Drip Paintings

Did you see the link Mrs. Connell and Mrs. Anderson sent out? Our abstract drip paintings are online in the school’s virtual gallery. These all look so cool! Be sure to check out our artwork here.

Parent Orientation

It was great to see those of you who came out tonight. For those of you who missed, here are the slides we discussed:

 

 

Also, some handouts were given out at orientation - if you were unable to attend, these forms are in your child's take home folder. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask.

Finally, for more detailed info on the fourth grade, please click here to see our Fourth Grade Handbook (this can also be found on the right of my blog, titled "Important Info for Parents"). Again, thanks to those who came out tonight.

Mad Minutes

Dear Families,

We have now begun Mad Minutes! Please check your child’s Wednesday Folder to see which level they are currently on. In order to pass, they can only miss two or three problems. If they have a smiley face on their mad minute, they passed and will be on the next level.  Whichever level they are currently on, those are the facts they should be practicing nightly as part of their math facts homework.

It is critical that your child practice nightly. We will begin more challenging math this year that involves multiple steps. If your child is struggling to find the solution to the basic facts, then the multi-step math problems will be even more challenging.

Below is the sequence of Mad Minutes. If your child passes a level, please use the list below to see which facts they should begin practicing next!

Thank you for your support and help in your child’s education!

Science Studies Weekly Homework

Okay families, beginning tonight, kiddos will be given their copy of Science Studies Weekly. They will be responsible for reading their newspaper by the following Friday. There are 3 parts they will need to complete each week:

1. Read the entire newspaper
2. Complete the puzzle on the back page
3. Take the quiz online

They do not need to wait until Friday to turn it in -- once completed, please return to school! They can use the reading done for the newspaper for TWO of their reading logs each week.

To take the quiz online, we will go over this process step-by-step in class, but you can use this page as a reference at home as well! If students finish their morning routine early, they are more than welcome to use my computers at school. However, some may need to take these at home / prefer to take them at home. Whichever they choose (and it may vary week to week, quizzes need to be completed by the following Friday morning - one week to do this!)

How to do this:

1. Go to http://www.estudiesweekly.com/ 

2. Log in

• username: ocsfirstnamelastname (no spaces, no capital letters!) (same as most of their edmodo accounts!)
• For example my username would be: ocscourtneycurran
• password: husky77 (no spaces, no capital letters!)

3.  Once you are in, you can listen to the articles being read aloud to you (so neat!) while you follow along! If you want, you can listen to every article in the paper, or you can read yourself, or you can do a variety of both. Whatever works for you!

4. Once you have read the article, it's time to take the quiz. You have one week to take the quiz (by the following Friday morning, all quizzes must be submitted). Once you submit, you cannot make any changes.

5. Bonus: Gain points to decorate your rat cage!

Fair vs Equal

It has been made very clear that I need to challenge my class this year - they want to learn! So today, we discussed the difference between FAIR and EQUAL. Equal is when something is done the exact same for everyone. I gave the example of giving band-aids. Everyone came up with an imaginary booboo. Whether it was their head, arm, nose, or leg, everyone got a band-aid on their right arm. That's fair right?!

We realized that when we say, "Hey, that's not fair!" what we really mean is, "Hey, that's not equal!" So this year I am going to be as fair as possible, but that doesn't necessarily mean everything will be the exact same for everyone. We realize we all have different needs and abilities and I need to challenge those independent needs.

So, kiddos had a chance to tell me how they best learn – working alone or with others, with no noise or with music, sitting at tables or working around the room, etc. It is my goal, to make this year as FAIR as possible for each learner. Learning may look different for each of us, but that’s okay as long as we are all challenged and learning!

We decorated band-aid nametags today which states what we need as learners this year. Here we are decorating our nametags, as well as the up close of our nametags:

 

Classroom Expectations

Today we really focused on what we expect of one another in our classroom from the perspective of the student and the teacher. We were very thoughtful in what expectations we have for ourselves as learners, as well as expectations they have for me as their teacher. They were very honest in what they expected of me. The biggest thing I heard was they all want to be challenged this year. They explained to me that if something is easy, learning tends to be boring, but if they are challenged that's when learning takes place and becomes more fun. What an awesome expectation they have for themselves!

From this list we also developed our Class Promise. We all "signed" the promise by placing our handprints around it, showing that we agree with our promise. Ask your child to show you the motions tonight that go along with our promise!

 



First Day of School

What a great first day of school we had today! We were busy making new friends, learning school and classroom expectations, and getting used to the fourth grade. Today table groups made skits to teach each other these expectations. We also went on a classroom scavenger hunt to find important objects around the room. Together as a class we also brainstormed what we believe a great classmate is, does, says, and is not.

We were all so thoughtful and purposeful during this time. It is our goal to keep these things in mind all year round so that we can all be great classmates to each other. 

Today was an excellent first day and has me very excited for the rest of a fabulous year!