Gems with Ashish

Thanks to Ashish Kumar (Prabhav's Dad from 3w 2008/2009)for coming in and showing us lovely sparkly gems and explaining about how they get to be sparkly, where they are found, the difference between precious and semi precious stones and much more.

This week

Thanks to all the children who came to the Parent Teacher Student Conferences last night. 6 out of 10 were at the meetings.

I look forward to seeing more of you tonight and some more on Friday afternoon.

This week is the final week before the Songkran holiday. We have:

A visit by Ashish, Prabhav's dad (a parent from last year's class) to show some shiny gems!

Tomorrow we have our 500 Marble reward in the afternoon. This is a Splash Afternoon and you need to bring clothes which can get wet, a towel, suncream, maybe you want some goggles, and a watergun...not too powerful please as they can hurt eyes.
We need to find time for the 400 marble reward sometime!)

T-ball competition is on Friday at 8am.
Songkran assembly - Friday, after the Tball.

We will need a holiday!

Smile Day Collage

Not quite everyone on this collage...but I hope you like this Picasa Collage.


:

The Twits

Love the Twits?

Do you enjoy reading about a smelly, dirty mean bearded man and his equally grotesque wife?

Then click here and use your BPS login to hear the story

What comes in 5s?

Potatoes come in packs of 5.

In Year 3 there are 167 students/pupils/children/small people.

Each child will eat 1 juicy, buttery, warm, tasty, sweet baked potato.

How many packs will we need to buy?
Will there be any left over?

How many packs would they need if each child had just played football for 3 hours and was really hungry and so wanted two potatoes each?

Please take some pictures at the supermarket if you see any things which are sold in packs of 5.

Ch and tch sounds

We enjoyed playing this game today, and we came up with lots of words with the different spellings of the /ch/ sound (phoneme).


Have a go by clicking here.

Reading Challenge

We have nearly reached the end of Term 2 and soon we will have the Songkran holidays.

It's time to have a reading challenge! 
Have a look at this list which is on the School Library catalogue.
How do I get there?
From the BPS website, click on students, Library, Primary, Library Catalogue, Catalogue, Mr Ben's Reading Tips (Year 3).

What do I need to do?
From now until the end of April (that is about 6 weeks) I want you to:

1. read as many books from the list as you can
2. record details of your reading on this form
3. write reviews on the school library catalogue.  Try to make them at least 3 sentences long.
4. try to find connections between the books you read.  They might be about the same animal or they may happen on desert islands.

Happy reading!

There should be books for everyone in the class to read, but if you find these books challenging, read them with an adult.  That's just as good.

Easter and Songkran

Dear 3W,

Do you remember the school in Australia which wanted to find out how we celebrate Easter?

Well I said that most Thai people celebrate Songkran.
I know that some of you celebrate Easter as well.

Please have a look at their wiki here:
http://eastertraditions.wikispaces.com/

Have a look at how Easter is celebrated in Israel. Did you know what the Ceremony of Passover is?
http://eastertraditions.wikispaces.com/Israel

You cannot add to this wiki. but instead could you please reply to this email with a sentence or two about How you celebrate Easter or Songkran.

I would also like to do some learning in class about this.

Have a good weekend.

LATE NEWS: Annabel was the first to reply! Please look at her comment and add your own information by leaving a comment below OR emailing me.

Poo!

And here's the CBBC quiz we looked at in class today.

Here's a homework quiz for parents...see how well they get on!

For more BBC quizzez, go here.

If you want to make your own quiz try this site. You might need some adult help.

Good luck.

Joe's slideshow

Joe diligently researched rocks and also learned how to make and sent a powerpoint.

Great learning Joe!

Rocksjoe

View more presentations from benwint.

What's rock good for?

That's what we were finding out about this afternoon.

We took photos around the school last week (thanks Miss Kem).

We uploaded the pictures to Picasa and then made a caption for each.



We used these words:
natural and man made
words for the sense of touch (bumpy, smooth, rough)
words for colour
words to describe what the rock is used for

We also made a cool collage (collage also has the /zh/ phoneme we were looking at today)

3W chess champs!

Look here for some pictures of pure concentration and focus.

Do you play chess?

Do you know the names of all of the pieces?

Do you know how each piece moves?

I wonder if chess pieces have the same names all over the world?

I wonder what the pieces are called in Australia and America?

Do you like cars?

One of the blogs which I follow is by an American teacher called Larry Ferlazzo.
He writes lists of links to great websites.
One he made recently was a list of websites about cars.

I know that there are several car crazy members of 3W, so follow this link for a great list.

Here is one of the links from Larry's site:
The car that flies

Where would you go in a car that could fly?
Who would you take and what would you pack in your bag?

Rock or not?

Here are some samples which I brought into school.



Are they rocks or not?

Are they natural or man made?
Are they igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary? Why do you think so?

Most rock scientists (Geologists) need to use other senses to test rocks...Let's be geologists...how should we test these rocks?

How do I get better at division?

We have been getting so much better at division.

First of all we read the question forwards and then backwards!

This might sound crazy, but we read 45÷ 5 as:

"fortyfive divided by five AND THEN how many fives are there in 45.

It makes the question so much easier to understand.

Have a look at the progression below, (thanks to StMichaelsLichfield for this great document.

Add to the class wiki!

Do you know the answers to these questions about about rocks and soils?

Do you know the answers to these questions about the Ancient Egyptians?

You might be able to find some of the answers here.

If you do then log into the wiki and add some answers.

If you are from 3W and you don't have a login, email me and I'll set you up.

You have the chance to show your knowledge, research skills and writing WHILE helping others learn at the same time.

Punn has added to the wiki here. Great Learning, Punn.

Fabulous fiddlers!

Well done to our amazing violinists from 3W who performed so well at the lunchtime concert. They did a great job...especially as they didn't have their accompaniment CD!

Well done, you sounded note perfect.

Mr Parkin was good too...wasn't he!

Rock Song

Do you like rock songs?

Here's one which has words which you don't normally associate with rock songs...like schist, limestone, shale and granite.

Thanks to Joe for this link.

Stunning nature photos

The BBC has an incredible selection of photos in a really great format.
Look here and you can select what kind of pictures you see.
I found an amazing underwater image of an elephant.

Look here.

Types of Rock

There are three kinds of rock:

Igneous rocks - come from inside the earth...look here for a cool animated site.

Sedimentary rocks are made by particles of rock (or sand) being dropped or deposited in layers.

Metamorphic rocks are made by changing one of the other types of rock.

We call the process of making and changing rocks The Rock Cycle. Look here too.

Why are diamonds so expensive?

Why are diamonds so expensiveis a question which lots of 3W want to answer.

Can you help us?

Please leave your answer as a comment.

Here are some links to help you research:
Warrinerprimaries
FOSS web rocks and soils database - includes colourful pictures of different sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks
40 common minerals and their uses

Here's a quiz for you to try.

Granny Prix

If the idea of Racing Grannies on their wheelchairs sounds fun to you, then this is the site for you.

You can customise (change) the hair and skin colour of your Granny as well as the wheelchair design and wheel type.

Then it's up to you to race your Granny as fast as she will go, which depends on your addition skills.

What a great game!

Also a reminder that timezattack is a great way to learn times tables in an arcade style game.

Write better sentences

Are you bored of writing the same old sentences?
Do you always start off with the same words?
Would you like to make your readers sit up with surprise and be unable to put your writing down?

Then try this link to a very helpful site.

Sentenceplay lets you type in a basic sentence and then gives you ideas to help you improve it.

There are ideas like:
try starting the sentence with a verb which begins with ing
try starting the sentence with an adverb
start some sentences with details of WHEN the event happened
add better verbs

Please paste in some of your best sentences into the comment box...and don't forget your name!

Tonight's homework

Please have a go at the multiplication activities on mymaths.co.uk.

Try to edit Punn's writing or have a read of Melanie's story, which has fantastic mythical beings.

Answer some questions on the wiki about rocks and soils or The Ancient Egyptians

Multiplying Marvels

Look at these great photos of 3W using the grid method to multiply!

Once you can partition numbers into Hundreds Tens and units, and you know a few times tables, the world is your oyster.























Here is a video of Adelia explaining how to multiply using the grid method.
Doesn't she explain her calculation well?

Egyptian sculpture

Have a look and listen here.

The art historians are talking about an original egyptian sculpture.

Don't worry if you cannot understand all of the words.

Try to answer some of these questions.

Who is the sculpture of?

What was it used for?

Does the sculpture have a false wig or beard? Why?

Is the head a normal size? Why?

Would the statue have been painted when it was made?

Getting the story started

We talked about different ways we could start our adventure stories today.

Here are some of the beginnings we came up with.

Describe the setting
The busy streets of Bangkok rushed past the windows. It was cold. The a/c was turned up too high and Seb lifted his bag so that it covered his shivering body. Cane was nearly asleep and his head rested against the window. He started snoring and Seb gave him a gentle nudge in the ribs. Cane woke up with a jump!
"Get away from me you horrible dragon!" he screamed.
"I'm not a dragon!" said Seb.
"I was having a horrible dream, and a dragon had just eaten my left foot!" said Cane.

Here's another description of setting, this time with some dialogue

Cane lifted his hand, looked with concentration and brought his hand down in the shape of a pair of scissors. Seb held out a clenched fist.
"I won, I won!" screamed Seb delightedly.

Start with some dialogue

"Stop copying what I'm doing in Rock, Paper, Scissors, " exclaimed Cane.

Which do you prefer?
Are there any other ways we could start a story?

Where is Egypt?

The earth is divided into 2 halves by the equator(Jessie and Samuel).

The earth is also divided into continents (Seb), like Asia(Melyssa) which are made up of lots of countries(Jessie).

Here are the names of the continents:

Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Australia (Mr Ben thought this continent had other names too), Africa, Antarctica.

Egypt is in Africa.

Here are 2 google earth pictures from the lesson today:

Here is a cool continent game to help you learn the names of the continents and where they are.

Great singing, 3W choir members!

Have you seen Punn's story?

Have you read Punn's story?

Have a look here on the class wiki.

She's written a really exciting mystery story.

Could you write your own one?

Adventure stories on the wiki?

I've just set up a page on the wiki for us to store any adventure stories you have written and edited.

Go here to go to the wiki, then log in and paste in your edited story.

I will then be able to set up a new page for you.

Then readers from the class can read and help you edit the story.

3W authors, get writing!

(Remember that this is an optional project for today)

MyMaths - multiplying

There are 2 exercises for you to do on mymaths. This will be the maths homework for next week, 15th March. You could make a start on this on Friday to get it done quickly.

Here is a video of the grid method which most of us have been learning in class:

School Closure on Friday

Dear 3W Parents and children,

My Learning at Home

As the school is closed on Friday, here are some learning activities for you to do.

These are in place of learning at school.

I do expect you to try your best to do at least some of these activities.

To complete them you will need to do some independent learning, but it is a good chance for you to learn with your family too.

There is a copy of this sheet in your red contact book, for you to record what you do.

Please write down how long you take to do the activity

Normal Friday Timetable at school	Activity for home	Comments/time spent	Record any other learning you have done in here
PE	Do something physical. You could go swimming or ride a bike. Be safe!
Letters and Sounds	Play buried treasure. Go to phase 5, /aw/ sound. Write 5 of your own /aw/ sounds in the comments section.
Breaktime	Have a nice snack and drink
ICT	Rocks and soils – use this simulation to find out about the properties of rocks. Make notes of science words in the comments section.
Guided Reading	Read a book. Write 3 questions and answers about what you have read in the comments section.
DT	Think of ways to decorate your picture frame. Make a labelled drawing showing what the decoration is made of in the comments section. You could make the decorations at home.
Lunch	Eat a healthy balanced meal.
Science	Find 10 words to do with Rocks and soils. You could use words you saw in the BBC simulation. Make a glossary.- record the comment section.
Golden Time	Enjoy playing a game with a family member or friend. Here are some ideas. Here is a times table activity which you can use to help with x table facts. Here's one which I'd like you to try for me. Let me know how you get on.

ALTERNATIVE PROJECT - you can do this instead of the learning above, but you need to spend several hours writing, editing and publishing.

Plan, write edit and publish a complete adventure story.

Make sure that :

• you plan first
• you make the characters believable
• you only have a few characters.
• you add punctuation as you write
• you write about places which you know enough about
• you start off with a slow pace, with low levels of excitement
• you get a problem which makes it exciting

I will not mark these! I WILL publish them to the web! Take care to edit carefully - the world will be your audience.

Think about today's Learning - put a circle around the right answer for you

Did you work independently? Yes/no

Were you persistent (you kept trying)? Yes/no

Did you become more knowledgable? Yes/no

Did you make any mistakes? Yes/no. What could you learn from them?__________________________________________________________

Finally, please don't forget to look at the blog, to read the posts and to comment on them.

Story Maker

We are reading Treasure Island, a classic adventure story.

I was looking for websites which help you write a story. Here are a few:
Learn English
Readathon
Story elements to write about (includes sound)

Which do you prefer? Why?

Here is a website which Miss Caswell recommended which has mystery stories.

Here is a pirate adventure. If ye keep yer wits about yer, ye may end up speakin jus like a foul mouthed pirate yerself!

Rocks and Soils

Have a look at our questions! This link takes you to a web page which I have just started which YOU can help to build!

If you are from 3W and you know any answers,

contact me,

by email

or

leave a comment and

I will set you up with a wikispaces account

so that

you can add your answer.

Which of the question words might be the most useful?

Who...? What...? Where...? When...? Why...? Which...? How..?.?

No ECAs on Friday this week

Here is an extract from the school webpage:

Important Message

Due to the current political situation and possible disruptions to the city’s transport routes there will be no after school activities on Friday 12th March 2010. Further information will be posted here if necessary.

Maths song

Sing along with this maths song, here.

Audio Book Comments

When you have listened to a story for 10 minutes, comment about what you have heard.

You do not have to listen to a whole story. If you have only read some of the story, your comment could start with these words:

I am enjoying the story so far and want to find out…
The words are quite difficult and this makes me …
I am confused about… because…
I think…is going to happen.

If you have finished your story what can you do to follow up ?
You could write a comment which starts with one of these lines…

The best part of the story was…
I might change the end of the story so that…
If I could be a character I would be…because…
This book reminds me of…because…
I loved this book because…
I would recommend this book to…because they like books which…
I did not like this book because…Next time I would try to choose a book which is…
Although I liked …in this book, I would rather …happened.
The main theme of this book is…

How do you do a research project?

If we decide to do a research project, we need to:

Gather information

• know what we want to find out...have a research question
• be able to read
• be able to write down notes
• find the important facts ( keywords) in a piece of writing and use them in our writing , without copying them word for word
• look at more than one source (more than one book, more than one website)

We need to communicate our understanding

• Know what format our learning will take (handwritten notes, powerpoint, write the script for a play and perform it, plan and make a video, make a board game, make a chatterbox, make a model, make a poster)
• and communicate what we have learnt
• does the writing look neat? Does the writing make sense? Does the writing need to be edited and then published?

We might work with other people, in pairs or in small groups:

• We need to talk to other members of the group and listen to what they say
• Sometimes we ned to compromise (when we have different ideas, we take turns at choosing whose idea we use)
• We help each other, but don't do other people's work

We need to manage our time well:

• we know how much time we have to complete a task
• we use our time well, and stay focussed on the task
• we work quietly when we need to think hard
• we get help from our classroom displays, from other students, or from the teacher

tables test

Try these...to practice your 2,5,10 x tables. They were made by children at Ambleside Primary school!

Now try these to practice your 3 and 4 times tables.

Smile Day

Here are some ideas for Mr Ben to wear on Smile Day:

Mr Rubbish's wig (and glasses??)- Mr Ben
Purple Boa (feathery scarf) - Jessica
Elastic bracelets - Laure, Adelia
Necklace - Guilli, Adelia
Lipstick - Jessica
Girl mask - Rita
Fake sword and handbag- Melyssa
Fake gun - Samuel
Clip on earrings - Laure

Audio books for free!!!

Yes, here are some audio books which you can listen to for free.

Here is the site for Treasure island, which we are reading in class.


The stories are the original versions, so may have lots of old fashioned words, but give them a try.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks to Free Technology for Teachers for this tip.

Wacky web tales

Make up your own Wacky Tale!
Choose the type of writing you want to make and put in the right nouns, verbs and adjectives... Here's one I made:
It also gives you help with parts of speech.

Adventures Abroad

One of the most interesting places in the world to visit is Egypt. This place has everything! There are sleepy mountains for sleeping, and lakes that are perfect for roaring.

Just 17 years ago, sphinxes were discovered in Egypt. Since then, people have been traveling from all over the world to see them. And no trip to Egypt would be complete without a daytrip to see the great egg in the country's largest forest.

The best time to travel to Egypt is monsoon. At this time of the year, many people have seen tables and forests in the countryside. The weather is usually sleepiest, so it is the perfect time to sleep. Just remember to pack computers. You wouldn't want to be high in the mountains without them!

The people of Egypt are very green and enjoy showing tourists their local squid. Remember to bring your computers, and you'll have a great time in Egypt. You might even bring the local tradition of annoying back home with you!

Have fun!

Smile Day - 12th March

For Smile Day we are having a cake sale, a fashion show and non-uniform day.
All children have been encouraged to do a chore or job at home to earn the 100 baht they will donate on smile day for the privilege of wearing non-uniform.

Remember that the money will go towards paying for operations, such as Cleft palate reconstructive surgery.

For the fashion show 3W have the chance to dress me up in some clothes.

If this is going to happen, then we need to talk about it in class!

Is there light at the end of the Tunnel?

Is there light at the end of the tunnel actually means that there is something which makes you believe that a difficult or unpleasant situation will end See freedictionary.

We have almost reached the end of the topic of light and shadow! Hopefully it hasn't been unpleasant!

Here are some of the chatterboxes which were great fun to make. They are also a great way to check our understanding of the unit.

Here is one of the chatterboxes opened up to show some of our questions and answers:



This is the template we used to make them. You can download another one here, but you need to sign up first.


Here are some questions we came up with and used in our chatterboxes:

Can light pass through opaque objects?
Is the smartboard screen a light source?
Is the moon a light source?
Do shadows from the sun look the same during the day?
When the object is close to the light source, is the shadow blurry?
Does glass make shadows?
What do you need to make a shadow?
Can metal reflect light?
Does gold reflect light?
Which word describes objects which are see through?
If something is translucent, can you see through it clearly?
Is a brick transparent?

Parrot facts - can you help Morgan?

If you know lots about parrots, then see if you can help Morgan.

Leave any answers you know on the Questions and Answers blog

Guess the number

Guess the number is a game which I cannot explain.



Can you?

How to comment

In class, during guided reading, some children read with the teacher, while the rest of the class works independently on something else.

Some children listen to audiobooks and then comment on these in their reading records or on the blog.

Some comments are better than others.

Here are a few ideas to help you write even better ideas:

Huge Statue Discovered of Tutankhamun's Grandfather

Read this to find out more!

Who was Tut's grandfather?

How old is the statue?

Which part of the statue was found?

What is the statue made of?

How do they know who Tut's grandfather is?

Where was the head found?

Today is World Maths Day!

In Thailand, from 6pm, today (2nd March), you can log onto your
World Maths Day account
and take part in the event.

You have 24 hours to take part (When is the last time you can take part?)

This is your maths homework for this week.

Good luck.