What's Happening in Room 35

Space Unit

We started our space unit yesterday.  We are doing research using books, informational video clips and the internet.  Today we learned about how vast our Milky Way Galaxy is.  Did you know that if you were traveling by jet from the earth to the moon it would take you 3 months!  If your were to travel by jet from the Earth to Venus it would take 3 years.  If you traveled from Earth to Neptune by jet it would take 313 years!  To learn more about the planets you can visit BrainPop.  The kids in my class know the username and password.  Type in planets in the search tool  to view short informational video clips about the planets.  Thanks to our Washington PIE group for funding this video learning resource!  To visit more space related internet sites click here (my educational bookmarks on delicious-space).  We are looking forward to our space field trip to Paulucci Space Theater to learn more about space and the solar system!  Below is a picture of the earth from space...at night!

Eco system project

We have been working on eco-system projects for science.  Everyone has done a fantastic job!  We are going to do a really cool technology project that involves students using a green screen and superimposing themselves into a digital still picture.  It appears that the kids are reporting "live" from their ecosystem.  I can't wait to see the finished products!

Graphing in Math

Today in math class we created a graph with the number of letters in our first names.  This is what it looks like.

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Last week we played a fun math game at this website.

Reading Club

My third grade students created these book club projects in May of last year and I'm finally finding time to post them.  I think they are fabulous!

Download super_fudge.ppt

Download chocolate_fever.ppt

Download how_to_eat_fried_worms.ppt

Download presenting_from_judy_blume_studios.ppt

Download stage_fright_on_a_summer_night.ppt

Download Wringer.ppt

To download Powerpoint Viewer for PC click here.

To download Powerpoint Viewer for MAC click here.

New School Year

We have started our new school year.  I think this class is the most well-behaved class I've ever had.  I think we are going to be able to do great things!  When kids are on-task we have time to do so many cool things!  I can't wait!

We've Been Practicing

We have been doing some practice tests for our upcoming MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) tests that start next week.  The reading tests are on Tuesday April 16 and Wednesday April 17.  The math tests are the following week on April 22 and 23.  The kids have been doing so well!  They are all doing their best to show what they have learned since starting kindergarten.  YES!  The tests are comprehensive.  They test curriculum form K-3rd grade.  The kids have also been enjoying some interactive websites that will allow them some extra fun practice.  The link to the MCA practice page I created is here http://www.kpeddle.com/mca.cfm
Please make sure your child gets extra rest, a good dinner the night before the test and a good breakfast each morning.  Thanks for your support!

Minnesota History Center

Last week our class took a field trip to the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. It was a wonderful day. My favorite exhibits were the new Minnesota 150, having to do with 150 of the most important things about Minnesota and the Open House: If these walls could talk. This exhibit displays an old house and the displays depict the families that lived in the house though the years. The most memorable exhibit is the tornado re-enactment. At the end of the day we had a presentation called "When I was a Kid". We learned all kinds of information about the lives of kids 100 years ago. We also took lots of photographs of artifacts. We were so interested in this presentation, we decided to write our own book. So we are in the process of finding good pictures and information about the lives of kids in Carlton County 100 years ago.

World Map and King Tut

We have been using a really cool world map from National Geographic to talk about the Ojibwe migration over 100's of years, as well as finding and discussing other locations, such as the polar ice caps.  Click here to view this interactive world map.  The site is called Map Machine.  We have also been talking about how global warming is affecting the polar bears and walruses in our polar regions due to the loss of polar ice.  We are all trying to do our small part by conserving fuel and electricity (which in turn saves fuel) which will lower greenhouse gas emissions.  Here is a site where you can learn more about global warming. 

We read in article in Scholastic News about King Tut.  The kids were interested in learning more, so Savanna suggested we go to the Scholastic News website to see if there was any additional information.  Sure enough we found this video podcast.  Thanks Savanna! Three teams of forensic artists and scientists—from France, the United States and Egypt—each built a model of the boy pharaoh's face based on some 1,700 high-resolution photos from CT scans of his mummy to reveal what he looked like the day he died nearly 3,300 years ago.

Hey kids!  If you visit our blog, make sure you leave a comment!  We have been enjoying looking at our cluster map (left sidebar) to see how many other people are looking at our learning blog.  We can't wait to see a red dot appear in Africa, Europe, or Australia.

Polar Bears

Today in science we read about polar bears and how global warming is affecting them.  We watched a short clip of a mother polar bear and her newborn baby cub in a den.  I promised the kids I would put the video on the blog.  Here is the link to view the video ( and many more!).  Click here to see the polar bear videos and here are some pictures of polar bears.  To read more about polar bears click here.

Math Unit 4-We're multiplying!

We started our unit 4 math unit yesterday.   It's all about multiplication!  We had a great time listening to the old "School House Rock" songs that teach multiplying by singing the songs.  It's a great way to learn for some students.  We will also be hopping through our multiples by playing "Hopscotch" math after we learn the easy multiples- 0's, 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's.  We are also busy using the Math FACTS in a Flash program when we have spare time.  Below are the slide from the beginning of the unit, including the unit goals.