Online Grade Book News
This is a post for parents mostly, but also for any students that are interested. After looking at our new report card yesterday at an inservice, I realized that the current grade book is designed for the old report card. To make this sync a bit more, I am going to rewrite it and publish it later. The grade book may not be updated for a week or so, but check back later. I will also post when it is all set to publish. Thanks for your understanding on this matter.
Also, is anyone getting two emails instead of only one when I post? Let me know by commenting to this post if you are getting multiple emails sent to you. I am and don’t know if it is because I am the admin, or if it is a site wide thingy. Thanks!
This Site is Almost Back to Better/Field Trippin'!!
All the games are up and ready to be used. Some new ones have been snuck in there, so check them out. I still have to add main icons to get to the specific subject areas, but there are links at the top of each page to help you navigate. Enjoy!
Also, check out the online grade book to see if you have turned in your parent permission form for our school field trip on the seventh of December. Way at the bottom I am keeping track for you. Please let me know, also, if I have made a mistake. If you need another parent permission form, just email me.
Back in the Swing of Things
It feels great to be out of testing and back into our regular schedule. This week we will be getting back into English, practicing our singular and plural possessive nouns and using our apostrophes. In math we will be getting into subtraction principles, along with identifying extra information in story problems. In social studies we are beginning a new unit on communities. This week we will be reviewing for our test on chemical and physical changes in matter. Feel free to bring your books home all week to do any extra reviewing. This week our spelling rule is /oi/ being spelled with oi and oy. Head on over to SpellingCity.com to check out our new list.
As far as our new site goes, I have added our games pages and links for study helpers, math, science, and social studies. I hope to get our arcade and language arts games up soon. I have added all of our photo galleries, too. Click around and explore the new site.
Making Some Changes to Our Site
Dear Parents and Students,
I am making some very fundamental changes to this site so that it is easier for me to maintain. I will slowly be adding our old elements back into this site (online grade book, games, movies, media, podcasts,…) Please hang in there with me as I continue to rebuild this site. Thanks for your support! 
~Mr. M
read moreNew PodCast! Episode 3 Starring Ashley!!
During our computer lab time, while all students were exploring addition using virtual base ten blocks, Ashely and I sat down to record our third episode of the Marchionda Minutes PodCast. Its a great show! Head on over here to listen to it on our “Podcast” page.
Today in math we practiced regrouping in the ten and hundreds places, even throwing in regrouping to the thousands place. I appreciate all of the hard work and the way you pay attention in class. Great work, kids! You all make teaching a joy.
Next I would like to put out a reminder to all parents and students to be sure to wear a warm jacket to school. That’s what the cute squirrel is for. He is here politely requesting your warmth on the playground. Warm Jackets make this squirrel happy. You would not want to see this cure squirrel become sad, now, would you? Please wear your warm jackets. Thanks.
Here is the work for the day:
Grade Book Updates
I have updated our grade book to include the work for the last part of last week. You may notice that you (our your child, depending on who is reading this) may have a few corrections to take care of on Monday. I did notice that some of the quality of work and effort did drop when we had the substitute teacher. We will take care of this and get things up to par on tomorrow.
See you soon!
~Mr. M
read moreNew Movie and a PodCast!
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!
Our Wall of Fame #1
Today we had four tests. I know that is a very rough day for kids, too. So, we worked really hard and got two rewards. One was that kids who got all A’s on all four tests became members of our first Wall of Fame. These pictures are below and in our photo gallery. Our other reward was to watch a fun science movie called 2057, The City. I like to share this movie with my students because it fits in with our social studies curriculum, and it discusses how the technology of today constructs the world our children will work in. Good stuff!
Have a great weekend and thanks for working so hard.
Great Scores on Our Reading Tests/Grade Book News/Salute!
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!
read moreOnline Grade Book Password Request Form
Download the following file and print it off. After printing it off, fill it out and send it to school. I will write the password for your child’s access to the Online Grade Book. Please remember that this resource is intended to maintain motivation and accountability in school. Click the link below to download the file:
[Download not found]Email me if you would like me to send home of of these forms with your child.
read moreClassroom Calendar Now Working
Finally have the Classroom Calendar now working. On it I know have all of the birthdays, vacation days and days that we have school parties, along with the times of those parties. If you notice me missing some dates or times, please email me.
See you tomorrow!
read moreFlash Gallery Test
I am doing some upgrades and improvements to this site and am trying something new. Here is our SPARKLE gallery in a flash slideshow, or go here to see it in our media gallery:
read moreEducational Links:
Marchionda.org Forums Private online forums for educational collaboration.
Online Grade Book! Click the Icon Below!
