November 10

I realized I did not post last week and I apologize. It completely slipped my mind!

This week in Reading class we are working on a few different skills.

We are going to review 1st and 3rd person Narrators. We are going to be looking for text evidence to determine 1st or 3rd person narrator. A hint I tell my students is to look at the pronouns. Ex: I, we, he, she, them... to tell whose writing and/or telling the story. This will help lead us into discussing the differences between a biography and an autobiography.

Our story this week is Author: A True Story which is an autobiography. We have six vocabulary words this week: proper, talented, useful, single, excitement and acceptance. You can play a game with the vocabulary words here: Vocabulary Game 

We will also be discussing POETRY! We will begin a class tree map focusing on the different types of poetry: Narrative, Lyrical, Humorous and Free Verse.
Narrative Poem: Tells a story. Remember Narrative is similar to Narrator and a Narrator tells a story.
Lyrical Poem: Triggers your feelings. Poem is similar to song lyrics.
Humorous Poem: Funny poem. Rhyme and Repetition are common in humorous poems.
Free Verse Poem: Doesn't follow any poetry rules. Stanzas, lines, repetition and rhyme.

The spelling list this week will be a review of all the patterns we have had from week 7-11. The list will be on spelling city by tomorrow afternoon.

Happy Sunday!
Don't forget we have a canned food drive all this week!
Tomorrow is Macaroni Monday.

Mrs. Phillips

Istation at Home

I realized after speaking with a parent today that some of you guys did not know that you could download the reading program that we use at school at home. Please in no way are you required by anyway to download and use the program. I just want you guys to have access to it and know that it is available in case you would like to. The kids enjoy it too!

All you need to do is google Istation. Click on the Download Istation link and follow the directions. I sent out an email with a step by step, but I cant attach the document on here sorry guys. 

Let me know if this helps, if its something you are going to try, if you need anything more from me. I will help in anyway I can !!  You can leave a comment on my blog too! If you want.

Mrs. Phillips

Red Ribbon Week

Luna Elementary pledges to be drug free!  Red Ribbon Week is a week of drug and alcohol awareness that incorporates activities that promotes a drug-free lifestyle. Wearing a red ribbon signifies a unified effort to support a drug free environment.  Join us the 27th-31st as we dressed to express our drug free spirit!

Monday: Mix and Match clothes

Tuesday: Dress Hawaiian

Wednesday: College Shirts

Thursday: Luna Spirit shirt/team jersey/uniform

Friday: Jeans and Red shirt 

October 26

In reading this week we are going to be working on Character Analysis. We will be creating a "FAST" foldable to help us look deeper into our characters.

F: Feelings

A: Actions

S: Says

T: Thinks

We will be revisiting some of the characters from our previous stories we have read in class. We will be discussing characters from: The First Day Jitters, Amazing Grace, Wolf!, My Very Own Room and Stellaluna.

We have five vocabulary words this week. You can play a matching game here: Vocab Matching 

This week in spelling we are working on diagraphs. Digraphs are a pair of letters representing a single speech sound, as ea in meat or th in path. You can find the spelling list and play games with the words at SpellingCity Unit 2 Week 10 and you can play some other fun games on our online textbook here Digraph/Phonics Game and here Spelling Game Don't forget about the sentences.

Happy almost Halloween,

Mrs. Phillips

October 20

Sorry for the day late post.. We were watching the Cowboys :) woohooo

This week in reading class we are reading the story Home Grown Butterflies and focusing on the skill of drawing conclusions. We had a class discussion on how the words drawing conclusions has nothing to do with drawing in art. Our class discussed that when you draw a conclusion you look at all the clues in the story, the context clues, and come up with your conclusion, guess and/or prediction based on those clues.

We did a short animation video about a family walking through a parking lot... going somewhere....we then listened for some context clues..
1. wanting to see the elephants
2. wanting to see the tigers
3. wanting to see the clowns
4. Hurry to get to their seats

We took those clues and drew a conclusions that they were going to a circus... circus was never directly stated in the story.

Our spelling words this week are three letter blends Week 9. Spelling City Practice and dont forget the sentences. There are three this week.

October 13

This week in reading we are working in the fun, but sometimes confusing genre of Historical Fiction. Students usually are quick to identify the passage as fiction, but the historical part throws them for a loop. This is a great time to discuss that historical fiction is a made up story that is set in a special time in history.

This week we will be reading Boom Town that is about a young girl and her family starting a pie business in a miner town in California during the Gold Rush. The Gold Rush really happened, but Amanda's pie business did not. We will also be focusing on the skill this week and it is sequencing story events.

In spelling this week we will be working with words with silent letters. My son and I call them Ninja words.(He's 7) Obviously this is not the correct term, but it helps him remember how sneaky these letters are. Here is the link to the spelling words Week 8 Silent Letters.. and don't forget about the sentences.

Mrs. Phillips

Go Cowboys!! woohoo

October 7

We are going to continue with our story My Very Own Room from last week and use our new summary skill to summarize it into a thinking map using our acronym BME. Our vocabulary words are going to remain the same also.

I will also be introducing our first poetry selection, discussing the basics of poetry beginning with stanzas and lines.

Last week we took our first CA- Curriculum Assessment given out by the district. This was a reading passage followed by ten multiple choice questions. We are going to be going over this in class. This will allow my students to see their mistakes in a non threatening way. The curriculum assessments are not a grade that  goes into the gradebook, but a tool to see who needs help and in what area. We will be correcting our assessments in class as a whole group. I do this whole group so that we can walk through our reading steps together and I let the students direct the correcting. They will be able to come up and teach the class how they found the answer.

Our spelling this week will focus on the Long e sound. Check out the spelling list here and play some games. Don't forget about the spelling sentences. Spelling City Week 7

I hope everyone had a great day off!! 

Mrs. Phillips 

September 29

This week in Reading Class we are going to be working on the wonderful skill of Summary! There are many different ways to write and/or identify a good summary. We are going to be using the B.M.E (Beginning/Middle/End) and of course a thinking map to help with the summary skill.

Ways you could help at home are when you are doing your nightly reading routine ask your kiddo to summarize what they have just read. We want the bigger picture... no small supporting details. Try to have them summarize their story in three parts. The most important event at the beginning then the important part in the middle and then how does it end. We use the example of Finding Nemo...
 BME: Nemo got taken by the diver, his dad searches for him and ends up reuniting with him at the end. Short and sweet!

Our vocab words this week: separate, determination, storage, exact, luckiest, and ruined. Play a game here: Vocabulary Game

We will be reading the story My Very Own Room this week about a young girl who lives in a large family and desperately wants a room of her own, since she has only brothers. It focuses on hard work and determination.

Dont forget about our spelling words! This week will focus again on the r-controlled vowel words. Here is the link to my spelling city account to help your kiddo practice in a fun way. Also dont forget about those sentences.Week 5 Spelling List

Mrs.Phillips
Go Cowboys!! (It's halftime woohoo)

September 22

Week of Sept 22

We are going to continue in reading class working on Compare/Contrast. We have used our Venn Diagram with some hands on activities, and this week we will dive into pieces of literature.

Oh yes those are Beanie Babies you are seeing... Thanks Grandma! 

Spelling words this week are focusing on r-controlled vowel words. See the list and practice at Spelling City.... and DON'T forget the sentences.. I haven't been able to figure out a way to get them on spelling city,but they are very important too! Capitalization and punctuation is KEY!

This week has a TON going on!

It is HERO and Cyber Safety Week!

Tuesday 9/23 we will have the Dallas Mavericks Mascot at our school! Students will be able to wear their Mavs gear or Navy Blue and White school uniforms. 

Wednesday 9/24 will be Fall Picture day! These are going in the yearbook, which means your student needs to be in standardized dress.

I will email out any changes or updates to this weeks schedule of fun events!

Please continue to help your student be successful by studying spelling words/sentences, reading/signing reading log, checking your students math homework and sign their planners each night.

Happy Sunday,

Mrs. Phillips

Go Cowboys, Again! woohoo

September 15

Week of September 15

This week in reading we are going to be focusing on Comparing and Contrasting.. aka.. same and different. We will be reading the fictional story WOLF! about a cartoon wolf that wants to learn to read and hangout with some barnyard friends that read too. You can help your student at home by discussing compare/contrast using anything around the house, family members, pets and story characters from their favorite library books. We will be using two different thinking maps:

 

The Double Bubble Map and The Venn Diagram


Here is a link to the vocab game for this week.. passion, bothering, splendid, admire, ached and concentrate. Ask to see your student's study guide! We illustrate our vocabulary words each week.
Wolf! Vocab Game

Don't forget that you can get the weekly spelling list online at: http://www.spellingcity.com/
Just search for Samantha Phillips at Luna
we are on week 3 /u/

Love,

Mrs. Phillips 

Go Cowboys!!

September 8

 Reading Week of 9/8- 9/12

We will be focusing on spelling words with the Final -e. Here is a link to a spelling game you could play at home using spelling rules dealing with the vowel "e"
Long E Games
Spelling Game
Spelling Game Round 2


In reading class we are reading the story Amazing Grace, during which we will be focusing on cause and effect relationships. Please discuss cause/effect relationships at home with your student and see how many you can come up with. 

 Below is a link to a practice activity using our six vocabulary words: auditions, adventure, exploring, sparkling, fantastic and success. Be looking for a manilla paper vocabulary study guide coming home to study. 
Amazing Grace Vocabulary Practice

School Year 2014-2015

Welcome everybody to the wonderful world of THIRD GRADE!!

My name is Mrs. Phillips and I am looking forward to having your child in my classroom this year. 

Luna Elementary is moving and shaking with new technology! Our PTA has a Facebook page and Luna Elementary has their own Twitter account. Check these out often for current events and happenings around our campus! I love to have my students, parents and even grandparents blog about what we are learning and current events. I'm Looking forward to a great year!

When blogging, please follow these simple rules.

• No Names, either first or last
• No phone numbers or addresses
• Please don't share anything too personal.
• All comments will be reviewed by me before they post to the wall.
• Please treat this as an online classroom and behave as you would in school.
• When leaving comments, your username should be P and then your backpack number. (Example: P4). Your student should know their packback number. Not their lunch number, the number that is located above their backpack. It will be a number 1-22.
• Anyone can comment! If Mom or Dad wants to comment, tell them to leave a variation of the students username (EX: P4's Mom)
• Make sure you're not simply typing "Yeah" or "That's right" or something. Also remember to use complete sentences.

                                                                                                                        Thank you,

                                                                                                                                         Mrs. Phillips