Over the Summer

Summer has only just begun, and so I am confident the children are busy playing outside, enjoying time with friends, and doing everything possible NOT to think about school.  That is okay, I understand! :)

But there may come a time this summer when your child gets a little bored, or perhaps you want to do a bit to help keep your child's brain, um, shall we say, "fine-tuned."  For those purposes, I have listed below a few things your child (or you and child) can do over the summer.  Is it required?  Of course not!  

I hope you and your child have a wonderful summer!  It is well-deserved!

Herman will be traveling this summer and posting as he goes.  He often will reward correct guesses of his location on his Instagram account with a postcard from the location!

Pen Pal Letters:

Yesterday, your child received another pen pal letter!  If your child would like to keep up a relationship with his/her pen pal, that would be wonderful!  Your child can write a letter and mail it to:

Fulbrook Middle School

c/o Miss Kelly Glass

Weathercock Lane

Woburn Sands

Milton Keynes

MK17 8NP

UK

Please make sure the pen pal's name is clearly visible on the note.  They will be in school until the middle of July.  If your child would like to maintain a relationship with his/her pen pal (wouldn't that be fun?!), please include your home address in the letter so the correspondence may continue.  Extra postage is required, but depending on how much is in the envelope, two to three stamps should be sufficient.

Reading:

The Homewood Library has a great summer reading program about super heroes!  The students were introduced to it during Spirit Day and many quickly became fired up about it.

The students loved book clubs this year.  Why not start a book club with a friend or two and read a book together?

A reading workbook went home last week.  We did not use many pages from this (don't worry, I did teach reading, just using different strategies :) ), so there are some easy places for some extra work over the summer.

We also did not get to finish all of our Alabama History newspapers.  These would make for some great non-fiction reading!

Math:

Last week a student asked, "Would you post more menu problems on the blog this summer?"  Can I tell you that almost nothing will warm a teacher's heart like a child yearning for more?  Below you will find some tasks similar to ones we have done in the classroom along with some games that need few supplies to play.

For many of these, the challenge is always to find a formula for "n."

Most of these activities came from a book entitled About Teaching Mathematics by Marilyn Burns or from summer workshops through Greater Birmingham Math.

This is fairly similar to Robbie the Robot that the students complete recently.

Notice this problem just says "investigate."  Is there an answer?  Can you find patterns?

Math Games we have played in the classroom

Challenging Fraction Game - Remember about equivalent fractions and that fractions can be broken into pieces.  For instance: 3/4 = 1/4 + 1/2

Games to Play with a Deck of Cards

Games to Play with Dice

Also, like with reading workbook went home with very few pages turnout. This will be a great practice book to review 4th grade and be prepared for 5th grade.

Changes

It seems like just a few days ago, I was eagerly awaiting meeting the students and now our time together is just about over.  They have changed so much over the past year, in more ways that one!

Take a look at this presentation and see just how their looks have changed since the first day of school: Changes.

Spirit Day

Spirit Day, as always, was a very fun-filled day!  We started the day with an opening ceremony, story-telling, disco mania, picnic lunch, field events and a closing ceremony.  Such a fun celebration of our year together!

Spirit Day Video

Last Week

Wow, I can't believe it is actually here, our last week of school!

We've got a lot of special things going on this week like Spirit Day, 5th Grade Recognition, time with Character Partners, 4th grade store and more! In between all of the end of year celebrations, we will also squeeze in some more time for metamorphosis, Civil Rights, narrative writing and some end of year activities.

Wax Museum

Wow!  Those wax figures resembling the students did a fantastic job yesterday!  The backdrops were creative and picturesque, the costumes were some of the best I've ever seen, and their performances, right here at the end of the school year were really great!  I was proud not only of how they performed during the day, but their behavior in between shows and their willingness and eagerness to help clean up at the end of the day!  Great work, fourth graders!  

There are even more photos on Google Drive.

Operation

For the past several weeks in LEAD, students have been creating their own "Operation" game by using their knowledge of electricity and circuits.  They created some very fun and unique projects!

Week 9, Fourth Nine Weeks

It is another busy week here, our second to last week together!  Wow how time flies!

Reading: Students will be finishing up book clubs this week as well as looking at Greek and Latin roots and even some analogies.

Language: We will be working on narrative writing this week.

Math: Students are continuing to work on our geometry menu that works on patterns, shapes and problem solving.  We will also continue working on measuring angles and measurement.

Science: The students will be finishing their animal adaptation projects at the beginning of the week, then we will begin looking at metamorphosis.

Alabama History: Besides working on and presenting the Wax Museum, we will also be discussing WWI and the Roaring Twenties.

Week 8, Fourth Nine Weeks

Reading: Students are continuing their book club discussions looking out for figurative language, signposts and inferences about characters.  This week, we will also be discussing cause and effect.  Students are working on their vocabulary in their books clubs, so each group has a different set of vocabulary words.  Their vocabulary test will be Friday and the focus will mainly be using the vocabulary words in a sentence.

Language: The students are finishing up their persuasive letters to people in the school asking for changes to be made at school.  A few have already turned their notes in, and I even heard from Dr. Lowry today that the students presented some really good arguments for their cases!

Math: Our focus will continue to be on geometry as well as noticing patterns.  Later this week, students will also spend more time using a protractor.

Science: We will be studying animal adaptations that help animals to survive in certain habitats.  Students will start working on a project (done completely in the classroom) where they research an animal and explain the features of the animal that help it to survive.

Alabama History: The students will be researching for the Wax Museum and of course, going to visit our state's capital!

May

When I put the calendar up in the classroom today, the kids all said, "Wow, there is something everyday!"  Yep!  So much celebrating, giving back and culminations to our year to be done these last three weeks together!