Communities

This week we will start talking about communities and the importance of being a good citizen.

For this post, I would like you to write about your community:

• how does it look,
• what do people in your community do,
• how do they live,
• where do they work, and
• how do they travel

Please include your initials or first name in your post so you can earn credit for your reply. You reply will be scored for:

1. Complete response
2. Correct punctuation
3. Correct capitalization
4. Correct subject-verb agreement
5. Complete sentences

Replies are due this Friday, October 1, 2010.

Thank you

Welcome Mrs. Brock!

Next week you will meet our student teacher, Mrs. Brock. She is learning all about being a teacher and can't wait to meet you all. I've told her a little about you, but for this blog post, feel free to write to her (using the comments), and she'll read and respond.

Remember to include your first name so she'll know to whom she is writing.

Student Council Representatives

From Mrs. LaPietra and Student Council:

"It is time to elect student council members in your classrooms.

Please have a class election and select two students who will be your class representatives for student council. Remind them that this is an afterschool responsibility. We meet one day a month after school until 3:30 and host several activities after school and even on weekends. It is ok if they miss one or two events but if they think they will miss a lot of the events or are too busy, they should let someone else who can be there, be the rep. Also, the class representatives will be responsible for reporting back to their homerooms the details from our meetings. We do a lot of civic minded activities like Reverse Trick or Treating in a local nursing home, a Thanksgiving food drive, raise money for Cystic Fibrosis with Jar Wars, School Spirit days, School Cleanups, Relay For Life for cancer research, and The Angel tree for the elderly, plus much more."

For this blog post, please type a few sentences telling us why you would make a good student council representative. Please include your first name in your reply.

Voting will open Monday morning.

Habitats

You've started learning about habitats this week in your science class. Please share some things you've already learned about different habitats.

Please include your first name so I'll know who to come to if I want to learn more about habitats!

Replies may be posted through Friday, Sept. 17

Maps

We've been learning about maps. We've talked about the parts of a map (legend, scale, lines of latitude and longitude). For this blog post, I'd like you to tell us how people use different kinds of maps.

Use your Junior geographer book to find 3 different kinds of maps. In your reply, tell us the name of the kind of map and how people use it (what does the map show).

Don't forget to include your first name (this is an independent post) - no teams.

Please complete your post by Friday, September 3. I'll be checking for correct information and correct spelling (of words you should know), capitalization, punctuation, and complete sentences.

This blog post is worth 10 points.

Types of Sentences Stories

For this blog post, I would like you to work in groups to create narratives that include examples of each type of sentence.

To help you, please use these guidelines when you plan and write.

1. Use a story map to organize your ideas (think about character, plot, setting)
2. Write your draft on paper or on a word document
3. Use colored fonts to identify the different types of senteces in your word document
4. Revise and edit your story
5. Copy and paste your story in the comment box for this blog post.

Don't forget to include the names of the people in your group.

First Day of 3rd Grade

Hopefully you are extremely excited about your first day of 3rd grade. We have a lot to learn this year, and so many cool tools to help us practice our skills.

For your first blog post, you are going to work together in groups to write a response to this blog post. Make sure you read the entire post before you start writing.

For your first blog post, we would like you to write a response to these questions:

1. What makes a good student?

2. What makes a good teacher?

3. What is "quality work"?

4. What are your goals for the school year?

5. Share a memorable moment from school (an activity, lesson, or project that was special or important to you).

A couple of tips to help you get started:

1. If you need to write it on paper first, please do. Some people need to "see" their ideas so writing your ideas on paper might help you think about what you want to say.

2. You might want to type your group's response in a Word document before you paste it into the blog. This way you can check all of your spelling, capitalization, and punctuation and make any corrections easily.

3. Every person in your group needs to contribute to the post. If someone is sitting quietly, ask him or her what he or she would like to add to the group's reply.

4. Do not include your first and last names. You can give your group a name or just use first names.

Is anyone bored yet?

I know some of you are enjoying fabulous trips, please tell me what you've been doing.

Worm Recipes

After reading "How to Eat Fried Worms" you've learned a lot about delicious ways to prepare worms.

For this blog post, I'd like you to create your own worm recipe and share your recipe with the class.

Your recipe needs to include the following information:

1. Ingredients
Including how much of each, use standard or metric measurements, but be sure to include the measurement with the amount. (For example, 1/2 cup, 1/4 teaspoon, a pinch, 1 1/2 quarts, 3 liters, etc...)

2. Steps
Be specific and use cooking terms. You need to include numbers to order the steps. Make sure you include each thing you need to do, do not assume people will know to put something in a pot, or press start.

3. Other information
Include any other information you think someone needs to know (how many servings, breakfast, lunch, dinner, nutritional value, allergy alerts, etc...)

You also need to give your recipe a creative name and include your initials.

Earth Day Word Problems

In 1970, Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin proclaimed April 22 to be "Earth Day." We are going to celebrate this important day by working in groups to solve some real-world problems. Hopefully, what we learn will help us discover more ways to help our planet.

Use your math skills to solve these problems. Be earth-friendly creative in responding. Can you do it without using any paper? You may copy and paste into the wiki or you may reply to the blog post. Be sure to include your initials in your post.

Problem 1

Rainforests cover only a small part of the Earth but they are home to more than half the world's plants and animals. It is estimated that rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 trees per minute. At this rate, how many are cut down every a day (24 hours)? Every week (7 days)? Hint: You need to determine the number of minutes in one day. Use the calculator on your computer.

Problem 2
The average American uses 7 trees a year in paper, wood, and other products. If there are about 275 million Americans, how many trees are used in a year? Use the calculator on your computer.

Problem 3
Each American throws away about 60 pounds of plastic packaging each year. At this rate, about how many years would it take one person to have thrown away a ton of plastic? Hint: You need to find out how many pounds are in a ton.

Problem 4
When you shower, you use 5 gallons of water every minute. Most people take 5 minute showers. How many gallons of water does a family of 4 use in a week (assuming they each take a daily shower)? How much do they use in a month? Hint: You may want to create a table (you can create one on a word document) to help you organize your algebraic reasoning (think about number patterns and functions).

Problem 5
A bath uses 50 gallons of water. How much water could a person save in a week taking a shower instead of a bath (assume you take 1 shower each day).

Problem 6
If each person took a 4 minute shower instead of a 5 minute shower, how much water could a single person save in a year?

Problem 7
A gallon of thrown away paint can seep into the Earth and pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water. A spilled gallon of gasoline can pollute 750,000 gallons of water. What kind of damage would be done by just 3 gallons of paint and 2 gallons of gasoline?

Problem 8
It has been estimated that, on the average, each person in the United States discards about 32 pounds of solid waste each week. Some of the things that we dispose of can be broken down into: 5.1 pounds of ashes and dirt; 3.5 pounds of metal; 2.6 pounds of glass; 2.6 pounds of garbage; 2.2 pounds of wood, rags, and plastic. Make a bar graph to display this information.

Problem 9
Make a bar graph showing the annual household waste per person in each country:
(in pounds per person):
United States - 1930
Canada - 1157
Italy - 542
Japan - 758
Sweden - 661
Australia - 1500

Problem 10

Create your own problem for others to solve. Post it in your reply to this blog. Be sure you know the correct answer for your problem.