Bright Futures

As we celebrate Red Ribbon Week, we remember that making good choices helps to protect our future.  Yesterday, the kids dressed up like what they want to be when they grow up.  We've got some bright futures here!  (Some are still deciding, but they've still got bright futures! :) )

Teacher, Doctor, Basketball Player, Person

Person, Doctor, Vet, Soccer Player

Athletic Trainer, Soccer Player, Nurse, Designer

Basketball Player, Vet, Doctor

Football Player, Vet, Doctor, Soccer Player

Person, Singer, Teacher, Law Student

Jabberwocky

The students made sense of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "Jabberwocky."  They also did a great job of fluently reading the poem!  Watch the video of them reading it here.

Test on the Ear

On Thursday, we will have a test on the ear.  Students need to be able to label the parts of the ear listed below as well as be able to describe how each part plays a part in our hearing:
pinna
ear canal
ear drum
ossicles (the three bones: hammer/malleous, anvil/incus and stapes/stirrup)
cochlea
auditory nerve
eustachian tube

This website will be very helpful in labeling the parts: Label the Ear
This website will be very helpful with giving information about each part of the ear: Parts of the Ear

Students should know the difference between the outer ear, middle ear and inner ear.

Students should be able to tell what else the ear does for you besides collect sound.

Students should be able to describe how our ears help us hear sounds.  For that, these videos may be helpful:
 

Week 3, Second Nine Weeks

This week is Red Ribbon Week which means we are reminding kids to live healthy life-styles and stay drug free.  Each day has a different theme and you should receive text messages to remind you about how your child should dress the next day.  Tuesday, the high school peer helpers will be here to teach the kids more about making good choices.

Reading: This week we will be doing a variety of reading activities that all have a little "Halloween spirit" involved.  We will be trying to make sense of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" as well as reading The Spider and the Fly and determining who's fault it is that the Fly was eaten.  On Halloween we will read an unsolved mystery from history about the Salem Witch Trials and let the students draw their own conclusions about what really happened.

Language: We are now discussing what it takes to make a complete sentence. We are talking about subject and predicate.  School House Rock is still a great teaching tool.  Treat yourself to this wonderful video about subjects and predicates:

Math: The students will be investigating multiplication this week by looking at multiplication tables and patterns that appear on them as well as investigating prime, composite and square numbers.  Students should be practicing their multiplication facts.  There are lots of wonderful apps out there to help with this: Times Table, HyperBlast, Mad Math, Match-Up, Code Squad, Math Slicer and Factor Pop!  

Science: We are learning more about how the ear works this week and will have our test on Thursday.

Alabama History: We will be continuing (and hopefully finishing) our discussions about the explorers as well as the French and Indian War.

Recess Bag

This past nine weeks, these fourth graders logged the most activity points through the O.W.L. Challenge for P.E., surpassing the all other third, fourth and fifth grade classes.  Because of their hard-work and dedication to staying active, they earned an incredible recess bag.  With the weather cooperating, we couldn't help but go outside and try out some of these great new items!

Instruments

This week, the students presented their creative instruments that could change pitch and volume.  Students created instruments out of just about everything: knitting needles, bamboo, water bottles, copper pipes and so much more.  Great creativity and wonderful work!

Week 2, Second Nine Weeks

Reading: Most students have now set their three reading goals for this nine weeks.  They are choosing great goals like trying a new genre such as biography or historical fiction, reading a book by an author they have enjoyed or trying a new series.  This week we will be looking more in depth at why author's write different pieces of writing.  Students will be reading picture books, articles and even looking through the newspaper this week to find evidence of texts that persuade, inform and/or entertain.

Language: This will be our last week to focus on verbs.  Our focus this week will be on matching verbs with the subject of the sentence.  For instance, "he is" rather than "he are."  We will have a verb assessment on Friday.  Here are some websites that might be helpful:
Verb Power - Review of type of verb (action, helping, linking, etc.)
Verbs - This is sort of like "whack-a-mole" and should be really helpful in identifying verbs
Verb Frontier - Works on correctly spelling verbs as well as matching the verb to the subject of the sentence
Verb Ride - Similar to Verb Frontier
Past and Future Match-Up - Match future tense verbs with the past tense of the verb
Subject-Verb-Matching - Match up subjects with correct verbs in the correct tense
Verb Balloons - Quickly identify which balloon is a verb before it floats away!

Math: Most students are feeling very confident in subtraction, so we are moving forward with multiplication, but that doesn't mean that students shouldn't continue to practice subtraction at home, and we'll still be doing a lot here!  This week we'll be examining what multiplication truly is.  Students should be spending a little bit of time each night practicing multiplication, practicing subtraction and/or playing some of those math games.

Alabama History: The students will be learning more about the explorers that explored this area, which country they representend, why each country wanted to explore the area and how the different explorers interacted with the Native Americans.

Science: Today and tomorrow the students will be sharing their unique instruments!  Later on in the week we'll talk a bit more about how the ear works, hopefully having our test on the ear early next week.

Strategies for Subtraction

We have been working on subtraction now for a couple of weeks and the children are thinking more and more about the best strategies to use when solving problems. This video will explain a few of those different strategies so the parents can learn a bit more about what we have been doing and the students can reference these different strategies if need be.

Strategies for Subtraction

Cochlear Implants

On Thursday afternoon, we had two very special guest speakers in the classroom.  Darby's brother, Landon, a fifth grader, has cochlear implants.  He and his mom came to speak with us about exactly what a cochlear implant is, how they work, and how they have affected his life.  The children had wonderful questions about the implants and our gracious guests answered each and every question.

Thank you so much to Mrs. Myers and Landon for taking the time to come and speak with the class as we learn more about how the ear works.

First Alabamians Projects

Last week, the students presented their First Alabamians projects.  I loved seeing the students tackle their first projects with such great effort and creativity.  The students presented Google presentations, prezis, books, dioramas, posters and even some songs.  Excellent work, everyone!