Please call Mrs. Hirst and sign up for a conference.  If for some reason there is not a time that works for you, please call me or send a note and we can find another time.  Thank you!

     Please get your permission slips in with the money for the Longfellow Museum and Victoria Mansion, on or before Wednesday, November 26th.  Checks may be payable to MSAD 71.  Thank you!

                      Slide shows

Don't miss all the slide shows at the bottom of the Blog!

Obama won the school wide election held Tuesday as well as the grade 3, multiage 3/4, and 4th grade election.  A special thank you to Mr. Bodwell, Mrs. Barrett, and Mrs. Barrett's second graders for all their hard work in making the election so successful!  What a fun and realistic experience for everyone who participated!   

FIELD TRIPS:  

10-7-08:  Emmons Preserve

12-19-08:  Victoria Mansion and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow House and Museum

4-28-09:  Portland Symphony 

                     Book Reports:

The next book report is due on or before January 2nd.  It is an animal report. You may chose a book that the animal is the main character of the book like Stuart Little, or you may do a report on an actual animal.  Please use the packet I sent home with helpful sheets used in "The Step up to Writing program."  There are 3 parts to this report. 

1.  First, fill out the animal sheet.

2.  Next, use the facts on the animal sheet along with the "Step up to writing" papers and write a neat brief summary of the animal you read about or actual facts in some type of sequential order in pen.

3.  The final part of the book report is to make the animal as creatively as you can.  Make it out of clay, paper towel or toilet paper rolls, paper mache, use material to make the material, no quick drawings.  You have plenty of time to do this project!  Enjoy and have fun! 

The goal is to teach us something and or make us excited about the animal you read about!

Reading Calendar

Thanks to Mr. Bodwell we will be using a reading calendar every month to record the number of pages read, hopefully every night!  I am excited about using this especially while reading for the book reports.  I strongly feel that the calendar will help with pacing, organization, and responsibility.   Everyone must turn their calendars in at the end of the month.

READING in class:

We are reading the book, Cricket in Times Square.  As we read and enjoy the book, we will work on using a variety of comprehension strategies, specific skills, as well as making connections to the text in different ways.  One strategy is to relate things in the book to personal past experiences or schema.  Other strategies we will use will be decoding, context clues, predicting, inferring, foreshadowing, and the use of visualization. 

MATH: 

We are learning different algorithms(methods) for addition, subtraction, multiplication and soon division.  We continue to do aspects of geometry,working with decimals, as well as reviewing basic facts and strategies.  It would be helpful to memorize place value and be able to read numbers up to a billion or more!

Please learn those multiplication facts!  

SCIENCE: 

We are learning about Matter as well as aspects of the ecosystem.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

We are learning about Maine as well as map skills and a review of the branches of government.

                Enjoy these new slide shows! 

A special thanks to Mrs. Blokland for helping me link the slide shows! 

 First grade buddies

The first slide show is the first of many with our reading buddies.  We are buddies with Ms. Tushin's first graders.

 http://staff.msad71.net/kpt_lab/Miller/2008/Buddiesreading.wmv

Another slide show with our first grade buddies.  This time we learned how to be good scientific observers using our five senses(seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting & touching) and 4 attributes.(Size, shape, color texture) 

Enjoy the beginning of this slide show as we start Halloween with our buddies.

Field trip slide shows:

Our first field trip to Emmons Preserve was made possible by the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust and developed by, The Trust in Our Children Leadership Team. 

A special Thank you to Joy Mahoney, Tom Bradbury, Dr. Pam Morgan, Bill Case, Mrs. Sandavol and Mrs. Mcdougauld, (I appologize if I have misspelled any names) who were the guides on this trip! 

I would also like to thank all the parent chaperones!  

It all began with a wonderful presentation by Dr. Pam Morgan on September 30th.   She presented a slide show which showed the children evidence of succession and past usage of the land.  The information was done with pictures which dated back to the 1800's and showed changes from either fire or clearing of trees.  She also taught the children about the uses of rock walls and fences.  

On October 7th we went to the Emmons Preserve.   We explored two different trails in the environment.  We  compared life today to long ago as we looked for evidence of the fire of 1947, old fences, rock walls, new growth, decomposition and just our wonderful Ecosystem.

Later, we compared life today to long ago as we looked at aspects of the house and other artifacts as well as measuring the outside.  

We had a science notebook and recorded specific things we observed throughout the trip.

We are all so lucky to be able to have had this experience!  We will go again in the spring.  Enjoy the slide show!

http://staff.msad71.net/kpt_lab/Miller/2008/EmmonsTrip1.wmvhttp://staff.msad71.net/kpt_lab

 Enjoy this slide show which shows us doing some activities to get ready for the Emmons Field trip.

/Miller/Getting%20ready%20for%20Emmons%20Trip.wmv

School presentations and classroom activities

Smokehouse Video 

Thank you to all the Firefighters for helping us learn so much from the smokehouse experience!  It was so beneficial! 

 http://staff.msad71.net/kpt_lab/Miller/2008/Smokehouse.wmv