Getting Ready for Grandparents

This week we are getting ready for Grandparents' Day on Thursday.  Tomorrow we will have a musical practice, and I'll also be putting together a slide show of memories that the students prepared during computer lab over the last two weeks. 
Also, a reminder that reading projects are due on October 10.  If there are any questions, please let me know as soon as possible.  The project should be the student's responsibility with some assistance from a parent, if needed. 
Science Fair will be October 25.  If your student is growing something, you may want to have them get started.  Just make sure that she/he writes down every step so that when we write our procedures, she/he will have the correct information.  The official start date will be Wednesday, once we've written the procedures in class.
Next week, we will be heading out to the Challenge Ed course at Fegley Middle School.  A permission slip will be coming home tomorrow.  Students will need to pack a lunch for the trip.  We leave school at 9 a.m. and return at 2 p.m., so no additional transportation is required.
If your child is running in the cross country meet, please make sure that she/he is dressed for the weather, has a light snack and drink, and a ride home from Woodland Park.  We are supposed to have beautiful weather, so it should be a great race! 

Apologies

I am very sorry for the late update this week.  I can't believe it's already Wednesday night!  It has been a busy week at school.  Today, we finished our first novel study.  The students in both groups really seemed to enjoy the books they read.  Several students who were reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing have already grabbed other Judy Blume books to read for SSR.  I will be assigning projects for the books on Friday.  They will be due on Oct. 10. This way students have two weekends to work on them, and it shouldn't interfere with regularly scheduled homework.We have also started laying the ground work for our science fair projects.  Thank you to everyone for signing off on the Big Question.  I am really impressed by the ideas the students developed.  Tomorrow we will work on writing a hypothesis.  On Friday, we will begin planning.  Please hold off on starting the projects until it is in the planner.  I have to stress the importance of a detailed plan and the use of the metric system.  I don't want anyone to have to redo their project because they got started too soon. 
In math, we have been working on multiplication.  A great at-home activity would be for students to practice their math facts.  This can be done with flashcards or by using one of the math websites linked to the blog.

September 19

I'm happy to report that we have earned our second reward for following the Core Values!  We have not had a chance to vote on our reward, but I will keep you posted.  Lounge Day was a success.  The students were able to maintain their focus while enjoying a relaxing day.

This week's agenda is full, as usual.  In math, we will be working on the addition and subtraction of whole numbers.  This builds upon 3rd grade skills, so I anticipate that students will be successful on this indicator.  If you are interested in how you can help in math, the best thing you can do right now is to work on multiplication facts with your child.  Knowing their facts will lead to a successful 4th grade math year.

We are a little more than half way through our first novel.  Students have learned about the different types of questions they might ask.  Today we will finish up a lesson on summarizing.  Then we will pull all of the Fab 4 strategies (predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing) together.  Later in the week, we will focus on our characters.

We will also be celebrating Fire Prevention Week.  On Tuesday, Portage firefighters will be here to talk with us about how to be safe.  It will be very informative, as always!

Have a great week!

Monday Already!

Wow!  Hard to believe that it's Monday already!  Thank you to all of the parents who came to Back to School Night last week.  I was so glad for the chance to meet you.  I will send home my contact information tomorrow.  I apologize for the delay.
Tonight is your child's first night of regular homework.  Remember to post or e-mail any questions.  I will check from home tonight.
This week's objectives are mostly on the same theme as last week.  In math, we are working with whole numbers to round, order, and compare.  We are continuing to read our novels, while learning how to apply the reading skill of questioning and summarizing.  Currently, we are free writing as we set the stage for more focused writing throughout the year.  In science, we will continue to talk about the scientific process.  Stay tuned for information on Science Fair, which will be at the end of October.
Remember: do that homework!

Busy Week Ahead

Hope everyone had the chance to rest up over the Labor Day holiday because we have a busy week in front of us.  The students took their first math assessment last week on place value.  That means this week will be spent reviewing place value with those students who still need a little help, and moving forward into ordering, comparing, and rounding numbers.  We will begin our first novel.  Some students will be reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and others will be reading The Great Gilly Hopkins.  Two of my favorite books!

We have a couple of special events this week.  Thursday is Back to School Night, beginning at 6:00 pm.  Then on Friday, we are having a member of the fire department come to talk with the class about the important role that first responders play during an emergency.  It's going to be a busy week, but one that should be a lot of fun!

Down to Business

This week will be our first full week of class.  We are getting a hang of the procedures and will continue to practice those throughout the next several weeks.  This week, though, it is time to begin the academic part of 4th grade.  The math lessons this week will focus on place value.  We'll be building on what you learned last year by learning about numbers up to 1,000,000.  During guided reading, we will read a short story titled "The Luckiest Man," which is about Lou Gehrig.  We'll use this story as a way to introduce setting, characters, and plot.  In writing, we are going to set up our notebooks and start thinking of topics we about which we might like to write.

I'd like to remind everyone about Back to School Night on September 8.  Since we no longer have parent-teacher conferences, this is a great chance for us to meet one another.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone there!

2011 Welcome

What a great start to the 2011-2012 school year!  We spent the day learning the classroom procedures and expectations.  Everyone followed directions and was eager to participate.  The day went by so fast!

Hopefully, everyone has seen the discipline plan and the homework policy.  These are new this school year, and I will be discussing them further at Back to School Night on September 8.  Please sign and return just the bottom half of the second page as soon as possible.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

For the rest of the week, we will continue to perfect the classroom procedures and set the stage for a successful school year. 

I will be updating the blog by Monday of each week.  On the weeks that we don't have school on Monday, I will have the blog updated by the next school day of the that week.

New Year Welcome!

Welcome back everyone!  You have reached the blog that I talked about in the newsletter I sent home.  I hope that you will check back frequently to stay updated on the class happenings.  I am also going to work on an e-mail group so that I can send notifications when I have posted updates.

Today was a pretty good first day back.  The students seem to get along really well.  We covered a lot of procedures, and we'll finish with the last few tomorrow.  Some students even wanted to take books home already! 

I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone on Back to School Night on September 9.  This will be a chance for you to see what being on "Team Cannon" is all about.  That evening is also the book fair in our cafeteria.  Please look for further information with specific times.

Eventful Day

Wow!  I don't know about everyone else, but I am exhausted after today.  This morning we were joined by Mr. Ingram from NIPSCO.  He demonstrated and explained for us the dangers of not being careful with the electric wires that run outside of our homes.  We also learned the answer to one of life's little mysteries...why don't birds get electrocuted?  Then, in the afternoon, the students performed their songs for the whole school.  They did a wonderful job, but I was really impressed by the evening performance.  Everyone participated and did their personal best.  I'm sure all of their families were so proud of them...I know I was.

This week we worked a lot on synonyms, antonyms, and idioms.  We learned a lot of new words and phrases  that will help make us all (myself included) better readers and writers.  Next week, we are going to practice our presentation speaking by reading a collection of Christmas scripts.  It'll be fun to practice reading with expression! 

On the topic of reading...If you check out the comments section of my last post, a former student made some great recommendations.  I have already purchased the first book in one of the series for the classroom library. 

Have a wonderful and restful weekend!

Update

I do apologize for not having updated since Miss Ellis started teaching.  Everything has gone very smoothly during her time with us, which is quickly coming to an end.  Her last day of teaching is December 4, and her last day in our classroom is December 10.  We will miss her very much!  She is going to go on to have a wonderful and successful teaching career.

With only two and a half weeks left before break, we are very busy.  The students are preparing for their holiday musical on December 10.  We will be doing an in-school performance and an after school show.  Our first practice yesterday went well.  Everyone participated and showed her or his personal best.  Also, next week is Santa's Secret Shop.  Our class will be visiting on December 8.  If you are interested in volunteering, please remember to send in the slip.  The Holiday Celebration is December 17.  We do have school on December 18, and we will be wrapping up the activities on which we'll have been hard at work.

We will be very busy academically, too.  Next week in geometry we will be focusing on symmetry and congruency.  We'll be improving our reading using synonyms, antonyms, homographs, and idioms.  After working on that, we will be doing holiday Readers Theaters, which we'll perform on Dec. 18.  The next several weeks are going to be filled with lots of fun learning opportunities.

Busy, Busy, Busy

There is a lot going on at Kyle School this week!  Tomorrow, we will be having a presentation on fire safety given by the Portage firefighters.  Also, the fire safety posters are due on October 6.  Miss Ellis and I will then choose the 3 neatest and most informative posters to be given to the Fire Department.  Also, this week we have Grandparents' Day.  Grandparents are invited to join us on Thursday, October 8, for a musical presentation followed by a class slide show and visiting time.  October 8 is also the day that the Challenge Ed permission slips are due.

In class, we will be finishing up our guided reading unit on Realistic Fiction.  Right now, we are working on projects in class.  If we are unable to finish, I will assign one project to be completed at home.  We will be having a quiz over the books on Friday.  The class is working with Miss Ellis on division in math.  They are working on both division facts and long division.  So far, students are grasping the concept.  For extra help, students can use flashcards or one of the math practice sites on this page.  In science, we are finishing learning about land formation.  There will be a quiz this week.  Students are also working on their personal narrative stories in writing.

Miss Ellis will be teaching all subjects starting next week.  The students have adjusted to the transition well, and Miss Ellis has developed meaningful and engaging lessons.  She will be teaching through December 2.  I'm very pleased with her rapport with the students and her level of commitment to the students' learning.

One last thing... the following link will take you to a trailer for The Lightning Thief movie.  The movie is based on the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan.  http://www.percyjacksonthemovie.com/

Are you ready?

One of the most important events we have this week is our multiplication indicator quiz.  Why is this so important?  Multiplication is the foundation for most of the math that we will work on the rest of the year.  We'll talk about multiplying as we learn to divide.  We'll use multiplying and dividing when working with fractions.  Finding the area of shapes requires us to multiply.  You can be ready by practicing your facts using flashcards or the math sites on this blog.

This week, Miss Ellis will take over the teaching of writing.  She will continue to work on writing personal narratives with the students.  She has already been teaching math and word study.  Last week, she also began reading the book The Lemonade Wars.  She is doing a wonderful job of presenting the content and relating to the students.

Remember that Thursday is Picture Day. You will have your picture taken even if you do not plan on buying any of the packages, so be ready. 

Happy Fall!

This week marks the official start of fall--my favorite season.  It's a time when everything starts to change and prepare for the coming winter.  This holds true in our classroom, too.  When we finished our addition and subtraction indicator test this week in math, we marked an end to material that most students learned and mastered in 3rd grade.  Now, we will be starting multiplication.  While most students have a basic understanding, we will really begin to focus on this skill, expand what we already know, and prepare to use the knowledge as we move into division.  We're also going to look at the properties of multiplication and how it relates to other number operations.

We are about halfway through our first novel study.  We've really focused on predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing.  Now we are going to begin analyzing characters.  We've read enough in each book and have enough information about the characters that this should be a fun learning experience.  Also, our first project assignments are going to take place in class.  Students are finishing their daily assignments at different paces, so I gave them their choice menu (tic-tac-toe board) for this novel studies projects.

In writing, we are beginning to publish our first piece on our special object.  Our next piece is going to be a personal narrative--a story about something important that has happened in our lives. 

Also, we have a date for Challenge Ed...Monday, October 12.  Please check Take Home folders in early October for more information.

Week of September 8-11

I hope that everyone has a very nice Labor Day weekend.  Once we return from the long weekend, we'll pick up right where we left off.  We are still working on rounding and comparing/ordering numbers in math.  Those students who have mastered the skills will continue to work on enrichment activities.  In reading, we started our first guided reading groups.  Students are either reading The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson, Loser by Jerry Spinelli, Rules by Cynthia Lord, or The Jacket by Andrew Clements.  We are working on the reading strategies of predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing.  We will spend time on context clues, plot, and character traits.  In writing, we are building a strong foundation of the Six Traits so that we can delve into each a little deeper as the year continues.  This week, we'll be working a lot on word choice.  We have started our first science unit on rocks and landforms.  Our focus this week will be learning about what materials make up rocks.  Enjoy your holiday weekend!

First Full Week

We are half way through our first full week of school. I am so pleased with how quickly the students are learning the new procedures and how hard they are working on new material. This week, we have been focusing on place value in math. We will learn place value through the hundred thousands place. We are also reading a story on Lou Gehrig. It's one of my favorites! Through this story, we are learning about the reading strategies of predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing. These are strategies that we will use all year. In writing, we've began a list of possible topics that we can come back to all year long for ideas. We'll start our first writing piece tomorrow, which will be to describe the special object we brought to school.

Please mark your calendars for Back to School Night on September 3. I look forward to meeting everyone then!

Welcome to the Team!

I am so excited to that you chose to check out the blog! Our first day is now behind us, and I thought it went very well! All of the students seem eager to get started and begin new material. We're going to keep working on establishing procedures because that will help us have a fantastic year. However, we will also start doing some more academic activities tomorrow that should be a lot of fun.

One thing that I did want to address was snacks. Fourth graders eat lunch at 12:40, which makes for a long morning. Students are allowed to bring in snacks, but they must follow the school guidelines. Also, please don't bring in anything that requires a spoon or a napkin to eat--even if it follows the guidelines. I want snacks to energize, not distract, us.

Now that you've been on the blog once, I invite both parents and students to check frequently for new posts. While you're reading, please ask questions or make comments by clicking on the comment button at the bottom of the post. If you do not have a Google ID, you can click on Name/URL. Then type in your name (no URL needed) and post your comment. Comments are sent to my e-mail before being shown on the blog. Therefore, I can timely answer any questions about information I have posted. If you have a question or concern that more individually relates to your child, please e-mail (there is a link in "My Profile") or call me. I'm looking forward to the new school year. I hope you are, too. See you soon!

Week of April 6-April 9

Hello! I hope that everyone is having a nice weekend. I wanted to give you a run-down of what we have going on this week.

In reading, we are finishing our guided reading novels. I have a quiz planned for Wednesday, and I will be assigning a book project on Monday. The projects will be due on Monday, April 13. Students will also be taking an indicator quiz on 4.5.2, writing responses to literature. They will read a passage and answer an open-ended question.

In writing, we are working on the trait of Voice. This is the emotion and personality of the characters or author. These activities will lead us into our unit on poetry, about which I am very excited.

We learned about decimal and fraction equivalents last week in math. This week we will be focusing on rounding decimals to the nearest whole number or tenths. Our quiz is on Wednesday, and I will do any reteaching beginning on Thursday.

We will be having a story teller visit the 4th grade on Tuesday. Dan LeMonnier is coming to teach us about President Benjamin Harrison, who spent a majority of his life in Indiana. On Monday, we will spend some time discussing Mr. Harrison and prepare questions for our visitor. This visit also ties into our Indianapolis trip where we will be visiting the President Benjamin Harrison Home. I'm very excited for the children to not only learn about Benjamin Harrison but also the art of story telling.

Just a few reminders: permission slips for the Indianapolis field trip are due on April 13. If you've misplaced the slip, please let me know so that I can send home a new one. Also, there is no school on Friday.

Rested and Ready to Resume

Hello, all! I hope that you all have had a chance to rest, relax, and ready yourself for the remainder of the school year. I know I had a very nice vacation, but I am definitely looking forward to getting back to school!

When we return, we will continue reading our fantasy novels in the literature circle format. The students have done such a wonderful job in their reading and discussions. We should be finishing these books by the middle of our second week back. I can't wait to see everyone's reactions to how the stories end.

In math, we will be continuing our work with fractions, but we will now be relating them to decimals. Expect homework as we practice and review the indicators that we've already mastered throughout the school year. It's important that we keep coming back to these so that those skills are not lost.

Most students have finished the persuasive writing assignment. Those who have not will be expected to finish publishing them this week. We are then going to work on the traits of voice and sentence fluency as we prepare to start writing poetry in mid-April.

In science we will review what we've learned about the Earth, Sun and Moon. Then we'll extend that learning through reading and further explorations.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I will see you all on Monday!

All Done!

The students finished the Applied Skills section of the ISTEP today. Let me just say that everyone worked very hard and I am proud of them. We still have the multiple choice portion to take at the end of April, but that should be a breeze after this test.

Our pizza party for winning the Box Tops competition is on Friday, March 13. The class also chose to have their comfy reading reward on that day. Students may wear pajama pants and t-shirts; they can bring slippers to wear in class; also, they can bring a pillow, blanket or stuffed animal that will fit in their book bags (I know how crowded buses can be.). All of this should make for a great reward for excellent behavior and effort!

ISTEP Underway

As you probably know, we began our ISTEP testing yesterday. We will be able to wrap up on Friday. Any make up tests will be given next week. I just want to say that I am really proud of how hard the students are working!

Even though we are testing, we are still continuing to learn new material. We are reading in our fantasy-based guided reading books. It's very exciting to see how each group is really getting into their reading through the jobs they've been given to do. I have heard some excellent discussions as I've listened to each group.

In math, we are going to begin working on fractions. We'll begin by reviewing what fractions are, and then we'll move into mixed numbers and improper fractions. Much of our work will be done using pictures to help us understand.

We will be continuing our persuasive writing pieces. We had to take a break from them to review prompt writing, but now we can concentrate on completing them and adding the finishing touches.

Also, I have some very exciting news. Our class won the Box Top competition by turning in over 900 Box Tops!!!!! We are being rewarded with a pizza party. I'm not sure when it is yet, but I'll keep you informed. Thanks to all of the students and parents for their efforts in collecting those Tops.