Parents,
Just a reminder that I am posting on Edline now.  Please visit edline.net and use your personal info to get in.  If you just want to see through your child's information, ask them for their username and password. Write me with any questions. 

My math class should continue to look at the math tab.  There is nothing new there today for math, but we do have a quiz tomorrow.  Ask your child about that.

Thanks!

Curriculum Night!

I am so excited to see your parents again and share with them all that we have done and will do this year.  Here is the schedule for tonight, in case your parent needs it:

*Session 1: 6:30 pm - 7:10 pm
*Session 2: 7:20 pm - 8:00 pm

Curriculum Night is your parents’ first opportunity to learn more about what you will learn in fourth grade and procedures of our classroom. Your parent may attend either session.

Curriculum Night will be your parents' first opportunity to sign up for November parent-teacher conferences.

Conference Sign-Up sheets will be housed in the gym on Curriculum Night. Individual conferences will occur 11/7 from 4:30 pm – 8:00 pm , 11/8 from 8:00 am – 3:00 pm, and 11/13 from 4:30 pm – 8:00 pm.

Now, on to pressing matters!  Homework!

Reading - read 20 minutes and write the title of the book you are reading on the line.  Conferences tomorrow!

Science - Did you finish the article in your packet?  It was the more detailed one and you should have highlighted new or "Can you believe that?" information.  We will answer questions with the packet tomorrow.  Remember, reading non-fiction material requires us to read some information more than once!  Reread to remember!

Math - (4G)many in my math class finished the pages of practiced and it looked good and precise as I walked around and checked.  We will have a quiz tomorrow over addition and subtraction of whole numbers and decimals.  Remember, a quiz helps me see who still needs some private instruction time on a certain topic.  (4D) you may have had a sheet to finish if you didn't in math class.

Homework

If you did not get a chance to read my post yesterday, please scroll down and take a few minutes to read it!

Our word study this week focuses on the welded sounds made in words like mold, string, and think.  Talk at home about these words.  Did you know that if you use a new skill in different environments, it helps you to fully cement it into your brain so that it is easier to recall the information?  That is why talking about your day at the dinner table is SO VALUABLE (so is sitting together atthe dinner table, but with very busy fall schedules, it is hard to do that!). Try talking to your parents about what we are learning in word study, about how to break the words apart and look at them differently.  Also, tell them how you have learned how to mark up the words with different symbols.   You can just leave out the part about any mistakes I MAY have made during a lesson or two...they don't really care to hear all of that!!  :-)

Today's homework includes writing 15 sentences with our new word list.  Today, you evaluated your own sentences from last week.  That first set of sentences was a chance for me to see what you'd do without any sentence direction.  I took lots of notes in my notebook about what I noticed.  Please use the "4- Wow!" column of your sentence rubric while you are writing your sentences today.  Show your parents the scores you gave yourself.  If you have a parent signature on that rubric tomorrow, I will let you do a "Dolphin Dip" (pick some money), AND you'll earn TWO DOJOS!!!  SEE?  It PAYS to check the BLOG!!! We will have an assessment on the word study words on Monday, so you will have tomorrow and the weekend to practice that pattern and how to mark up the words.

We have started our study of the circulatory system.  Yesterday, we created a word splash with words we know that related to this body system as well as a K-W-L in our notebooks.  Today, we watched a Mr. Parr video on Youtube.  This man creates videos about science topics that make it fun and easy to learn about SO many topics.  Music is a very effective way to learn new things!  We will be writing our own parody this year (maybe more than one).  Which song would you choose to be the background music for a song about your heart and blood?  We had a serious discussion about using Youtube at home, only with a parent supervising us.  Youtube is NOT the place to be searching around online since any wackadoo can put any a video on there and teach us the WRONG things about the heart (or worse!).  PARENT SUPERVISION is a MUST when it comes to certain websites!  Even my blog has educational sites that can carry links to other sites that link to other sites that link to sites that are not meant for kids.  THAT MEANS YOU!!!  BE CAREFUL!!

TOMORROW'S FRIDAY!!!


 HAPPY DANCE!!!

Resilience

A major part of our year will include "collecting"  words, both old and new.  We will get them from a variety of sources;  textbooks, read aloud books, novel studies, videos, websites.  We will be empowered with words, either simple or complex.  Words give us the ability to express our emotions, our opinions, and our knowledge.  We will learn meanings of new words and new uses for old words.  We will break words apart and put them back together in new ways. 

Today's word is resilience.  We heard it today from our read aloud, A Wrinkle in Time.  Resilience is very close to another word we have used often this year, perseverance.  Both words mean to keep on going.  However, resilience means the ability to recover when something bad happens or something gets in your way.  Perseverance means to keep going at a task even if it is difficult or takes a long time.  This week, all of you have taken your first math test.  Did you persevere through the test?  Did you keep your focus and work on your precision?  Or did you try hard for part of it, then give up when it got tricky or more difficult than you are used to?  When you get your test back and see how you did, will you be resilient?  Will you bounce back if you didn't do as well as you wanted?  Will you forge ahead and make a plan for success?  If you were persistent (another word that is very similar to the aforementioned words) and did well (on the whole test or most of the problems), how will you celebrate?  Will you let a letter grade tell you how to feel or will you look at the grade as just one picture of how well you understand and use the skills?  There is more to you and your success than just one test, one assignment, one moment in time.    You can be resilient.  Keep going, even if you run into some difficulty.  Make a plan.  Pay more attention.  Take time to study your materials.  Ask the teacher for help.  BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!! 

Ok, that is our lesson in resilience for the day.  I had another wonderful day with you all.  Thank you for forgiving me for my breve mistake.  Don't worry, I am resilient.  I was embarrassed but you didn't make me feel worse.  You all made me feel better!  I learned I should ask more than one source sometimes if I have questions.  I am really enjoying learning this word study program along with you.  It is really fun and I hope you will all persevere and see that it can and will be challenging.  It makes your brain think in new ways, which grows new parts of your brain. 



image of a dendrite in the brain (taken from Google images)

Too Tired!!

Hi everyone!  I am so sorry, but I am just too tired for a long post.  Right after school I went to another class on the new word study program.  Then I went immediately to two hours of Curriculum Night at Hill where I got to meet Kenna's teachers and go through her schedule at middle school.  After that, I came right home and graded all the math tests and created a reflection sheet for that!  Now, I look at the clock and it is almost 11:00p.m.!!  That is 2 hours past my bedtime!!  YAAAAAWWWWWWNNNNN!

Anyway, I had a super fun day with you!  Or, should I say, I had an EXTREMELY ENTERTAINING day with you?  Yes, that is using better word choice!  Much stronger and more striking that plain old "super fun!"
Tomorrow, we will work on creating a list in our writing notebooks of synonyms for overused words! 

See you tomorrow!

Busy Monday!

Today was a great day!  It was cool and comfortable so we were all very productive! We took our first reading test of the year over Donovan's Word Jar.  We spent a good deal of time going over the vocabulary and you were able to use your reading book ot take this test.  Remember, you won't ALWAYS be able to use your book, but it is a good skill to have, to go back into the story and find information.  It is something good readers do!

We also took our first word assessment today.  Since this was our first one, we did it together and talked about it as we did it.  I will use this first one to see what I need to focus more on for the next lesson.  We are doing all the work for this first and second lesson in the classroom (except sentences) as we get to know this new way of looking at words.

This week, both classes have tests over the first unit.  Mrs. Grezlik will give her Accelerated students the test tomorrow and Mrs. Dodd's group will test on Wednesday.  Prepare by using materials collected in your pendafile over the last few weeks.  All papers corrected in class should stay in the pendafile until the unit study is over.  Good luck!!

This week we are beginning our study in science of the circulatory system.  This is the system in our body that is responsible for carrying oxygen and nutrients around our whole body!   We will have some "bloody" good fun with it!  Hee hee!  What do you know about your blood, heart, or blood vessels?

Finally, did you hear that the first woman of Indian descent was crowned Miss America 2014 yesterday at Boardwalk Hall Arena in Atlantic City.  Here is a picture of her, Nina Davuluri, from New York.  How exciting!!

Photo from usatoday site

A Special Day!

Hi everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful day!  Sorry I wasn't there to share it with you, but we will all be together again tomorrow!!  I can't wait!  Also, it was a special day today for a special person in our room and I wasn't there to share it, so we will have a do-over day tomorrow (see below)!!

As a reminder, some of you did not turn in your social studies worksheet or map today.  Please remember to do that tomorrow.  As for the rest of the homework, I do not yet know what the substitute teacher was able to get through so I am not sure if you finished your spelling/word study sentences in class.  Some of you may have those to do, if they were indeed assigned. 

Can you all please ask your parents if they got my recent email this week about the Edline permission slip?  Since I was absent today, I was not able to hand the paper copy out.  I will hand that out  tomorrow with the Edline codes I am sending home so you can see our class Edline page!  That will replace these blog posts!  I am excited to share that with you and your parents!

I know you all must be out enjoying this lovely weather and I hope you were all comfy and cozy in the classroom today.  I will see you in the morning!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO J.H.!!!!

image from google images
 

Heat Wave

Hi everyone!
I'm sorry I didn't post yesterday. I had to get my girls after school from their sport events and then went to our school board meeting to hear about the plans for the terrible heat we've been dealing with. You all have been great, even though I know you'd prefer jumping in a big pool of water and then standing in front of the turbo fan! We actually had a few more turbo fans delivered to our school today. I missed you all today. I'll miss you more tomorrow!  I can't wait for Thursday when you come back!!

How is your social studies reading going?  Remember that you can break up the reading, read
a few sections of text. Then stop and think about it. Reading nonfiction requires different reading strategies. One is to adjust your reading rate. Slow down!!!  What's the rush?  You want that information to stick, right?! Otherwise, what's the point?  Also, reread to clarify (understand). If you went through a whole section and can't answer one question about it, that's not effective reading!  ?On Thursday, I expect the following to be completed:

Read all of lesson 3 in social studies
Answer lesson 3 question sheet
Complete your map and include the color key for the regions

All kids have math homework and an upcoming test. Use this extra free time to study.

Read at least 20 minutes both days, fill in your title and get a signature in your assignment book!

I hope you're staying cool like the cool dudes and dudettes you are!!  See you Thursday!

A Horse is a Horse

What a great morning we had at Danada Farms today!  It was made 100 times better due to the fact that the weather was PERFECT!  Sunny, but not hot, and no rain!  BEAUTIFUL!  I hope you all had a great time like I did.  In fact, I can't wait until our NEXT field trip together.  I don't think I have ever said that before on the same day of a field trip.  I could have stayed there ALL DAY with you and had a blast (except for the smell!).  Thanks for the wonderful memories!

This was the horse we got to pet. His name was Qazar.

This is where the facility holds the horse shows.
 

 I sent your parents some more pictures of today, so ask them to check their emails!  Speaking of that, there are a few parents I still haven't heard back from that the email provided is working.  Can you ask your parents if they have heard from me by email and let me know tomorrow?  Thanks!

It was a very fun day, with many of you participating in Chorus this morning and Drum Ensemble this afternoon.  Taking the time to do something new is a great way to help your brain in lots of ways!  It makes you see the possibilities beyond what you normally choose to do!

Are you enjoying some of the learning structures we've been using this week?  Which is your favorite?  Mix- Pair- Share?  Rally Robin?  Showdown?  All Write Round Robin?  We will use more tomorrow, so be prepared!  I might even try something new I haven't done before!  My brain could use a boost, too!

Be sure to do your reading and list your title on your assignment book. See you tomorrow!!

wEiRd WeDnEsDaY!

Having the first day of the school week on a Wednesday can be really confusing!  I can't wait until next week when we start having regular full weeks of school (with a few exceptions, of course).   Don't forget that chorus starts tomorrow morning at 7:50a.m. and Drum Ensemble is right after school, if you signed up for either!  You are going to have a blast!!

Today, we did a few interesting activities based on a class the teachers took yesterday during our training day.  As a classroom building activity, our class did a "Rally Robin" activity where shoulder partners met with each other and made a list together of what tasks we do directly upon entering the classroom.  Partners had to work together to create the list, taking turns writing and talking/coaching the whole time.  Then, the teams got up and did a "Mix-Pair-Share"  (to music) and mixed around the room until the music stopped and then paired up with another pair to share what they had come up with and if they saw any differences or similarities in the lists.  We also did an "All Write Round Robin" during writing about how to make our sentences more interesting and flow well. This required groups of 4 to take turns sharing how to make their sentence writing more fluent, but everyone had to write each member's ideas down.  The GINGERBREADS won with a total of 7 ideas that all 4 members had written in their notebooks!  Way to go, Gingerbreads!  Yum, yum, yum! 

Tomorrow, we have our first field trip to look forward to!  I can't wait!  The weather looks amazing, so I think we are going to make some wonderful memories!  Please be on time tomorrow and dress appropriately (I suggest gym shoes)!  Water bottles will stay at school and we will have lunch in the lunchroom when we get back.  Hot lunch and milk will still be available!  

Thanks for another wonderful day!  I loved seeing how you all shared with each other during our activities and helped each other remember some of the directions given.  Tomorrow, you will see how many DOJOs you have earned (both positive and negative).  Please do your part to help your teammates and classmates to follow directions and make good choices!