Consider the Halloween Party a Success!

Posted by Mr. Marchionda on Oct 28, 2009 in Classroom News, Movies, Pictures | Comments Off

I want to thank all of you students for behaving so well and representing our class so well during our Halloween party. I have our photo gallery all set to go, along with the movies that I shot. Enjoy and have a great weekend.

Watch out for those crazy zombies!

New Movie and a PodCast!

Posted by Mr. Marchionda on Oct 8, 2009 in Classroom News, For Parents, Movies, PodCast, Site News | Comments Off

I shot about ten minutes of footage of us for all of you during our math time. What we were doing is using base ten blocks to understand the concept behind regrouping when adding larger numbers. In our groups we had about eight problems to solve. Each member of the group rotated specific jobs. The teamwork was fantastic.

I also recorded our first podcast with Caden. Check out The Marchionda Minutes. Unfortunately, I am having some XML trouble with the podcast and iTunes, so you won’t be able to get them through iTunes, but you can get them right here. Enjoy, I know I sure do!

Science Books Are On Their Way Home

Posted by Mr. Marchionda on Sep 30, 2009 in Classroom News, Movies | Comments Off

I have decided to take two days to do our science test. Science books have been sent home, feel free to study or review in any way you see fit. Get mom or dad involved!

Lastly, head on over to our movie gallery to see Hannah The Monkey!

Great Scores on Our Reading Tests/Grade Book News/Salute!

Posted by Mr. Marchionda on Sep 18, 2009 in Classroom News, Movies, Site News | Comments Off

Last week we started our Friday tradition of a test on our reading story. This week we were much more comfortable earning a class average of over 93%. These tests are a  practice in information finding and inferring. Books are allowed, and the ability to find answers, in the book or in our heads, is a skill that is shared and valued. These are the skills that make a person  re-read sections more carefully, think critically, or “google” something they do not know. Nice work, kids! Improvement is already knocking at our door.

Yes . . . and, well, yesterday I pushed a button and OKed a function that wiped out my grade book. After restarting my heart and picking up my jaw off the floor I realized that all data was backed up on my home network with the help of Apple’s Time Machine. The consequence of this event is that I lost some work. I simply excused any homework or corrections not in and got everyone back to “all set” status.

I will do my best to publish the grade book at least once a week. Be sure to notice the publish date below the password field. That will tell you the last time that I updated the online version of the grade book.

Lastly, enjoy a video of us playing Salute! today in math class. Salute! is a game that practices holding numbers in our heads, math facts, and mental addition/subtraction skills. Sure was a lot of fun!