New Online Grade Book
This week we started a new unit in science about rocks and minerals. Today we spend a bit of time with an experiment where we were judging the hardness and softness of minerals based on how they scratched each other. Complicated, but a fun and engaging experiement.
In math we are continuing our work with fractions by introducing mixed numbers and probabilities. We will also get into adding and subtracting simple fractions with common denominators in a few days.
Lastly, the new and fresh online grade book is all set to go. Parents, please look in your child’s take home folder for instructions for how to initially log in to see your child’s grades. If you have any questions, please email me!
Below is the work for the day:
New Fraction Games/Tools
Even though I am at home with Nadia today, I am thinking of school stuff. In our math section of our games I have added a new section for Fractions. Feel free to check out these three new tools/games.
Fractions
Social Studies Project/Forums
Today in social studies we completed our government symbols artsy project exploring the Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, bald eagle, and the U.S. Seal. Tomorrow they will be coming home.
Also, parents, be looking for the report cards being sent home tomorrow. These report cards represent the work done in the second trimester and the first trimester. Feel free to use our online grade book for more details on specific skills. Any questions, feel free to email me! 
I have also opened up a classroom forum as a “beta” project for students to participate in. A link to it is in the side bar. All students are welcomed to register as long as you use your first name and last initial as a username (roccom). Previous classes have used this tool to collaborate, chat, and share weird educational pictures and movies. The only warning is that to know that I see everything and expect appropriate behavior on the forums just as I do in my classroom. Feel free to register and have fun! See you there!
Here is the work for the day:
To All Student Bloggers!
This morning I took some time to do some boring maintenance on our sites. On the way through this process I made sure that you had the “Meta” or “Log In:” widget in your sidebar. So now, if you have changed your theme, I have made sure that you can just go to your site and be able to click on the “log in” link. Alternatively, you can always just go to your domain name and type”/wp-admin” after it (without the quotes).
I love the work you kids are doing online, you make me proud. Keep it up!
If you have any questions, parents or students, just email me!
read moreBrianna’s Blog Post
Here is a great example of what to do on your blog post, kids. This is Brianna taking our lesson and project from this afternoon and turning it into a blog post to publish it to the world. Great work. Click on the image to view the post.
Have a Fun Extended Weekend!
I hope you enjoy your extended weekend. Make a snowman,
read a book with a friend,
or do a dance.
http://www.marchionda.org/mediafolder/video/nadiadancing_conv.flvWhatever you do, have fun and be good! I know I am going to enjoy my day tomorrow with my little girl.I will see you all on Monday!
For Parents: I just want to take a moment and thank you for coming in and meeting with me. It has been a really nice year with your children, and with your support. I want you to know that I appreciate all that you do for me and for your children. You go have yourself a great weekend, too!
Also, thanks for your support with the student blogs. It has been really fun to see what they write about. Take a peek by using the links in the sidebar to view our student blogs.
FYI: Site All Fixed
I have fixed all the links in our video area and our photo gallery area. I have also got the email page working again.
read moreWelcome Weblings!
Over the weekend I began an upgrade to Marchionda.org’s software that runs the site. This upgrade allows for students in my class to have their own mini site off of mine with a domain name of firstnamelastinitial.marchionda.org. Last year some students really got into making a site and running their own online journal. If you would like your child to have a site for the rest of the year, click here, or in the side bar where it says “register”. Follow the on screen directions and you are all set. All posts will be seen by me. The kids know that they are to write about anything in school or any interests they have. Pictures and movies can also be posted, too. I do reserve the right to edit and delete any content I feel is inappropriate.
In the past students have used their sites to publish their writing from class or do any creative writing that interests them. Some students have used their site as a way to communicate about what we did in school or as a review of content in science and social studies. Some students have used their site to practice spelling words. Which ever way a student chooses to use a site, it will be honored in class.
You will be asked to create a username. I have asked that all student use their first name and the first letter (only) of their last name. For example I would be “roccom” without the quotes. Other than that, all you would need is an email address to verify that you registered for the site to be created. Enjoy! (and remember, I see all posts! )
If you have any questions, please email me.
Here is the work for the day:
Updated Classroom Calendar
Just to let everyone know, I have updated our classroom calendar to include parent teacher conferences, our popcorn sale, and the school carnival. Please take a moment to check it out.
Online Grade Book Fixed/See You Tomorrow
As I was browsing around this evening I noticed that I didn’t finish publishing our online grade book yesterday. That is all fixed and ready to go.
Nadia is doing well enough to go to day car tomorrow, so I will see you bright and early in the morning, kids. Can’t wait to see all of the hard work you did today in class. I would like to hang up the plant cells!
See you soon!
Class List Download for Valentine’s Day: [Download not found]
read moreTwo New Games Added!
I just added two new games to our Language Arts section. Both are fun typing games:
Have fun!
read moreGrade Book Update, Math Probabilities, Conferences, and See You on Tuesday!
Monday is a teacher work day, so you all get to stay home. I will be here working diligently!
Click here to see pictures from Family Reading Night on our elementary school’s web site.
Also, I realized that I had not been publishing the grades for our work with adjectives and adverbs. I also noticed that I had not been publishing our work in multiplication. I apologize for this, did not realize that that information was not coming up for you. So, head on over there and check out those grades!
Notes for our scheduled parent/teacher conferences are coming home today. Parents, be sure to ask your child to hand it to you when they get home. Please email me if you have any concerns about the scheduled times.
Lastly, in math we practiced our multiplication facts by doing some dice rolling games and plotting our results. We had to roll the dice, find the sum of the roll, multiply the sum by a factor (determined on the sheet), and plot the results. As a class we competed 75 sheets. I, then, took the winning result off of each sheet and graphed it with the class in a large group. We discovered that the 1/1 and the 6/6 were pretty rare, while the middle sums/products were the most common results. Good luck in Vegas! Here is the large group class graph we made (click on the graph to see it larger):
Have a great weekend!
read moreEducational Links:
Marchionda.org Forums Private online forums for educational collaboration.
Online Grade Book! Click the Icon Below!
