Wednesday, July 23, 2014
A Summer of Change!!!
I am happy to announce that I will be the new Instructional Technology Specialist at Live Oak Elementary! I still absolutely love teaching, but when this opportunity opened up I had to take it. This is a new experience for me and I am looking forward to all the challenges I will face. My blog will still be up an running. After all I put all my blood sweat and tears into it. Instead of classroom announcements, stay tuned for how I am liking being an ITS and fun things my new school is doing.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Monday, June 9, 2014
New Beginnings
I want to start off by saying thank you for all the love and friendship you all have given me the last six years. I couldn't have picked a better place to grow and develop into the terrific teacher(so I think) that I am today. It is very bittersweet for me to say that I will not be returning to Caraway next year.
This is a personal decision and has nothing to do with Caraway or the community. It has probably been one of the hardest decisions of my life. I love the faculty, staff and students here at Caraway. I love my team and they have been very supportive of my decision. There will never be a school as near and dear to my heart as Caraway.
I interviewed and was offered a job at Cactus Ranch Elementary, which is still in the Round Rock school district. I am sure I will still see you around. I was offered the job the week after school let out. I wish I had known sooner so I could have said good-bye in person. Please stay in touch and keep me updated in your lives. Tell your student that I will miss them very much. I do want to stay connected with the Caraway community and come to school events like Family Dinner Night and the Harvest Festival. It is has really been the hardest decision for me, but knowing that we will keep in touch makes this easier. Thank you so much for everything. I've been truly blessed to have been part of such a wonderful school and community. Maybe we can have a get together at the park by school sometime over the summer so I can give you and your student a big hug and say good-bye one more time. No not good-bye, see you soon!
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Unusual Reading Places
This summer, think about unusual and interesting places where you can read and snap a picture. It could be a place you are visiting this summer, someplace around town, or just a weird place in your home - it's up to you!
In the fall judges will chose 10 winners to have their photographs blown up to POSTER SIZE and displayed in the library!
We are SO excited to see what you come up with. It is great to see our library filled up with pictures of kids reading!
In the fall judges will chose 10 winners to have their photographs blown up to POSTER SIZE and displayed in the library!
We are SO excited to see what you come up with. It is great to see our library filled up with pictures of kids reading!
If you haven't seen, our students' pictures from this year's contest are featured on the RRISD Summer Reading Page! http://www.roundrockisd.
Check out the videos for this year's winners or take a look at all the entries for inspiration!
REMEMBER NO PHONE PICTURES!
Details:
o Students should be visibly reading in the photograph
o Any reading material is great reading material for this contest (books, newspapers, magazines, comics...)
o Photos will need to be a minimum of 3400x5400 pixels to be included in the contest (check your camera settings first)
o Unfortunately phone pictures will not have high enough resolution for this contest due to enlargement
o Submissions should be sent FULL SIZE to carawaylibrarycontest@
o Entries can be submitted any time between 5/30/14 and 9/1/14
o Maximum of one (1) entry per student
Friday, May 16, 2014
Thursday, May 15, 2014
New Principal Announced
Dear Parents,
The new Caraway principal will be named at tonight's RRISD school board meeting. These meetings are held in the Round Rock High School lecture hall at 6:30. Numerous faculty members and PTA Officers are planning to attend, and school board meetings are always open to the public. Feel free to call me at 512-464-5504if you have further questions. Whoever is named is going to be so amazed at our friendly and cohesive community!
Sincerely,
Shelly Hohmann
MackinVIA
Last week the Caraway Library launched our new electronic resources! Your student may already be off and running but I wanted to make sure that you are on the same page about these amazing new resources.
The program we will be using for ebooks and digital audiobooks is called MackinVIA. All students will have access to the books the library has purchased from any computer or device(with browser or app abilities) with an internet connection. They may choose from both ebooks AND audiobooks across the levels.
The Basics:
Website: http://www.mackinvia.com
or
Free app: MackinVIA
(Android App | iTunes App | Kindle Fire App | Nook Tablet App | Windows Desktop App | Mac Desktop App)
School: Caraway Elementary (Begin typing and it will fill in itself)
UserID: s###### (this is an ID number - the same as your student’s computer login)
Password: via
Beyond the Basics:
At this link you can find student guides and training videos to peruse at your convenience. Alternatively, you can set your student loose and they’ll be ready to teach YOU in no time! : ) http://www.mackin.com/Help/
One important note: If you are using a device for MackinVIA I suggest immediately clicking the “download” button after any material checkout. This will allow your student to read and listen to electronic materials even without an internet connection. Materials can be found within the book or audiobook section of your device once they have been downloaded. They will go away after the checkout period expires. Easy-peasy!
I hope you will enjoy accessing these materials with your students any time from this point forward as we continue to expand our selection in the future.
Special thanks goes out to those of you making purchases at the Book Fair (this week by the way!) and to The Market 360 Group (http://www.mkt360grp.com/)for their generous donation from food sales at the fall carnival. These two places were the sole sources of funding for all of our awesome electronic resources.
Please don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an e-mail if you have any questions about MackinVIA.
Melanie Letendre
Librarian
Kathy Caraway Elementary
Round Rock ISD
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Author Study: Patricia Polacco
Hello Students,
Please visit the link's to read two of my favorite stories by Patricia Polacco.
Please visit the link's to read two of my favorite stories by Patricia Polacco.
Procedure:
- After reading each book please choose either Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Falker to complete the character map over. Think about the best character traits to describe him.
- Then log into your Google Drives. In your Super Kids Assignment Folder create a Google Drawing to make a Venn Diagram over the two stories. There needs to be at least 3 bullets in each section.
- Once you have finished those assignments login to your student gmail accounts and email me 5 Kahoot worthy questions. Please give me 4 possible answer choices for each question and label the correct answer.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Field Day!
Field Day is Friday, May 2nd! Can you believe it?
*The
weather is NOT looking warm. Please
dress in layers!
Kids may get a
little wet, but we have adjusted the events due to the change in weather. Below are the event and lunch schedules for
field day:
Lunch (in cafeteria): 11:00-11:35
Field Day Activities for 3rd Grade : 12:30-2:20
What should my child wear?
We want the kids to
be super comfortable. Tennis shoes
(crocs, flip flops, and sandals will NOT be allowed), play clothes, sunscreen,
a hat
*Swim suits are allowed,
but girls must be fully covered and boys must keep shirts on at all times.
What should my child bring?
A change of clothes,
a towel, dry shoes (flip flops are fine for changing into), WATER bottle, (Sunglasses
discouraged, because they are easily lost), extra sunscreen
*Volunteers – please
arrive 20 minutes prior to event – Thanks so much!
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Wahoo!
Wednesday, May 7th
Walk & Bike to School Day!
Walk & Bike to School Day!
- Leave the car at home and enjoy a walk or bike ride with your child to school.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Week 3 of Cyber Monday!
Reading 8a-9a
Website: Istation, NewsELA
Istation Reading is a comprehensive computer-based reading intervention program that maximizes students' reading fluency, comprehension and retention, and academic success. Newsela is an innovative way to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that's always relevant: daily news. Newsela is free for students to explore a world of nonfiction and test their comprehension.
Students will:
- work on reading fluency
- build comprehension skills
- retain important information.
- keep up to date in relevant world events
Writing 10a-11a
Students record their writing process on their Google Drives and collaborate with each other. IXL language arts invites students to delve into the wonderful world of words! It offers a wealth of standards-aligned skills in spelling, vocabulary, and grammar.Students will:
- Provide comments on another student’s work through class’ shared folder in Google Drive
- Revise essays based on student comments
- Work on personal narratives
- Create a Google Presentation sequencing the 5 main points of their narrative
- Create a Google Document to rough draft their narrative
- Word Work through IXL
Math 11a-12p
Student will be working on various math skills in preparation for the upcoming STAAR test as well as tasks corresponding to the Aligned Round Rock Curriculum. Students will:
- Work on getting a green light in Reflex Math.
- Complete 1 full lesson in Think Through Math
- Login in to Google Drive and complete a digital version of an assignment found on the ARRC that Mr. Sosa modified
- Pick any 3 strands under Third Grade: Division-Skill Builder H1-H12 to complete on IXL Math
Science 1p-2p
Continue researching information on habitats for habitat paper slides stories.. Students will:
- Access EbscoHost to find information and research the habitat of their choosing.
- Take notes and screenshots in Google Drive
- Use Google Drawing to create a virtual collage of the information you found on your habitat.
- Rename the document, move into the proper folder
- Login to Stemscopes and review the picture vocabulary words for the unit
- Complete the interactive virtual investigation over habitats.
- Write a 3 sentence reflection over the investigation.
Homework
Website: Student Gmail Account
Student reflect about the day. Students will:
- Share with their parents the third week of Cyber Monday!
- Login into their student gmail accounts and email Mr. Sosa a reflection about Cyber Monday. What they liked or would like to do next Cyber Monday.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Week 2 of Cyber Monday
Reading 8a-9a
Using Awesome Screenshot: Capture & Annotate, from the Google Store, I went to the website that has National Geographic articles for students in grades 3-5 to read for free. I screenshot an article, inserted the screenshots into Powerpoint, covered some of the main text features with blank boxes and saved the Powerpoint slides as jpegs. Then I opened up Google Presentation and uploaded the images. I used Doctopus to copy and share the presentation with my class. Students will:
- Access files shared in their Google Drives
- Insert a text box over the blank boxes and type their prediction of what the missing text feature should be and what it should say based on information in the article.
- Come up with 5 quality questions for Mr. Sosa to use in a Kahoot.
- Work in Istation.
Writing 10a-11a
Website: Google Drive
Allow time for the students to complete the assignment from this morning. Students record their writing process on their Google Drives and collaborate with each other. Students will:
- Finish writing assignment from last week
- Provide comments on another student’s work through class’ shared folder in Google Drive
- Revise essays based on student comments
- Start a new personal narrative
- Create a Google Presentation sequencing the 5 main points of their narrative
- Create a Google Document to rough draft their narrative
Math 11a-12p
Student will be working on various math skills in preparation for the upcoming STAAR test as well as tasks corresponding to the Aligned Round Rock Curriculum. Students will:
- Work on getting a green light in Reflex Math.
- Complete 1 full lesson in Think Through Math
- Login in to Google Drive and complete a digital version of an assignment found on the ARRC that Mr. Sosa modified
- Pick any 3 strands under Third Grade: Division-Skill Builder H1-H12 to complete on IXL Math
Science 1p-2p
Last week we learned about several different types of life cycles. Students will:
- Pick one of the 3 life cycles we discussed last week: tomato plant, ladybug, or frog
- Create a Google Drawing to create a visual representation of the life cycle. Add text boxes to label and describe that stage in the life cycle
- Rename the document, move into the proper folder and share Google Drawing of chosen life cycle with Mr. Sosa.
- Login to Stemscopes and review the picture vocabulary words for the unit
- Complete the interactive virtual investigation over life cycles.
- Write a 3 sentence reflection over the investigation.
Homework
Website: Student Gmail Account
Student reflect about the day. Students will:
- Share with their parents the second week of Cyber Monday!
- Login into their student gmail accounts and email Mr. Sosa a reflection about Cyber Monday. What they liked or would like to do next Cyber Monday.
Monday, April 7, 2014
First Day of Cyber Monday!
Here is what we did to kick off Cyber Mondays in Mr. Sosa's class!
Reading 8a-9a
Students pick a topic to read about. They read the fiction and nonfiction book pairings over their chosen topic. Then record their learning on the document shared in their google drives. Students will:
- Record the Fiction and NonFiction Title and Author
- Write a summary over the fiction pairing: Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then
- List the text features found in the nonfiction pairing. Describe 3 examples from the text
- Create a Box and T-Chart over both texts.
- Tell me something new that you learned?
- Your turn to be the teacher! Come up with a 5 question quiz for Mr. Sosa over the two books that you read.
Writing 10a-11a
Website: Google Drive
Students recording their writing process on their google drives and collaborate with each other. Students will:
- Continue writing assignment from last week
- Provide comments on another student’s work through class’ shared folder in Google Drive
- Revise essays based on student comments
- Start a new expository essay
- Create google drawing to create an idea web
- Create google document to rough draft their essay
Math 11a-12p
Student will be working on various math skills in preparation for the upcoming STAAR test as well as task corresponding to the Aligned Round Rock Curriculum. Students will:
- Work on getting a green light in Reflex Math.
- Complete 1 full lesson in Think Through Math
- Login in to google drive and complete 5 problem review made by Mr. Sosa over recent testing data
- Pick any 3 strands under Third Grade: Division-Skill Builder H1-H12 to complete on IXL Math
Science 1p-2p
Website: Stemscopes
Students will be discovering what traits plant and animals inherit from their parents, and what behaviors they learn from their parents or environment. Students will:
- Review the picture vocabulary words for the unit
- Complete the interactive virtual investigation over traits and behaviors.
- Write a 3 sentence reflection over the investigation.
- Start online treasure hunt where students can explore different education and government websites about traits and behaviors. Use accompanying work page to guide webquest and record answers.
Homework
Website: Student Gmail Account
Student reflect about the day. Students will:
- Share with their parents the first week of Cyber Monday!
- Login into their student gmail accounts and email Mr. Sosa a reflection about Cyber Monday. What they liked or would like to do next Cyber Monday.
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