Technology Day Tomorrow

Yes, it is technology day tomorrow. Remember to bring your techy gear (IPods, DS systems, etc. and enjoy listening to music during independent work & recess time and the game systems can be used during Fun Friday/Team Building time. The buy in price is $300. It is Brayden's birthday tomorrow and he is bringing treats so remember you don't need to spend another $100 for your own treat. My reading/spelling kids played a great game in spelling today and they did so well that we decided to take our test and they did well on that too. Anyone who wants to retake it for a better grade can do so tomorrow, but don't think there will be any as they were good the first time. Today in Science, we read about wind energy and wind energy farms. Have your child explain how they work and write wind energy in the planner. Also ask them if wind energy helps reduce carbon footprints and how? In Math, we started elapsed time. WOW-I was truly amazed at how well these kids have that concept in such a short time. They are such hard workers and eager learners. Remember to keep working on that XtraMath practice. Reminder that the social studies SE states and capitals test is going to be on Friday, December 7th. As you know the BOBCATS are still playing football in the playoffs so "sport" your Bobcat gear tomorrow and receive $100 free money. Have a great night.

Quick Post

Since this is staff meeting day, I will have a quick post. First of all, great job to those of you really practicing your math on the XtraMath site. It will help greatly with those harder multiplication/division computation problems. Today in Science, we talked a lot about Carbon Footprints, global warming, and the greenhouse effect. If your child can tell you what they learned, write CF in the planner. Today in Math, we had fun with units of time such as decades, centuries, millennium, etc. If they can tell you how many decades Mrs. Hankins is, put it in the planner. YIKES-I'm getting old. Keep studying those states and capitals. Students did some fun games with them today during computer time on the Bitterroot website. I am thinking the test will be on Friday, December 7th. Speaking of Friday-this Friday, we will have technology day. Students can bring in IPods, DS systems, etc. and listen to music during independent work time and then play games on the DS systems or whatever they choose to bring during team building time. This will be a $300 buy in with fake money. Then if they wish to bring a treat to go with it in the afternoon, they may and then pay an extra $100 for a total of $400. Students have lots of money to spend as we don't have any field trips coming up in the near future. Have a great night.

Wow-that's a lot of garbage

Today in Science, we started a unit on "Going Green" and taking care of our natural resources. We learned all about renewable & non-renewable resources along with how many pounds of trash/day on average per/person. On the positive side, we also learned that in 2006, a certain percentage of our garbage was recycled. Talk with your child about this and if they can explain all this to you, write "going green" in the planner. Also, I hope that your family takes some time to think about how you can help the environment to reduce and limit our "human footprint". Then let's hope we take and put our ideas into action. Today in Math, we reviewed time to the minute. Tomorrow, we are going into elapsed time. We continued our tour of the SE today. I sure enjoyed the letters they wrote to John last night for homework. I was glad they realized that colonial life was not that easy. Xtra Math Practice: A flyer was sent home today for your child to get started on practicing those multiplication/division facts. I will be checking on your child's progress periodically so please make sure they take a few minutes each night to practice. It doesn't take very long. The surprises that some of you purchased have arrived!!!!!! Please watch for another envelope this week where I will be giving you some choices to pick from on how you want this delivered since it is a surprise. So look for another envelope on Thurs. or Friday. Remember library books tomorrow. Have a great night.

Welcome Back!

HI there- I hope you had a great Thanksgiving break with your families. I know I sure enjoyed family time in North Dakota. Lots of us laughing, playing games, eating, and making memories together. Looking forward to the next visit at Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, we talked today about doing Secret Santas in our classroom for the last week before Christmas Break. There seems to be lots of interest so I would like your opinion on this so if it would be ok for your child to participate, write Secret Santa in the planner and if you don't like the idea, write NO in the planner. The way it would work is that students would put their name in a hat and then they each would draw out a name too and that person would be their secret santa. Then they would bring something small or make something for their person each day that week and then on Friday, they could bring a bigger item if they choose to and that is the day we would share and reveal our secret santas. It is my hope that students won't spend more than $5.00-$7.00 for the whole week. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Today we started our tour of the Southeast and one of the places we visited was the Jamestown colony. Students then played a game to help them see what the life in the colony was like. Now they have to write a letter (in workbook page 37) to John explaining if they think he should or should not come to the colony giving reasons why. Remember 4th grade quality. Have a discussion about this game with your child and if you do and see their letter they wrote, write letter in the planner. Tomorrow in Science, we are starting our unit on Recycling & Going Green. We will be doing whole group and small group readings. There are lots of good facts in it so I know they will learn a lot. In Math, we are ready to begin our unit on Time & Elapsed time. Then we will hit our Geometry Unit. Along with this we are continuing multiplication & division. Have a good night.

Thankful Week

Rusty's show this week is all about Thanksgiving and being thankful. Today, we talked about an attitude of gratitude and how lucky we are and that we have so much to be thankful for. His show took a look at how little the pilgrims had back in the 1620's compared to what we have now. The students were asked if they could live back in those days and 3 of them said they could. We discussed how we take so much for granted and how lucky we really are compared to those less fortunate. Tomorrow students will have to list 5 things they are very thankful for and would not want to live without and then we will do an activity with them. In Social Studies we started the Southeast region by doing the geography challenge. Students received a map today so they can start practicing over the break. I have not set a date for the states and capitals test yet. Ask your child 3 of the states in this region and if they can tell you, write SE in the planner. Also, I listed them on the side of the blog. Remember early out tomorrow at 12:00. Thank you for getting me the surprise envelopes for those of you who did. Hopefully your child will love the surprise. Just a quick note about the Music Christmas program so you can start planning accordingly. It will be on Wednesday, December 19th and will be performed at 9:30 and again at 1:15. So mark your calendars for this awesome event. Ask your child one of the fun songs they are singing and write the name in the planner. Have a great night. Also, I want to wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving. I know I am so thankful to be a part of this Bitterroot family and for having your child in my classroom.

Short Week

Hi there- I hope you are enjoying your weekend. How many of you enjoyed the Cat-Griz game yesterday? Obviously you know, I sure did. Hope the CATS have more good things to come for them in the playoffs. As you know, this is a short week. There is an early out on Tuesday at 12:00 and then No School on Wed.-Friday. Just a reminder that the surprise envelopes are due tomorrow if you are participating. Congratulations to Branson, our student of the week. We enjoyed the pictures and hearing all about you. Buddies on Friday consisted of our class helping our 2nd grade buddies in Mrs. Culp's room with story elements. They read a book to us and then we helped them with the story elements. Ask your child what book they read with their buddy and one of the story elements they used on the activity sheet. If they can tell you, write the name of the book in the planner along with the part. No spelling words this week. We will do some review of our last 4 units. Also ask your child about the fun snowball activity they did with Mrs. Neese, the counselor. Have a great rest of the weekend.

Meeting Tonight

Sorry for a short blog post, but I had a staff meeting tonight. Just one quick thing. Remember the surprise that went home in an envelope on Tuesday is due on Monday, November 19th if you are in on it. Thank you and have a great night.

America's White Table

After talking to Mrs. Umemoto yesterday, it was decided that I should read the book titled: "America's White Table". It is a great tribute to our veteran's. Ask your child to tell you about the book and if they can write, book in the planner. Today, the surprise letters went home. Remember this is totally OPTIONAL!! Remember to keep it a surprise even if you aren't participating. The kids were so funny today when I told them about taking the letters home and not opening them. Let's just say: they are very curious. Today in Montana History, we discussed exports and imports from back in the 1700's. Have a discussion about what the difference is and some of the things that were imported and exported. In Science, we learned about food chains and food webs. Ask them to tell you the difference between them and food in the planner if they can. Tomorrow is library day so get those books back. Just a reminder that the food drive is on and students get to make a kindness chain link for each can of food they donate. Reminder: Next week there is an early out on Tuesday. It is a 12:00 dismissal and then No School on Wed.-Friday for Thanksgiving break. Wow-where is the time going???? Also, I posted some pics of students in Art yesterday. We have an awesome art teacher and they are really learning lots of art. Have a great night.

Honoring our Veterans

Today we spent our social studies and science time watching a couple of YouTube videos and an actual video tape of "The Wall" which shows the Vietnam Wall and it reads aloud the book by Eve Bunting to them. Very good story and then the author of the video introduced the architect for the wall and what inspired her to design it the way she did. Ask your child how many veterans are honored on the Vietnam Wall. Write the number in the planner for free money. One of the YouTube videos we watched was an overview of what our vets do for us and how family lives change when their family members are serving our country. This one was pretty powerful. Lastly, we watched one on the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier". They were pretty intrigued by this and were amazed at all the qualifications a soldier needs to have to stand guard. Have them tell you 2 things they learned and write Soldier in the planner. In Math today, we finally did an assignment on 2 digit x 2 digit. We have practiced lots and now are ready to assess. We will continue to review this skill all year long. I know some of students read the blog with their parents and that is great, but don't let them see this portion!!! This is to be kept a secret as I think you may want to do it for a Christmas present. I will be sending home a letter to you tomorrow explaining the details. The letter will come home to you in a sealed envelope and students will not be allowed to open it. Then you can decide if this is something you choose to do or not. It is totally OPTIONAL!!! Have a great night and stay warm. Remember tennis shoes tomorrow for PE now that we are into boots season.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and staying warm. BRRR-it is freezing out there, but good news on the horizon- it is supposed to warm up again this week. Speaking of this week, we will continue with basically what we started last week. Tomorrow we will spend our Social Studies and Science time honoring our veterans. I will post more on that tomorrow. In Math, we will do a couple more days of 2 digit x 2 digit and then we are moving on to multiplication & division algebraic expressions and practicing our basic division facts which should not be difficult if they have the multiplication facts down and we have been practicing fact families already. Then on Tuesday, we will continue our wolf studies and go over the National Geographic research they completed last week. In Social Studies, we will continue Montana History and learn about and hopefully play if we can get the equipment Native American games of the past. Reading book clubs are going great and the kids are doing a great job of writing & asking inferential questions, finding lots of figurative language, making strong predictions, and writing I-V-F summaries. They are loving the book discussions and it is amazing what they are getting out of their books. If your child went to the PTA movie night on Friday, write movie in the planner for free money. Congratulations to Brayden, our student of the week. We enjoyed his pics and hearing all about him. One thing we learned is that he was a premie baby. Wow and look how tall and healthy he is now!! Other pics are of our Montana map scavenger hunt that we did on Thursday! Have a great rest of the weekend.

Happy 123rd Birthday, Montana!!

Today we celebrated Montana's 123rd birthday by doing a map skill scavenger hunt and enjoying cake. Thank you, Ms. Erickson for baking for us. Ask your child some of the cities and towns they found on the map and the riddles associated with them. If they can tell you the name of a large snake, write that town in the planner. We started our day out this morning having Mr. English come in with a video presentation of his time in the military over in Iraq. The kids got to see video of his year's stay there last year and some of what he and his unit did while serving our country. They also got to see some of the clothing he wore when over there. Ask your child what a huge sand storm over there is called and write it in the planner if they can remember. Thank you, Mr. English, for a great presentation, but mostly for serving our country. We will continue to honor Veterans tomorrow as we will be learning more about it here in our classroom and doing some activities. Whatever we don't finish tomorrow, we will continue with on Monday. We did not get to buddies today, but we definitely are tomorrow morning. Second grade had a schedule change and conflict so tomorrow works better for them. Today in Math, we continued with 2 digit x 2 digit. We are getting the hang of it. Have your child show you how to do it and if they are struggling, practice a few problems with them. We are doing it the old fashioned algorithm way. I have got to compliment my reading kids for the wonderful job and discussions we are having in our book clubs. They are actively participating and bringing great inferential questions to group to share. Way to go, kids. Today we learned what personification is. Have them tell you what it is and give an example if they can. Have a great night and remember to send warm clothing to school tomorrow. We had some cold kids today during recess.

Montana's Birthday!

Yes, tomorrow is Montana's birthday and we are doing a couple activities in the afternoon to celebrate. As you know, we do a whole year long study of Montana, but we want to recognize this special day and do some fun Montana trivia and enjoy a treat. Students are encouraged to "sport" their Montana wear tomorrow such as cowboy hat, boots, jeans, etc. If that attire doesn't work for you, I encourage them to wear red, white, and blue as we are also starting our Veteran's Day celebration tomorrow. Mr. English is going to kick it off by coming in and talking to our class about his experiences in the military and what Veteran's Day means to him. Then we are going to meet with our buddies (Mrs. Culp's 2nd grade) and help them with some writing about heroes. Our class will do most of our Veteran's Day activities on Friday. Today we had our class celebration for getting our first 25 compliments. We went out and enjoyed the beautiful weather for an extra 20 minutes and then had ice cream treats at the end of the day. Thank you to all of you for the Flakesgiving donation. I don't know our school total as of yet, but Team Hankins did their part. Way to go and what a good way to get rid of some of that Halloween candy. In Science today, students did some research on the National Geographic for Kids site. Ask them which are the only 2 continents in which gray wolves are found and write them in the planner for free money. Today in Math, we started 2 digit x 2 digit multiplication. I was impressed at how well it went. The weather is supposed to change tomorrow so be prepared with coats, long pants, etc. Have a great night and cya tomorrow.

Happy Tuesday!

Hope all is well with everyone and that you got your vote in today if you hadn't already done the absentee format. Won't we all be glad when it is over. All the negativity. We actually had a good morning meeting about this the other day. The students brought up the fact that we work so hard on being kind, caring, and no bullying to one another and then they see adults in power doing it through their campaign adds. What message does this send???? Just a couple quick reminders for today. Tomorrow is the Flakesgiving Leftover Halloween candy buy in. Yes, your child can bring a small bag of their candy along with a $1.00 and the money will be donated to Flakesgiving. Today some students asked if they can just bring the money and not the candy and of course they can. Notes went home today about PTA movie night on Friday, November 9th from 6-8. It is Madagascar:3 Europe's Most Wanted. Another note came home about the Bitterroot KC Club Food Drive which runs from November 12th-December 14th. Students can earn kindness links so make sure you read about it. Tomorrow is Library day so get those books back. Today in Science, we started our mini unit on wolves. Ask your child 5 facts they learned about wolves today and if they can answer, write wolves in the planner. My reading kids started book clubs today and they are so excited. Ask them the title of their book and what they think it is going to be about. Have a great night.

Very Productive Busy Day!

Today was a good day getting back to normal. We packed a lot into our day. First of all, this morning, we started our packets called HR packets which are totally non-fiction informational. It is a short, good piece of information in which we learn to pick out important, key details and highlight them and then answer some quick comprehension questions about what they read. We did the first one together today and will do a few more to get the kids on track of how to find key information. So when you hear HR this is what it is. Today we read about Annie Oakley. Have your child tell you 2 things about her and if they can, write Annie in the planner. Then in Social Studies we continued learning about the people in Montana in the 1700's. We made Seasonal Squares for the Salish & Blackfeet indians. Ask your child what these squares are. Today, my reading kids finished their discussions on the New England & Mid-Atlantic sections of their readers. Tomorrow we are starting book clubs!!!!!!! I am pleased to announce that the students are doing quite well on their multiplication facts for the most part which is making computation & mental math go much smoother. FLAKESGIVING--This is an annual fundraiser for our community. The "flakes" on 102.9 put out a challenge to the community to raise money for our own needy families right here in Billings. What we are doing here at Bitterroot for this week is allowing students to bring in SOME of their left-over Halloween candy along with $1.00 and they will be allowed to eat it at certain times throughout the day. The money we collect from this will be given to them to help out our community. What a great way to get rid of some candy and help those in need for only $1.00. So let's all pitch in Team Hankins and help out!!!

Back to Normal Schedule This Week

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. This week we are back to our regular schedule and routine. First of all, I enjoyed visiting with each of personally at conferences about the successes your child is having thus far in 4th grade. I am extremely proud of each and every one of them. On Friday, students were able to spend their fake money on items that were auctioned off. Many of them walked away with lots of fun items. They realized the importance of making positive choices and earning money for those kinds of things. Tomorrow they are starting off with $100 and money made this quarter will be able to be spent on fun days here in the classroom. They will not be an auction this next quarter. Like always, it is easy to earn money in here if you are respectful, responsible, and make good choices. We are starting book clubs this week now that we have learned lots of skills and strategies in our read-a-louds and whole group, we are ready to apply them into our small book club groups. This is so fun and one of my favorite parts of teaching reading. The discussions that go on about what they read is incredible. In math, this week we continuing with multiplication and getting into 2 digit x 2 digit. Also, we are starting to do some problem solving strategies. This week we will start with "making an organized list". In Science, we are starting a unit on wolves. We will learn about how they impact the food chain/web and listen to different debates from farmers and wildlife biologists to see the pros & cons of their reintroduction back into Yellowstone National Park. In Social Studies, we are continuing with our Montana History study. We are learning about the people of Montana in the 1700's. In Language, we are moving into Verbs, verb tenses, and linking and helping verbs. As you can see, we have lots going on this week. Thank you to all of you who donated items for the bake sale. It was very successful. We made $191 to add to our 4th grade field trip account. Congratulations to Denara, our student of the week. We enjoyed hearing all about you. She even spoke "Tonga" for us. Have a great rest of the weekend.

Just a Quick Note

I have a quick minute between conferences, but I just wanted to let you know that we are selling the rest of our bake sale items tomorrow for 25 cents. We have a lot left over and need to get rid of them. Also tomorrow is the Unit 9 spelling test and finishing up on our non-fiction reading about the Northeast in small reading groups. Next week we are starting Book Clubs. We, including me, are so excited for this. Today students spent some of their fake money on coupons and tomorrow they will have a chance to spend the rest on items that I have purchased for them. Any money not spent will go back into the bank. On Monday, students will start fresh with a $100. Have a great night and I so enjoyed visiting with those of you that I already have and look forward to visiting with those of you that I have not as of yet. Cya tomorrow.