HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Let's start off by saying that keeping up with my blog is my New Year's resolution! There are so many awesome things happening in my classroom that need documenting! To start, I will fill you in on all the fun activities that occurred right before we left for holiday break. Room 117 was busier than the North Pole!

  During Thanksgiving, we took aside some time for CRAFTS! We made turkey centerpieces for our kitchen tables, and learned all about the turkey animal. We also thought about things we were thankful for and made "Thankfulness Wreaths". Our brainstorming list needed 2 pieces of chart paper because it was SO long. We are truly so fortunate!

In Nov, two of my students also competed in "Girls on the Run". I was excited to become a coach this year. When school started in September, we would meet every Tues and Thurs after school. The curriculum is very empowering to girls, and ends with the completion of their goal: running a 5k. We all met at Millersville University on a chilly Saturday morning. We had EVERY girl cross the finish line. It was a neat experience for me as an adult- I can only imagine how rewarding for the girls! What a wonderful organization. My running buddies loved their necklaces I ordered off of Etsy! I hope they serve as a memory of their amazing accomplishment.

Flash forward to December-- a very busy holiday month! The Clermont teachers looked extra spiffy in our "Ugly Sweaters" and we had a visit from an extra special Christmas elf-- MRS. Olindo (my mom!) She took a variety of holiday stories out from the library to read to us, and helped us with our ornament-- a lightbulb penguin! We also called "Dial A Carol" each day. This is an awesome service provided by the University of Illinois, lets people call and ask for a holiday song to be sung to them by a college student. Our class had fun voting for various songs and hearing them sung each day. 
Check out more info about Dial A Carol here: 
http://college.usatoday.com/2015/12/15/dial-a-carol-student-run-holiday-jingle-service/

Our class wanted to have some fun during our class party. We decorated icing trees and did a candy cane experiment. Mini M+M's work best when decorating the tree, along with red and green sprinkles! We have very generous parents who sent in all the supplies. The kids were so meticulous and careful with their trees, not a single sugar cone broke! The kids also had fun learning about how to create a "hypothesis". We put our candy canes in warm and cold water, vinegar, and soda. We drew pictures of the reactions made, and then documented the outcomes on our recording sheet. 

Recording sheet found on:

http://thebrownbagteacher.blogspot.com/2014/12/candy-cane-experiment.html

If the activities above didn't give me enough holiday cheer, I also had the sweetest students give me so many cards and gifts. I love the wrapping ingenuity in the present below!

The kids also got a kick out of the T-Shirt below, which I found at Walmart. 

I hope this holiday brought everyone lots of joy! I hope the remainder of this school year brings continued growth and happiness for all! 

Happy Fall!

Happy Fall! 
The start of the school year is always nuts! But what a sweet class we have this year. 
They are hard workers and are HILARIOUS! They crack me up everyday. 

Our PTO started our year with an awesome "Survival Kit". It helped the teachers to get geared up for the coming year. The first month of school is filled with "Survival Kit" information for students, including routines and explanation of expectations for how to survive "THIRD GRADE!" 

Our Language Arts unit has included the study of story elements, author's purpose, and nouns. We used the image below to help us remember the 3 purposes authors use for writing. When you sit down to read a book together with your child, ask them what the author's purpose was for writing.... if they forget, remind them about the PIE! 

In math, we started our year with a unit on number sense. One of my favorite lessons included ordering numbers (least to greatest, and greatest to least!) We used sticky notes on our foreheads to "become" the number. We then moved our classmates around until they were in the correct position!

In Social Studies we began with a unit on citizenship and using I-Statements. Hopefully we will get good at using I-Statements to solve conflicts on the playground. We also started our "Person of the Week" oral reports. We even had a visit from a student's hermit crabs! Every student will get a chance to be the "Person of the Week" this year. We will write 8 words of kindness about the person on the back of their poster. We are practicing building others up, instead of tearing them down!

Also at the start of the school year was the Solanco Fair. 3rd Grade is the first year many kids begin to show their animals and they are BEYOND excited. The teachers at Clermont love going to support their students at the fair and those who walk in the parade. It is a great time to witness the community coming together. The classroom was also very quiet that week... lots of tired eyes from late nights at the fair- ha!

Our Race for Education is coming up at the end of October! We have a fun spirit week associated with it! Our theme this year is "Candyland" (Yum!) Stay tuned for a picture of our decorated door for the decorating contest!

Week of October 12th
Race for Ed. Spirit week!

Mon: No School

Tues 13th- Sport Shirt Day

Wed 14th-  Wacky socks/hair

Thurs 15th-  Clermont Shirt Day

Friday 16th- RACE DAY!

Lastly, I have some exciting, personal news to report! This is my last full year teaching as Miss Olindo!! I got engaged over the summer. I am getting married in October 2016 and am SO excited. My name will change to Mrs. Hoover, and my cousin (Maid of Honor) got me this mug to help get me used to that name change. I'm sure hearing my students call me that 20+ times a day will help too!

Have a great week!

WELCOME FUTURE 3rd Graders!

 Welcome to Room 117!

I am SO excited to have you in my third grade
class this year! I am glad you made your way 
to our little class blog, where I will  keep you updated about what is going on in our classroom with monthly blog entries, pictures, and videos!

To get to know me better, I have included a list of some of my favorite things. I can't wait to get to know you, and learn all about what you are interested in!

My summer has been very busy. I got to go on
two adventures to Florida and California. After I got back I got to work, and went to teach at a Millersville University summer reading camp for 5 weeks. Below are some pictures from my travels! I can't wait to hear what you all have been up to.

San Diego Skyline

Hollywood 

Dume Beach

Spotted: Sea Lions

Went to a San Diego Padres Game

San Diego at Night

Everglades- I was too scared to hold an alligator!

But my friend did!

Hmmm.. A possible class pet? HA!

I had a great time on all my summer adventures, and really enjoy traveling. 

I am in school myself (pursuing my Reading Specialist certification) but will be graduating in December (HOORAY!)and hope to dedicate more time to the blog. 
Any comments you send to me on here are sent
directly to my email, so I can respond quickly. I will respect the privacy of my students and never post photos of faces/ last names. 

Please scroll down to view past posts and get excited about some of lessons/events coming up in 3rd grade! I can't wait to meet you, and I hope you have been READING all summer long. 

SEE YOU SOON!

Ever since we have been back from winter break we have been "on the move!" We are just finishing our second marking period and our kiddos are making great gains. 

We have started 2 new challenges this year. The Chapter Book Challenge and the Multiplication Quick Quiz challenge. 

The Chapter Book Challenge allows students to choose their own chapter books. When they get to 8 books, they get a special lunch with the teacher and a friend of their choice. This has been great in really increasing student motivation to read outside of school. 3rd grade is when students are getting really interested in various series, and can read more complex chapter books. I have really enjoyed eating with my challenge finishers! 

We have also been doing Quick Quizzes in math to get speedy with our multiplication facts. Week 1 we had a competition between color groups. Week 2 was a boys vs. girls competition (Our girls won!) This week will be 8 vs. 9 year olds. All the winners get the coolest lead pencils money can buy!!! (Thank you Walmart!)

We also have started learning about the Susquehannock Indian tribe. We are comparing our lives today to the lives of colonial children and children in the PA tribes. 

Next up is our division unit and continuing our language arts study of non-fiction texts. 

We are busy bees in 3rd grade and are continuing to chug along! Can't wait for some warmer weather! 

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Yikes! It has been quite a while since I last posted. We have been really busy in Room 117!

1. We are prepping for our Christmas Show! It is titled, "The North Pole Goes Rock and Roll". Santa feels as though he is not cool anymore, so he sports a leather jacket and buys a motorcycle. We are working hard on lyric memorization and even a bit of choreography! 

2. We just finished our math unit on money. We learned how to count on and how to subtract to make change. I told the students about my high school job as a cashier. I worked at a hallmark and many of my customers were little old ladies. I told the kids that they would NOT be happy if I gave them the wrong change. This silly story really resonated with the kids so we printed out the picture below of this little old lady, as a key reminder of the 2 ways to make change. 3rd graders usually confuse nickels and dimes when counting multiple coins, so we did some extra practice with nickel/dime counting!

3. We have been studying continents in SS. This catchy song is stuck in all our heads! It really helps to see the location on the map while singing. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy7e_KAUz7s

This was a quick post, but gives you a little insight into what we have been up to! Hopefully, I can be a bit more detailed after our program and the craziness of the holiday season!

I am so thankful for a sweet class full of smarties! We are having a great year and I appreciate all their hard work!

It's Fall Ya'll!

Happy Fall Everyone! 

We have been really getting into the "spirit" this week with our dress up spirit week prior to Friday's Race for Education. We had a crazy hair day, PJ Day, Sports Team Day (Wore my Phillies shirt, naturally) and a wacky sock day!  It was really fun getting to see all the kids excited about the race and dressing up. The theme for the race this year is WILD SAFARI. Let me tell you, Clermont is looking FANCY! All the doors are decorated with a safari theme to get everyone pumped-- and boy is it working! Mrs. Kreider in 3rd grade has a seriously fantastic door (she made a jeep out of a cardboard box) but I think ours turned our pretty awesome too! The kids made the lions manes and wrote things they love about their school on each piece.

As you can see from the cute animal above, we also filled our marble jar! We had a fun "STUFFED BUDDY" day. We read to our buddies, introduced them to the class, and taught them how to behave like 3rd graders. It was fun to see everyones special toys!

We are moving into regrouping with subtraction in math, and are finishing a unit on nouns this week in Language Arts. We are starting to read some non-fiction books in our reading groups too. We have already learned 4 cursive letters and are having fun practicing our names. We learned all about maps in SS and are making our own little towns. I started by showing them Olindo-Ville, a town with 3 huge malls. How convenient! :) 

Hope you all get to enjoy some fun fall activities with your families. I went home to Bucks County last weekend and took my brother to the Scarecrow festival in Peddler's Village (near New Hope, PA)
I just had to snap a picture with the apple scarecrow! The local teacher's union made that one!

We're Back!

We are doing a great job getting back into the school routine. I've really enjoyed getting to know the kiddos and finding out their various strengths and talents. 

In math we have been studying place value, rounding, and comparing numbers (greater than, less than). Today we met my friend "Ally the Alligator". Ally is very hungry but she only eats BIG numbers. Students have decide which the bigger number and then draw their (<,>) sign so that the bigger number is in Ally's mouth. 

I also learned that my class is quite musical! We learned a neat rounding song (Lyrics below) that reminds us of our rounding strategy. It is sung to the tune of "We will rock you!"
Find your place
Look next door
Is it 5 or greater?
Add one more!
All digits in the front
Stay the same
All digits in the back
0's your name!
We will, we will round you!

Ask your child to put on a performance. With how often we sang it... they will definitely know it! :)

(Here was our song inspiration: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41QZvFIC8mk)

In LA we started our own narrative stories and began to learn about Author's Purpose. We learned about P.I.E- an easy way to remember the different purposes authors use to write a story- persuade, inform, or entertain. We used the PIE visual below to help us remember. Unfortunately, we were talking about "PIE" right before lunch and it made us all a little hungry!

We are off to such a great start! Can't wait to share more with you!

Meet Your Teacher

Hello to my new class and their families!

My name is Miss Olindo and I am so excited to be your teacher this year. I try to keep up this blog so you can see photos of all the things we are working hard on this year! I try to maintain student's privacy and avoid using student faces directly in the photo, but rather focus on the amazing work they are producing. 

Feel free to browse the other posts below from past years to see some of the fun things we do in third grade!

You can click on the "Meet your Teacher" tab at the top of the webpage to find out more about me.

I'm starting to get in the "Back to School" mode, but I had an amazing summer. 

I worked at the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster over the summer and taught some great theatre camps to 1st and 2nd graders. Musical theatre is a huge passion of mine. 

I also took the Disability Institute graduate class at Millersvile University. It was very informative and I learned so many new strategies to use in my classroom.

I did take some much needed time to relax though---I went on a trip to California (my first time on the west coast). I love to travel and learn about new places. While I was away I read 5 books on the beach. I LOVE to read. Our classroom library is HUGE! 

We went to 14 beaches on the coast and visited Hollywood and San Diego.

Here are some pictures from my trip!

GORGEOUS!

WOW! That hurts the wallet!

I LOVE SMOOTHIES!

THE BEACH IS MY FAVORITE PLACE IN THE WORLD!

Went on a jet-ski on the San Diego Bay! Coolest experience ever!

Went to a Dodgers game.. Sorry Phillies :)

 Golf cart tour

My trip was amazing and I had a great summer full of fun, work, and lots of educational growth. 

I cannot wait to come back refreshed for the 2014-2015 school year.

Can't wait to meet you all and hear about your summers!