (-s, -ed, -ing). We are, also, learning to spell words that sound the same, but are spelled differently (we, wee)

Vocabulary- We continued our study of the words from last week. Our "word winner" is: companion (this is the word we found the most often in our other readings for the last two weeks).

Writing- brainstorming, then writing a paragraph from our brainstorming page. This week, we are writing about our dads.

Science- Cells: the building blocks of life

Math Fluency- subtracting 0 or 1 from a number and adding or subtracting 2 from a number

Math- number patterns and working with sums and differences, including word problems

History & Geography- Continuing our study of Ancient Egypt and other civilizations in the Fertile Crescent, the first forms of writing, mummies and pyramids, Europe's first villages, and monuments from 1500BC, like Stonehenge.

Of course, the exciting moments of the week were Monday's solar eclipse, piano with Mrs. Dix, our first library trip, and Friday's back to co-op pool party! It's been another great week! Look for a follow-up post on Saturday: A week in photos.

THIS WEEK'S Usborne Quicklinks (access under classroom links on this blog, to the right):

Book: 12,000 Years of World History
Pages: 16-19, 22-23, 26-29
Suggestion: Go to pages 22-23, choose website 6: How the pyramids might have been made
OR go to pages 28-29, choose website 2: Virtual tour of Stonehenge

You can enjoy the Usborne Quicklinks at home this weekend.

Happy reading!

Solar Eclipse

Thanks to our principal, Mr. Nick, we were able to safely view a partial eclipse at 2:15pm and at 2:48pm today. We were hoping to get a third view between then and 4:12pm, when the eclipse was over in our location, but the clouds were in our way. It was much brighter outside than we anticipated, proving that 92% coverage is much different than 100%. I would have liked to been in the 100% window, but pretty cool anyway!

Week in photos ~ Week 1

Here's our week in photos (See previous post for an update on our week 1 learning):

Week 1 Overview

Each week, we will provide a glimpse of what we have studied, learned, practiced, or maybe just what's been introduced in 3rd grade. We will be together for 36 weeks, so we will be learning a great deal.

Here's an idea of what we studied or were introduced to during week 1:

Independent reading- We are working on increasing our personal, silent reading time from 15 minutes to 30 minutes between now and the end of September. Everyone is enjoyed choosing their own books this week.

Bible & Fluency- Psalm 90:1-2 (We are also trying to memorize these verses)

Grammar- Diagramming short sentences that include only a subject and a verb

Spelling- Review of sounds and words with "in" and adding inflected endings (-s, -ed, -ing)

Vocabulary- We seek to increase our vocabulary with 15 words a week. Here are 6 that were completely unknown to our 3rd grade students before this week: accustom, burly, compatible, concept, jostle, pedestrian

Writing- About ourselves and about our summer (we are just getting a baseline, so we will know what level we are starting at and have something to compare to our writing at the end of the year)

Science- Biology & taxonomy: classification of living things

Math Fluency- adding 0 or 1 to a number and recognizing multiples of 2

Math- Place value into the ten thousands and number patterns

History & Geography- Since we are studying World History for the next two years, we started learning about Ancient Egypt and how historians and archeologists gather information to learn about ancient civilizations. We are also learning about nomads and the first farmers.

We've also had read-alouds (pictures above), poetry, coloring, playtime, and getting to know each other during recess and lunch. We even tried dates (one of the foods grown by Egyptians). It's been a great week!

THIS WEEK'S Usborne Quicklinks (access under classroom links):

Book: 12,000 Years of World History
Pages: 10-11, 12-13, 14-15, and 20-21
Suggestion: Go to pages 20-21, choose website 5 to take an audio tour of the ancient Nile Valley

Happy reading!

First Day of School

The first day of school was a wonderful success! Not only did everyone get along and try their best, but we were able to complete all the work planned for today. This never happens on the first day (or many days, really), but somehow, it did today. And we even got in recess outside before the rain.

Best part of today and best learning for today (according to each student):

Emma: Learning and math

Sarah Cate: Disco party and history

Elise: History and reading Mara, Daughter of the Nile

Happy learning, everyone!

Orientation

Orientation was an exciting time! Everyone was excited to get new books, fancy pencils, bracelets, super cute erasers, and other goodies from Mrs. April and Mrs. Dana. As Sarah Cate said, "It's going to be a good year." Yes, yes it is!

Welcome to The Coleman Academy for Girls blog! This is where you can follow our learning as we journey through the 2017-2018 school year together. It's time for our "Back to School Breakfast with Dads" and orientation this Saturday. We can't wait to see you and begin this exciting year in 3rd and 6th grades!

Happy learning,

The Coleman Academy for Girls