Positively Perfect Plurals!

Mrs. Yollis' class has been working 

recently on learning to spell 

plural nouns correctly!

There are so many rules about plurals to follow!

When making a plural noun, never use apostrophe s!

Did you know that not all plurals have an s added to them? 

Hoppy has some plural spelling rules to share with you:

1. When a singular noun ends with x, ch, sh, or s, add es. 

Examples: box - boxes              bush - bushes

2. When a singular noun ends in a consonant and y, change the y to an i and add es.  

                 Examples: penny - pennies         fly - flies

3. To some nouns ending in f, simply add s.

                 Examples: chief - chiefs             bluff - bluffs

4. To other nouns ending in f or fe, change the f or fe to v and add  

     es. (Hoppy thinks this is the silliest plural rule of all!)

                 Examples: wolf - wolves            leaf - leaves

5. Some singular nouns form their plurals in special ways. There is no rule for these, so you just have to memorize them!

                 Examples: tooth - teeth               mouse - mice

*     *     *     *     *

Hoppy challenges you to use five different plurals in a comment!

Here is Hoppy's example:

Dear Class,

Yesterday three flies landed on my lilypad. I tried so hard to eat them, but they got away!  I wonder how many of you children would want to eat flies instead of candies on Halloween? 

After missing the flies, I hopped off my lilypad into the water where I saw some geese paddling by. They were carrying some leavesback to their nests. I swam along, so I could say hello to their babies!

I'm looking forward to reading your comments full of positively perfect plurals!

Ribbit and regards,

Hoppy

P. S. Be sure to use html code to make your plurals bold!

CUE Keynote: Connected Educator Month

Last weekend, I was the keynote speaker at the San Luis Obispo CUE conference! CUE stands for Computer Using Educators.

Since October is Connected Educator Month, the subject of my keynote was connecting. Connecting my classroom to learning opportunities via technology is a priority for me, and I am always looking for new ways to connect and learn.

Photo by John Miller

The first connections I made were through blogging. In my keynote, I chronicled how one connection with Australian blogger, Kathleen Morris, lead to numerous global projects for my students. Read about some of our global projects here. Kathleen and I met face-to-face after two years of collaboration when we presented  Flattening the Classroom Walls through Blogging at ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). Here is my Educational Blogging wiki with resources and ideas for starting a classroom blog.

Connecting our students has never been more important. Here is a link to a great post called Digital Writing and Common Core by Joe Wood. Publishing, interacting, and collaborating digitally are Anchor Standards for writing. Below is a document put together by Joe Wood. He highlights some anchor standards over four grade levels (Kindergarten, 4th, 8th, and 12th). Check out what will be happening in kindergarten!

click to enlarge

Graphic by Joe Wood

I also encouraged educators to connect and learn with one another through Twitter.

Here is a presentation about using Twitter to build your PLN!
 (Personal Learning Network) 

According to Rodd Lucier, there are seven degrees of connectedness. Here are his Seven Degrees of Connectedness in an infographic put together by Silvia Tolisano.

Click to enlarge. 

Teachers, what are some ways that you've connected your classroom? Can you offer some advice to other teachers?

Parents, how has your child benefited from connecting and publishing online? 

Students, what do you like about publishing and collaborating online?

Subtracting With A Middle Zero

Today we reviewed how to subtract 3-digit and 4-digit numbers. Normally, we just borrow from the place value position to the left. However, today there was a zero and we couldn't borrow!

Here is a video showing one strategy for subtracting when the neighbor is a zero.

How did it work for you?

Did you find any problems where there were TWO zeros?

What did you do? 

Celebrating Traditions!

This week Mrs. Yollis' class started

a new unit in Language Arts called Celebrating Traditions!

 A tradition is something that family, friends,
or another group of people has done for many years and continues to do on a regular basis.

 *     *     *     *     * 

The story for this week is "The Keeping Quilt".

 In the first story, "The Keeping Quilt," by Patricia Polacco, the author retells the story of her family's handmade quilt. In the story, a Russian immigrant mother and family arrive in the United States. She plans to make a quilt from a basket of old clothes, telling her daughter, "It will be like having the family in back home Russia dance around us at night."  The quilt is passed along from mother to daughter for four generations. It becomes a Sabbath tablecloth and a wedding canopy. It even becomes a blanket for new generations of children. "The Keeping Quilt" is a heart-warming story about one family's tradition.

*     *     *     *     *

In the comment section, please 

share a tradition your family celebrates. 

It can be an annual party, a holiday, or any traditional event.

Please include details about: special foods,  decorations, songs, and/or activities.

 Your comment should be 4 to 6 sentences long. 
 Students: Your comment is due on Friday, October 11th!

Super Subjects With Plenty of Predicate! :-)

Mrs. Yollis' class has been working on learning about 

what it takes to create a 

SENTENCE!

We have learned that it takes two parts: 

a SUBJECT 

and 

a PREDICATE.

The subject tells the person or thing the sentence is about.
The predicate tells what the subject is or does.
The predicate always includes a verb!

  

Here are some examples

Here are some more spectacular sentences we created with 
super subjects and perfect predicates!

(Click to enlarge.)

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Why don't you try creating a special sentence or two of your own?
It can be about any topic you like.


After creating your sentence and typing it into your comment, tell us what the subject is and what the predicate is, or
if you want to give us a challenge...
Ask us to tell you what the subject and predicate are! 

A New Word Problem

Today we learned about a new kind of math problem. It was different than other word problems we've done.   Usually word problems ask questions like:  

How many in all?         How many more?       How many fewer?

This was a new kind of word problem.

Panda and Hoppy left 25 comments. Hoppy left 5 more comments than Panda. 

How many comments did Panda leave? 

How many comments did Hoppy leave? 

Here is a tutorial a student made illustrating one way to solve this type of problem.  

What do you think of this process?

Here is another math problem to solve. 

Photo by Mrs. Ranney

Frogger and Curious George left 45 comments on the blog.

Frogger left 5 more comments than Curious George. 

How many comments did Frogger leave? 

How many comments did Curious George leave?

The answer is:

Frogger: 25 comments

Curious George: 20 comments

Write one of these new word problem for the class to use for practice?  

Fabulous Fall in the Northern Hemisphere!

Did you know that this year, September 22, is the first day of autumn, also known as the autumnal equinox?

In Southern California, we do not experience autumn, or fall,

the same way some places do.

However, we do feel a change in our weather, and even

the leaves of our trees sometimes change color!

Have you ever wondered why leaves change color in the fall?

If you'd like to find out the answer

or learn some other fabulous fall facts

,
click on this link called Awesome Autumn! 

BrainPop Jr. has a great video about fall as well!

*     *     *     *     *

People often change activities as the seasons change. Now that the weather is starting to cool down, Mr. Yollis and I can take more hikes with Buck! 

UPDATE:

Click here to see what the first day of fall looked like in South Carolina! Mrs. Tripp's class tweeted us a view! 

*     *     *     *     *

Leave a comment to tell us what

you learned about autumn.

 
You can also include the answers to these questions:

What are your favorite fall sports and activities?

What do you like most about fall?

Send us a seasonal photo from your area for our 365 Blog! 

Rounding Video!

In class, we have been working on rounding numbers!  Here are the rules for rounding:

Radical Rounding Rules!

                   1. Underline the place value position to which you are rounding.

                         2. Draw an arrow to the neighbor on the right.

3. Write which two tens or two hundreds the number is between.

4. If the neighbor next door is 5 or more, round up, round up!

                           5. If it's not, round down!

6. Circle the correct estimate/answer.

Here is a video tutorial we made to demonstrate the rules for rounding!

Watch the slide show and try the quiz to practice 
your rounding skills!

Rounding Numbers! on PhotoPeach

Rounding Numbers! on PhotoPeach

You can also head over to IXL for more practice!

************

How did you do on the rounding quiz?

How about asking a rounding question
 in your comment?

Once others write comments, look for question you can answer!

Mrs. Yollis ~ By the Numbers

Mrs. Yollis' class has joined the Student Blogging Challenge! 

Task #1, introduce yourselves.

Here are some numbers that tell about us.

We are ONE class of third graders. 

We have ONE geography-loving teacher.

We have TWO bean bags.

 

FOUR recess balls and 

 FOUR globes.

Meet our EIGHT class mascots.

And now, for some two digit numbers that tell about us!

Twelve boys

Our suburban community is THIRTEEN square miles.

We receive FOURTEEN inches of rain annually.

FIFTEEN girls in the class

TWENTY-SEVEN students in our classroom. 

And now, a three digit number!

FIVE HUNDRED NINETY-FOUR students attend our school! 

Tell us some numbers that represent you!

Lucky Hat Day!

This week, Mrs. Yollis' class read  The Lost and Found, a story

in our anthology by Mark Teague.

The story is about three friends who get lost in the Lost and Found bin! Their lucky hats brings them good luck at the end of the story.

*       *       *      *       *

For fun, we wore our lucky hats today!

Lucky Hat Day 2013 on PhotoPeach

*       *       *      *       *

Look at the fun silhouettes the hats made!

*       *       *      *       *

During the day, Mrs. Yollis had everyone write one of her famous THREE SENTENCE STORIES!

What is a three sentence story you ask?

Here is the format for the THREE SENTENCE Lucky Hat Day STORY:

Sentence 1 ~ introduces the character, the setting, and a problem.

Sentence 2 ~ the main character find his/her lucky hat in a specific place and puts it on.

Sentence 3 ~ The lucky hat solves the problem in a fantastic way!

*       *       *      *       *

Which hat was the most interesting to you?

Contribute your own THREE SENTENCE STORY!