March 26th, 2012

Hope everyone had a nice, restful Spring Break! Here is what we are working on:  Reading-Practicing for the ARMT! Writing-Practicing for the ARMT and working on publishing a non fiction piece using many of the nonfiction features we have been learning about. Math-Practicing for the ARMT and we are starting a new unit on multiplying and dividing bigger numbers.  A parent letter will come home soon.  Content-We are finishing up the solar system and beginning our study of The Constitution of the United States!  *Check our calendar for other important dates.
  Site of the month:
Our Lab Lessons site (March Post) has extra practice for fractions, decimals, probability and data. All things that will be on the Math ARMT.

February 23

Just a little bit about what is going on in class: Reading-We just finished a unit on mysteries, we studied the components of a mystery and everyone read a mystery book with a partner or group, filled out a case file, and created a project to share their books. They did a wonderful job! Now we are starting our study of the non-fiction genre. Writing-Shortly after we started our reading unit, we began working on writing our own mysteries. We started by reading many "leads" in different mystery books and then we tried one of Chris Van Allsburg's Myteries of Harris Burdick's  mysteries each day. Everyone decided on a mystery they wanted to write, started with a strong lead and a graphic organizer with the components of a mystery, and before we knew it, we had all written our own mysteries.  Math-We are continuing to learn about fractions and decimals and how to add, subtract and make them equivalent. Content-We finished our study of the American Revolution and are now learning about space exploration and our solar system.

 *Check our calendar for other important dates.

February 27^th-Black History month facebook page due.

March 2^nd Planet Brochure Due

March 5^th-Moon Chart due

  Sites of the month:
Fractions and Decimals: http://tconstantine.wiki.hoover.k12.al.us/Favorite+Links#Math-Fractions

Solar System: http://tconstantine.wiki.hoover.k12.al.us/Favorite+Links#Science-Solar System

What we're doing in the computer lab: http://constantinelablessons.blogspot.com/

Spirit Night

SSC Spirit Night at Chick-Fil-A


When: 5:00-8:00 p.m. Tues. March 6

Where: Chick-Fil-A inside the Riverchase Galleria

Why: For fun, good food, and catching up with SSC friends

During the hours of 5:00-8:00 p.m.-10% of the proceeds will go to SSC Care and Needs Fund

*The classroom with the most participation will win a free ice-cream party

I will also send home flyers…this is a great event for us at SSC!

January 26th

First of all, it is with a heavy heart that  I would like to say good-bye to Jacob and Saray from our class. We will miss them both and we wish them the best. We read a book called Flying Solo earlier in the year where a class had "rock rituals" to say good bye to friends that left and we wanted to do the same. So today we had our first rock ritual for Jacob and we will have one Monday for Saray. Ask the kids to explain the rock ritual to you!

We also have a new student joining our class! Her name is Alexis. The kids are doing a wonderful job making her feel welcome.

Reminder** Send in one yellow and one red pocket folder with brads tomorrow.

Thank you for trusting me!! Our class has officially revolted today and the war is over. Just to fill you in, all of the kids were handed 10 starbursts on Monday but we also told them Mr. Lawry was not sure about giving candy to the kids with the nutrition laws so he wanted to speak with us. We had a "hall meeting" with all of the fourth graders where he told us that he had some rules to go with the starbursts:
You owe 1 starburst for using the bathroom
You owe 2 starbursts if you do not bring homework
You owe 1 starburst for tallking in the hall
They went from being happy about getting the starburts, to not so sure with all of the rules attached to them. Each day the rules got more "intolerable", Mr. Lawry added rules like giving starbursts for driking water, sharpening pencils, getting out of your desk, eating snack and eating lunch!! Lunch was the straw!  :)  The kids began writing petitions, making signs, having secret meetings with friends from other classes and the neat part is they used all of these terms and initiated these things on their own! It all came to a head today right before lunch when many of the fourth grade students stormed the halls, heading towards Mr. Lawry's office to rebel. The kids did an awesome job relating everything to the events that lead up to the Revolutionary War. 21/22 kids in our class did not like the rules and called themselves patriots, we had one loyalist who stuck to his guns. Two of the other classes were mostly loyalists, wanting to do exactly what Mr. Lawry wanted. We had one student say, "these rules are intolerable!" I think our class came as close as possible today to feeling just like the colonists did!

January 19th

Our classroom happenings: Reading-We just finished exploring changes in character with our class shared book Because of Winn Dixie and the kids are now in Mystery Detective Clubs! They will  explore mysteries as they meet in Detective Book clubs and discuss clues and suspects with the other members of their group.  We will also make predictions during reading and confirm and adjust predictions as a skill to sharpen our comprehension.  We are learning what a red herring is and will be on the lookout for them as we read our mystery books.   Writing-We joined Ms. Crowley's class in a snowman exchange by drawing a creative picture of a snowman, writing a detailed description of our snowman, and then giving just our writing piece to a buddy in Ms. Crowley's class to see how close he/she could come to our drawing. Her class did the same thing with us and our finished pieces and drawings are hanging in the halls.  Math-We have begun a unit on fractions while continuing to practice computation and our multiplication facts.  Content-This week we will finish our unit on land forms, share our glogs and we'll begin studying the American Revolution next week.  Technology-We are now glog experts! We made glogs on the causes of the American Revolution and our land form glogs will be posted soon!!  :)    *Check our calendar for other important dates.

November 11

First of all, Happy Veteran's Day and thank you to all of our family and friends who have served in the armed forces!! Thank you everyone who has contributed in securing the freedom that we have today! That said, next week I would like to recognize any of our family and friends who have served. I will be sending you an email with a writeboard to send out. If your loved ones or friend can not post, you can post for them. If you have never been to the Veteran's Day Parade in Birmingham, try and go, it is the biggest and oldest in the US!

I want to get an idea of how homework is going at home, please vote on the poll to the right.

Just a little bit about what is going on in class: Reading-We have finished a unit on uncovering allegory and  theme in text and are now focusing on character change. We are reading Because of Winn Dixie as a shared reading book. For read aloud we are still into The City of Ember. Continue to make sure your child is "sticking with a book" and reading on his/her just right level. Writing-We have studied nouns, verbs and adjectives and we are now on adverbs. I think adverbs are the most difficult part of speech for the kids so far. We will have a quiz on adverbs next Wednesday. If your child needs extra practice with any of the parts of speech there is plenty on our favorites link under "English". During writing workshop, the kids are working on adding details (especially adjectives and adverbs) to their writing pieces.   Math-We are about to wrap up multiplication and division but will continue practicing it throughout the year. Next Monday we will begin adding and subtracting bigger numbers  Content-This Friday will be our last day studying electricity, what a fun unit, I think the kids enjoyed it. Lots of links on favorites if they want to keep investigating electricity on their own!   Technology-We learned how to use Pearson, Edmodo, and our new account for Spelling City. Thanks for your help! We are going to start working on and adding to our individual web pages. Remember to keep talking about online safety!

From the Office:

Parents/Guardians,

The 5x7 classroom group and 4^th grade level pictures are in! You may drop by the front office if you would like to see the pictures before buying. The pictures are only $7.00 each. Please send payment to your child’s teacher and the picture will be ordered and then sent home with your child when it arrives. The deadline for purchasing your classroom group picture and/or the 4^th grade level picture is January 13^th. 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. Good Sites: United Streaming(username-tanyaconstantine, password-united): http://www.unitedstreaming.com/ - A great site to learn more about just about anything that your child wants to study. You can go to our “content folder” for things that I have saved specifically for my third graders. Or, your child can search other topics. Just be careful that they stay with grade level videos if they search on their own. If you type in Magic School Bus in the search area, your child can watch ANY Magic School Bus video that he/she wants to.

Multiplication

Self Correcting Quizzes -an easly way to make sure they know their facts in 3 seconds, make sure and press "start"

Division

Division Games
Johnny's Math Page Division Games
* Division Demolition
* Fun 4 the Brain
* Crocodile toothbrush
* Dragon division
* Math Lines division with 24
* Math Lines division with 36

Comprehension Practice

Reading Comprehension Passages
Reading Comprehension

Mad Libs-good for praticing parts of speech

English
Mad Libs 1 Mad Libs 2 Mad Libs 3 Mad Libs Create a Story
More parts of speech practice:
Parts of speech activities
10 Grammar Games

October

An official welcome to our to new students, Laila Smith and Aarren Smith, no...they are not twins.  :) But they are both very sweet and we are so glad to have them in our class!
Just made 2 more vocab games the kids can play with their words this week, these can be instead of 2 of the vocab activities on spelling city, they are Scattering and Space Race
Just a little bit about what is going on in class: Reading-We have just finished units on genre and finding theme, allegory, and anthropomorphism in our stories. We are beginning a unit on character change and will soon start a whole class novel, Because of Winn Dixie, to go along with this study. For read aloud we are reading one of my favorites, The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, it will also go along with our study of electricity.  Writing-In writing we have finished studying nouns, are presently studying verbs, and will soon start adjectives and adverbs. Adding detail to our writing pieces will also be a focus  Math-By this Friday, the children need to be fluent (know them in 3 seconds or less) with multiplication facts from 1-12. This is very important in order for the kids to be successful with division, which we started today.  Content-The kids have finished their unit on animals with Mrs. Smith and are back with me to study about electricity. This is my first time to teach it, so I will be learning along with them. I read books on electricity this weekend, and I think it's going to be lots of fun for the kids. Technology-They are doing great with their blogs, be sure to sign in as a guest, and comment on their posts when you can. We have also started using the Pearson Successnet site that goes with our adopted math program. And very soon we start Edmodo! You can always see what we are doing in the computer lab here, encourage the kids to go to these sites from home, they do not always get to the "extra" activities, so remind them that they can do these from home.
 *Check our calendar for other important dates.
  Sites of the month:

Multiplication

Self Correcting Quizzes -an easly way to make sure they know their facts in 3 seconds, make sure and press "start"

Division

Division Games
Johnny's Math Page Division Games
* Division Demolition
* Fun 4 the Brain
* Crocodile toothbrush
* Dragon division
* Math Lines division with 24
* Math Lines division with 36

Comprehension Practice

Reading Comprehension Passages
Reading Comprehension

Mad Libs-good for praticing parts of speech

Mad Libs 1 Mad Libs 2 Mad Libs 3 Mad Libs Create a Story
More parts of speech practice:
Parts of speech activities
10 Grammar Games