Camp Write Along Thursday!

Make sure you are ready for our writing camp on Thursday by bringing in supplies for the camp tomorrow!  Students are welcome to bring any or all of the following:

• A flashlight
• A sleeping bag or blanket
• A pillow

We have PLENTY of tents, so no more of those are needed.  The supplies can be kept at school over night so they are ready to go for our full day camp on Thursday.  I can't wait to greet you all for camp!  Write CAMP on your planner for Wednesday for bonus table points!

WOW!

What an AMAZING performance by the Soweto Gospel Choir today!  It was so amazing to see such enthusiasm and such a colorful performance!  I loved seeing the kids get up and dance and really enjoying the performance!

Students are coming home with a writing packet that is homework for over break.  There is a writing prompt in preparation for the MSP that talks about what they did over spring break so I am hoping to see some great writing!  The MSP is only 2 weeks away and we can use all the practice we can get - please keep an eye out for it and make sure that your student is budgeting time for it!

Enjoy spring break and I will see you all April 21st!

Paragraph Revisions

Writing is a HUGE focus for us now as we are gearing up for the MSP (which is only 4 short weeks away!) so today we revisited the process of revising!  Students have really been slacking on their writing and really creating no revisions of any meaning in their writing - what a shame!  So today I took an actual paragraph that was submitted in our last final draft and we are completely remodeling it!

We started with the paragraph a the top of the page - BORING!  Together we came up with a real character description of the looks AND actions this character could have.  Tomorrow students will turn in their revised paragraphs and I can't wait to see what they came up with!

Concert Tonight! AND Writing

Tonight is the big night of our concert at Whitman Middle School!  Please be there by 6:45 pm looking your best so that we can be ready to go right away!  There will be a small art show at the beginning of the night and the 4th and 5th grade will do their performances.  They are SO excited and I hope to see everyone there!  :)

Today we watched a fantastic video by two amazing book authors, Dav Pilkey and Jeff Kinney.  These two authors sat down at Scholastic and made a story together right as we watched them!  See the video by clicking HERE.  The story sounds pretty crazy but what I love is that we have to finish the story on our own!  I hope that seeing this video inspires some kids to see how even the craziest ideas can turn into a wonderfully crazy story that we all will be excited to read!  I am hoping we can incorporate these group writing techniques into our classroom more as the year goes on to really see their 4th grade creativity shine!

See you all this evening!

Wacky Web Tales!

To review our parts of speech that we have been learning this year, we went to Wacky Web Tales and started writing some pretty silly stories!  Our writing has been getting less and less exciting with all of our practice and so we needed to spice things up!  Here is what we came up with!

Survival!

The canoe Lucky Lulu was sinking quickly. “Abandon ship! Everyone into the legs!” hollered Captain Snevoll. But the crew and passengers knew there were not enough legs, so they threw pencils, monsters, and even one slimy van on fire overboard. Then everyone exploded into the ugly water and grabbed onto whatever they could.
Captain Snevoll ordered everyone to form a line, tie their crafts together, and sing “Nyan Cat Theme Song.” First in line were Selena Gomez and Seiji, bobbing in their stupid pencil. Next, came Donald Trump hanging on for dear life to a slimy goldfish. They were followed by googol others.
After 1357839 days, they were rescued by a strange spider. Not one passenger from the Lucky Lulu has taken a boat ride again.

A Crazy Night at the Library

One night something really shy happened at the library. The characters in the stories started spanking from their books!
Harry Potter climbed into Charlotte's Web and started jumping with Wilbur the Pig! Captain Underpants wandered into an encyclopedia and ended up lost in Seattle!
The craziest part was when Spongebob wandered into Percy Jackson and said, “Swag, I don't think we're in Washington any more.”
Then Mrs. McLane walked in and said, “Holy Mac and Cheese!! Everybody back in place!”
The characters ran around the room. Just in time! The students in grade 4th came in to get books for their reports, but it was safe. All the characters were back in the books where they belonged.

Burp!

Sniggle had everything a(n) aye-aye could ask for. He had crazy food, a big, golden bed, and the Snevoll family to look after him.
One morning Sniggle woke up. “I'm hungry!” he said. He went down to the 15 but everyone in the Snevoll family was still asleep. “I guess I'll have to find my own breakfast,” he said.
Sniggle went outside and hated down the street. On the sidewalk, he saw a(n) swag person. “Gulp!” Down went the person. “Not bad!” said Sniggle.
Next, Sniggle headed for the park. There he found a pair of books just sitting on a bench. “Gulp! Gulp.” Down went the books. “Mmmm, immature!” said Sniggle.
Sniggle was feeling very scaly as he skipped over to a video store. There he saw some tasty video games. “Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!” Sniggle swallowed Kirby's Epic Yarn and Monopoly whole.
“OMG! It must be time to go home,” said Sniggle. He jumped back home and up the stairs to his golden bed.
“Breakfast! Time for breakfast, Sniggle!” called Mrs. Snevoll.
“I don't feel very well,” groaned Sniggle. “It must have been those eggplants I ate for supper last night.” Burp!

Oh the laughs we had!  If you're interested in visiting this site over the weekend and complete one, print it off (or email it to me) for 50 bonus points for your table! 

New Behavior System

After some talking with our 4th grade team and feeling like the students who are doing so well aren't recognized and praised enough for their great work I have decided to change our classroom behavior management a little.  Every day students will be self-grading their work (on a 10 point scale) where 10 points are best and 1 point is the worst for each class "period" we have.  The total day is worth 50 points.  If students earn less than 43 points, they will be losing their recess the following day and getting an email sent home to let you know about the behavior concerns for that day.  If students are earning more than 43 points, they will be earning bonus points for their table and will be working toward an extra reward.

I greatly appreciate the students who day in and day out are modelling excellence in our classroom and outside and really feel like they are not recognized enough.  So far, I'm super impressed with how much behavior has improved today and how everyone is really being honest with their self assessments.  Great job P4!

This week we are working on SO many new things!

Our new writing unit is "Writing Prompts" where we are focusing on being able to respond to a prompt on a deadline.  The downfall of writing workshop is that we work on one piece of writing for a month or more, so students don't have a great concept of time when working on these pieces.  To help prepare and become better able to work on a deadline, each week students will be given a writing prompt in class on Monday (or the start of the week, whichever is first) and their final draft will be due and scored on Friday.  This will help students get immediate feedback on their work, as well as showing what they have learned so far this year in practice.

In reading we are continuing to work on writing summaries for fiction writing, which is getting better, but we can always use a little more "tweaking" to perfect the craft.  Next week we will be starting chapter book groups where students will get to dive into learning and responding to a longer novel!

Ask your student which tribe we are researching for social studies.  If they can tell you the name of the tribe, write NP on their planner for bonus points tomorrow!  :)

Keep up the great work P4!

Writing up a Storm!

In P4 we are working on building our writing stamina.  Reading... that comes SO easily to most of the students that they could read all day!  Writing, however, is another story.  Writing is so easy to get the dreaded "writer's block" where we cannot think of anything to write, no matter how many ideas we are given. 

SO, to help with that, all of the students have made purple writing folders which they will be taking home every night (so be on the lookout for them!) to do some writing.  This week I am asking that students write for at least 20 minutes per night to build their writing stamina and realize how much they really have to say.  After checking them off this morning I am VERY impressed with the level of writing that they have been hiding this year!  Their stories were fantastic, especially for only 20 minutes of writing!  I can't wait to see more of that in their classroom writing this year and as we get closer to the MSP in late April and early May. 

Today we also took our second science CBA, comparing fats and protein nutrients we have been studying this trimester in science.  Students did a great job writing and working on their CBA and I'm interested to see what the students came up with.

This is our last week for our current science kit (food chemistry) and if you're interested in coming in to help inventory the kit Thursday or Friday afternoon that would be a HUGE help!  The inventory shouldn't take more than an hour (closer to 30 minutes usually) and can be done in our class.  If you're interested in helping with that, please email me and let me know.  First come, first serve!  :)

Valentine's Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day!  As a reminder, we will NOT be having a class party and I will be providing a small treat for all of the students.  However, if you'd like to bring in Valentine's Day cards for the whole class, your student is welcome!  We will pass out cards after lunch time and have our small celebration together before break. 

In the Valentine's Day spirit, if you're interested in donating to our DonorsChoose class project, click HERE and enter the donation match code HEART in the checkout box to double your contribution!  We are trying to fund an amazing set of nonfiction books for future book clubs and to keep nonfiction reading exciting in our classroom.  Any donation helps us get toward our goal - we still have $469 to go so tell friends and family who are interested in donating! 

In writing we are starting our revision process on our informational article tomorrow, so students should have their second draft completely written out by tomorrow.  We have been working on each step in class this week and students were given plenty of time in class to get most, if not all, of this done.  Revising and editing is a huge part of the writing process, and honestly the hardest part for most students so we will be spending a big part of next week working on that process. 

Students are also encouraged to wear pink/purple/red for Valentine's Day spirit tomorrow.  If they do, they will get bonus points for their group and start off their new group points strong! 

Hypothesis Due Tomorrow

Science fair preparation is in full swing and students have a hypothesis due tomorrow.  If you want to get a step ahead, start coming up with your science fair materials list to get a jump on your homework!  :) 

Students are also expected to have their rough draft of their informational article finished by tomorrow morning so some students may have that with them.  It's important that students stay caught up on their writing so that they are getting practice and can use our daily lesson to help improve and continue their writing.  Writing is a HUGE focus in 4th grade so it's great to have that support at home!  :)

It's important that students are working nightly on their homework to keep up with the expectations in fourth grade.  Students are given time to work on their class work daily so any unfinished work is taken home as homework.  It is important for students to make sure that they are using their time wisely (as they gain independence) to prepare for middle school and beyond.  As we are in the second half of the school year the expectations will be getting more rigorous for students, as I have high, yet achieveable expectations, to prepare for 5th grade.  That means we will start transitioning to 5th grade expectations as the spring continues to progress.  Make sure you're helping your student work on their homework little bits every night so that they are not overwhelmed with work the night before - procrastination is NOT our friend!  :) 

P4 Needs Your Help!

A BIG thank you to all of those families who came to our school's math night!  It's always great to see so many families supporting mathematics and giving it such a strong message both at school and at home!

P4 is starting to run low on some crucial supplies and we could use your help replenishing those supplies if you're able to help out!  We really need some sticky notes and white board markers.  We use these all. the. time and so our supplies start to dwindle rather quickly.  While we are not completely out, we will be soon.  If you're able to help out and bring some white board markers and/or sticky notes (Costco has GREAT deals on both!) we would all really appreciate it and it will be worth 5 extra bonus points for EACH item brought in.  Thanks again for your continued support! 

Today we started our new writing unit.  Ask your student what it is and help them brainstorm ideas for their "expert" list.  If they can tell you what our writing unit is, write the word EXPERT on their planner for bonus points!

And We Are Back! Welcome to 2013!

Today flew by in a whirlwind of new year, new things, new seats, new everything!  :)  Well, not new everything but getting back into the swing of things is pretty tough sometimes. 

It sounded like everyone had a great break, which is fantastic to hear!

We continued working on our persuasive essay today and we will continue to revise and edit that this week with the hopes that it will be ready to turn in by Monday!  Quick turn around time, yes, but we are all ready to move on.  I have been seeing some great writing from the students though, which is fantastic to see!

There is a permission slip coming home today for our upcoming field trip (which is next Tuesday already!) to Garfield High School for their play Treasure Island.  We went last year to the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and it was great so I can't wait to see what they have in store for us this year!  Those permission slips are due Thursday with the $7 bus and admission fee.  We also need at least 4 chaperones (who also need to pay) so that our class can go.  If you are interested, please let me know.

Today we also introduced our focus for the month of January in reading, which is nonfiction book clubs!  I am really excited about these book clubs and can't wait to hear more talking about reading and learning. 

For bonus points, ask your student what article we are reading for our first book club.  If they can tell you, write BONES on their planner for BONE-us points - Ha!  :)

Carkeek Field Trip Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our Carkeek Park Field Trip!  The weather is forcasted to be... well this is Washington, so it could change at the drop of a dime, so who knows!  Please come to school dressed for the weather and in clothes that can get dirty.  Rain boots, hats, coats, etc are highly recommended.  If it's sunny and beautiful or if it's pouring rain (like it was last year) we will be out there so please come prepared.  Send students with a substantial snack to make sure that they are able to make it through the whole morning working, though we will be back for lunch on time for the school lunch. 

Today we started our persuasive writing unit.  Ask your student what persuasive writing is.  If they can tell you, write PW on today's date on your planner for bonus points.  Three tables have earned the class reward so hopefully those last 2 groups can catch up so we get those rewards before break!  :) 

Get plenty of rest tonight!  We have a big day ahead of us!

Rough Drafts due Tomorrow!

Students have spent the last 2 days in class drafting their realistic fiction stories.  Their finished rough draft is due tomorrow in class.  Students who are not finished should have brought their writing notebooks home to make sure they finished on time.  Stories should be at least 2 pages written, though if your students is writing more than 10 pages, please either let me know so I can help them focus their ideas or help them narrow it down at home.  If this is taking more than an hour to finish, please draw a line and sign where students left off and I will know that is has been attempted at home.  If students are not done they will be spending their recess time making up the work that is not completed since students were given a lot of work time in class to start.

Permission slips are coming home today for the Jazz Nutcracker at Roosevelt field trip that will happen November 29th.  The trip costs $4 per person, chaperones included.  We would love to have you chaperone our trip so if you are interested, please mark on the permission slip and I will contact you with more details as the date gets closer.  The first group that has all of their permission slips signed and returned will get 10 bonus points for their group. 

Today we also spent our entire afternoon (from 2-the end of the day) at YADA.  Ask your student what YADA was and what happened!  We had a lot of fun!  If your student tells you about YADA, write YADA in their planner for bonus points.

School Pictures and Writing

Individual pictures are in today to be on the lookout for those.  If you're interested in retakes, retakes will be later this month, after conference week. 

Thank you for those people who ordered book orders, you're making a huge difference in our class by ordering because we are able to get a lot of books for free to add to our classroom which is amazing and keeps our kids reading!  Book orders should be in late this week or early next week, depending on when things ship out.

We started drafting our realistic fiction story today, focusing on incorporating all of the parts of a story AND using proper paragraphing.  Ask your student to tell you what a paragraph should look like.  If they can answer you correctly, write the word paragraph (spelled correctly :)) in your planner for bonus points tomorrow.  Remember: to get bonus points, you need to have your planner out on your desk tomorrow morning.  :)

Enjoy your evening!

Rainy Tuesday

Well the rain has officially hit, and hit hard!  We had quite the downpour during class.  Being out in the portable you REALLY hear that rain!  Just as a reminder, please make sure that students are coming with coats and jackets so that they stay warm when they are outside and make sure that they can stay healthy for as long as possible.

Students have been working hard responding to the prompt, "Think of the most valuable thing you own that wasn't bought in a store.  Explain why that item is important to you."  As a school we are trying to work together to make our writing stronger and so we are all (yes, K-5) giving this prompt and seeing how our writing measures up year to year.  This will give us a lot of information to not only help inform our instruction for the rest of the year but also give us an idea of what we need to focus on for ou grade levels.  You may have heard some complaints about this prompt because many students are struggling with having the restrictions that is cannot be "store bought" but the goal is just to have an idea of what their informational writing is like at the beginning of the year, so rest assured it will all be okay!  :)

Students may have also let you know that we got rid of our "Hoot Loot" because many people told me they felt it was distracting and as an incentive tool it wasn't useful.  So, we changed over (based on class vote) to table points.  I have noticed a huge difference in behavior since we have done this which is great.  We still have our good and bad moments but overall behavior has been much better.  The students will be working toward goals that they will select later this week.

Lastly, the Halloween party is on the horizon (only a week from tomorrow!) and so just wanted to remind you to send back your party RSVP forms for supplies and money.  We will be pooling money to buy sandwiches for the kids so we can have lunch altogether during the party.  Each student needs to donate $2, if possible.  Thanks!  You can also sign up online at: http://missdsp4.shutterfly.com/

Monday!

Well another Monday has passed us and wow was it a fast one! Must have been eventful weekends because everyone was so tired today! :)

Since we have a shortened week we don't have a celebrity of the week and we won't have a spelling list since we want to make sure we have plenty of practice time. Enjoy the week off of spelling and get ready for more long vowels next week!

Today we finished our fall art mobiles and they turned out GREAT! Pictures coming soon!

Since we don't have spelling homework this week we have other homework that will be coming home this week. Today students have writing where they need to finish re-writing their discovery drafts of their personal narratives. Parent input is GREATLY appreciated for students. As a group we are having a really hard time understanding that the first draft we write is not perfect and needs to have adjustments made, whether that be spelling, paragraphing, grammar, etc. The kids seemed outraged when I suggest that they re-write a clean draft so we can continue editing this week. Once we started editing, though, they realized how much could be adjusted and changed.... and we haven't even started paragraphing! :) Baby steps and we will get there together!

We have also started working on alphabetizing and this week we will spend a lot of time working on dictionary skills. Dictionary skills are really important at this age to build vocabulary and have the ability to find words in a reasonable amount of time. Since the dictionaries are alphabetical we start with alphabetizing. Most of us did a fantastic job today and I was surprised how much they already knew! I can see this will be no problem for us which is great to hear! We are started building vocabulary next week and those dictionaries will be a lot of help for us!