Good-bye for Now Team Bond

 The students noticed that I hung out with my new friends in frames, the giraffe and the cow a bit too long. To be honest with you, I was quite content relaxing and keeping an eye on all of the wonderful learning.  Plus, I figured this was a great place to stay that was germ free.  I don't think many third graders have touched up here.  There have been many kids staying home from school because they are sick.  Mrs. Bond had to remind the kids to cough into their elbow.

I also wanted to hang around Team Bond so that I could hear the rest of The Secret Zoo by Bryan Chick.  It was quite an intense ending to Book 1. The Action Scouts had to battle the Sasquatches in The Dark Lands. Mrs. Bond allowed the kids to turn off the lights to make it a bit spookier.  It worked!  I really wanted to be cuddled next to Maxi like I was last week. All in all, the book was awesome!  Since there were some kids out, Mrs. Bond used her iPad to record her reading using a program called Evernote.  I thought that was pretty cool...as I know the kids that were absent would not want to miss the ending!  I wonder if she will email them the recording or will they have to listen to it on her iPad?

Well, since I have had a lot of time in Mrs. Bond's classroom, I decided to get a new perspective on third grade by visiting Mrs. Hamlin's class.  There is one boy that is in Mrs. Bond's bus line that is always talking about his Elf on the Shelf.  He had fun spotting me each day in bus line, so I thought I would give his classroom a visit.  Mrs. Hamlin had been out sick on Monday and Tuesday, and I could tell she still wasn't feeling 100%.  Hopefully she feels better tomorrow.

The students learned about decimals today in math. They learned about the tenths and the hundredths place. While I was listening, I noticed Mrs. Hamlin used these green blocks to show the kids what a tenth looks like and what a hundredth looks like.  A "long" which is a row of 10 cubes stuck together was a tenth.  The little cubes by themselves represented hundredths.  That helped me understand it better.   I really was interested in this app that kids were playing on the iPad.  It was called Stack the States.  Kids had to answer questions about the states and then they would try to catch some of the states.  It was pretty cool.  Just like in Team Bond, Team Hamlin was also working on gifts for the holidays.  Today I noticed some kids wrapping their gifts.  I bet their families are REALLY going to like what they made!  Speaking of families, there was another adult in the room helping out.  I think she was one of the student's mom.  That sure is nice that family members donate their time to help out at school! 

The kids are having another one of those BA things.  This time it is for Science.  They learned all about Matter and Energy, so they were reviewing for it today.  They had to remember all of the forms of energy they learned about.  Let's see if I can remember...light, heat, electricty, sound...and I think there are a couple more.  Perhaps I will be able to think about them more tomorrow.

At the end of the day Mrs. Hamlin read a book.  It was all about Santa getting a new suit.  The kids seemed to enjoy the book.  The kids go to different classrooms for bus line, so I got to see some of the kids from Team Bond. I could tell they were happy to see me!  Well, that's it for now!  Only 2 more days until the kids go on break! 

Wow! What a week!  I tried to get on the computer the other night, and I could not remember my Google password. I had to go through the whole process to have Google send me a new one.  I felt silly, but I know it happens a lot.  Mrs. Bond has a folder with all of the log ins for her students.  She has brought a red folder down to the computer lab each time they go there. Mr. Hester, the media center teacher, has the kids bring their log-ins to media, but many of the kids say they have it memorized when Mrs. Bond reminds them to bring their books down.  I hope I will be able to memorize my log-in information soon. 

I am really into the book that Mrs. Bond is reading to the class!  I have learned so many new words.  I think Mr. Chick must have a Thesaurus right by his notebook when he writes. The kids tell Mrs. Bond to add many of the interesting words to a chart they have created.  There are words like puny, crevices, illuminate, etc. on a chart.  I wonder if kids will try to add these words into their own writing?  Yesterday the class brainstormed ways to add details to a sentence.  They started off with the sentence, “I saw a tree.” Next thing I knew, they had a sentence that had 34 words.  They added when, where, how type details.  The kids are also writing opinion paragraphs.  I so hope someone asked the question, “What is the best day of the week?”  I am so curious of what people said.  Mrs. Bond taught the class about transition words. Examples of transition words are “In Conclusion, First, Next, Similarly, etc.” 

It got really busy on Thursday, as the entire Third Grade got together for a New Year’s project.  All of the third graders came into the classroom to watch a video on 2012.  There were awesome video clips and photos.  My favorites were the photos from the Oympics. Mrs. Bond had shown the “Call Me Maybe” video with the Olympic Swim Team on Wednesday to discuss numbers in the millions, so it was nice to see Michael Phelps on this video too! Having all of the third graders in the room made me think about the other classrooms.  I wonder if they are learning the same things as Team Bond?  I may just have to pop over there for a day or two to compare. Maybe I can even make some Venn Diagrams.  Teachers always like to use those when they compare things.

One thing that I have noticed is that there are some students that really struggle with staying on-task.  There are kids that will talk to their table mates when they are supposed to be working.  I noticed that Mrs. Bond has been getting frustrated.  I can’t understand why they continue to make these poor choices.  Kids have had to put their sticks down and some have had to stay in from recess.  Maybe Mrs. Bond needs to move some students away from grouped tables.  If they are by themselves, there won’t be anyone to talk to.

There was a girl that looked a little different the other day.  I was trying to figure it out, but then she told her friends…she got her braces off!  I have always looked at the kids with braces and wondered what they feel like. They look like they are uncomfortable, so I can imagine she is much happier now.

Oh…on Wednesday the kids had a new teacher for a bit of time. Mrs. Bond’s daughter was sick at her school.    It was not that Mrs. Share that was there last week. This time it was a lady named Miss Crist.  The kids recognized her, as she is an intern teacher with Mrs. Wormlinger. She did a good job! 

 

The room is getting more and more holiday spirit!  They have beautiful wreaths hanging, a snowman that cheers, holiday cards from all over the US, and they even made up new verses to the Dreidel Song!  At the end of the day today Mrs. Bond found out that the third graders won a contest for edmodo!  She made a banner wishing everyone Happy Holidays.  Edmodo even added it to their blog! What a fun way celebrate the season of joy! 

 

There has been a lot of energy in the room this week, so I am looking forward to some peace and quiet over the weekend.  I do remember that it gets chilly, since they turn the heat down.  I wish Maxi the Moose was here to cuddle with.  He sure did keep me warm. He went home with one of the boys for the weekend.  Luckily there is another moose that is hanging out on Mrs. Bond's filing cabinet.  He should be able to keep me warm...and in good company!

 

 

 

An Email From Etavonni

(Mrs. Bond, Can you cut and paste this into the blog I set up on your computer.  I am not sure how I can get into the account.)  

I searched for Mrs. Bond's computer, but I think she took it home.  Luckily I was able to use the computer in the classroom.  Unfortunately I couldn't get to my blog that I created on Mrs. Bond's computer.  So, I problem solved and signed up for a Gmail account!  You can now find me at learningelf@gmail.com!  

Weekends at Glengary are so very quiet!  No one is in the building and it gets really cold.  I have enjoyed looking out the window and watching the birds and squirrels.  I did see some kids playing outside too.  I am looking forward to having Team Bond back in class on Monday. I think they are going to work on their wreaths more, which should be pretty.  I am not sure where I put my wreath.  Maybe I will get a chance to finish mine too! 

 I hope the kids do the teamwork challenges again too.  It was super cool watching them try to make a pyramid of cups using rubber bands and strings.  I really did see a lot of great cooperation from the teams.  I couldn't believe that Lucas came up with the perfect way to do it right off the bat.  He must be a great thinker!  

I have enjoyed learning about Science the most.  Mrs. Bond said that the color red travels the fastest to eyes.  I am dressed all in red...so I bet the kids can spot me right when they walk in the classroom.  Perhaps I should hide better.  The students also explored how different colored lights make colors look different.  Most lights, like flashlights or ceiling lights are white light.  That means they are carrying all colors of lights.  When we see certain colors, that means those colors are being reflected back to our eyes.  That is such a weird concept.  When things appear black, all of the colors are being absorbed.  The kids did explorations with gel color overlays, flashlights, colored cubes, and cardboard tubes.  They also watched a video on color and light. I think they are getting ready for one of the BA things again.  

A highlight of the week was watching the kids create snow globe holiday cards.  They are participating in a Holiday Card Exchange with classes from all over the United States and Canada.  They have already received 3 cards.  One of the cards is from a classroom in Wisconsin that has Senator Paul Ryan's daughter.  Mrs. Bond thought that was pretty cool!  Most of the class got their card done, but some still have not finished.  Some of the kids really struggled with adding the address on their envelope.  I wonder if their parents have ever let them address an envelope.  Perhaps Mrs. Bond can mention that to the parents...as many of the kids need practice. They are going to work on a card for a Children's Hospital, which is one of the requirements of the card exchange.  I hope they make a huge one!  Maybe I can be a part of it too!  Anyways, it should be fun to see all of the cards come in!  


Loving the Learning in Team Bond,
Etavonni

Tonight was a busy night!

Boy!  The last 2 nights have been very quiet at Glengary, but tonight there was a lot of activity.  I could hear noises coming from the cafeteria, so I tiptoed down the hallway to see what was going on.  Mrs. Bond was in the cafeteria with a lot of families.  They were celebrating the newest Secret Zoo book and the author, Bryan Chick, was there.  I heard Mrs. Bond talk about this in class.  He dedicated the book to Mrs. Bond and all of the "teams" of students she has read the books to over the years.  They had a pizza party and then he did a book signing in a place called The Big Gym.  I was curious what that meant, but there were too many people going down there.  I was afraid I would be spotted.  I did see one girl from the class walking in the hallway.  I think her name is Rook.  They were here for a Holiday Craft Workshop.  I noticed some of the Team Bond members made crafts today in class.  I looked around the class for materials and decided to have my own craft workshop in Room 10.  Sorry McKenna and Aly, I borrowed some of your baggies.  It was very hard to tie knots, but I did my best.  Hopefully I will be able to finish by the weekend.

The students brought in their Secret Zoo: City of Species projects today.  Oh my goodness...they were SO creative!  I loved watching the kids present!  I also liked seeing all of the wonderful grades on the Math BA's they took yesterday.  Mrs. Bond was very happy with most of their grades!  Good job Team Bond!

Again, I am really enjoying blogging all of these neat things out.  I hope others are enjoying reading about all the neat things happening in Team Bond!

Day 2 in Team Bond

Today I got a lot of attention.  The kids were staring at me a lot, as I moved to the filing cabinet. I noticed that the kids were writing in cursive, so I decided to practice my handwriting and made a name tag.  

The kids are getting excited for the holidays, and Mrs. Bond was getting crafts ready for kids to make.  She showed the class 2 projects they were going to work on for the morning, but I will keep that hush, hush, as they will be giving these to family members.  I watched Mrs. Bond demonstrate the crafts, and I wished I could make them too!

They also talked about opinions and generated questions that would be good to ask to get the opinions of others.  They are going to be doing interviews at home soon.  One good question I liked was, "What day of the week do you like the best?"  I bet there would be a lot of interesting answers to that!  

They had a special visitor come in to help.  They called her Mrs. Richard.  She spent most of her time out of the room, but then she read a really cool book about a man named Henry Ford.  It was a creative story about how Henry Ford met Santa.  Mrs. Richard said that the elves making toys in an assembly line helped Henry Ford make cars the same way.  

Then they had that BA test that I was talking about.  The students worked very hard on their tests.  When they were done they worked on multiplication menorahs.  A menorah is the candle holder used to celebrate Hanukkah. Mrs. Bond had to leave for a doctor's appointment.  She had an issue with her ear...and she couldn't hear very well.  Hopefully the doctors can help her. 

There was a new lady that came in the classroom.  I saw her come in this morning then she was gone.  I guess she liked it here because she came back and stayed until the end of the day.  I bet she’s part of the team.  The kids all called her Mrs. Share.  I guess she likes to share a lot.  Cool Name!

I learned about energy transfer.  The new lady from Team Bond read from a very interesting book.  I liked the part about sound waves.  Did you even know that there are waves that travel through the air that you can’t see? The teacher said that waves were coming out of her mouth right to the students’ ears.  There are so many kinds of energy.  I was impressed to see how many of the students knew about these different kinds of energy.  Then the class used their creativity to create an example of an energy source and the transfer of energy it provided.

The Mrs. Share had the students stop their work to go to Media.  I wish I could have gone with them.    I really love books.  I heard some of the students asking if they were going to use the computers.  They seemed really excited about it.  In the room I made some new friends on the shelf where I was sitting while they were gone.

When everyone returned, they finished drawing examples of energy transfer.  The students glued some notes into their science spirals.  A boy named Johnny tried to help Mrs. Share find Mrs. Bond’s spiral.  He even checked under all of the tables, but no luck.  The students reviewed all the types of energy they had studied.
I could tell the day was coming to an end.  The students were trying to finish things up.  Some were writing an opinion paragraph, some were doing cursive, and one was over near the door writing on little pieces of paper and sticking them to the wall.  It was curious though, one girl in the pink top and a braid kept lying on the floor.  I’m wonder if this is a new learning technique I’ve never heard of before.  I’ll keep observing this to see if I can figure it out.

Then two blond girls, both with a purple top on, were staring at me.  I mean really staring at me.  I started to get a bit nervous, but I held my head high and let them look.  I guess they have never seen a learning elf before.  They had to go back to their seats as the teacher was winding up the day.

When the students were getting themselves organized to go home a boy showed up in front of me.  He has short blond hair and was wearing a gray jacket.  He was staring at me too.  But he did more than stare; he was trying to talk to me.  He was speaking so quietly and the room was kind of loud that I couldn't understand him.  I would be really cool if he could write me a note.  I like the two notes that Andrew and Alyse wrote.

Well, the children have gone home for the night.  I made friends with the moose who was sitting next to me.  He told me that the reason the room gets so cold at night is that the heat is turned down.  I was very cold last night.  The moose said I could sit with him to stay warm.

I really like it here in Team Bond.  I may just have to stay a while longer.

My Arrival in Team Bond

I flew in this afternoon, and only a few children noticed.  I knew I should have waited until the evening, but I was too excited to start learning about third grade.  Luckily, they were not distracted by my presence.  Mrs. Bond, their teacher, was surprised to see me sitting on top of the Everyday Math box.  (I picked this view because it allowed me to see the entire room.)  There are many elves traveling around during this season.  Most of them are reporting back to a special man with a beard that's white, but I am special.  I am a Learning Elf.  Etavonni the Learning Elf!  Each year at this time, I go around to third grade classrooms and see what children are learning about.  Then, I send my reports to educational leaders...people like principals, superintendents, professors, and even some governors.  This year I thought I would try something new, so I have created my very first blog.  It was about time, as more people should know about the cool things going on in classrooms...not just the education leaders!

So...back to my visit in Mrs. Bond's 3rd Grade.  Well, they are located in Commerce Township, MI.  They are a part of the Walled Lake Consolidated School District in Michigan.  I found them when I was on twitter last week @TeamBond2012.  They were tweeting about having fun in their Energy Playground. They also tweeted that they played a game in PE called Cell Tag and learned about organisms.  I thought both of those things sounded super cool, so I put them on my list of classrooms to visit!  

I got to the classroom while they were in lunch, and when they got back from lunch, the students continued reading silently.  They did a pretty good job of being quiet and keeping interested in their books.  Mrs. Bond did have to remind some boys that were behind me to stay focused.  Then the students had to write their books in a book log.  I liked how they had to do a subtraction problem to find out how many pages they had read.  After that, they reviewed for their BA test.  I was curious what a BA test was, and luckily one of the students asked towards the end of the day, and I found out that BA stands for Benchmark Assessment.  Some of the students left with a grandpa that volunteers and the rest of the students practiced area and perimeter using the MOBI, which was kinda like a clipboard that you can write on, but the writing was able to be seen on the wall.  It was neat!  Then the students played a game called Multiplication Top-It.    In Science, the students are studying energy, and they were able to watch a video all about how energy can be transferred.  One boy was surprised to hear that food was a type of energy.  He only thought electricity was energy.  One girl remembered learned about kinetic energy, which another young lady reminded her that it meant moving energy.  All in all, the video was great.  Tomorrow Mrs. Bond said the kids would be creating energy cartoons...I wonder how those will turn out?

Students were able to go outside for an hour for Student Activity Time.  This is a time where third grade teachers get together.  The room was very quiet, so I took a quick nap.  I was exhausted after my long flight.   When they got back, the students worked on word study. Most of the kids had to work on homophones.  I noticed that many children struggled with the word tide.  They did not know how to use it in a sentence, but that makes sense since they don't live by an ocean.  They do have the Great Lakes, but the Great Lakes don't have tides.  Another word that some had a hard time with was hymn.  I don't think people talk a lot about hymns, they must just call them church songs?????  

At the end of the day there was a lot of activity.  Kids filled out their assignment notebooks, children emptied their mailboxes, students got new jobs for the week, and the children had to clean the floor.  I did notice there were a lot of things left on the floor.  Good thing one of the classroom job is Floor Patrol, as the young man did a good job of reminding people to pick up.  

All in all, I enjoyed my first afternoon in Team Bond.  I am looking forward to learning a lot while I am here! Apparently the kids are working on The Secret Zoo projects at home.  I am not sure what that means, but it sounds kinda cool!  Anything to do with secret zoos has my attention!  I guess they have to bring them in by Wednesday!  I can't wait!  I will have to make sure I pick an awesome place on Wednesday to get a nice view of the presentations!  

Thanks for reading my very first blog entry!  Look for more to come!  

Cheers to Learning!

Etavonni  the Learning Elf