First Friday News
I will not be sending newsletters home this year, as every year, trusting the my blog posts make that a practice from the past. If any of you would like a print out of these, just email me.
Today we got our first spelling list containing words with short e and short a vowel sounds. All of our lists are online at SpellingCity.com. I have an account, feel free to practice your words for the week with their fantastic games and tests. There is a link the sentence before this one, or you can use the link in the sidebar.
We also managed our first English assignment that focused on recognizing whether a group of words was a sentence or not a sentence. Many students managed their corrections very well, I am really impressed! 
Lastly, please cover the last 3 books that were sent home. Have a great weekend and I will see you on Tuesday!
Here is the work for the day:
Planners, Corrections, and Environmental Club . . . Oh, My!!
In today’s post I would like to quickly go over how our planners work. Everyday we will fill them out with the work that we did in class divided into the subject areas. If you child has finished their work, then they will put a check mark in the right side of the column next to that assignment. If your child needs to finish it at home, they will draw a circle indicating that it is not finished. See the picture at the bottom of this post. This picture is my planner, and the students copy from this. Please check your child’s planner and reference this blog to see if they are copying it.
Corrections are a necessity in my classroom. Whether one problem is wrong or fifty, each problem in the subject areas will be corrected and not accepted until the corrections are made. You will see indications of completed work, missing work, or corrections in our SnapGrades.com grade book. Ensuring that all students eventually get all problems assigned correct is the key to learning all concepts in third grade proficiently.
Your child will know that they have a correction because there will be a red X with a circle around it. Corrections are complete when that red X with a circle has my initial scribed in it.
Lastly, feel free to download our environmental club’s flyer for the 2010-2011 school year here: Environmental Club 2010-11 (9)
Here is the work for the day:
Blast Off!!
Thanks to Paul’s dad for sharing this photo that pretty much sums up how our day went. We got rolling in high gear after learning about classroom routines. We played two Letter Links spelling games, completed our first POD (What is a POD? Click Here), made a summer graph with data from the class, wrote about our excitement and nervousness about the new school year, and finished it all off with an art class!
I will be sending notes home for you SnapGrades registrations. Please follow the directions carefully. If you have any questions about SnapGrades, just email me.
See you tomorrow!
Here are some of the pictures I took today:
Happy First Day of School!
As the night comes near the end, and summer is now behind me, I sit here on my couch after tucking my daughter, Nadia, into bed. I cannot help but think of our day tomorrow and all that awaits you. I am very excited to start off a new school year and get to know all of you.
Tomorrow will be filled with a bunch of procedural things. You will learn how to record your lunch choices, where to put your notes to me from home, how to do your first (of many) PODs, and you will get a chance to get your school supplies all organized and ready to go.
We will be learning a lot about our classroom and school expected behaviors, too. I’m sure that you will all do just fine.
If the weather is nice, look for me in front of line 8 on the playground. If it is raining I will meet you all in the gym.
That’s all for now, see you in the morning!
~Mr. M
read moreHappy Birthday, Blake!!
Happy Birthday, Blake!!
You are the first official birthday of the new school year. Enjoy your virtual balloons!
~Mr. M
read moreWelcome to the School Year 2010-11!!
Welcome to the School Year 2010-11!! The papers are all stacked, the pencils are sharpened, the SMARTBoard is fired up, and all the textbooks are awaiting student eyes. I just wanted to share a couple of things as I sit here in front of all the empty seats, thinking about the children that will soon fill them.
The first of which is about our Meet and Greet Night on Monday, August 30th. The purpose of this event is to meet the teacher and see your classroom. You may also drop off school supplies in the classroom. Don’t forget to sign up for Parent-Teacher Conferences in the cafeteria, and, if interested, sign up to become a part of our PTO. The doors will be open from 6:00-7:30, but, to ease congestion, there is a bit of a schedule. If you are family with both primary and upper elementary students please come from 6:30-7:00. If you are a family with only upper elementary students please come from 7:00-7:30. I am looking forward to meeting all of you!
Lastly, I wanted to share with you photos take of the construction of my room from completely empty to how it is now. Click here to view the gallery. You will also notice that there are pages on this site for photo, movie, and podcast galleries. Feel free to check out the archives on each of these pages to get a feel for what it is like being in Mr. Marchionda’s class.
Enjoy, and I will meet you all soon!
~Mr. M
read moreEnd of the Year Information
Well, there it is. Another year older and another year of knowledge under our belts. Hope you all play hard, have a lot of fun, stay safe, and are excited to be back in school by the time September rolls around.
Today was mostly spent in an assembly and winning some of my classroom stuff in a classroom Elephant Gift game. It was quite fun. Enjoy your trinkets! Here is a photo of some of them:
Just some end of the year information for you. I will keep the SnapGrades grade book open for another week. I will then close it down for the summer so that I can make adjustments for the next year’s class. I will also be deleting all student blogs in a week. Please copy and paste any posts that you would like saved.
Have a great summer and remember to stop by and say, “Hello” some time!
For Parents: Reading Fluency Summary Movie
One of the greatest traits that a school share with for its students and parents is accountability. This is the main reason why I am always searching for a better and better way of reporting grades online. That connectivity between what the student does at school and what is reported to the parents is paramount to success and higher test scores.
I want to showcase for you one set of data. Below is a summary of how our class has done on oral reading fluency. Oral reading fluency is a students ability to smoothly read, with as few errors as possible, a piece of text. As they become faster and more error free, the student passes through to the next level. The goal of a teacher is to keep materials available for the student at their individual level. The student should know his or her level and be able to choose texts that are at an appropriate level. These are the Reading A-Z books in my classroom.
I want to give a sincere and heartfelt thanks to you parents for keeping your children accountable to me and the classwork/corrections that have been assigned all year. The hard work shows! This video is me completing the circle and being accountable to you. This third grade group has grown the most of any I have ever taught. Enjoy!
See you tomorrow on our last day of school. Dismissal will be at 11:50am.
read moreHave a Great Weekend
This is the last time I get to wish you kids this! Wow, amazing, isn’t it. We only have a few lessons left to do together before you are fourthgraders. We will be finishing up our Fond du Lac unit and our lessons on muscles next week. We will also be finishing up our multiplication buffet. Parents, if you don’t know what this means, feel free to ask your child!
Have a fun and safe weekend!
~Mr. M
read moreJust A Reminder
No real new news here, but just a reminder to make sure that you send in $2.25 if you are going to participate in our pizza party on Tuesday, June 8th. All parents are welcomed to come, too. We will begin around 11:30 and end around 12:30.
Have a great night, see you later!
PIZZA PARTAAAY!!
Next Tuesday we will be having a pizza party. Each student who would like to participate is to bring $2.25 to school by next Monday so I can cut a big check to Dominoes. Wooo Hoooo!!
read moreEducational Links:
Marchionda.org Forums Private online forums for educational collaboration.
Online Grade Book! Click the Icon Below!
