Miss Hardison's Third Grade Class

Finally Able to Post

2010-02-17T11:23:00.002-06:00

Well, I have finally gotten a chance to sit down and bring you up to date on our third grade class. We are working hard on Multiplication. The final test was this week. If students made an 80% or better they are not required to retake the test daily. We are also working on landforms. We are making a booklet that students will use on their test next week. If they followed direction on the book them the test should be an easy 100. Next week will start our test prep work getting us in the mind set for testing. We will be working on a lot of SAT 10 and ARMT testing materials. So our normal routine will change for the next few weeks. We will be doing Comprehension Toolkit to give students some work on better strategies to help them when reading and answering questions. This should be fun and something different. We will also be using the SAT 10 practice booklets to give students practice on testing skills. The ARMT testing will help students become familiar with how to organize problems and strategies to answer the questions to the fullest.

On a different note remember that Picture Day is tomorrow, and our field trip to the Space and Rocket Center is Friday.

Karate!

2009-11-05T10:18:00.002-06:00

I stayed a little late after school yesterday to catch a few pictures of the karate class that three of our classmates take. Here is Kassie getting ready to show off her kicks.
Jake, Kassie, and A'Kyah are practicing their foot positions for the various kicks they will be working on.

They catch me taking their picture and Kassie smiles.

Trick or Treat!

2009-11-05T10:12:00.003-06:00

Isabella was a queen for Halloween! She wanted her Aunt to take her trick or treating again this year. So off we went through the neighborhood. Last year we went five miles, we stopped after two or three this year.

She was happy with her loot. I thought she looked so cute. I let her wear some of my make-up. She thought she was so grown-up.

Halloween Party!

2009-11-05T10:03:00.002-06:00

Mr. Thomas read two stories to us while one of our Homeroom Mom's set up in the room.

We heard Jerry Seinfeld's Halloween (the class loved this) and Witches Brew.

We then watched as he mixed our very own witch's brew. (lime sherbet and ginger ale)

We went back to the room for some yummy eyeballs.

(doughnut holes with icing and chocolate)

Slime dirt

(Jello and Oreo with gummy worms)

We ended with feeling some guts and skin.

(spaghetti and tortilla)

Then some eyeballs and teeth.

(grapes and corn)

Carving Pumpkins!

2009-11-05T09:58:00.002-06:00

Each Table in the room had a chance to help carve a pumpkin. We had a drawing from each table to see who got to take the Jack-o-lanterns home for Halloween.

Cerise won the owl pumpkin
Tony won the jack-o-lantern from his table.

Jayden won the scary jack-o-lantern from his group.

Zach was the winning number from his table.

Austin High School Puppet Show

2009-11-05T08:22:00.002-06:00

Austin High School came to school and did a quick puppet show for the third grade.

We had varies characters to help the students learn the problems smoking and drinking can have on a person.

Students learns the negative things smoking and drinking can do to your body.
Here are some of the students that put on the puppet show. Students had a chance to ask them questions after the show.

How Many Pumpkin Seeds!

2009-11-05T08:19:00.002-06:00

After dissecting our pumpkins, Mrs. Long took the seeds home and fixed them for us to eat for snack. The students had also read Candy Corn Contest, so we had them try to guess how many seeds were in the jar. Emily was the closest so she received some credits. Emily guess 1,400 seeds. The actual number of seeds in the jar was 1,500. Good job Emily!

Heat Testing

2009-11-05T08:13:00.002-06:00

All of the third grade came out into the commons to do the heat testing for our Chemical Testing Unit. The teachers took an unknown and held it over the fire. The classes had a chance to look and smell what was happening.

We took our five unknowns to see what they did when heated. Here is Mrs. Long holding the green unknown over the heat. Cerise and Tony look on to see what is happening.
This is the red unknown. We saw it turn a brown and then black and it smelled like Carmel. Wonder what it could be!

Here the orange unknown is over the fire. It smells bad.

Pumpkin Dissection

2009-10-27T13:35:00.002-05:00

Kristi Long is an Athens State students learning to be a teacher. She spent last week with us and she is back again this week. Monday will be her last day with us. She is teaching us about the writing process this week. She read a book to the class about pumpkins and pumpkin seeds.

She then surprised the class with real pumpkins to look at. We got a chance to pull all the seeds out of the pumpkin. Later we will describe what the pumpkin feels like.
Everyone got a chance to pull seeds out of the pumpkin. Some students thought this was gross, but I did not see anyone turn down a chance to put their hand inside the pumpkin.

Here is what we pulled out of the pumpkin. Mrs. Long is going to do something with the seeds tonight, and said she would have a surprise for us tomorrow with them. We can't wait for tomorrow!

Chemical Testing!!!!

2009-10-27T13:21:00.004-05:00

Chemical testing is a fun unit for the kids. We have to keep up with all the data we gather through various tests to find out what our unknown chemicals are.

Students have five unknown chemicals. (All household chemical, so we are not going to blow the school up) We will test each unknown with water, water mixture and a filtration test to see if they are solutions or suspensions. We did these tests on Monday.

Today we tested the five unknowns with Iodine, Vinegar, and red cabbage juice. We saw some neat things today.

We saw the orange unknown bubble and fizz when mixed with vinegar.

The orange also turned purple-black when tested with Iodine. The class loved this.
We have a class chart as well as each student collecting data and making their own chart.

Tomorrow will be the heat test and then Thursday students will use their data to find out what our five unknowns are.

Math Fun with Addition

2009-10-27T13:15:00.003-05:00

Students used base tens to make addition problems for their partner to figure out.
The class had to figure out the numbers they were adding and then come up with the answer.

Partners would take turns trying to stump their friends.

They really enjoyed the hands on approach we used doing our daily math problems. It was a nice break from paper and pencil work.

Field Trip to Botanical Gardens

2009-10-27T13:01:00.004-05:00

We got to the gardens and had a short class on seeds. Everyone had to sit on the seats and watching and listen as our guide explained about what we were looking for on our field trip.

Volunteers were picked to be trees who dropped acorns that became more seeds. The students had fun with this activity. They learned about how seeds move and why seeds move.

Here Alexia is passing the seeds. Students got a chance to see various seeds in different stages.

Alexia held the two seeds for me to show what the class was looking at. We have one seed that is fresh and still living. The other is a dead seed that has already released the seeds in side.

The students are looking at the flowers and looking for seeds.

We had a picture taken of all of those left at the gardens before we got back on the bus. We had a great trip. Everyone was well behaved and learned a lot about seeds.

Fall Break Trip to North Carolina

2009-10-27T12:03:00.002-05:00

I visited my sister and her three kids in North Carolina for Fall Break. Coby who started Kindergarten this year is playing Flag Football. Saturday afternoon we went to watch his game. He is the one with the yellow shorts and red shirt in the back.
Corban the baby fell asleep at his big brothers game. He had fun watching for a while, but gave up by the end.

I did get caught sneaking Corban a chocolate chip cookie. My sister didn't get too mad because she had given him bits before. He loved it!
Here the kids are Sunday night before church. I hated thinking that I had to leave on Monday.

I finally got one picture where all three were looking at me. Coby, Sydney, and Corban were waiting for us to leave.

Violin Recital

2009-10-27T11:58:00.002-05:00

Here we are showing our violin talents off to parents on Wednesday, October 7th.

The class showed their bows off and how to hold them.

We played several song for parents to see all that we learned during our ten lessons. Everyone did a great job! I was so proud of them.

Twinkies!

2009-10-27T11:57:00.003-05:00

I showed up at school on October 7th and found a second grader with the same outfit on. We had a good laugh, so I had to add it to the blog.

Red Ribbon Parade Chant!

2009-10-04T21:23:00.002-05:00

Here is the class practicing the chant for the Red Ribbon March on Saturday. They all did a great job learning the words and movements for this chant in PE.

Orange Rally Friday!

2009-10-04T20:36:00.003-05:00

Cerise and the rest of the class really enjoyed the Orange Rally Friday afternoon.

We were visited by the Austin Black Bear! he brought with the Austin Cheerleaders and a few football players.
The show started out with the bear chasing around football player #8 from Austin. In the end they were hugging and having fun as the cheerleaders lead the group in a fun active cheer.

The students really got going when #8 lead them in an A high chant.

The cheerleaders preformed several cheers that the whole group could help with. Everyone was having a great time.

Mrs. Praytor got the microphone to remind everybody why we were having the Orange rally. We were getting ready for the Red Ribbon March on Saturday.

#8 lead the students in a drug free chant.

Violin Lesson are going great!

2009-10-01T08:55:00.002-05:00

Mr. Frank is showing the class how to hold the violin and bow.
Our little musicians are playing the violin. We have learned several songs so far.

We have learned the Monkey song, Donkey song, and the Flower song.

This is rest position. They place their violin under their arm with the bridges peeking out and bows down.

This is called Flat Bananas. They do this before going to playing position.

Pen Pals sent a gift!

2009-10-01T08:50:00.002-05:00

Our pen pals sent us a gift. They read the book "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" and wrote their own version as a class book. We really enjoyed reading it. We learned a little bit about our pen pals in the process.

Here is a page from the book they sent. We read it as a class, but students all want a chance to read it on their own.

Pen Pal Letters

2009-10-01T08:37:00.002-05:00

Our Pen Pal letters from Oklahoma came and the class was so excited to read them and learn more about their new friends.
Alexia and A'Kyah are enjoying reading some news from Oklahoma and learning the what their new friends like to do.

Kassie is sharing her letter with the students around her.

Cerise had a big smile on her face as she read news from her pen pal.

Gauge is reading his letter

Zach is reading his letter from pen pal Zach! I thought it was cool that they had the same name.

We are writing back to our pen pal and will be awaiting their responses.

Student Council Class Representatives

2009-09-15T12:15:00.002-05:00

Jake, Maddi, Kassie, Chloe, Emily, and Jackson ram for our class representatives. Each student had to get up in front of the class and tell us why they would do a good job representing our class.

AND THE WINNER IS...

TWO CLOWNS! DID WE MAKE A WISE DECISION? :)

OK now there are the kids I know looking like they can do the job. They wanted to show off their silly side first. We had a four way tie after the first vote. After that we voted on the four and got a two way tie. We voted one more time and they tied again. So we decided to have two students represent our class this year.

Workshop in Action!

2009-09-15T12:00:00.003-05:00

Math workshop: students choose six words out of a book they are reading and count up the money worth of the word from the chart.

Jackson and Allen are trying to find neat words in their book.

Each student has a book about communities to read, answer questions, and an activity to go with their book.

Kassie is using the Internet to help her complete her activity for this workshop.

Dictionary Skills-students will be looking up words trying to find the guide words.

Jayden and Chloe are busy working with their dictionaries.

Language and Vocabulary- Students are playing a board game with the vocabulary words from Unit 1 and Possessive Nouns.

Jake, Emily, and Cerise are having fun playing the board games. Most do not even realize they are learning while playing these games.

Grandparents Day!

2009-09-15T11:12:00.004-05:00

Jayden and grandpa enjoying a quiet lunch. I wonder if they both meant to wear blue shirts. :)
Alexia had a row full with two grandmothers and a grandpa eating with her.

Chloe had her grandparents here too.

Maddi and her grandmother chose to sit on the stage so they could really enjoy a nice quiet lunch together. Maddi talked grandmother into checking her out early so they could enjoy the rest of the day together.

Jackson's grandmother was able to eat lunch with him today also.

Emily's grandparents enjoyed visiting with her during our lunch time.

Thank you to all the wonderful grandparents I met yesterday. Your grandchildren are wonderful and I have greatly enjoyed getting to know them.

Seed Collections!

2009-09-15T11:07:00.003-05:00

Our class did a wonderful job on their seed collection project.
I thought I would post them so you could see every ones.

The crocodile ate Allen's project so he said he caught the croc and brought him instead. :)

We had a lot of very creative students. Thanks for the wonderful job and the cool seed we got to see.

Bees! Bees! Bees Everywhere!

2009-09-02T15:53:00.002-05:00

Today was fun. We made our very one bee. As you can your child has turned into a bee. We learned a lot about bees. Students had to make the bee body and cut their face out to put on the bee.
Once their bee was finished, they had to come up with one fact about the bee that we had learned that day.

Their fact could not be the same as anyone else in the class. The boys made drone (male) bees and the girls made worker (female) bees. The boys were not happy that they did not get a stinger because drone bees do not have a stinger.

But they had a great time and I hope learned a little about bees in the process.

So, if you are walking down the upstairs hall, look out for the swarm of third grade bees.

Plants, Plants, Plants

2009-09-02T15:46:00.002-05:00

The class really enjoyed planting our Fast Growing Seeds. This was the first day after planting. We can't see what is happening just yet.

Here are their plants just 13 days later. They are growing so well. The class was so excited after coming in and seeing how fast they are growing. When they measure the growth, you will hear "mine is bigger than yours." Their plants are doing well

On this one you can even see the buds starting to form. We will have flowers soon, and that means it will be time for the bees to come pollinate the flowers.

Jersey Glyph!

2009-09-02T15:43:00.002-05:00

We worked on Jersey Glyph's on day to add to the football field Mrs. Coon's husband made outside third grade commons.
Students had to follow the instructions on what color, how many stripes, and their favorite sports to know how to make their jersey just right. Here is Jayden hard at work.

Here is Jake working hard on getting the finishing touches on his jersey before he starts cutting it out.

Third Street Store is open for business!

2009-09-02T15:40:00.002-05:00

The class is earning their credits and debits. They get to see the pay off for their good behavior every Friday. Here is Alex, A'Kyah, and Chloe shopping on Friday.
Here is our Store clerk who must take money and make change for the busy shoppers.

Alexia's Birthday

2009-09-02T15:38:00.001-05:00

We enjoyed a yummy cookie cake for Alexia's birthday. Her mom brought up the cookie and juice for a afternoon snack. We hope you had a great birthday!

Summer has ended!

2009-09-02T15:23:00.002-05:00

Corban is such such a doll! I had to add this picture of him too.

I had a great summer visiting my family. Corban is getting bigger and I can't wait for a break to get back to North Carolina to see him again.

Sydney loves posing with her baby brother. She will gladly hold him and let you snap away. This is Sydney and Corban on the fence post at their house in NC.

Sydney was going in for a great big kiss on Corban's head. She loves him so much. Big brother Coby was at his friends house or he would be in the pictures too. Although he is not into getting his picture taken unless it is with a truck, motorcycles, or something that boys like to do.

Coby and Sydney got to come to Alabama and spend a week with me, Aunt Nancy. We had a great time going to VBS, swimming, and going to the park. This is Coby climbing through the tires at Kids Dugout in Athens.

Here is Sydney jumping of the car. She is trying to show me how high and far she can jump. After their week with me I went back to NC for two weeks to spoil them before school started.

Coby learned how to ride his bike with NO training wheels while camping with his dad and cousins in the mountains. He was so excited. I had to show him off.

On our way back to NC we stopped and spent the night in Atlanta. My sisters took the girls, Isabella and Sydney, to the American Girl store and had lunch. The girls each got a new doll.

I took the boys, Coby and Corban, to lunch in the mall and we enjoyed riding the carousel and walking around looking in stores. Coby got a new Build a Bear dog with basketball clothes. He named him Cozy.

Steeple Chase 2009

2009-05-11T19:33:00.002-05:00

Mrs. Coon was the director of the Steeple Chase. A group from school decided we would support our fellow teacher in her race. Julian Harris was well represented at the race. We had a counselor, three third grade teachers, one kindergarten, one second grade, and a reading coach brave the 8k on Saturday, May 9th. The weather stayed nice for the run.

The Julian Harris Gang at the races end. (Left to right)

Somer Praytor, Patty Maze, Jennifer Blevins, Michael Thomas, Nancy Hardison, Missy Olinger, and Nikki Freeman the little boy in front is Mrs. Maze's son.

The third grade runners racing for the finish line. We all finished the 8K (five miles) in 1 hour 11 minutes and 45 seconds. We feel that we did pretty well for our first race.
Nancy Hardison, Patty Maze, and Michael Thomas

My new nephew, Corban Scott

2009-04-19T21:52:00.003-05:00

Corban Scott was born on Friday, April 17, 2009.

I can't wait to go to North Carolina and visit this little boy. I will be leaving April 28 after school to visit. I will take the rest of the week off to visit my sister and of course to spoil little Corban while I have the chance.

Coby and Sydney check in on their new little brother. They are both so excited about the new addition to the family. When I talked to them on the phone they said that they are so proud. Coby said that his new brother is awesome.
Scott (proud Daddy), big sister (Sydney), big brother (Coby), and the new arrival (Corban)

Things are getting back to normal.

2009-04-12T21:41:00.002-05:00

Testing is OVER!!!!!! YEAH!!! We are all excited. Things will be back to normal. We will be having our regular schedule with spelling, reading, language, science, social studies, and math. We will have a project coming home in Tuesday that students will have to work on at home. Be looking for that. I have been having more computer problems. I had a virus and couldn't use it. The when that got fixed my Internet went out. That got fixed and then my power cord broke. I had to buy another. I hope to be posting more often. I will try to catch up on photos also.

Boot Camp!!

2009-03-24T06:26:00.002-05:00

I have signed up for an exercise boot camp. We meet every morning at 4:40-5:30 around Athens for this boot camp. We have eleven other women in the group. I tell you this to show just how crazy your teacher is. I paid for this torture. :) I will be doing this for four week, Monday through Friday. Wish me luck.

Back from Spring Break!

2009-03-24T06:20:00.003-05:00

I hope you all had a wonderful spring break. I know I did. I had a chance to visit my sister in North Carolina. Her two children were very excited for our visit.

We are getting back in the routine of school. We have one week left until testing starts. We will be doing more test prep activities this week. Students will be having homework that will help with testing. Please talk to your child about how important it is that they try their best. Based on our practice tests our class is not giving their best. Please make sure that your child is at school everyday and on time. We start work at 7:35.

Testing starts on Tuesday. Please make sure that your child is getting plenty of sleep and a good breakfast during testing weeks. AS of right now testing dates are Tuesday, wednesday and Thursday of next week and then Tuesday and Wednesday of the week after that.

Kookie gets a "little" sister! Meet Roxie!

2009-02-16T19:26:00.002-06:00

Kookie awaiting the arrival of her "little" sister Roxie Saturday.
This is Roxie! A German Shepherd/Chow mix. She is 13 weeks old. I picked her up Saturday.

Isabella and Amos went with me to get her. Here is Isabella teaching Roxie how to dance.

Roxie follows me everywhere I go. Here she is sitting in the kitchen floor while I cooked my supper.

Roxie took over the Little Tots chair. When I came into the back yard she jumped out of the chair to greet me.

Valentine's Day Sundae Party!

2009-02-16T19:05:00.003-06:00

Mason is busy adding lots of toppings to his ice-cream sundae.

Chloe shows off her sundae before she digs in.

Shane and Branden enjoyed picking their seat for the party. They were just having fun talking and relaxed during the party.

Shane and Naman were adding a little cool whip and chocolate to their ice-cream.

After adding the chocolate Naman took a seat to eat his sundae and wait for his friends to join him.

We lined our Valentine bags up on the shelf for everyone to deliver their cards.

Now students were excited about looking at their cards and candy! (Branden, Jaxson, Ruben, Mason, and Shane)

Jacob, Naman, and Alyssa were reading their cards.

Taylor and Megan were enjoying the free time at the end of the day to read their Valentine cards.

The kids were wild and ready for the bell to ring. We were all looking forward to a long weekend.

Working on Valentine Bags!

2009-02-16T18:53:00.002-06:00

Hanna, Ally, and Ruben are decorating their Valentine Bags to hold all their goodies. Students used Markers, crayons, and construction paper to make their bag unique.
Jaxson, Brandon, and Tyus are drawing on their construction paper to make their Valentine bags their own.

Maddi, Megan, Naman, and Gabe are hard at work getting their bags ready for Valentines.

Mrs. Olinger is working in our class.

2009-01-20T22:53:00.004-06:00

Mrs. Olinger is our school's Reading Coach. She is working with third grade this year. She will be in our room for a few weeks teaching Reading to the class.

The class is really enjoying having Mrs. Olinger visiting our room.
She will be working with the phonics, story, and fluency part of our Imagine It reading program.

Multiplication War!

2009-01-20T22:42:00.002-06:00

Students broke into groups of two to learn a new game to help us practice our multiplication facts.
Students divided the cards into two piles. They each had to get a sheet of paper and a clipboard to help them keep score.

They turn over the top card and had to multiply that number by 2. They had to write the multiplication problem on their paper.

The student with the higher number would win the cards. That student would circle their problem on their sheet of paper.

They played until one student had all the cards or time was up.

The class really enjoyed playing, even though they were learning multiplication at the same time.Here is an example of a groups page as they played the game.

Cursive

2009-01-20T22:38:00.002-06:00

We have started cursive. Students need to be practicing their cursive at home. Spelling tests will now be written in cursive. Some other assignments will be done in cursive. The more they practice the better they will get at it. We will be practicing in workshop and other times throughout the day.

Workshop Fun!

2009-01-20T22:24:00.003-06:00

Hanna, Aaliyah, Chloe, Naman, and Jaxson are working in the Dictionary Skills center. They are looking up words and choosing which definition matches the word from the sentences.
Branden is reading a Magic Tree House book in the Reading Center. Students choose a chapter book to read while they are in this center.

Alyssa is working on a comprehension worksheet during center time. She is reading a story and then answers questions about the story and vocabulary words used.

Shane and Tyus are also working in the comprehension center.

Megan is working in the Spelling and Handwriting Center

Maddi writes her spelling words three times each in cursive.

Welcome Back!

2009-01-11T14:29:00.002-06:00

Welcome Back! We had a pretty good start to the new year. We welcomed a new student to our class. Her name is Hanna. She moved here from New Jersey. We are jumping into multiplication. Students will be having timed test on multiplication. We have already learned our facts for 0, 1, and, 2. This week we will be focusing on facts for 5, 10, and 11. Students will also be jumping into cursive writing. Spelling tests will now be in cursive. We have covered all lower case letters. Please practice your cursive and multiplication at home.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-22T22:15:00.002-06:00

Amos and Bella pose with Kookie in front of my Christmas Tree.
Kookie is in her holiday dress to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I couldn't resist posting this one too. She just looked to cute.

2008-12-22T21:59:00.003-06:00

Mrs. Coon's son and some friends made posters to wave during our sing along.

Hanka Montanna is concert at JHES. You can barely hear the song becasue of the crowd going crazy.

Mr. K preformed "The Best of Both Worlds" for the students dressed as Hannah Montanna before the Christmas sing-a-long Thursday.
The kids went wild as he strolled through the audience during his song.

What a pose as Mr. K got into his preformance.

We all enjoyed seeing Mr. K with the blonde wig. Here he is trying to get the hair out of his face as he finished his song.

Pancakes, Pajama's, and Polar Express

2008-12-22T21:41:00.004-06:00

Ms. Farrah made wonderful pancakes for the class at our Holiday party the last day of school before Christmas break.

We had chocolate chips, fruit, cool whip and lots of yummy things to put on top of our pancakes.
Everyone enjoyed the pancakes and pajama's.

We also worked on our ornament while watching Polar Express. Here Maddie's dad helped her out with putting the sequins on her ornament.

Chloe is working hard and concentrating hard on make her ornament look just right. Everyone had fun making the ornaments. It took them a while to put all those sequins on the balls. We had a great party. Thank you to all the parents that helped or sent in items to make it a great party. Everyone had fun and had plenty to eat.

Skip counting work!!!!

2008-12-22T21:32:00.004-06:00

We have been working on several sheets of skip counting to help us get ready for multiplication.

Students use hundred charts to skip count by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. They used highlighters to mark the numbers. Then wrote the highlighted numbers in the circles at the bottom. After we finished the skip counting project, students wrote the multiplication facts

(0-12) on the back of each page to help them have a study guide to learn their facts.

Alyssa is working on her skip counting with her highlighter.

Maddie is also working on skip counting by sixes.

Toys for Tots

2008-12-22T21:27:00.002-06:00

Jacob and Jake show off the toys they brought in for the Toys for Tots program. A marine came to school to pick up the toys that third grade collected. He visited each class and discussed with the students how the toys they donated will be used.

Gingerbread Glyph's with Mr. Thomas

2008-12-22T21:18:00.003-06:00

First everyone had to get all the supplies they needed to make their gingerbread man

Next, they had to cut out the gingerbread man and follow the rules from the glyph to know how to make the glyph correctly.

Gabe and Jacob work on their project.

Shane is waiting for more instructions on what he needs to do next.

Ally's table is working quietly and trying get finihsed before time to go back to class.

Chocolate Fun in Math

2008-12-22T21:00:00.006-06:00

We have introduced multiplication. The class really enjoyed chocolate math!!!

We made arrays out of chocolate. The arrays helped to students see the multiplication facts.

Each student had their own Hershey chocolate bar to work with. They were excited about starting multiplication, but even more excited about using chocolate to help them.

After going through the book each student had to make an array with their chocolate bar. They had to write their multiplication fact that their array showed.

Aaliyah was here with a smile for the camera showing her chocolate bar.

Here is the red table with heir arrays laid out for me to check.

The blue tale awaits their turn to be checked.

Shane enjoys his chocolate bar after we finished the lesson.

Christmas Break is here!!!!

2008-12-19T10:19:00.002-06:00

We had a wonderful party yesterday. Thank you to the parents that helped with cooking pancakes, bringing food, and helping with our craft. We also enjoyed that afternoon "Hanka Montanna". You might have seen "her" on the news that night. The kids really went crazy. For those of you who missed it, I will be posting pictures soon. I have a camera full of pictures to get on here. I will try to get caught up during Christmas break. We have been busy. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will see you all next year! haha.

Chloe is a big sister!!

2008-12-01T21:51:00.003-06:00

Chloe's baby brother and sister were born today at Huntsville Hospital.

Both Tristan, Brooklyn, and Mom are doing great! Here is new big sister Chloe with Tristan. Brooklyn had to stay in the nursery for now.

Here is a close up of baby Tristan. I got a chance to hold him as I visited with Chloe and her family. He was sleeping so good that even moving his covers to look at his tiny little feet did not disturb the little fellow. I got to see video of Brooklyn that her dad made so that everyone could see her.

Chloe was so excited to be a big sister. She tried to get Tristan to open his eyes and look at me.
Chloe was glad to get a chance to stay at the hospital to get to know her new baby brother and sister. She was not happy when I brought her most of the work that she missed today and will miss tomorrow. They are hopefully all coming home on Wednesday.

FUN in the SNOW!!!

2008-12-01T21:36:00.004-06:00

We just could not resist the temptation to play in the falling snow. The class had a blast.

Here we are all standing in the cold as the snow falls down.

Maddi and Ally huddle to stay warm.

Jada, Alyssa, and Taylor stop playing so I could snap a picture!

We could not keep them from running and enjoying the snow.

They tried to find snow where ever they could. Some were getting small snow balls and throwing them at each other.

Thanksgiving Break!

2008-11-27T20:32:00.002-06:00

I hope you are all enjoying your Thanksgiving Break. I am in North Carolina spending the week with my sister and her kids. Coby and Sydney were glad to see me. I know you are all having fun staying at home spending time with you families, or playing your gaming systems. Most of you admitted that was what you were looking forward to most on this week off from school. I am heading back to Alabama tomorrow for the long eight hour drive back. I know Kookie will be glad to see me when I get home. She stayed home and Isabella, Amos, and Genoa took care of her. I will go ahead and say I will be out of school Wednesday for sure and maybe Tuesday. My sister is having surgery and I will be taking and picking up her kids from school and helping her with anything she needs. She plans on being able to move around more by Thursday. Her surgery is Tuesday. She told me she knew she needed me Wednesday, but she thinks her husband should be able to handle things Tuesday. Hope you are ready to work and get back into the swing of things next week. I have missed you all and can't wait to hear all about your week.

This week in Miss Hardison's class

2008-11-17T11:45:00.003-06:00

We are working on a new story "Go-Around Dollar" In this story we learn a lot about how money is made and some neat facts about money. We are still working on subtracting with regrouping or as most parents know it as borrowing. Please work with you children at home with this. We are getting lots of practice in class, but it always helps when parents work at home on the skills as well. We are learning about adjectives in Language. You will be seeing a worksheet for homework tonight. My camera has not been working well lately so no pictures. I am hoping to get it working soon. We have a field trip Friday morning. We are heading to Huntsville around 8:30 to see "James and the Giant Peach" at the VBCC. We will be returning to school around 11:30. After that is Thanksgiving Break. YEAH! We are all excited about a week off school.

Up Coming Events

2008-11-12T17:26:00.002-06:00

Progress reports came home today. I hope that we can all work hard to get our grades to where we want them, if they are not already there.
Friday- Reading test "It's A Deal!" is our story, Spelling Test, D.O.L. Quiz, Language Quiz on joining sentences.
Next Friday we will be going on our field trip to Huntsville to see "James and the Giant Peach"
Thanksgiving Holiday starting November 24-28.

Decatur Elks Lodge

2008-11-12T17:01:00.002-06:00

Yesterday the Decatur Elks Lodge had two members come and deliver dictionaries to the third grade students at our school. The kids were excited to get their very own dictionary. Students are keeping them in their cubbies to use at school. The class is having fun looking up words. (I wonder why they fight me on definitions)

Play

2008-11-12T16:52:00.002-06:00

Third grade did a fabulous job on the play. We had a great turn out for the Thursday night performance. Unfortunately my camera did not save the pictures that were taken. If you have any good pictures that you could email to me I will try to post them. I was so proud of how well everyone did. Everyone knew their lines and sang the songs so well. Students were excited and nervous about being on stage. Alyssa told me she did not think that so many people would be there so she was a little nervous. All in all we are glad to have the play behind us, so that we could get things back to normal for a little bit.

We have had a busy week!

2008-11-05T21:01:00.002-06:00

We have been so busy this past week. We have had two play practices a day, plus trying to fit in everything else (Math, Reading, Language). We have not had Science or Social Studies last week or this week due to the time put into the play. We will hopefully get back on our regular schedule next week.
We had a great time today at the play. The students really seemed to enjoy the Paper Bag Players. They got to participate in the play by answering questions and singing. We will be performing the Veteran's Day play tomorrow at 8:15 for the school and then again that evening at the PTA meeting that night. Students should arrive by 6:00 pm. All students should be in a plain red shirt and blue jeans. We look forward to seeing you there.

Rickwood Cave Field Trip

2008-10-22T22:06:00.002-05:00

This Week in Third Grade

2008-10-20T22:08:00.003-05:00

This is our story this week. It is a very neat story. I enjoyed reading it and so will your children. Our reading/vocabulary test will be this Friday. Study! Study! Study!

These are the vocabulary words for this week. Study them with your children. They need to know what they mean.

This week's spelling test and grammar test will focus on homophones. Don't forget that there will be a DOL quiz this Friday as well. The class needs to review Chapter 2 in math for their test on Friday. I will send home a study guide on Tuesday. If your child completes this and returns it on Friday, I will add 5 points to his/her test grade. This study guide is exactly what the test will look like, but with different numbers plugged in.

Tuesday is Parent/Teacher Conference Day. Students will be released at noon.

Wednesday students need to wear their new field trip shirts for our trip to Rickwood Caverns. Students need to be at school by 7:15. We will leave at 7:30 and return by 3:00 p.m.

We have a fun week ahead of us!

More Weekend Fun!

2008-10-20T22:00:00.003-05:00

My sister Genoa also gets me Playhouse Season tickets for my birthday. Our first play this year was Charlotte's Web. We took all the kids with us to the play. This is a picture of the kids while we waited for the doors to open. (Sydney, Isabella, Amos, and Coby)

Here was a quick picture of Wilbur the pig after the show. Cody waited to get his autograph.

This a not so good picture of Charlotte, the spider, while we waited to get her autograph as well. It was a cute show and the kids really seemed to enjoy it. I can't wait to see what are next play will be.

Weekend Fun!

2008-10-20T21:44:00.004-05:00

My family and I had a lot of fun at Disney on Ice this weekend. I thought I would share some of my pictures with you all. The two on the top are my sisters, Karol and Genoa. The next row, starting on the left, is Amos and Coby (my nephews), me holding my niece Sydney, Isabella, my other niece and my mom is on the end.

Timon and Pumba from the Lion King
Flounder and Ariel from the Little Mermaid Doesn't Coby make a cute Flounder!
I really liked the Lilo and Stitch part. I enjoyed watching the boys dance to all the Elvis music.

More from the Lilo and Stitch part of the show.

Of course, Mickey and Minnie mouse had to make an appearance.

Here is Tinker Bell

Peter Pan and his shadow.

It was a great show! We all enjoyed it.

Mrs. Nance (aka Miss Hardison's Mom)

2008-10-20T21:15:00.004-05:00

Retha Nance, my mom, is a reading Coach in Moore Public Schools in Oklahoma. She was visiting me for Fall Break. I had her come to read to our class. She donated the book she started, "7 Habits of Happy Children" The class was introduced to several character that will help us remember and learn about the 7 Habits for our school.She gave students cards with tips to help them remember the characters in the book. We will be reading the other stories in the book throughout the year. The characters are in every story.
Students stood up to tell something they remembered about the character they were given. Here Tyus shared what he remembered about Goob Bear.

The class had color sheets to color while Mrs. Nance read the story to them.
Jacob was enjoying listening to the story as well as coloring his pictures

This is my niece, Sydney. She came with her Nana to listen to the story in Aunt Nancy's class. She enjoyed see the kids and visiting where I work. She is from North Carolina. She came to visit with me during Fall Break.

My Nephew, Coby, enjoyed coloring with the rest of the class while his Nana read the story. He was visiting from North Carolina. He was excited to see a school. He wanted to see a Kindergarten room while he was here because he will start school next year.

Report Cards Coming Home!

2008-10-16T23:07:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Fall Break. I really enjoyed having my family here and spending time with my nieces and nephews. Just a reminder that report cards come home tomorrow, Friday October 17, 2008. Spelling and Reading test will now be on Fridays. We are very excited about that. YEAH!!! Field Trip money needs to be turned in ASAP!

Upcoming events: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Parent Teacher Conferences from 1:00 - 7:00
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 Field Trip to Rickwood Caverns

Violin Recital

2008-10-08T18:16:00.006-05:00

Here are the students that participated in the Violin Recital today. They did a great job! I was so proud of how well they listened and performed the various songs that they had practiced. This was our tenth lesson and parents, grandparents, aunts, brothers, sisters, and friends came to here all the progress the class had made.

2008-10-02T17:55:00.004-05:00

This is a map that my mother made several years ago to use with her students to help them learn the continents and oceans. Student get to take off their shoes and stand on the continent or ocean that they are trying to find. When she moved to older students she passed it on to me and know my classes get a chance to play on the oceans and continents. The class all got a chance to find a continent: Jocelyn found North America, Ally found South America, Taylor found Europe, Chloe found Asia, Megan found Africa, Shane found Australia, and Jake found Antarctica.
Ruben found North America, Jacob found South America, Maddi found Europe, Naman found Africa, Alyssa found Asia, Gabe found Australia, Jaxson found Antarctica.
Mason found North America, Jada found South America, Branden found Africa, Aaliyah found Asia, and Tyus found Australia. We all had a blast playing on the map. Students also found the Arctic, Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans. We found the equator which is the imaginary line around the middle of the earth.

CRAZY Sock Day

2008-10-02T17:37:00.002-05:00

Monday was "The War on drugs", so every one wore their camouflage clothes , I forgot the camera so we did not get pictures. Tuesday was blue jean day. I can't remember the saying that went with the jeans day.Wednesday everyone had on their crazy socks. We were "Socking it to Drugs" As you can see we all had a different idea of what crazy socks were. Everyone looked great. Today, Thursday was " Put a Cap on Drugs" So everyone had their hats on. We had a variety of hats at school, from baseball caps, dance hats, sombreros, cowboy hats, and safari hats. Friday is team shirt day. So I exspect to see lots of neat sporting teams tomorrow.

Continents and Oceans Test

2008-09-25T21:53:00.004-05:00

Continents and Ocean Test

Hardison's Class October 1, 2008

Thomas's Class October 2, 2008

Students must know how to locate the continents and oceans. They must be able to spell all continents and oceans correctly. This is a copy of the study guide that students should have brought home to help them study. It has the seven continents and four oceans that they need to know.

Definition Time with Mr. Thomas's Class

2008-09-25T21:43:00.002-05:00

Chapter 2 Vocabulary was what both classes worked on in Social Studies this week. We had lots of words to look up, but hopefully by doing them in one session we will not have any excuses for why they are not completed or finished.
Mr. T's class worked really hard and were so good that they all got a credit for being so well behaved while they worked on the vocabulary words.

Everyone is working so quietly. Yeah! I was so proud.

Here is the rest of the class working hard.

Our Class Representative: Chloe Cartee

2008-09-25T21:35:00.005-05:00

We had a very close race this year with our Class Rep. Elections. Chloe will be letting us know what Student Councils plans are for the year. These are the students who will be representing third grade this year in Student Council.
Chloe smiles at her Mom as she snaps a few pictures for me to post.

Here the students getting "sworn" into Student Council as Class Representatives.

Violin Class

2008-09-25T21:04:00.005-05:00

Students first had to practice on box violins to prove that they could handle the real thing.

Mr. Frank and his wife measured the class to find the right size violin for them to use for the remainder of our lessons.
I thought you might like to hear a little violin music to get you ready for our last lesson on October 8th that parents are invited to sit in on to hear how much progress our class has made. They will be great violin players by then.

Social Studies with Mr. Thomas's Class

2008-09-21T20:26:00.002-05:00

As you all know by now we are switching classes in third grade this year. While my class is with Mr. Thomas learning Science I have the fun of teaching Social Studies to his class. We are all still getting use to switching.
Kelsie and Hilton are hard at work on their Weekly Readers. I only have them for one hour twice a week so we try to get lots of work done while we are together.
We do try to have a little fun, but we have a lot of material to cover in a short amount of time. So far they have done a great job of coming in and getting to work. We just finished Chapter 1 last week. We will be starting Chapter 2 this week.

Workshop Time!

2008-09-21T20:04:00.004-05:00

This week we learned about our workshop time. Workshop is what student's will be doing while I meet with small groups.
Shane is working on a Vocabulary worksheet when he finished the activity in the Vocabulary Center.
Taylor, Jada, and Chloe worked on the Vocabulary activity. They had to first try to match the vocabulary word and definitions. After each word had a definition, they looked them up in their Imagine It! text book to make sure they had them correct. Next they will write the definitions on a sheet of paper. Then they do the vocabulary worksheet in our Skills Workbook.

Gabe and Naman are working on the computer using the Plato Focus reading program. This program helps student's with phonics and reading skills.
Maddi and Aaliyah are playing one of the Imagine It! workshop board games. We have a lot of games that we play with our game boards. This center will work with the Language skills, such as, Nouns, verbs, subject/predicates, synonyms/antonyms, etc...

Ally and Branden are playing a different game on their game board. The class really enjoys these games. Most of them do not realize that they are educational games because they are having so much fun.

Descriptive Writing with Kookie!

2008-09-21T20:03:00.001-05:00

Miss Hardison's Birthday

2008-09-07T18:16:00.007-05:00

The class surprised me with this cookie cake for my birthday Friday! We had a great time celebrating.

The class came back from P.E. singing Happy Birthday To You! They gave me a group hug.
Our class has decided that they want to smear icing all over their faces. We have tried to talk them out of it, but they love it and get it done before I can stop them. This is what Shane looked like after his fun in the icing.

Chloe, yet again, was able to smear icing.

Maddie was not quiet as messy as the rest, but she was still able to get icing on her face.

Chloe dressed up for my birthday so we had to have a picture taken. Thank you to Miss Farrah and Miss Christie for the wonderful party. Thank you to the class for the wonderful gifts and the great day we had on Friday.

Third Grade News

2008-09-04T19:49:00.002-05:00

We are still off to a great start for the year. Students are getting very comfortable in the classroom, which sad to say means we will be seeing more checks and debits. We are having some trouble with listening more than we are talking. I have a great group of kids this year and I love each and everyone of them. I can't wait to see how the rest of the year goes.
Tomorrow is the last day to bring in recorder money for music class. Violin class is just around the corner (I believe the first class is September 17th), and third grade has the play first semester (November PTA meeting). So we will have a busy next few months. Please talk to your children about how important it is to follow directions the first time they are given. Also, Grandparents day is just around the corner, when I receive the time that our class will be having lunch I will send it home. Mr. Kimbrell has not pasted that information out just yet.

Scrapbooking in Third Grade

2008-08-29T20:59:00.002-05:00

We started our first page for our scrapbooks. Our goal is to do one page per month and then a page for anything special. (Field trips, parties, Fall Festival, etc...)

Shane is hard at work on his scrapbook page.

Megan and Ally are busy writing and planning where to put everything on their page.

Gabe is asking a question to the other people at his table. Jocelyn is busy gluing her items on her page.

Chloe and Maddi are getting ready to glue their pictures on.

Tyus and Jaxson are trying to decide what to write on their orange paper.

Taylor and Alyssa are hard at work writing about their first month of school.

Play Ground Get-Away

2008-08-29T20:44:00.003-05:00

Round and round we go, where we stop nobody knows!

Megan is hanging around with Anna on the playground!

More came to join these monkeys hanging around.

Boys will be boys!

These girls just love the camera!
These boys just wanted to say how much they love playing on the playground.

Aaliyah likes to swing with her friends during recess.

Taylor stops swing to pose for the camera.

Snack Time!!!

2008-08-29T20:34:00.002-05:00

Aaliyah, Ally, and Taylor take a break from class and enjoy a quick snack on the playground.
Gabe, Alyssa, and Jocelyn are taking a rest from studying to eat, talk and enjoy the sunshine.

Tyus, Shane, and Chloe pose for the camera during snack time. Students bring their snack from home to enjoy during the long day of work and learning.

Jacob, Mason, and Megan sit on the edge of the playground eating their snacks waiting for the signal that they can go play.

Hall Time

2008-08-29T20:28:00.002-05:00

We were hanging out in the hall waiting to get our books for library time.
Shane was not here when we took the last class picture. We snapped one so he could be in this one.

Of course we had to have one taken where they could act a little silly

Lunch Time Fun

2008-08-29T20:10:00.002-05:00

We were all having a good time during our lunch time. Ruben, Branden and Jacob were having little too much fun posing for the camera.

We have a great time at lunch. This year we have 10 minutes of silence before students are allowed to talk. They try to stay quiet, but the temptation is great to talk to your friend who is sitting right next to you.
Megan, Maddi, Alyssa, Taylor, and Jada were caught conversing and eating. We had a good lunch of fries and hot dogs.

Mason, Chloe, and Shane enjoying their lunch. Mason caught me snapping the

picture.

Naman and Jake were finished eating. Jake was having fun chewing on his straw.

Ruben, Jaxson, and Tyus were caught off guard.

Open House Fun!

2008-08-21T21:18:00.007-05:00

Megan had fun showing off Leo the Lion. He is our classroom friend that gets to spend the weekend with students. The class has a lot of fun trying to beg for him each weekend.
Ally is hiding behind her reading Leo's journal of all his weekends with students.

Mason is showing his brother our Debit & Credit notebook. He was excited to show that he had no debits, so far, this week.

Maddi was showing her mom our journals. We get to write in them every morning, well most mornings. Sometimes the class chooses their own topic and sometimes they have a topic on the board for them to write about.

Branden decided to show mom the lunch and juice sign up sheets. He said it was the most important thing in the room. He was letting mom know that they can earn debits if they do not sign up for lunch each morning.

Mason was showing his mom everything in the room. He was telling her that we have our morning work on the overhead. He was describing how it shines up on the screen.

Jacob and his mom were checking out the library. Mom was helping pick up some books that the class had left on the floor. Thanks for the help.

Jake, Emma, and Ms. Farrah stopped by to look at the room. Ms. Farrah is our Homeroom Mom this year. We look forward to a fun year working together.

We have survived our first test day!

2008-08-20T20:33:00.002-05:00

Today was the first Imagine It test. Everyone was a little nervous and had lots of questions. We all made it through, and I am sure everyone did well. Just a reminder that Open House is Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 6:30. There will be a short PTA meeting and then parents are free to come to the room and look at some of the things we have done. Please remember that this is not conference time. We will be having Conference Day in October. If you would like to discuss your child's behavior or classwork, please schedule an appointment during one of my planning periods. This is a day for your child to show and tell you what we have been up to in class. I look forward to seeing you at Open House.

Leo spends the weekend with Shane!

2008-08-15T19:27:00.001-05:00

Leo left school today with Shane. We hope they have a great weekend. We will find out on Monday how much fun they had together.

Third Grade Store is Open for Business!

2008-08-15T19:10:00.004-05:00

Shane was the cashier for the store today. He figured out how much change students got back after visiting the store with the money they earned this week.

Chloe was the banker for our class today. She had to cash every ones checks. We took our math time today to learn how to figure out our credits and debits. Students had to add up all the credits they received for the week, and subtract any debits they had. This gave the amount of money they earned this week, then we learned how to write a check. The class really gets to see how their behavior affects the amount of money they will get at the end of the week.

Jacob and Ruben were caught looking at all the neat things in the store.

Madelyn and Ally were trying to decide if they wanted to save their money or buy something today. Several students just browsed today! They really liked what was in the higher priced baskets and decided to save their money to buy something really cool at a later time.

Here are some of the items that are for sale in the store. Students really enjoyed looking at all the items brought in today. The cheapest item is $1.25 and the most expensive items are $25.00. Students will visit the store every Friday. Thank you to the parents that are helping with the store. If you are interested in helping, please get with me or our home room mom, Farrah Locker.

Leo spends the weekend with Alyssa.

2008-08-15T19:07:00.002-05:00

Leo the Lion is our classroom friend. He spends the weekend with a different student each week. The student will then write a letter telling the class about their weekend with Leo. Alyssa was the first to take Leo home this year.

Imagine It Time!

2008-08-15T18:50:00.006-05:00

Madelyn is hard at work writing her dictation words as Miss Hardison tells them the words to write.

Taylor enjoys sitting backwards in her chair while we do dictation. You will often find her sitting this way other times of the day.

I just don't understand how Aaliyah can sit and write like this!

Naman and Gabe are looking up definitions for this weeks story, "Rugby and Rosie."

Jacob chooses to stand up and write his vocabulary words and definitions, while Tyus likes working from his chair. The class was not happy to start "real" work as some students called what we did today.

Happy Birthday Alyssa

2008-08-15T18:16:00.005-05:00

Today, we celebrated Alyssa's birthday. Her parents brought in cupcakes and juice for her to share with the class. We had a great time eating cupcakes. Several students had a little too much fun though! :)

Jake flashed his peace sign and chocolate mustache.

Tyus, Megan, and Ally enjoyed smearing icing on their faces.

Mason and Jada were a little neater than most!

Ruben decided to join the rest in putting icing on his face.

Chloe has a huge mess with her chocolate beard and mustache.

Its a Jungle in Here!

2008-08-15T18:07:00.005-05:00

This is Miss Hardison's class. The class was monkeying around helping me get a picture of everyone for you to see. We had a great day!

They begged me to take a silly picture to show our funny side! :)

D.O.L. Quiz and Spelling Words

2008-08-14T21:54:00.006-05:00

On every Friday, the students will be taking a DOL (Daily Oral Language) test. This is part of our Morning Work. Students are not tested on the math, just the language part. Every morning this assignment is on the overhead for the students to complete. We check it together. Students are suppose to make corrections with a red pen. The test will be taken directly off the week's problems. If students listen, make corrections, and look over their work; the quiz should be easy. Students who attended our school last year should be familiar with this process.
They will get their first list of spelling words tomorrow. Things are different this year. Spelling tests will not be on Fridays. The first test will be next Wednesday. I am sending home the spelling lists for our first unit. Above each list is the date of the test. PLEASE KEEP this list in the BEE BOOK at ALL times. That way, your child has it to study each night and then your child has it for classwork at school. Thanks!

First Week of School

2008-08-14T21:33:00.004-05:00

We have had a great start to the new school year. This is a great group of girls and boys. We are all settling in nicely. We have several new students to our school. They are making friends quickly.
We are going to start switching classes for Science and Social Studies for an hour starting on Tuesday. My class will be with Mr. Thomas for Science every Tuesday and Thursday from 1:30-2:30. My class will have Social Studies every Monday and Wednesday from 1:30-2:30.
I will be trying to keep our class blog up to date and add pictures of our days. This way you can see what we are up to in third grade.