Star Lab is Coming!!!

Fourth grade is gearing up for a week of stars and galaxies. We will have the awesome StarLab in the science lab on Tuesday, December 20. Classes will rotate through each teacher's room for a different lesson and activity that relates to our science GPS standards. Room 307 is in need of a few donations to complete our activity. We need several packs of the large styrofoam cups. If you would be willing to donate a pack, please email me and let me know. I would greatly appreciate it.

Week of December 5

Monday is the Youth Museum Field Trip. Remember to bring your lunch if you aren't ordering from the cafeteria. We will begin administering benchmark testing on Tuesday morning and continue through Thursday morning. Please make sure your child gets plenty of rest, eats a nutritious breakfast and arrives at school on time. We will begin promptly at 8:00.

November 14

We are diving deeper into multiplication with multiplying 2-digit and 3-digit by 2-digit numbers. We are learning to use regrouping and partial products to find the product. Students use whichever they feel comfortable using. In reading, we are in our detective groups investigating our mysteries. This week we will be taking a closer look at understanding plot and mood and recognizing point of view. In writing, we are learning to write a summary of fiction. This will come in handy as we compose our responses for the mystery book report. Don't forget that the book report project is due on Wednesday, November 30. Our science curriculum is taking us on a journey into space as we learn about the earth, moon and solar system. I know we are all anxiously awaiting the upcoming holiday break. Enjoy the time with your family and remember to be thankful for your blessings.

Week of October 24

Students worked as tribes to create the environment in which their tribal group settled. They had to include food, shelter, and clothing. Great projects!! Way to go Natives!!

Week of October 10

Another busy week has flown by us. We are coming to an end of our study of Native Americans. We should finish this next week. We are rapidly moving further into multiplication with 2-3 digit numbers multiplied by 1-2 digit numbers. Your student is expected to have mastered their 0-9 facts by this week. Please continue to practice those facts with your child if they do not have the speed plus the accuracy. Skills Tutor is a great way to practice fluency. Your child can access this site from the Addison webpage. They should use their student ID as user, cobb as password, and the site ID is addison01.

Reading logs were due last Friday for the first quarter. Your child will receive a new one for this period. Please keep this in their GATOR book so all reading can be recorded. Please don't forget to sign the report at the end of the quarter to verify your child's reading.

Next week is conference week. I look forward to meeting with each of you to share your child's academic progress. Your child should be at the conference as well to share his/her personal goals and expectations. Thank you for your continued support.

Week of 10-3

Parents, please remind your student to work quietly and stay focused during the day. If they are not listening during instruction, then they will miss important information.We have had a difficult week as far as self-control is concerned. Students need to keep hands to themselves and be respectful of others. Thank you for your support.

We are learning all about where Native Americans settled and how they used their environments to obtain food, clothing, and shelter. See our totem poles and finger masks in the pictures below. Very creative group!!!

October is Here!

Wow!! I can't believe that time is flying by so fast. We are quickly approaching the end of the first nine week grading period. We will be having student- led conferences during the week of October 24-28. Report cards will be issued during your child's conference. All students will be dismissed two hours early this week. Please return the conference form that was sent home last week to confirm your time. I look forward to seeing each of you and sharing your child's achievements.

Please continue to have your child practice his/her multiplication facts to 9. These need to be mastered as soon as possible. We will begin multiplying and dividing by 2 digits soon.

Addison's Fall Festival is coming soon. Join us on October 14 from 5-8 for fun and games.

Congratulations to Dakota for being selected as our classroom Student Leadership Team representative for 2011-2012.

Week of 9-19-11

We continue to work hard in room 307. In math, we are finishing our unit on place value, mental math and expressions using variables. We will take the post-test on this unit next early next week. During reading and writing workshop, we are working on strategies that help us become better readers and writers. Good readers make predictions to help make sense of the text. We have begun our personal narratives and are learning the characteristics of good leads. See the pictures below to get a glimpse of our latest science lab lesson. We learned about weather fronts and frontal boundaries. Don't forget: Book Projects are due next Friday!!

Parent Orientation

Thanks to all who came to parent orientation last night. Hope you gained some helpful information about fourth grade. Please don't hesitate to email me if you have questions or concerns. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to work with this awesome group of students. We are having a blast.

Picture day is next Monday and Addison night at Stevie B's  is on Tuesday. Come on out and eat pizza with me and Mr. Williams. We might even serve it to you!! Let's have a great turn out to support our Partner in Education! See you there!!

Week of 8-29

We had another great but extremely busy week. In math, we completed our study of place value to the millions and tested on Friday. The graded test will be sent home next week. We continued learning about maps and globes as we used scale to locate cities within 2,100 miles of Atlanta. We also used coordinates of latitude and longitude to find specific places on a map. We began our narrative writing assessment about family celebrations. The narrative genre will be our first unit of study during writers' workshop. We continue to review and practice classroom rituals and routines so that our day moves smoothly. In science, we continued learning about the water cycle and how it relates to weather. We went to the science lab on Friday for a lesson with Mrs. Knobbe. Students observed how water vapor collected on salt grains and made applications to the role of condensation nuclei in the formation of clouds. Check us out below!!

Our first observation



Careful observations



Watching water vapor condense around smoke particles and observing the effects of air pressure 

Does the earth really have the same amount of water as when the dinosaurs were around?.....We know the answer!!

Verifying my notes

We love our lab volunteers!! We  thank you!!

Recording the changes that we observed...Where did the salt go?

 

Students are learning the "Water Cycle Boogie"



Classroom BUZZ!!

    What a busy week we've had in Room 307. We started the week with a visit from the Cobb County Fire Department for our first fire safety lesson. We will visit the fire safety house on Monday so remember to bring a sack lunch if you signed up for one. Wear comfortable shoes and no dresses.
    We continued to study the water cycle in science. We had another lesson in the science lab where students created a model of the water cycle and watched it in action. On Friday, Mrs. Jones, Michelle's mom, came in and taught us about the man-made water cycle and how it relates to the natural water cycle. Thank you, Mrs. Jones for sharing your expertise with us. Check out the picture below.
    Book reports came home on Friday. Please see your child's packet for directions. The fiction report is due on September 30. Your child will present their report and project to the class.

Mrs. Jones teaches us about the man-made water cycle

This is NOT a box!

This week has been all about building a respectful learning community. Students are working together as teams to create something that will help them be successful this year in fourth grade. Imaginations went wild and their creations were fabulous!

 "Mr. Slayer" helps us with math facts.
Sticky notes are in his hat to write down math problems.

Meet "Mr. Math" 

This super computer has solar panels on the top
making it "green".
It helps us learn any subject.

This team is working hard on their "Calculinator"

We all pledge to live and work according
 to the Constitution of Room 307

Meet and Greet!!

Wow!! It was so great seeing all of you who came to Meet and Greet today. It was wonderful to meet several new faces to Addison, as well. I am looking forward to another fabulous year and can't wait to started. Get your rest over this last summer weekend and be ready to start on Monday morning at 7:45. Don't forget your school supplies if you have not already brought them to the room. Also, remember that you'll need a school box, too. See you Monday!!

Important Upcoming Dates

August 12- Meet and Greet (7:30 am-9:00am)
August 15- First Day of School
August 31- Picture Day
September 8- Orientation (6:00pm-7:30 pm)

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog. It is a work in progress so please bare with me as I get it rolling.I am looking so forward to the upcoming school year. Fourth grade will be fun and challenging for all of us. I hope you enjoyed your summer and are ready to be back at Addison. See you soon!!