Sub Tomorrow

This will be a quick post as I am heading out shortly. I just want to remind you all that there will be a substitute tomorrow. So I would like you to go over sub expectations with your child tonight. We went over them today as a class and I know these kids will do awesome and we talked about how "true character" shines when no one is watching them. So if you have this talk with your child, please write talk in the planner. Thank you. Today, we did science experiment #2 for the scientific process. Fun-fun-ask your child about it. I hope you all have a great 3 day weekend. Remember No School on Monday. I will post again on Monday. Cya

Good day today in Room 6. It is amazing though how I have overplanned for the week and not quite getting everything planned done, but we will get it done eventually. Hopefully after it cools down a bit and we can endure the longer 4th grade days. HOMEWORK: Math homework went home tonight that entails students to read large numbers to you. I want them to be very proficient at it before you sign the paper and return it to school with your child. It will definitely be due by Wednesday, September 5th as that should give sufficient amount of time to practice before then. We started our read-a-loud book in reading today. Ask your child the name of the book and who the main character is and what is one main problem he has in the story so far. Write it in the planner for free money tomorrow. In Language, we finished learning about our 4th kind of sentence today. Tomorrow we will practice using them independently and also learning about nouns. Me on the Map books are almost complete. Students that are not done will need to finish them tomorrow during Science time and will have to miss Science Lab but hopefully they will learn to make better choices when working on a large project like this and not waste time. Ask your child about the great book we read this morning in morning meeting about the boy in the west village that got to be the prince. Talk about what kind of character he used. Speaking of character, students will have an opportunity to show positive character on Friday when I will be gone and there is a substitute. As I say to them, true character is when I am not constantly watching over them. Tomorrow is PE so wear those tennis shoes. Have a great night.

Coke or Pepsi?

Today, we started Science out by introducing the Scientific Method. This activity was done with both 4th grades together. Students had to hypothesize, experiment, observe and record data, and analyze their data. This was a fun activity to do to introduce these steps. We will be doing more as the year goes on and even Mr. English is going to come in and do one sometime soon as he used to be a High School Science Teacher. How fun. So what was your preference? Coke or Pepsi-write it in the planner for free money at check in. We are almost done with our "Me on the Map" flip books. Students are learning a lot about themselves, their neighborhood, state, country, and continent. They will be up in the hallway for display soon. Today in Language we discussed the 3/4 types of sentences. If your child can tell you the 3 we learned, write sentences in the planner. Keep studying those spelling words for Friday's test. In Math, we continued with place value. Your child may have homework tonight if they didn't finish in school. If they have trouble with these concepts, don't panic as we will be revisiting them lots in the next few weeks. Library is tomorrow so get those Library books back. Thank you so much for getting all the beginning of year paperwork back. The office has it all and Mrs. Zimmerman was so tickled to get it all so soon. You Rock!! Have a great night.

A Very Productive Day in Room 6

What a great day we had today. So good to get back into the routine and get into our curriculum. Today, we started our day out by reading the book, "Have you Filled a Bucket Today"? It is about being bucket fillers and not bucket dippers. Ask your child what the difference between the 2 and if they can tell you, write "fillers" in the planner. We made a poster of what fillers and dippers looks like and each child also has a paper bucket on a tagboard poster in which little notes that others write for them and how they filled their bucket will be in them. Then on Friday, we will share them during morning meeting. The more buckets they fill, the faster their "citizenship" cards will fill up. Then in Social Studies, we continued to work on our flip books for "me on the map". These are turning out pretty cool and will be on display for you to see at our Open House Night. Unit #1 Spelling word lists went home today and we will be practicing them along with skills here in school all week to help with mastery, but some time at home studying is necessary also. In Language, we discussed the difference between sentence fragments and sentences which will lead us into the 4 kinds of sentences, subject & predicate, and parts of speech. We did finish our reading placement test today. This is only one little piece of deciding where your child will fit into the new reading series we have. I will also be trying to incorporate read-a-louds and book clubs so there will be lots of components in reading. More about this at Open House. In Math, we did our first vocabulary for shout outs. Then practiced place value. If your child can show you how to write 458,987 in expanded form, write math in the planner. Students had their first day of Art Class today and LOVED. They were so on task and into their drawings. This is such a fun first thing for 4th graders. So glad to see the many water bottles. There are still a few without so please send one to school as it is extremely warm in here and not supposed to let up a bit until Thursday. Yikes------ Thank you for getting all the office paperwork back. You parents ROCK!! This makes their job in the office that much easier. Also, thank you for returning your name homework today from the weekend. We will be sharing them tomorrow as we ran out of time today during morning meeting. Coupon lunch is on Wednesday. Anyone who bought a coupon to eat lunch with me can use it this Wednesday or next Wednesday. After that they expire. Have a great night and try to stay cool. See you tomorrow.

Hi! I hope you had a good restful weekend. It was nice having a couple days to catch up and take a break from the heat after our scorcher last week. This week we are in full swing (yes, it is going to be hot M-W)but we can "do it"! We will begin Reading, Spelling, Language, Math, Social Studies, and Science. This may mean that there may be some homework coming home if they don't finish their assignments in school. They also will have spelling words to study for the test on Friday. Speaking of HOMEWORK, I hope you did your homework this weekend. It is the name activity that went with the book "Chrysanthemum" that we read on Friday. It was about how a little mouse was teased about her name. As the book concluded, everyone wanted a name just like hers. We talked about how our parents named us and we want you to complete the neon card that went home with the assignment on the back. Can't wait to hear the stories. Also, the textbook sheet and emergency information sheets went home on Friday so please get those back Monday also. $50/sheet if they come back completed. Please make sure your child has a water bottle as there will be no more getting drinks. They have opportunities to fill their bottles in the a.m. and p.m. Ms. Erickson and I visited and we have decided to tweak the money system a little bit. The coupon/money distribution took too long and also didn't quite seem consistent enough with behaviors as any student with over $500 whether it be $10 or $300 over were able to buy a coupon. (These coupons that they bought last week will still be honored as they each purchased one.) We want something that will allow students to save their money for options to buy fun things from our classroom store. So here is the new plan: Each student will have $500 start up money tomorrow. They will now have opportunities to earn more money by making positive choices. The money they earn will be for Team Building on Fridays, field trips, and the classroom store at the end of each quarter. They can earn at least $250/week for planners signed, jobs, desks, and positive behavior. They will get $20/day for signed planners,$50/week for not losing a ticket, $50/week for jobs, and $50/week for a clean desk. Also, they can earn $20/day for blog questions so that really is at least $350/week and then sometimes little bonuses are thrown in. Team Building will cost $100/week. Field trips are $500/each and we have 2 coming up in October, but there is no reason that your child will not have enough for all this and still some left for purchasing fun stuff if they make positive choices. I am excited for this change and think it will be more fair for making good choices. If you discussed this with your child, write money in the planner for free money tomorrow at check in. If you attended the Bitterroot Movie Night, write movie in the planner for free money. Thank you again for a great first week. Hankins' Team is off to a fabulous start and I look forward to all the awesome things that are going to happen this year. Have a great rest of your Sunday.

Homework Tonight!!

Another Great Day!! Our day started out today by each of us coming up with a focus or vision word that we are really going to use this year. Some of them are: kindness, hard-worker, respect, believe, honesty, etc. (Great words right) and then we made a class poster plus the kids made themselves a card that we taped on their desk as a reminder for them to really focus on this word. Ask them what their word is and write it in the planner for free money tomorrow at check in. Then we read the book "The Kissing Hand" which led us to the wonderful masterpiece they created with watercolors, their hands, and of course a heart. Make sure you read the message on the back of it too as that is where the HOMEWORK part of tonight comes in. We want those pictures for our Friends & Family board. Another book we read today was called "Agate". What a terrific book-ask your child what the key message is in that book and write it in the planner for free money. We are going to continue the activity with that book tomorrow by working on our flip books that we started today. As you can see another busy day. The kids have been doing real well despite the hot hot temp. in our room. Yikes!!!!! We did have a few tickets taken away today. There was some talking in a group after I gave the class signal so unfortunately the whole group lost a ticket. They were a bit disappointed, but now they know what needs to happen when I give the signal and that I mean it. WATER BOTTLES: Your child needs to have one of these. I do not allow time up at the water faucet after recess as this takes away a lot of minutes from learning. In fact, we figured that out and it was quite a big number. Happy Birthday today to Emily and Tyler. Thank you for the yummy treats. Thank you, Tyler for being so willing to save yours for tomorrow. Thank you for getting all the paperwork back so fast. You are all so AWESOME!! A few of you have a couple to get back tomorrow-Chase, Eli, and Lisa. Have a great night and hope for cooler weather!!

Fantastic First Day

Dear Parents, Thank you -thank you for sharing your child with me. They are wonderful young adults and I can tell we are going to have a great year with lots of learning and building relationships taking place. We started the day by sharing first day feelings. Lots of happy, excited, scared, nervous. Typical feelings, but all good. Today was very busy unpacking our supplies and going over procedures, along with having Library and Music so needless to say, we didn't get through as much as I wanted to. Tomorrow we will get a few more of those things accomplished. WE GET TO PAINT AND THEY ARE SO EXCITED!!!! We talked a lot about the money system and the ways to earn and lose money and with all the office papers that came home they have a chance to earn $250 as they will get $50 for each sheet that is signed and returned so that is the HOMEWORK FOR TONIGHT!! Assignment Notebooks: Everyone received one today whether they paid or not, so please send the $3.50 CASH to school by Friday if you didn't purchase one earlier. Thank you. Make sure you sign it for $20 tomorrow. Tomorrow is PE so please wear comfortable clothes and bring tennis shoes. Today the students learned a few things about Mrs. Hankins. If they can tell you my favorite animal and sports team, write the answers in the planner for extra free money tomorrow. Water Bottles needed. Each child needs to bring a water bottle as it is so hot in the room. Have a great night and see you tomorrow.

WELCOME

Hi and welcome to another school year. I am looking forward to working with you and your child to make this the BEST school year thus far for them. I hope you will use this blog daily to communicate with me and learn about what is happening in our classroom and school. I hope each of you will make it to the Meet & Greet session on Monday, August 20th from 5-6:00. This is a time to drop of supplies, purchase their assignment notebook ($3.50) and meet myself and catch up with friends and classmates. I look forward to meeting each of you personally. Enjoy the last couple days of summer.