APPLE DAY!!

Week of 9/29/08

Hi all!! It was a busy weekend for my family, but a good one. Hope you enjoyed yours. Last week was a pretty hectic week between hearing tests, pictures, and Apple Day. This week should be a calmer week. :) I wanted to say a special thank you to: Jaycee Booth, Racheal Holsten, Teresa Moore, Linda Tutt, Keylie's friend, and Cooper's grandparents for making Apple Day such a success! I couldn't have done it without you! The children learned many things ranging from weight and circumference to the scientific method. We made homemade applesauce, as did our kindergarten partners, so we had an applesauce picnic in the courtyard. They also carved apple heads. They are drying in our extra bedroom as I type this. They will take a couple of weeks to dry completely, just in time to create a Halloween character! Hope you enjoyed the slideshow of our Apple Day.

This week in math we will study addition properties, equations, and input/output. In reading we will finish up our literature circles. The children are doing very well on their comprehension work and their fluency! Their final assignment with their story will be to create a poster of their favorite part(s). Spelling words will cover the sounds of "i". In English, we will focus on verbs. Social studies topics include Native American removal, cattle drives, moving West, and land runs.

Last week we spent a lot of time learning about and discussing famous people of Oklahoma, including playing a 1 hour long game on Thursday. I am glad to say that it paid off for most of the children! I am very proud of them! The majority of the kids made a "C" to an "A+" on their test! Those are very good grades because this was a hard test, and probably the first major test for most of them. I am glad to see that so many of the kids have good study skills. It is so important! I told the kids on Wednesday that this was a lot of information and that they would need to spend more time than 30 minutes Thursday evening studying. I suggested to them to work on getting familiar with the info on Wednesday as well. Luckily, we won't have tons of big tests like this, however, we will have a few. The next big one will be in a few weeks when we culminate all the Oklahoma history we will have learned. I will give the children a study guide several days before hand. It helps when they pay attention in class too. :)

I will be sending home book orders on Monday. They will be due on Friday. There are a lot of Fall and Halloween stories in this issue to check out! Remember that if your child ordered from the September book order, they get to choose a free book ($4 or under) this time.

Don't forget that our Turkey Creek field trip is scheduled for Friday. It should be a lot of fun! The $3 admission charge is due on Wednesday. The pictures are $7 if you want one. They are very neat pictures. Remember too, that your child will need to bring a sack lunch that day. It is also fun to dress up pioneer style. I usually have about 90% participation in dressing up, but it isn't mandatory.

Here are the 2 spelling lists:

since
which
inch
string
title
shrimp
picnic
mind
wild
decide
why
skyscraper
buy
right
lightning
write
cypress
bicycle
tipi
input

Enrichment words:
binocular challenging flaunted brilliant kinsfolk languages indulge disinfectant justice hastiness genuine neighbor cafeteria appreciation embellish

Spelling and other stuff!

Please remember to send 2 apples to school by Thursday. If anyone can help for 2 hours on Friday morning from 8:30 - 10:30, I would greatly appreciate it. I have one volunteer so far, but one or two more would help tremendously. We will be peeling apples at 8:30, but at 9:00, we will begin our learning centers. We will have a science center, math center, craft center, health center, and art center. A couple of the centers would work better with an adult leader. I understand if you can't. Let me know if you can work it out though.

School pictures will be this Thursday. I sent a picture order form home last Friday.

I also sent midterm grades home last Friday. You can also check your child's progress anytime you want, by getting your child's password and username from the office to log into my online gradebook. It is a great tool to keep yourself up to date on your child.

This week's spelling words:

then
else
edge
when
tenth
empty
sketch
easy
eager
sneakers
mean
fifteen
receive
piece
believe
spelling
people
squeeze
famous
history

Enrichment words:

cinnamon descent generous batteries judgment overwhelm featured nominated immediate pentagon emotional languages majority hesitantly average

Week of 9/22/08

Hi Families! Hasn't the weather been beautiful?! Hope you have enjoyed your weekend. Here is what is on the agenda for this week:

Reading - literature circles
Math - problem solving, test review, chapter 3 test over addition, subtraction, and estimation
English - nouns, editing incorrect sentences
Spelling - Look for the new list on the blog tomorrow. The children did fantastic on their spelling test last week! I think they like our new way of doing spelling. They have more choices and if they get 3 spelling assignments done early, they get to play spelling games.
Social Studies - Oklahoma people - Every child will become an expert on someone important to Oklahoma and teach the rest of the class. Each child will create an Oklahoma biographical dictionary. They can use this to study for their test over this topic. The test will be Friday.

Please read the post below the slideshow about our Johnny Appleseed Day.

4th Grade and Kindergarten Buddies

Apple Day coming up!

Next week will be Johnny Appleseed Day! I am asking each child to bring 2 apples to school by Thursday, September 25th. We will be doing many things related to science, math, English, and art on Friday, September 26th. If any parents can volunteer that morning, it would be awesome! I need parents to help peel, slice, and core apples for homemade applesauce, and to help with apple learning centers. Let me know by post or email, if you can help out!

I sent a letter on Monday about our Turkey Creek School field trip coming up on October 3rd. The $3.00 admission fee is due October 1st. If your child didn't get the note home with the details, let me know.

The children have earned 25 fish! This means they have had 25 good and productive days! We read a story a few weeks ago called Because of Winn Dixie, so I thought it would be fun if we watched the movie and had a popcorn party. Your child may bring a bag of popcorn and a drink (pop is allowed) on Wednesday.

Regular spelling words are: fact began clasp rapid able later space stranger grade display main explain freight neighbor weigh vein April ankle subtraction addition

The spelling enrichment words for this week are: legislature facade kaleidoscope technique particular identical graduation sediment mathematical quarrel hilarious naive jealousness opponent recuperate

Week of 9/15

Hi students and families!

This week looks like this:

Reading: Literature circles - The children are really enjoying literature circles and doing a terrific job!

Math: estimating sums and differences, adding and subracting large numbers - The kids, overall, struggled with the concept of estimating sums and differences, so we are going over it again this week. If you saw low grades on a couple math papers with that concept, please know that I didn't take a grade on them. Hopefully, this week I can see some light bulbs going on with it!!

Social Studies: early people of Oklahoma

Spanish: We have not started Spanish because they do not have my smartboard hooked up to cable yet. However, this week we will get to start it because I did some searching and found the programs on the internet. If I waited for the technology department, it may be Christmas! They are very behind!

Spelling: Look for the words on the blog tomorrow. We will be having 2 tests weekly, one on Thursday, and one on Friday. If your child gets an A on Thursday, he/she does not have to take the test on Friday.

I wanted to talk to you a little about responsibility and time management. 4th grade is a big growing year in those areas. The work gets harder and the children are learning a lot about how to manage their time wisely and what happens when they don't. Some children breeze through this process quite easily, while others really struggle. I am really working hard to help them along in this process, by giving them cues, such as saying "10 more minutes before we move on"; visuals, such as boards that display due dates of long term assignments, and unfortunately, I have to give consequences as well, when work is not turned in on time. I can assure you, that in time all of this will pay off. Most children get a better idea of how to manage their work and time much better by the 2nd 9 weeks. It is pretty magical how it happens!! As I stated before, some children are already pros at time management. If your child, however, tends to have homework quite often, or seems stressed about the work, it is probably because he/she is struggling in this area.

We have had a lot of sickness going around. If you would like to send your child a bottle of antibacterial hand wash, such as Germ X, please do so. The children can keep a small bottle in their desks.

That is all for now. Remember to look on the blog tomorrow for the spelling list and the enriched spelling list. Your child should bring home a paper list as well, of the regular words.

Thanks to those that donated a bag of candy!! It helps a lot!!!

Spelling words and Enrichment spelling!

Regular spelling: attach where sandwich change watch singer slippery spring gather these thread athlete worth thirsty whisper whistle awhile nowhere Oklahoma estimation

Enriched spelling: wreckage distinction commotion alphabetical breathing umbrella mythical inconsistent separately quiver longevity exaggerated heirloom fuchsia vengeance

Needing Flour and Salt!

Don't forget to send 1/2 cup flour mixed with 1/4 cup salt in a ziplock bag to school tomorrow.

Check out the slideshow and the Week of September 8th post below.

Week of Sept. 8th

Don't you love this cool weather?!! I hope we continue to have an early Fall!

Did you get Flat Stanley home? If you can't think of anyone to send him to, let me know. I have about 8 people that would love to have Flat Stanley. Hopefully, we will get a great response from willing participants. It will be quite exciting for the children. Who am I kidding? It will be for me too!! It will be a great opportunity for us all to learn about other places.

This week in social studies, we will begin our study of Oklahoma. We will begin with the lay of the land. We will look at important cities and landforms. Hopefully, by carving out Oklahoma and its landforms with dough, the children will remember it better. Don't forget that maps are due on Wednesday. The children were very excited about this project. I can't wait to see the results! In math, we will be estimating sums and differences and doing large number addition and subtraction problems. For reading, we are beginning literature circles. I love doing literature circles because every child is in a book that fits his/her reading level/lexile. We will have 5 different reading groups. Each group has a different book along with related work. For English, we will spend one more day on ocean animal reports. These reports are due on Thursday. Remember, you can type your child's report as long as he/she does the actual work of the report. Most of the children have almost finished their report in class. A few are completely done. This is a very hard project for many of the kids, because there are so many concepts to remember: turning facts into sentences, capitalization, punctuation, paragraph form, indention, keeping topics separated, etc. They have really worked hard on their reports though. I am very proud of them!! Also in English, we will be looking at common and proper nouns. Look for a copy of this week's spelling list on Monday. Also, we will begin enriched spelling. Enriched spelling is completely optional. It is not a grade. It is simply a reward system and a way for gifted spellers to have a challenge. Not all the children that choose to do enriched spelling are gifted spellers. Some just work really hard and a lot of times do better than my gifted ones. Anyone can do it! We will have 15 words every week with a test on Friday. Each word is worth 1 point and I reward every 10 points.

Thanks for the book orders! We met our goal!! Yeah!!! This means more resources/books for our classroom!

We will be going to Turkey Creek School on October 3rd. It is an old fashioned school set in 1910. The children will spend the day reenacting a typical day 100 years ago. It is a lot of fun. Most of the children get into the spirit by dressing up pioneer style and carrying a tin can for their lunch. I will be sending home a letter about it in a couple of weeks, but I wanted to give you a heads up, incase your child wanted to dress up. This way, you will have time to be thinking about clothing. Dressing up is purely optional, but I do encourage it. It is fun to get into the spirit of it! Ideas: Girls - mid calf dresses with aprons and bonnets, boys - jeans, white t-shirts and suspenders or overalls.

We are running low on candy. If anyone would like to donate a bag of candy, it would be greatly appreciated! I give it out as a reward. Please continue to check the blog for updates. Hope you enjoyed the slideshow of your precious children. There will be more to come in the future. If your child isn't in this slideshow, it is probably because he/she was absent when I took those pictures. Look for slideshows ahead.

Getting ready for dough maps of Oklahoma!

Please send 1/2 cup of flour mixed with a 1/4 cup of salt in a ziplock bag to school by Monday, September 8th. We are beginning our unit on Oklahoma and will be making dough maps of the state next week. If you can help make the dough balls on Monday, please let me know. It would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

Week of September 2nd!

Hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! We got together with family and friends for pizza and gocarts one evening and a cookout the next evening. My grandma and sister came down for dinner on Monday as well. It is nice to just relax and enjoy family and friends.

This week for Language Arts/Science, we will finish our ocean study. The highlights of that will be the ocean animal report with illustration and an ocean craft. The children will do their research and writing of the report at school, but if you would like to help them type the final report at home, you may absolutely do so. The report, however, does not have to be typed. It can be neatly written. Spanish begins this week! In math, we will do more rounding and a review of place value including expanded and word form. The children will be given a test on those concepts on Thursday. For social studies, this week ends our study of maps. We will look at population, product, and road maps, as well as study grids on maps to help us find things. I am assigning a FUN map homework assignment on Wednesday that is due next Wednesday, September 10th. Please look for the directions for the map assignment this week. Your child should have them on Wednesday. We will also finish up our Flat Stanley, letter, and journal. We will get him in an envelope ready to be mailed. Hopefully, you have someone to send Flat Stanley to. If you don't, please let me know. I have a couple of people that your child could send him to.

Remember that book orders are due on Wednesday. Hopefully, we can make our $200 goal, so that we can get more books and resources for our classroom! Thanks for your help! We are about half way there!!