Happy Holidays!

Thank you all SO much for your generous gifts for the holidays!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday break and I will see you in 2014!  :)

Guest Blogger: Matthew

This week has been so crazy with spirit days, preparation for our 4th grade Potlatch, and getting ready for winter break.  Let's just say that energies have been at an all time high so I'm proud of our class for really working hard to make our last week together in 2013 a great week.

We finally have another guest blogger this week - it's been a while!  Matthew wrote this week's blog post and here it is!

My two guinea pigs

By, Matt di Furia

Blog Post: December 18, 2013

                I have two guinea pigs, Fluffy and Cocoa.  I got Fluffy on January 10^th, when she was four weeks old.  She was very tiny, only five inches long.   I bought her a nice cage with fluffy pillows and a fuzzy blanket.  Three weeks later we got Cocoa.  Fluffy and Cocoa were good friends right away.  Now we call them sisters.

                They like to eat lettuce, carrots, peppers, apples, and cucumbers.  Plus they eat hay and pellets.  There’s only one problem with guinea pigs…..they eat a lot, and they poop so many LITTLE pellets, they make quite the mess.  Sooo, that’s the bad side.  The good side is they squeak a lot.  When you rattle any bag they think it’s food, and they squeak so loud and run around crazy for like ten minutes.  You would think they had just won a lottery jackpot!

                I think everyone should own a guinea pig.

Reptile Man and Spirit Week!

On Tuesday, we had the wonderful pleasure of having Reptile Man come for an amazing assembly!  He introduced us to several reptiles that normally live in his zoo, out in Monroe, Washington, but they got to travel and meet us here at North Beach!  

Snapping Turtle - how does the turtle's tongue help him catch food?

Gila Monster!

Snakes galore!

A first grader was even lucky enough to have a python wrapped around her waist!  She was so brave!

Several friends got to help show off a massive python - that's one big snake!

This was Lucy the alligator - she did a special trick for us!  Ask your student what the trick was!  Click HERE to see it for yourself.  :)

We even got to personally meet Lucy - what a friendly gator!

Anthony came after school and got his picture taken with another python at his evening performance!

Write REPTILE on your planner for Monday the 16th for bonus points.

This coming week (December 16-20) is our school's FIRST spirit week!  Our fabulous leadership team planned out 5 spirit days sure to make us come together as a school and show that North Beach spirit!  Our spirit days are:

Monday, December 16: Rainbow Day - Kindergarten wears orange, first grade wears purple, second grade wears yellow, third grade wears blue, fourth grade wears pink/red, and fifth grade wears green

Tuesday, December 17th: Sports Day - dust off that sports gear and go all out today!

Wednesday, December 18th: Crazy Hair Day - I hope to see some wild hair styles!

Thursday, December 19th: PJ Day - Roll out of bed and come to school cozy!

Friday, December 20th: North Beach spirit day - Get your school colors out and come dressed to show your seal spirit!  Our school colors are purple, yellow/gold, white, and grey, as a reminder.  :)

Each day that you show school spirit your table will get bonus points so bring out that school spirit!  :)

Buddy Readers

Our class is so fortunate this year that we get to be buddy readers with a fabulous group of Kindergartners!  There are so few of us that some of us even get to have two buddies some weeks!  We get to buddy read every Friday for about 30 minutes and the 4th graders are having a blast so far!  Here are some photos of our buddy reading so far.

We don't have a fancy carpet area in our classroom so it is a popular place to be!  :)

I love that the 4th graders are getting so excited and demonstrating such amazing reading abilities.  This week all of the students have a book that they are practicing to take down to the buddies to read to them.  It's great seeing the kids get so excited about reading illustrated books, since those aren't ones chosen very often.   I can't wait to see what they choose to read!  Write READ on your planner for Thursday for bonus points!  :)

Fill to Feed Campaign

Today we kicked off our Fill to Feed Campaign at North Beach!  Our safety patrol will be collecting coins and dollar donations to benefit Northwest Harvest, which is a fantastic organization that helps make sure families have the food they need.  The buying power that Northwest Harvest is amazing and a family of 3 can be fed for an incredible 67 cents!!  Every little bit counts so please bring in your donations through Friday.

On Monday we had our kickoff assembly that featured a special guest..... do you recognize this famous friend?

Blitz from the Seahawks was here to get us amped up and ready to donate!

Every donation really benefits Northwest Harvest and the families in our local community.  Write Seahawks on your planner for Wednesday for bonus points! :)

Monday Madness!

Well today was such a whirlwind of a day!  P4 was busy ALL DAY long and it felt like a blink of an eye and the day ended!  Pictures will be coming soon from our awesome assembly with special guest!  :)

I have been getting a few emails lately about a holiday wishlist for winter holiday gifts.  First of all, you guys are just too sweet!  There really isn't any major need in our classroom right now, which is a wonderful position to be in.  However, on my "wishlist" of "wants" would be some colorful stamp pads, fun stamps for checking off student work, and colorful pens.  Again, don't feel a need to get me a gift, but if you're interested, there are some ideas for you all.

One last reminder is that tomorrow the winter books orders are due by 4:00 pm.  We have to order tomorrow to get the materials before we go to winter break so this deadline is important.  If you're interested in ordering and want the books to be a holiday gift for your student, please place your order online and send me an email that you want it to be a surprise so that we can set up a discrete meeting time to pick up the books.  :)  Books make a great holiday gift and keep reading stamina strong over the long winter break.

Write a star on your planner for bonus points for tonight.  Thanks for checking the blog regularly to keep up with events in P4.  :)

Anchor Charts

Anchor chart catch up!

Earlier this year we started talking about using commas (a topic that is one of the hardest for students to truly master in 4th grade).  To introduce commas I handed our index cards with different sentences on them that NEEDED commas.  Students worked in their teams to decide where the comma was needed AND what the "rule" was for that comma. Together we found pretty much every "rule" about commas.  I was impressed!

Students added their commas with crayon so they would stand out!

Here is another anchor chart when we started REALLY digging into paragraphing with the 4th graders.  Since writing is our MAJOR focus this year, paragraphing is a key piece to master.  This anchor chart helped students decide when they needed to change paragraphs and one is the most frequently referenced chart in our class.

Flash Back Friday: October Book Project

During the month of October (WAAAAY back when!) we read the book The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman.  It's a fantastic Newbery award winner about a prince, better known as Prince Brat, and Jemmy, his whipping boy.  The book is set in medieval times when royalty wasn't allowed to be punished, so their whipping boys took the punishment for the royal children. The students really became thankful that they didn't live during those times!  

Each of the students chose a book project to do to show their understanding from the book.  MOST of the students chose to create a test (ironically!) and 3 ladies chose to create a diorama.  All of them turned out really well and showed so much learning!

For December we are doing a biography book project.  Students are being asked to choose a book and project to complete.  Then they will complete their project by December 20th when we will have our biography celebration.  I can't wait to see who every chooses!  :)