Mrs. Campagna's Class

A mind is like a parachute, it only works when open. -Frank Zappa

July Update

Hello Students and Families!

I hope you all are having an amazing summer!  I know I have taken this first month or so to really relax and play and think about our upcoming baby!  I’m sorry it took so long to let you know whether it was a boy or a girl, but we wanted to wait until after our family was home from vacation and then have time to tell our extended family before we told anyone else. Did you have a guess ?  Did you think it was a boy or a girl?  Comment below if you are surprised that …

shoes

It’s a GIRL!!! 

(You know how much I love my fancy shoes, so I had to use a shoe picture to tell you 😉   )

Are you surprised? Mr. Russ and I were kind of surprised!  I think that somewhere deep in my brain I had really thought it would be a boy!  We are so very excited . We do not have any names yet and will probably not officially decide until we see her little face.  This week I am 22 weeks along, which means that we are more than half way through!  I can feel her moving quite a bit now and to answer some of your questions, nope! Still no cravings or weird experiences!! 🙂  We have been working on the nursery, so when we get it done, I will post a picture of that also.  Here is a picture of her foot from the last ultrasound: 

foot

I miss all of your beautiful faces and I hope you are having a wonderful summer.  I will be back on the blog regularly now, so I hope to see even more fabulous posts as you wrap up your summer activities and get ready to head to 4TH GRADE! Wow!!  

Take care, my almost 4th Grade friends! 

Love, 

Mrs. C. 

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Today

Dear Students and Families,

I am aware that today was a difficult day while I was at my Google Conference.  I am sure that our class was their very best and that tomorrow , with a NEW substitute, they will be even more responsible, respectful and kind .  I do not enjoy being away but I am learning many new things that I will share with you when I return!  Tomorrow, take the opportunity to practice your poetry, work on your scrapbooks and have a good day!  I will see you on Monday!

Love,

Mrs. C.

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Banana Split Multiplication Party

On Friday, March 27th, we had our Banana Split Multiplication Party!  This was a party we had been working towards for a few months.  Our goal at Falls-Lenox is that every child will memorize and be comfortable understanding their multiplication facts by the 2nd trimester. Although we talk about multiplication all year, the Banana Split Party facts are special!  We start in late November, early December, and we take at least one Banana Split Party fact test a week. These tests are leveled; x2’s, x3’s, x4’s , etc.  You have to pass your x2’s before you can move on to your x3’s.  Each test is 20 problems and you have one minute to complete them! It is a very fast minute!  The students had the responsibility of practicing their facts at home as we worked with our facts at school.  As you pass each level, you acquire something . When you pass your x2’s you earn your bowl. When you pass your x3’s you earn your bowl, and so on.  By the time you have passed your x9’s, you have 2 scoops of ice cream, chocolate sauce, bananas, sprinkles, whip cream and a cherry!  Woohoo!  

Thanks to generous donations from families, we were able to have a fun and successful Banana Split Party where the students could celebrate mastering their facts! Check out the photos below.  photo 2 photo 1 photo 3 photo 2-1 photo 5 photo 4

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Quadblogging Week, St. Patrick’s Day Linking Words

Hello Friends!

This week we have a series of different activities we’d like to share with you!

Linking Words

Last week, we started learning about linking words that we can use in our persuasive writing. Linking words are words or phrases that we use to connect our big ideas .  We ALWAYS use a comma after a linking word or phrase and they always come at the beginning of a sentence.  For a fun craft today, we brainstormed some of the more challenging linking words like “Furthermore”, “In addition”, and “For example”.  I wonder if some of our students or some of our Quadblogging buddies can think of other linking words or phrases? List them below in the comments!

So we  brainstormed a collection of linking words and wrote each one separately on to different colored strips of paper.  We made a black pot and lots of gold to stick out the top, connected our linking word links and voila!  A rainbow of linking words cascading into our pots!  Here are some pictures of the kids in action. I will post photos of the finished products hanging from our ceiling tomorrow.

photo 4 photo 3 photo 2 photo 1

 

Click on the links below to see some rough draft examples of students who have typed up a piece of persuasive writing for you.  Do you feel persuaded?  Please visit their sites and comment below. We’d love to get some good, constructive feedback. We use STARS (things we think someone did really well!) and WISHES (things we think the student could improve on) when we critique each other’s work.  Your feedback is valuable!

mackenzieb2014.edublogs.org

nataliej2014.edublogs.org

rafyl2014.edublogs.org

 

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Perimeter and Area

Starting last week, the students  have been introduced to the idea of measuring to find the perimeter and the area of shapes and objects.  One of the first things I do every year is teach my students a song to go with each. We sing these songs over and over again because they help so much!  I have had many students say that years later they were still singing those songs when they needed to find the perimeter or the area of an object.  Tomorrow the students will be creating some art while also finding the perimeter and area of their artwork! I will post some pictures of what are sure to be beautiful works of art tomorrow. In the mean time, below are the videos of the students singing both the perimeter and area song. I will add these to the “Math” tab so that they will be easier to find for future use.  

 

Remember!

Perimeter is the measurement around the outside of a shape. 

peri= around     meter= measure

Area is the measurement within the shape. This is always measured in square units! 

 

 

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Right to Read Week and Career Day

There is a lot to write about from this week!  We had Right to Read Week this week and the theme was “Wild About Reading”.  Each day was something special; wild hair day, bring your wild stuffed animal day, dress for a safari day, and so on.  Also, every day we had the chance to “Drop Everything and Read!” for 20 minutes at surprise times during the day.  It was so fun!  In addition to that, as part of Right to Read Week we had two parents come in to be guest readers.  Mr. Lofton and Mrs. Voisinet came and shared some new books with us!  Mrs. Voisinet read us “Encyclopedia Brown” and Mr. Lofton read, “That’s Not Funny”.  What was great was that with both guest readers, afterwards I saw students picking up the Encyclopedia Brown books in our classroom library, that they had previously overlooked , and becoming completely engrossed. I also heard students talking about how they wanted to check out the books that Mr. Lofton shared from the school library.  In this way it is clear that sharing your love of reading with kids makes a HUGE impact!  Thank you!

IMG_5269 IMG_5270 IMG_5284 IMG_5285

 

The other wonderful event that took place this week was Career Day!  Career Day is a chance for our 3rd grade students to experience a variety of careers that people in our community are involved in.  The students were assigned two stations to visit in 20 minute sessions. There they heard a presentation, were able to ask questions and often there were activities for them to get involved in!  The third session was a free choice session.  Thank you to Mrs. Gordon and Mrs. Balewski for all their hard work getting this event together and thank you to all of the families that volunteered!  

Career Day 2015 on PhotoPeach

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Quadblogging!

Hello Friends,

This coming week we will be beginning something very new and exciting! We will begin quadblogging with 3 other classrooms from around the world!  We have partnered with Mrs. Quigley’s 4th Grade Class in Hudsonville, Michigan, Mrs. Pjura’s 2nd Grade Class in Apache Junction, Arizona, and Mrs. Ericsson and Mrs. DeBique Year 3 and Year 4 Class in Taranaki, New Zealand.

The idea behind quadblogging is that each classroom takes a turn for a week being a focal point of the quad.  During that time the other members of the quad all engage in that blog, participate in any activities they initiate and take the time to learn more about their classroom, their school and their region.  

Our class is going to go first next week and we are working on some ideas of different ways we can get involved with our new friends!  We can’t wait to get started!  I’d love to hear ideas from students or visitors on ways we can engage with our new quadblogging buddies!  Comment below! 

 

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A BIG Goal Met!

In our classroom we have a very elaborate classroom economy that involves maintaining a checkbook, writing checks, earning money,  setting goals and creating plans for saving and spending.  All year one big goal that we have discussed is the opportunity for students to purchase their desks. Currently they pay rent on their desks, but once they purchase them, they will no longer have to pay rent, which will free up even more money to save or spend!  This week during Bank Day, we found that three students were able to reach their goal of buying their desks!!!! This means that they were able to pay rent for the month of January and had saved $1,300 to purchase their desks.  That is a lot of money!  Congratulations to Luke , Luisa, and Caleb!! I’m sure we will see even more students reach this goal next month!  Keep up the good work.

photo

Dear Students: For those who visit our blog who are unsure of what our economic system is, do you think you could start a dialogue in the comments below with each of you adding a new detail about how our system works?  Think about all the tiny details that make our classroom work so efficiently with our economic system!  I can’t wait to see all of your ideas. 

 

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Blogging Challenge Week 7!

Hello Friends!  

You have two tasks for the week! The first is  to complete a final assessment quiz for Theme.

This week’s Blogging Challenge is one I know you are sure to enjoy! Today we learned a little bit about a Voki , or a talking avatar.  Using the site voki.com, we were able to create a few practice talking avatars.  In order to complete this week’s challenge, you will need to create a new voki and embed it into your sidebar.  Your challenge is to create a Voki, and using only the one minute provided, you will need to tell your visitors everything you know about THEME!! 

I would encourage you to write down a few ideas before you start recording. This will be part of your final assessment for theme and a real chance to teach others what you have learned. I would try to include some examples and the definition for sure.  I’m excited to see what you have learned! 

To complete this challenge, follow these steps:

1. Visit voki.com and log in. 

2. Create a personalized Voki of your choice .  

3. SAVE and then PUBLISH your Voki. You will need the html code (bottom left of the screen after you publish) 

4. Copy the html code and then open a new tab for your blog.  

5. Paste the html code into a text widget in your sidebar and save. 

I can’t wait to see your creations!

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CAVS Wheelchair Assembly

This morning we had a wonderful opportunity in our class…we were able to have the Cavs Wheelchair Basketball Team come to our school for an assembly!  It was so neat to watch the players warm up as we walked in the gym.  This week is Disability Awareness Week and we have had so many conversations about how we treat others and how we think about disabilities.  We have spent a lot of time making connections between people with disabilities and ourselves and found that we really aren’t that different!  This assembly was such a fantastic way to wrap up the week and certainly confirmed the idea that disability or not, we are all special and we all have talents that connect us and help us shine!

The four players, Vince, Shawn, Darren, and Dan (Sparkles) moved seamlessly around the court as they dribbled, passed and shot the ball.  They shared with the students their disabilities and helped our kids understand the similarities and differences between Able-Bodied Basketball and Wheelchair Basketball.  We learned a lot!

Our class took some time to write letters to the players, but they also will be writing new posts and adding the photos and videos you see below to their own blogs. We hope that some of the Cavs WC Basketball players will visit our blogs and comment!

Check out the players in action…

players
players 3

players 2

Here are some videos:

players video

players video 2

And then…. they asked for volunteers and our class went crazy !  Mr. K, Mrs. Rivera and I volunteered. How could I deny my little friends 🙂

Teachers and Players

 

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