Guess what?!
Here is the link to the YouTube video we watched today in class. Be sure to have your parents’ permission before clicking the link!!
Mrs. Swan's 3rd Grade SPY BLOG!!
Our answer to the question…"What did you LEARN at school today??"
Celebration of LEARNING!!
The Cedar Creek Elementary Celebration of Learning
will be held on Thursday, April 23rd.
Mrs. Swan will have our classroom open from 6:30-8:30 pm.
Be sure to stop by to check-out everything we’ve been learning this year!
On display in the CLASSROOM:
–Ellis Island Living History Day video & picture slide shows
–Cricket in Times Square projects
–Clay Sandwich sculptures
–State Projects
–Point of View Poetry
On display in the HALLS:
–Earthworks Animal Reports
–Tree Identification Leaf flipbooks
–Immigrant Character Maps
–Artwork
On display in the LIBRARY:
–Young Author’s stories (all grades)
Classroom Spelling Bee Winners!
The Annual Cedar Creek Elementary Spelling Bee for grades 3-6 will be held on Friday, January 12th at 9 am.
As a class, we would like to congratulate our classroom spelling bee winners. Madison Heise and Jack Mullen will represent our class in the spelling bee. Olivia Leonard is our alternate representative. Good Luck Super Spellers!! 
NaNoWriMo!!
NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month
NaNoWriMo is all about the seat-of-your pants-I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-writing kind of writing! The Young Writers Program (ywp.nanowrimo.org) is designed for K-12 classrooms taking part as a group and for 12-and-under novelists writing solo. As a class, we have a word count goal of 100,00 words during the month of November. When we divided it between the 25 of us (Mrs. Swan included), we determined that we have individual goals of 4,000 words. The students are responsible for self-monitoring their own progress. We have a chart in the classroom that has divided the 4,000 words into 10 manageable chunks. Students are charting their progress daily by adding stickers when they reach intermediate word count goals. We are in full swing and already have some novelists who have met their 4,000 word goal…and they’re still WRITING!!
Be sure to ask the Young Novelist in your life to share their story with you!
Click here to learn more by reading Mrs. Swan’s NaNoWriMo Letter.
Click here to visit the National Novel Writing Month Young Writers Program website.
Calling all SPIES!! Check in…
If you’re visiting the class webpage, leave a comment for Mrs. Swan by clicking below. Please let me know what you discovered on our new website!
**Your comment will NOT show up right away. It will be e-mailed to me (Mrs. Swan). I will read it to make sure that it is appropriate, then I will post it to the site.
**Please be sure to follow the good writing rules for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. Let’s represent ourselves positively and be respectful of our readers!
Have fun exploring the new site! Be sure to check out all of the pages to the right. Remember that the website is a work in progress – changes will be coming daily!
Thank you so much!
Well, as most of you know, Sunday was my birthday. (Visit the “Top Secret Agent Page” to find out how old I am now.) Yesterday the class threw me a suprise birthday party complete with cupcakes, singing, homemade cards, and gifts. I really appreciate the thought and planning (sneaky, sneaky, sneaky…) that went into this. Kettle Corn is my favorite treat and chocolate is always yummy! The Home Depot gift card will really be helpful as we continue to remodel our new home. I am such a lucky teacher to have the love and support of such a great group of students and families!! Thank you so very much to Debbie Smith for organizing such a wonderful surprise and to everyone for being such a special part of my birthday and my life.
SPIES know how to solve problems!!
At the end of our investigation of problem solving, we had learned SO much and *loved* the daily challenge of solving problems. After some self-reflection, each student selected their top 2 favorite strategies. We used this data to make small groups of 2-3 students. Each of these groups focused on a favorite strategy and made a poster to display in the classroom. These posters have been very helpful to us and we refer to them often thoughout the day! Click here to see our problem solving posters and more photos of this experience.
Here is what we know about being problem solvers and some of our “Ah-Ha!” ideas:
**Problem Solvers use a PROCESS:
-I: Identify the Problem
-C: Choose a Strategy (Think it Through!)
-A: Answer the Question
-N: Now it makes sense!! (Problem Solved!)
**Problem Solvers use STRATEGIES:
-Use Logical Reasoning
-Act Out or Use Objects
-Make an Organized List
-Use or Make a Table
-Use or Make a Pattern
-Make a Picture or Diagram
-Guess and Check
-Make It Simpler
-Brainstorm
-Work Backwards
**(AH-HA!!) Problem Solvers can use MORE THAN 1 strategy to solve a problem.
**(AH-HA!!) There can be MORE THAN 1 correct solution to a problem.
**(AH-HA!!) It is important to remember to REPORT the solution.
**(AH-HA!!) Problem Solving teaches you the power to PERSEVERE!