Things around the owl nest...

Here are some things that have been mentioned in previous blogs or just some exciting happenings around our classroom:

Caroline wore an AWESOME Owl shirt today!  Of course, Mrs. Thomas was L-O-V-I-N-G her style!

'Sir midKNIGHT' and Bob the Owl...our class mascots!

Sir MidKNIGHT likes to be dressed up.  So search through your house for any old clothes or dress-up clothes that won't be missed (be sure to ask your parents' permission) and bring them in so he can show off his many personalities! One year, he was a ballerina Elvis!  Uh-HUH!

Griffen modeling our new monster Reading fingers

These were a gift from Mrs. Hawthorne.  Mrs. Salsman's class has these for her students to use to track text as they are reading and Mrs. Thomas went CRAZY over them so awesome Mrs. Hawthorne got some for our class!  We are absolutely having a BLAST reading with them! We even took them to Book Buddies with Mrs. Hubers' Kindergarten this past Friday so we could share our fun!

they help us stay on track as we are reading aloud...see?!?  Aren't they FUN?!?

our 'Classroom Nation' scoreboard (see post from Thursday, September 30th)

 This is our scoreboard for keeping track of each team's points.  None have been added to the board yet because it was just completed today, but Mrs. Thomas has been keeping track of points.  Currently, the BLUE team is in the lead with 6 points.  Way to go Oliver and your Blue Wildcat team!

Kindness Hearts
Kindness Hearts were started as a way to encourage us to be nice to one another.  A student can earn a Kindness Heart by doing something nice for a classmate without expecting anything in return.  To get one, you MUST be nominated by a peer and not yourself.  At the end of the week, a heart will be drawn.  The student whose heart is drawn gets a prize.  The more hearts you have, the better your chances of winning!

Our fall door display!

 On the leaves, we wrote what our favorite book is and why, and on the pumpkins, we wrote our favorite things about autumn.

Our '4' board

This is an incentive board.  As 3rd graders, we are expected to really step up our game in Open Response Questions.  A score of '4' is the best you can get, but it takes a lot of effort and us doing our personal best to get one.  Therefore, a 4 on the first try, without any coaching from Mrs. Thomas or another teacher will not go unnoticed; it will be rewarded!  How this works is, if a student gets a '4' the first time he or she answers an ORQ, they will be given a dot (point, in math lingo) in which he/she writes his/her name.  The student then plots that dot in the middle of two intersecting lines and writes his/her coordinate (ordered pair) on a white index card and places it in a bag.  Every couple of weeks. after several ORQs, Mrs. Thomas will draw an ordered pair from the bag.  The student whose ordered pair is drawn gets to pick a reward from the Treasure box/ menu.  Every '4' you score, the more ordered pairs you have...the more ordered pairs you have, the better your chances of getting a prize!  4s are rewarding!!!

He was a gift to Mrs. Thomas from her parents her very first year of teaching!  He's had LOTS of names, but his this year is pretty clever!