Monday, November 18, 2013
Classroom Happenings 11-18-13
Reading-We are finishing up our "lit circles". The class broke into groups of 4 or 5 and each group read and discussed a different book. Each day the group members had different jobs after reading their selection for the day. Ask your child about the book he/she read and these jobs, some of the jobs were: discussion director, word wizard, passage picker. and connector. The kids posted their jobs on Edmodo and then other group members commented on their posta. Writing-We are beginning a unit on personal and persuasive essays. The kids are learning to pick their thesis statement, choose 3 points to argue or defend, and then develop their essay from there. Math-We are nearing the end of a unit called How Many Packages, How Many Groups, which focuses on the concept of multiplication and division of bigger numbers. I will be sending home practice tests for this unit if you would like to go over them with your child. Content-We have finished studying the 13 Colonies before the American Revolution and now we are beginning the causes of the Revolution. This will be an exciting unit as the children actually feel how the colonists felt as pressure was being put on them by the British government. More will come home about this in an email, it will be a secret, at least for a while, from the kids! Technology-If you have a keyboard computer at home, let your child work on Typing Club from home, We are doing this in the lab as well, but from what I understand, our state testing will be on the computer this year and the better we are at typing, the more it will help us on the state tests. !
*Check our calendar for other important dates. And, don't forget to sign up on this link, if you are interested, to chaperone our upcoming field trip to the Children's Theatre. permission forms went home today.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Classroom Happenings-10-29-13
Reading-We are getting close to the end of our read aloud City of Ember! We have really enjoyed reading this class book together, ask your child to tell you about it. We should be able to watch the movie this Friday! Writing-This week in writing we have been working on a piece about our Explorer that we are going to use to create an online Voki. We read mentor texts like Diary of a Worm and Atlantic to help us use creative strategies in our own writing of our Explorer. Math-We are beginning a unit called How Many Packages? How Many Groups? I will send an email out with more information about this math unit. Content-We are finishing up our study of Explorers and about to begin studying about the colonization of our country!
A message from the office:
*Check our calendar for other important dates.
A message from the office:
SSC Family,
The 5x7 classroom group and 4th grade level pictures
are in! You may drop by the front office if you would like to take a look at the pictures before buying. The pictures are only $7.00
each. Online
payment is preferred at www.myschoolfees.com
in which you will be able to print confirmation of payment. Otherwise, send cash or check
payment in an envelope to the school. Please make
checks payable to South Shades Crest School. As a fundraiser for our
school, SSC receives 100% of sales!!
Thank you for
supporting our school with this memorable fundraiser. If you have any
questions, please call the school office at 439-3000.
*Check our calendar for other important dates.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
October 14
Book Fair this week! Our class will go each day from 1-1:30. We filled out wish lists that should have come home on Friday. October 15th from 5-7 p.m. is a time for kids and parents to come and enjoy the book fair. Check out our class wish list box, the kids picked out a few books that our class would love to have!
Reading-We are finishing our study of Questioning in Narrative Non-Fiction and will begin working on Analyzing Text Structure in Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction. We will be exploring text features such as character, setting, plot and conflict and we will continue questioning to help make sense of text. Check Reading Rewards to make sure the kids are sticking to a book each night and writing reviews at the end of each book finished. Not only the kids in our room, but kids everywhere get good ideas for books to read from our reviews! Writing-We have been working on collecting ideas for writing in our binders and adding detail to our writing pieces. Sticking to a topic will continue to be a focus. We will also begin writing Personal Narratives and work on skills like keeping in important parts of the story and taking unimportant parts out, showing the passage of time with our words and showing why characters do what they do. To add to our ideas for writing, we will begin collecting memories to put into our writing notebook. We will explore different ways to write about these memories. Please help the kids remember to bring in memories. They will be glued into a book so if you do not want to part with original pictures, just print a copy and send that in. No bigger than about a 4x6. Math-We have officially started multiplying and dividing with bigger numbers, at first a few of us were a little stressed but we are quickly becoming comfortable with the process. I sent videos home with our beginning strategies so check old emails if you have not seen them. Content-Our first report card will not have a Social Studies grade because we have only been studying science this first nine weeks. For a deeper understanding and to keep the flow, we will be studying Social Studies for the next two 9 weeks. During this time we will cover the time period starting with the European Explorers and going through the birth of our nation, The American Revolution and the formation of our government. Then, the last nine weeks, we will return to studying Science.
Reading-We are finishing our study of Questioning in Narrative Non-Fiction and will begin working on Analyzing Text Structure in Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction. We will be exploring text features such as character, setting, plot and conflict and we will continue questioning to help make sense of text. Check Reading Rewards to make sure the kids are sticking to a book each night and writing reviews at the end of each book finished. Not only the kids in our room, but kids everywhere get good ideas for books to read from our reviews! Writing-We have been working on collecting ideas for writing in our binders and adding detail to our writing pieces. Sticking to a topic will continue to be a focus. We will also begin writing Personal Narratives and work on skills like keeping in important parts of the story and taking unimportant parts out, showing the passage of time with our words and showing why characters do what they do. To add to our ideas for writing, we will begin collecting memories to put into our writing notebook. We will explore different ways to write about these memories. Please help the kids remember to bring in memories. They will be glued into a book so if you do not want to part with original pictures, just print a copy and send that in. No bigger than about a 4x6. Math-We have officially started multiplying and dividing with bigger numbers, at first a few of us were a little stressed but we are quickly becoming comfortable with the process. I sent videos home with our beginning strategies so check old emails if you have not seen them. Content-Our first report card will not have a Social Studies grade because we have only been studying science this first nine weeks. For a deeper understanding and to keep the flow, we will be studying Social Studies for the next two 9 weeks. During this time we will cover the time period starting with the European Explorers and going through the birth of our nation, The American Revolution and the formation of our government. Then, the last nine weeks, we will return to studying Science.
Monday, September 30, 2013
September 30
Fall is in the air and things are beginning to cool off a bit!
Here is what's going on in class: Reading-We are finishing up our study of the elements of non-fiction. We are using a site called Razz Kids that has leveled books so that each child is reading books that are just right! We use this site on Mondays during "nook time" and should be reading and taking quizzes on at least 2 books a week. You can log into your child's account and sign up for a parent account if you would like to keep track of how your child is doing. Our read aloud is Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher, the kids are enjoying debating what they would do if I was absent and the sub did not show up! On Tuesdays during read aloud, the kids can log in to Reading Rewards and use the blog feature as a sort of "back channel" to discuss the book as I am reading it. Writing-This week we are publishing our non-fiction "how to" books. We have read a few mentor texts to help us make our non-fiction books more exciting. Ask your child about the book How to Lay an Egg! Spelling This week the children have different spelling lists according to how they did on the practice test today. Please remind them to do all of their Spelling City activities for homework except the test. We will do that on Friday in class. Math-We are busy collecting and analyzing data. Let your child tell you about the data we collected on the heights of fourth and first graders. They can tell you about the range of heights for both grades, the average height of a fourth and first grader, an estimate of how much taller a fourth grader is than a first grader and how to use a line plot graph to better display our data. Now we are working in small groups to come up with a question to collect more data to compare. Continue to have your child work on multiplication fluency, division is coming soon! Content-We have started our study of electricity by learning about how to be safe with electricity. Next we learned about magnets and static electricity. By the end of this week we will be learning all about circuits and how electricity travels by trying to light a light bulb, we will also discover what conductors and insulators are and how they effect circuits!
The kids should now be using the app Assignment Nook to write their homework and they should be giving you their calendars to initial each night to show that you have seen their homework. You can always see our class homework blog here if you need to.
*Check our calendar for important dates. Have a great week!
Here is what's going on in class: Reading-We are finishing up our study of the elements of non-fiction. We are using a site called Razz Kids that has leveled books so that each child is reading books that are just right! We use this site on Mondays during "nook time" and should be reading and taking quizzes on at least 2 books a week. You can log into your child's account and sign up for a parent account if you would like to keep track of how your child is doing. Our read aloud is Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher, the kids are enjoying debating what they would do if I was absent and the sub did not show up! On Tuesdays during read aloud, the kids can log in to Reading Rewards and use the blog feature as a sort of "back channel" to discuss the book as I am reading it. Writing-This week we are publishing our non-fiction "how to" books. We have read a few mentor texts to help us make our non-fiction books more exciting. Ask your child about the book How to Lay an Egg! Spelling This week the children have different spelling lists according to how they did on the practice test today. Please remind them to do all of their Spelling City activities for homework except the test. We will do that on Friday in class. Math-We are busy collecting and analyzing data. Let your child tell you about the data we collected on the heights of fourth and first graders. They can tell you about the range of heights for both grades, the average height of a fourth and first grader, an estimate of how much taller a fourth grader is than a first grader and how to use a line plot graph to better display our data. Now we are working in small groups to come up with a question to collect more data to compare. Continue to have your child work on multiplication fluency, division is coming soon! Content-We have started our study of electricity by learning about how to be safe with electricity. Next we learned about magnets and static electricity. By the end of this week we will be learning all about circuits and how electricity travels by trying to light a light bulb, we will also discover what conductors and insulators are and how they effect circuits!
The kids should now be using the app Assignment Nook to write their homework and they should be giving you their calendars to initial each night to show that you have seen their homework. You can always see our class homework blog here if you need to.
*Check our calendar for important dates. Have a great week!
Monday, September 16, 2013
September 16
Wow our school We raised over 55,000 pennies for a total of$608.00 today! Don't forget to send in nickels (or pennies) tomorrow!!
Open House is tomorrow night at 6:30, I hope to see you there!
Again, we had a wonderful time on our field trip! I was really proud of our children. If you did not receive text updates on your phone during the day of our trip, then make sure and sign up for our class updates here.
Just a little bit about what is going on in class: Reading-We are learning about the types and features of non-fiction. We are also learning how t quickly find information and better understand information when we are reading non-fiction. Writing-We have packed our journals with ideas for writing Now, to go along with our reading non-fiction unit, we are writing "How To" books. We began by exploring "How To" books and noticing what other authors included in their "How To" books. We decided that these types of books could get boring so we read a mentor text book called How To Lay an Egg to help us with using our voices and some authors craft to make our books more exciting. We will be publishing our books soon. In Grammar we will be focusing on nouns and pronouns this week. Math- We are still in our first unit. This week we are focusing on the multiples of 100 and their factors. You will see examples of this in our homework this week. Don't forget the Math Student Handbook I sent home, it will help you help your child with any of these homework pages. Some of the kids are still not fluent with their multiplication facts 1-12. This is imperative to be successful with harder multiplication problems and division this year! There are some links below to help your child practice their facts. Content-We are finishing up our study of Space this week. We have learned about the differences of comets, meteors, meteorites, meteoroids, and asteroids today and we will finish the week learning about moon phases and stars with a culminating test this Friday. Your child should have a study guide with answers. Technology-We have been very busy in technology! The kids are using Spelling City practice their spelling words, blogs for, well...blogging...Razz kids to keep their reading skills sharp, TenMarks for working on math and we log our reading on Reading Rewards. We are using lots of other sites too. Ask your children to show you the sites they are working on, many of them have parent codes that you will see from your child's account. Here are some video tutorials that will help you use some of these sites. Remember to keep talking about online safety and have clear rules for your child using technology at home.
Sites to check out!
*Check our calendar for important dates.
Favorite Links-for just about anything your child needs to work on or learn about in 4th grade!
Lab Lessons-This is the link we go to during our computer lab, remind your child to check here and make sure their lab assignments were completed each week.
Nouns and Pronouns practice
Multiplication Practice!!
Solar System
Open House is tomorrow night at 6:30, I hope to see you there!
Again, we had a wonderful time on our field trip! I was really proud of our children. If you did not receive text updates on your phone during the day of our trip, then make sure and sign up for our class updates here.
Just a little bit about what is going on in class: Reading-We are learning about the types and features of non-fiction. We are also learning how t quickly find information and better understand information when we are reading non-fiction. Writing-We have packed our journals with ideas for writing Now, to go along with our reading non-fiction unit, we are writing "How To" books. We began by exploring "How To" books and noticing what other authors included in their "How To" books. We decided that these types of books could get boring so we read a mentor text book called How To Lay an Egg to help us with using our voices and some authors craft to make our books more exciting. We will be publishing our books soon. In Grammar we will be focusing on nouns and pronouns this week. Math- We are still in our first unit. This week we are focusing on the multiples of 100 and their factors. You will see examples of this in our homework this week. Don't forget the Math Student Handbook I sent home, it will help you help your child with any of these homework pages. Some of the kids are still not fluent with their multiplication facts 1-12. This is imperative to be successful with harder multiplication problems and division this year! There are some links below to help your child practice their facts. Content-We are finishing up our study of Space this week. We have learned about the differences of comets, meteors, meteorites, meteoroids, and asteroids today and we will finish the week learning about moon phases and stars with a culminating test this Friday. Your child should have a study guide with answers. Technology-We have been very busy in technology! The kids are using Spelling City practice their spelling words, blogs for, well...blogging...Razz kids to keep their reading skills sharp, TenMarks for working on math and we log our reading on Reading Rewards. We are using lots of other sites too. Ask your children to show you the sites they are working on, many of them have parent codes that you will see from your child's account. Here are some video tutorials that will help you use some of these sites. Remember to keep talking about online safety and have clear rules for your child using technology at home.
Sites to check out!
*Check our calendar for important dates.
Favorite Links-for just about anything your child needs to work on or learn about in 4th grade!
Lab Lessons-This is the link we go to during our computer lab, remind your child to check here and make sure their lab assignments were completed each week.
Nouns and Pronouns practice
Multiplication Practice!!
- Self Correcting Quizzes-up through a fact or just one table
- Practice a Multiplication table on Math Magician
- Lots of Multiplication sites
Solar System
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
September 3rd
I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! This week will be a busy week! Just a few things I want to let you know. Our first field trip to the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center is coming up quickly! Forms and information are going home today. The due date is not until early next week, but please go ahead and send everything back in as soon as possible!
I am also sending home a math resource book for parents. It will have your child's number on it and is due back at the end of the school year. If you will notice on page 14 of this week's homework, there is a resource page number at the top right of the page. That page number is a resource page for you in the book I am sending home tonight. Each week the kids will have similar homework pages that will have resource pages for you in the Student Math Handbook.
This is our first week of spelling. We will all have the same list this week as we get used to the format. The next time that we have spelling, the lists will be different according to how your child does on the pre-test. More information about this is in the Parent Night notes on our web site.
Also, the kids have an Edmodo Scavenger Hunt that is due Friday. You can access the scavenger hunt from our homework blog post from today. It is very important that they know how to use Edmodo correctly as they will be using this program through high school in Hoover. Please help them especially with step 6 so they will know how you want them to download items at home. Our scavenger hunt is due Friday.
We are researching the planets in class this week and we will make and share a project (in class) about our planet! :)
Have a great, short week!
I am also sending home a math resource book for parents. It will have your child's number on it and is due back at the end of the school year. If you will notice on page 14 of this week's homework, there is a resource page number at the top right of the page. That page number is a resource page for you in the book I am sending home tonight. Each week the kids will have similar homework pages that will have resource pages for you in the Student Math Handbook.
This is our first week of spelling. We will all have the same list this week as we get used to the format. The next time that we have spelling, the lists will be different according to how your child does on the pre-test. More information about this is in the Parent Night notes on our web site.
Also, the kids have an Edmodo Scavenger Hunt that is due Friday. You can access the scavenger hunt from our homework blog post from today. It is very important that they know how to use Edmodo correctly as they will be using this program through high school in Hoover. Please help them especially with step 6 so they will know how you want them to download items at home. Our scavenger hunt is due Friday.
We are researching the planets in class this week and we will make and share a project (in class) about our planet! :)
Have a great, short week!
Saturday, August 24, 2013
August 24
What a great start to school 4th graders have had! This blog is a place where I will post our classroom happenings. The first week we spent reviewing, learning about our classroom, and getting to know each other. We will start out learning about space in science and going to the Space and Rocket Center for our first field trip! In math we will begin by making sure we have all of our multiplication facts 0-12 fluent and memorized! We will review multiplication concepts in our first Investigations unit and sharpen up our computation skills. As writers we will begin collecting ideas for stories We will also begin to write personal narratives and study how to “zoom in” on the most important parts so it will sound like a story and not just a retelling. We read and enjoyed lots of picture books the first week of school, Like First Day Jitters and Thank You Mr. Falker. Now, we are about to begin our first read aloud, The Hundred Dresses. As we discuss the book, it will encourage us to empathize with others and to treat them how we would like to be treated. We will also begin by talking about mental images and making connections to our reading in order to better understand our books.
I'm looking forward to seeing you all Thursday, August 29th for our parent meeting. Please bring your smart phone, tablet, or good old fashioned pen and paper.
I'm looking forward to seeing you all Thursday, August 29th for our parent meeting. Please bring your smart phone, tablet, or good old fashioned pen and paper.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
A Poem to You
I give you back your child, the
same child you confidently entrusted to my care last fall. I give him back
pounds heavier, inches taller, months wiser, more responsible, and more mature
than he was then.
Although he would have attained
this growth in spite of me, it has been my pleasure and privilege to watch his personality
unfold day by day and marvel at this splendid miracle of development.
I give him back reluctantly,
for having spent many months together in the narrow confines of a crowded
classroom, we have grown close, have become a part of each other, and we will
always retain a little of each other.
We have lived, loved, laughed,
played, studied, learned, and enriched our lives together this year.
But give him back I must.
Love,
It is such an honor to me that you put your most prized possession in my hands. Please keep me posted on any accomplishments, news, happy times, sad times!! I am only an email away! Have a wonderful summer and thanks for a great school year!
Children are…
AMAZING,
acknowledge them
BELIEVABLE,
trust them
CHILDLIKE,
allow them
DIVINE,
honor them
ENERGETIC,
nourish them
FALLIBLE,
embrace them
GIFTS,
treasure them
HERE
NOW,
be with them
INNOCENT,
delight with them
JOYFUL,
appreciate them
KINDHEARTED,
learn from them
LOVABLE,
cherish them
MAGICAL,
fly with them
NOBLE,
esteem them
OPEN
MINDED, respect them
PRECIOUS,
value them
QUESTIONERS,
encourage them
RESOURCEFUL,
support them
SPONTANEOUS,
enjoy them
TALENTED,
believe in them
UNIQUE,
affirm them
VULNERABLE,
protect them
WHOLE,
recognize them
XTRASPECIAL,
celebrate them
ZANY,
laugh with them
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Wednesday, May 1st
Good evening parents!
**Thank you so much to everyone who signed up to send in items for our ARMT testing week. Wow! Ya'll are wonderfully supportive in so many ways! I really can't say thank you enough to ALL of our volunteers this year and we still have a few that will be running around this next week helping us with end of the year tasks. I can't say enough "thank you's"!
**Thank you to ALL who helped with our successful field trip to the Birmingham Zoo, as well and ALL who helped volunteer at the Family Fun Fair. Both were wonderful experiences for all who participated.
**As you know, MONDAY morning (May 6) we begin formal standardized testing for the ARMT. We will complete the Reading portion of the ARMT on Monday and Tuesday, and the Mathematics portion on Wednesday and Thursday. PLEASE, please, please make sure your child is well rested all of next week. It is also very important for them to have a healthy breakfast. Both of these combined, along with the preparation we have worked so diligently on this year, will assist your child in reaching their greatest potential on each daily assessment. If your child is tardy, and testing has already begun, they will not be allowed to enter the classroom. They must be to school on time. Testing Monday-Thursday will begin at 8:00 and be over each day by lunchtime. If you are scheduled to help volunteer in the classroom next week, come Friday. Visitors will not be allowed during testing hours.
** I wanted to let you know of some upcoming activities:
...May 4 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veteran's Park 10:00-2:00
...May 6-9 ARMT testing (Students come to school well rested, having eaten a healthy breakfast.)
...May 10 All SSC library books are to be returned to the library
...May 10 Yearbook Distribution (Extra yearbooks go on sale May 13th for $25.00-first come, first serve)
...May 15 Volunteer Breakfast 8:00-10:00 (For all who have volunteered for our class in ANY way this year.)
...May 15 Foundry in a Box is coming to the 4th grade!
...May 16 Class end of the year celebration for students
...May 17 Field Day for students-School items will begin coming home, please have your child clean out backpacks EVERY night.
...May 20 Pajama Day/Read-a-thon/Bring a book from home
...May 21 Game Day/Disney movie (students can bring one board games/card games from home that they know how to play)
...May 22 Wrap up/Clean up - early dismissal at 12:45 (lunch served before dismissal)
...May 23 Cleaning classroom - early dismissal at 11:00 (students have the opportunity to purchase sack lunch prior to dismissal)
**If you know that your child will not be at SSC any time the last week of school, please let me know. I have a couple of gifts I would like to share with each student and would like to make sure your child gets theirs before they leave for the summer. :)
**If you know your child will not be at SSC the last week/day of school, please send in a self addressed, stamped envelope any time beginning tomorrow morning and I will make sure the final report card is sent to your home. Otherwise, they will be going home with the students the last day of school. If I don't received a self addressed/stamped envelope and they are not at SSC the last week of school, the report card will be held in the office for pick up.
**Please look around your house for any of the books I have loaned your child to read this year. I really enjoy sharing my books with my students each year. You may be surprised to find some next year, send them back any time they pop up.
**Thank you so much for supporting your child with ARMT preparation homework. As I promised the kids, if they can give me 2 more great days of homework as we make our final preparations for the assessments, then I won't give them homework during ARMT week, as well as the remainder of the year. (I have discussed many times that READING should be exciting, motivating, and fun. When we find books/magazines that we enjoy and that don't "stress us out" because we struggle to comprehend, then learning is always taking place. I hope they always continue to read daily by choice, not because a teacher expects it of them, or assigns it as homework. In other words, even though I won't be assigning homework, encourage them to read for fun. PLEASE spend time at the Hoover Public Library this summer with your child. It is an amazing place to be! Also encourage your child to continue to post on blogs, this will be a great way to keep writing AND have the kids be able to keep up with exciting summer activities that their friends are doing. I will leave that account open AS LONG AS the kids are using it!!!
I appreciate you all!
Mrs. C.
Summer ideas!!! http://tconstantine.wikispaces.com/Summer+Activities
*Check our calendar for other important dates.
**Thank you so much to everyone who signed up to send in items for our ARMT testing week. Wow! Ya'll are wonderfully supportive in so many ways! I really can't say thank you enough to ALL of our volunteers this year and we still have a few that will be running around this next week helping us with end of the year tasks. I can't say enough "thank you's"!
**Thank you to ALL who helped with our successful field trip to the Birmingham Zoo, as well and ALL who helped volunteer at the Family Fun Fair. Both were wonderful experiences for all who participated.
**As you know, MONDAY morning (May 6) we begin formal standardized testing for the ARMT. We will complete the Reading portion of the ARMT on Monday and Tuesday, and the Mathematics portion on Wednesday and Thursday. PLEASE, please, please make sure your child is well rested all of next week. It is also very important for them to have a healthy breakfast. Both of these combined, along with the preparation we have worked so diligently on this year, will assist your child in reaching their greatest potential on each daily assessment. If your child is tardy, and testing has already begun, they will not be allowed to enter the classroom. They must be to school on time. Testing Monday-Thursday will begin at 8:00 and be over each day by lunchtime. If you are scheduled to help volunteer in the classroom next week, come Friday. Visitors will not be allowed during testing hours.
** I wanted to let you know of some upcoming activities:
...May 4 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veteran's Park 10:00-2:00
...May 6-9 ARMT testing (Students come to school well rested, having eaten a healthy breakfast.)
...May 10 All SSC library books are to be returned to the library
...May 10 Yearbook Distribution (Extra yearbooks go on sale May 13th for $25.00-first come, first serve)
...May 15 Volunteer Breakfast 8:00-10:00 (For all who have volunteered for our class in ANY way this year.)
...May 15 Foundry in a Box is coming to the 4th grade!
...May 16 Class end of the year celebration for students
...May 17 Field Day for students-School items will begin coming home, please have your child clean out backpacks EVERY night.
...May 20 Pajama Day/Read-a-thon/Bring a book from home
...May 21 Game Day/Disney movie (students can bring one board games/card games from home that they know how to play)
...May 22 Wrap up/Clean up - early dismissal at 12:45 (lunch served before dismissal)
...May 23 Cleaning classroom - early dismissal at 11:00 (students have the opportunity to purchase sack lunch prior to dismissal)
**If you know that your child will not be at SSC any time the last week of school, please let me know. I have a couple of gifts I would like to share with each student and would like to make sure your child gets theirs before they leave for the summer. :)
**If you know your child will not be at SSC the last week/day of school, please send in a self addressed, stamped envelope any time beginning tomorrow morning and I will make sure the final report card is sent to your home. Otherwise, they will be going home with the students the last day of school. If I don't received a self addressed/stamped envelope and they are not at SSC the last week of school, the report card will be held in the office for pick up.
**Please look around your house for any of the books I have loaned your child to read this year. I really enjoy sharing my books with my students each year. You may be surprised to find some next year, send them back any time they pop up.
**Thank you so much for supporting your child with ARMT preparation homework. As I promised the kids, if they can give me 2 more great days of homework as we make our final preparations for the assessments, then I won't give them homework during ARMT week, as well as the remainder of the year. (I have discussed many times that READING should be exciting, motivating, and fun. When we find books/magazines that we enjoy and that don't "stress us out" because we struggle to comprehend, then learning is always taking place. I hope they always continue to read daily by choice, not because a teacher expects it of them, or assigns it as homework. In other words, even though I won't be assigning homework, encourage them to read for fun. PLEASE spend time at the Hoover Public Library this summer with your child. It is an amazing place to be! Also encourage your child to continue to post on blogs, this will be a great way to keep writing AND have the kids be able to keep up with exciting summer activities that their friends are doing. I will leave that account open AS LONG AS the kids are using it!!!
I appreciate you all!
Mrs. C.
Summer ideas!!! http://tconstantine.wikispaces.com/Summer+Activities
*Check our calendar for other important dates.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
April 2
I really cannot believe it is April! This class has been truly amazing. I really think that is why it seems like we have just started school. And all of you have been just as amazing. Your support of me, the children and all of the new things we incorporated into our classroom made for such a productive year, and made our class leaders in our school. I can not thank you enough. I feel like they are more than ready to be 5th graders and I hope you will keep me updated next year!
The ARMT is just around the corner. I will send you an email with a few test taking strategies that you can discuss with your child. We will also need lots of good snacks that week, Please sign up here if you can send something in. I will familiarize the kids with the format of the ARMT by doing some practice during class and some ARMT practice will come home starting next week as well. I will send info about what is expected for a good score, so please reiterate this at home so the kids will feel well prepared and will not "stress". :)
Just a little bit about what is going on in class: Reading-With our adopted reading program "Making Meaning" we are incorporating a study of non-fiction with our unit on Animals that we are starting in Science. Writing-We are finishing up or mystery writing and soon we will also be writing non-fiction in conjunction with Reading and Science. In preparation for the ARMT Spelling/Vocab will look a little different. Let me know if you have any questions. Math-We have finished fractions and decimals and like I mentioned in the email, the unit we are on now should be an easy review unit of larger multiplication and division problems. You should have received a parent letter about this unit. Content-We have just finished Geography and Landforms and we are beginning our study of Animals. We will be researching, discussing and doing class projects on topics such as the classification of animals, food chains, vertebrates and invertebrates, interdependence, habitats, camouflage and mimicry. The kids were excited to begin our study by researching their own favorite animal. Technology-The Aurasmas were so much fun. I hope all of our portraits are hanging on walls and still being enjoyed with smart phones! If anyone knows of a business that would like to display our Aurasmas for a while let me know! :)
*Check our calendar for other important dates.
The ARMT is just around the corner. I will send you an email with a few test taking strategies that you can discuss with your child. We will also need lots of good snacks that week, Please sign up here if you can send something in. I will familiarize the kids with the format of the ARMT by doing some practice during class and some ARMT practice will come home starting next week as well. I will send info about what is expected for a good score, so please reiterate this at home so the kids will feel well prepared and will not "stress". :)
Just a little bit about what is going on in class: Reading-With our adopted reading program "Making Meaning" we are incorporating a study of non-fiction with our unit on Animals that we are starting in Science. Writing-We are finishing up or mystery writing and soon we will also be writing non-fiction in conjunction with Reading and Science. In preparation for the ARMT Spelling/Vocab will look a little different. Let me know if you have any questions. Math-We have finished fractions and decimals and like I mentioned in the email, the unit we are on now should be an easy review unit of larger multiplication and division problems. You should have received a parent letter about this unit. Content-We have just finished Geography and Landforms and we are beginning our study of Animals. We will be researching, discussing and doing class projects on topics such as the classification of animals, food chains, vertebrates and invertebrates, interdependence, habitats, camouflage and mimicry. The kids were excited to begin our study by researching their own favorite animal. Technology-The Aurasmas were so much fun. I hope all of our portraits are hanging on walls and still being enjoyed with smart phones! If anyone knows of a business that would like to display our Aurasmas for a while let me know! :)
*Check our calendar for other important dates.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Wax Museum
Directions for viewing the virtual tour:
- Download the Aurasma App onto your Ipad, Iphone, Itouch, Android or tablet.
- Open the App
- Click on the triangle at the bottom of your screen.
- Click on the magnifying glass at the bottom right or your screen.
- Type ssces in the search bar at the top.
- Click enter.
- Click on the ssces with the purple triangle icon (it says by hoovercity-trace).
- Click “follow”
- Click the icon that looks like 4 corners at the bottom in the middle of your screen. This will take you back to camera view.
- Now you are ready to view our wax museum, just point the Aurasma camera to any of our portraits and make sure the volume is up!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Congratulations
Congratulations to Juliana Howell for winning the Arbor Day Essay contest at our school. She was recognized at Aldridge Gardens this past Saturday! Beautiful writing Juliana!
Monday, January 28, 2013
Wax Museum
As part of our American history unit, each student will independently research a specific famous person from the Revolutionary time period. Each of these famous people played some part in the birth of our nation. Each student was given a name of a person to research last week. Research will be conducted both at school and at home. (The Public Library has lots of books on this topic.) From conducting this research, the students will learn about the different personalities and lives of unique individuals who helped in creating our nation. As research is conducted, students will be expected to take notes to help in organizing all information collected. They were given a sample form last week that tells them specifically what they need to research. After the research has been completed, the students will then begin working on their Wax Museum presentation. In class, each student will have to draw & paint their famous person’s face as best they can at school. They will also begin working on a short speech to say about their person. Their speech should only be about 20-30 seconds and should explain who they are and why they are important. Beginning next week, I will send home drafts of information they would like to share. Please help your child compile and memorize the final speech. Students will need to dress up as their person might have dressed. These attires should be created from clothing found at home and are not expected to be elaborate. The costumes are in addition to the presentation and will make the Wax Museum seem realistic and authentic. Creativity is very important and encouraged in this project. Your child will need to act as though they are their person. Each student will present his or her speech to the class for a dress rehearsal, in their costumes, on March 4th. All speeches are to be completely memorized. On this day they are NOT to have make-up or hair designs specific to their person. This is to be saved for the main event on Wednesday, March 6th. The entire fourth grade will do a Wax Museum on famous people from Pre-Colonial times all the way through the Westward Expansion time periods Wednesday, March 6th from 11:00-12:00. Our SSC friends, Parents, Grandparents, and friends will be invited to come and walk through our museum and learn about each person. This is an event you will not want to miss! Students should arrive to school with their hair and make-up ready on the morning of the 6th. I will keep the costumes at school from the dress rehearsal and will allow students time to change before the Wax Museum. If you would like to stay and eat lunch with your child after the Wax Museum, feel free to join them!
I intend for this research to be an enjoyable way for the students to get to know the individuals they have been reading about while studying the events of the revolution. The students should have fun in this learning experience. If there are any questions or problems, please do not hesitate to ask.. Thank you for your continued support!!
4th grade baby pictures for yearbook:
In years past, we have done baby pages for fourth graders ONLY. We plan to do the same this year, but it depends on the participation. You can begin to submit your photos. We ask that it be scanned and saved in jpeg format. You can use the same eshare website to upload it. Please put teacher and name on website (website will prompt you) so we can make sure not to mismatch pictures with children. Deadline for baby pictures will be February 1st. ******Please forward to Teachers and Parents*******It’s yearbook preparation time…..and we need your help!!! Our yearbook has gone completely digital and parents and teachers have an opportunity to upload pictures to the eshare website. We will use this library of photos to make our yearbook pages. Attached is a copy of the step by step instructions to use the website. (1. Go to the website www.hjeshare.com 2. Enter our school code 3014807 3. Enter your name, e-mail address, and accept the terms and conditions 4.Click on browse for images and locate where you have saved your images on your computer. You can save them in a file or insert your memory card and retrieve them that way. 5. Choose your photo and click ok to upload. You may hold your control key down and select multiple photos at once, maximum of 10 each time. 6.Once your photos have uploaded, you will be asked for some info for each photo. *****This is very important so that we will know what grade, teacher and function it is. Please enter the grade in the proper blank. For the students shown in picture, please enter the teachers name first and then you may enter the students names if you know them. If not don’t worry, just make sure we have the teachers name. For the description, please enter what function the picture was taken. (example- field trip to zoo, Halloween centers, playground, etc.) 7. Once info is entered for each picture, then you may click submit pictures and you will be done. You may go back and enter more pictures at this time. **Guidelines to follow***Only enter pictures taken at school or at a school function. 2. Please only enter a maximum of 10 pictures from each function. If you made 50 pictures on a field trip just upload your best 10 pictures. 3. Do not attempt to edit pictures, the yearbook software will do it for us. 4. Please try to use high quality photos (8 mega pixels or higher if possible) that way your photo will not be grainy looking. If you are a parent and would like to help with yearbook, please email me. I am especially in need of parents willing to take photos of special events and upload pics to website.
Dates
Since so much is coming up, I wanted to post the dates that I will be adding to our class calendar just for convenience:
January 29—SSC Chick-Fil-A night at the Galleria, 5:00-8:00
February 1—Deadline to submit a baby picture of your child for the yearbook (THIS IS A VERY SPECIAL, PRECIOUS PAGE.)
February 5—Deadline for permission form and money for American Village field trip (forms go home tomorrow)
February 14—Valentine Exchange/Decorate a Shoe Box for our mailbox to collect Valentines Cards for the class can be store bought or homemade, let your child fill out a card for each classmate, attaching a candy to each card is fine.
February 15—deadline for yearbook picture submissions
February 26—American Village field trip
February 28—4th grade Beef-O-Brady’s night, 5:00-8:00 (date was incorrect in the Dolphin Echo)
March 1st-Have Wax Museum Speech memorized-sheets for this and easy costume ideas will go home next week, this will be the same person your child is doing a scrapbook on)
March 4—American History Scrapbook due
March 4—Dress Rehearsal for Wax Museum—students only, WITH costumes, but no make-up or hair design
March 6—Wax Museum from 11:00-12:00—Parents invited-Kids come to school with make-up and hair READY
March 25-29—Spring Break—schools closed
April 19—SSC Family Fun Fair, more information to come
Box Tops—Send in as soon as possible, as often as you would like
Spark for Change—we will do a service project as a class, for our school, community, or world-talk to your child and send ideas to me as soon as possible. We will vote as a class by Friday of this week. Ideas in the past have included: collecting cans for needy families, creating a brochure for new students, making blankets for kids with cancer, collecting new playground equipment for our school’s playground, conducting random acts of kindness, a book drive for school’s affected by tornadoes, giving plants to elderly people in a nursing home, and caring for the environment and sprucing up the school’s eco-site.
January 29—SSC Chick-Fil-A night at the Galleria, 5:00-8:00
February 1—Deadline to submit a baby picture of your child for the yearbook (THIS IS A VERY SPECIAL, PRECIOUS PAGE.)
February 5—Deadline for permission form and money for American Village field trip (forms go home tomorrow)
February 14—Valentine Exchange/Decorate a Shoe Box for our mailbox to collect Valentines Cards for the class can be store bought or homemade, let your child fill out a card for each classmate, attaching a candy to each card is fine.
February 15—deadline for yearbook picture submissions
February 26—American Village field trip
February 28—4th grade Beef-O-Brady’s night, 5:00-8:00 (date was incorrect in the Dolphin Echo)
March 1st-Have Wax Museum Speech memorized-sheets for this and easy costume ideas will go home next week, this will be the same person your child is doing a scrapbook on)
March 4—American History Scrapbook due
March 4—Dress Rehearsal for Wax Museum—students only, WITH costumes, but no make-up or hair design
March 6—Wax Museum from 11:00-12:00—Parents invited-Kids come to school with make-up and hair READY
March 25-29—Spring Break—schools closed
April 19—SSC Family Fun Fair, more information to come
Box Tops—Send in as soon as possible, as often as you would like
Spark for Change—we will do a service project as a class, for our school, community, or world-talk to your child and send ideas to me as soon as possible. We will vote as a class by Friday of this week. Ideas in the past have included: collecting cans for needy families, creating a brochure for new students, making blankets for kids with cancer, collecting new playground equipment for our school’s playground, conducting random acts of kindness, a book drive for school’s affected by tornadoes, giving plants to elderly people in a nursing home, and caring for the environment and sprucing up the school’s eco-site.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
January 24
Just a quick post to share our self portraits and our Causes of the Revolution glogs. The kids did a great job!
Classroom happenings!
Reading- We are starting a new Read Aloud Wonder by R.J. Palacio. check out the review about the book on YouTube. It's going to be a great book! We are also completing mid year reading assessments. Writing-We are working on a writing piece about Loyalists and Patriots and what side we would choose if we lived during the time of the American Revolution. I think we can really relate now that we have revolted as a class against the Starbursts!! We will publish on our blogs, so make sure to read our finished pieces and comment on them! Our class will also be participating in an Arbor Day writing contest. We will begin working on these this week!. Math-We are still working on Unit 5, Landmarks and Large Numbers. Content- We are sharing our Glogster projects on the Causes of the Revolution (link above), we learned about the Declaration of Independence, exactly what it means, how it was written, and how we celebrate the signing each year on July 4th. Technology-Check out our Glogs on the Causes of the Revolution!! We are going to be trying something brand new to me called Aurasma to go with our wax museum projects. If you are interested in seeing a recording of your child's wax museum presentation and you have a smart phone, IPad, Ipod, etc., you can go ahead and download the app and I'll send more information when we start video recording! Should be fun!!
Lots of dates will be coming up in March for our wax museum, field trip, due dates for scrapbook, etc. I'll continue to add dates to our class calendar.
Classroom happenings!
Reading- We are starting a new Read Aloud Wonder by R.J. Palacio. check out the review about the book on YouTube. It's going to be a great book! We are also completing mid year reading assessments. Writing-We are working on a writing piece about Loyalists and Patriots and what side we would choose if we lived during the time of the American Revolution. I think we can really relate now that we have revolted as a class against the Starbursts!! We will publish on our blogs, so make sure to read our finished pieces and comment on them! Our class will also be participating in an Arbor Day writing contest. We will begin working on these this week!. Math-We are still working on Unit 5, Landmarks and Large Numbers. Content- We are sharing our Glogster projects on the Causes of the Revolution (link above), we learned about the Declaration of Independence, exactly what it means, how it was written, and how we celebrate the signing each year on July 4th. Technology-Check out our Glogs on the Causes of the Revolution!! We are going to be trying something brand new to me called Aurasma to go with our wax museum projects. If you are interested in seeing a recording of your child's wax museum presentation and you have a smart phone, IPad, Ipod, etc., you can go ahead and download the app and I'll send more information when we start video recording! Should be fun!!
Lots of dates will be coming up in March for our wax museum, field trip, due dates for scrapbook, etc. I'll continue to add dates to our class calendar.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Scholastic Due January 15th
Dear Parents,
Hard copies of 4 scholastic book orders are coming home today. Lots of good books about our nation's history, African American history, and our regular Lucky and Arrow catalogues.
This month's Scholastic Book Club flyers are ready for you to explore with your child. Children read more when they choose their own books, so I encourage you to look at the flyers together.
You can order online or send the hardcopy orders back in with your child.. Online ordering saves time, offers more book choices, and earns extra rewards for the classroom and for parents. Directions and details below.
Happy reading,
_____________________________________
Mrs. C.
Mrs. C.
P.S. When you place your order online, you'll help earn FREE Books for our class and you also get a $5 FREE Book Pick Coupon to use on your next online order!
Ordering online is fast and easy:
REGISTER at https://orders.scholastic.com/GRZHL
CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia(TM) eBooks
SUBMIT the order to your child's teacher
EARN FREE Books for you and the classroom too!
REGISTER at https://orders.scholastic.com/GRZHL
CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia(TM) eBooks
SUBMIT the order to your child's teacher
EARN FREE Books for you and the classroom too!
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