Projects Are Complete

Yes, the ecosystem projects are complete along with our Hawaii projects. The ecosystem projects are in the hallway and look great. The Hawaii projects were shared in whole group today and voted on. Each team received free money for their teamwork and efforts. This money will be used to buy in to Hawaiian Day coming up sometime next week. We all started the book Riding Freedom today. Both Mrs. Betts & Mrs. Bunn are doing it with their reading kids also. Ask your child 2 things they have learned about Charlotte, the main character, so far. If they can tell you, write Charlotte in the planner. U.S. maps were handed out today for students to start practicing for their 50 states & capitals test that will be sometime around the 3rd week of May. Start studying now. They have to know location along with capital names. Remember that Library books are due tomorrow. Also tomorrow is the Recorder Concert at 1:30. Make sure your child dresses nicely and is ready to perform. Looking forward to hearing them as they have been working real hard. I hope each of you can make it also. If you can't get off work, but have access to your computer/phone at 1:30 you can watch via the ustream website that is posted on the side of my blog under favorite links. Just click on it and watch it. Gotta love technology-now let's hope it works tomorrow!!! Have a good night.

Another free picture slideshow by Smilebox

Field Trip Postponed

Yes, our field trip to the zoo has been postponed until Monday, May 6th. Jeff had a schedule conflict come up and we would only get him in the afternoon and we want to utilize his expertise all day long so we changed the date. New permission slips came home today. Also, students will still need to bring their sack lunches as it was too late to change the order for lunches by Miss Becky. Students once again did a great job on Friday with Mrs. Wichman. She said they were great and loved being in here. Way to go. Shared ecosystem projects today and rubrics came home tonight with some students and those not finished with project need to be tonight and share tomorrow. They know who they are. Two of them need to make dioramas tonight. Not sure why they didn't get them done as assigned. As you can see from their rubrics, this really hurt their grade, but they do still have to do one. We are starting our new and last book in reading tomorrow. It is called Riding Freedom. It is a fabulous story, the kids will love it and it will get us ready for our field trip to the ranch. Mrs. Betts is going to read it with Read 180 also so they won't miss out. Will finish up our Hawaii projects tomorrow and then share them. A date for Hawaiian Day hasn't been set yet, but will probably be sometime next week. Have a great night.

Happy Sunday

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and beautiful weather. What a great last 4 days I have had. Fun fun family times with lots of memories created. My niece had a beautiful wedding and fun was had by all. This week is going to be a very busy week especially since we only have 4 days and one of them being the field trip. Remember that Wednesday is the Recorder Concert at 1:30. Hope you can make it. Ask your child what their favorite song is that they are going to play and write it in the planner for free money. Also, remember that if your child went to the STEM night on Friday, write STEM in the planner for free money. Monday is ecosystem project sharing day. Can't wait to see the great dioramas and final poster projects. I heard that my sub didn't show up on Friday and they had Mrs. Wichman is this true? Ask your child and also have them rate their behavior on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being great. I am sure they all did a fabulous job. Have a great rest of your night.

Sub Again Tomorrow

Yes, there will be a sub again tomorrow. I will be out celebrating with family at my niece's wedding. Fun family times. Once again, just discuss expectations with your child. I know they will once again do an awesome job. Today, went out into the big field at the back of the playground and let our worms go. This was a great unit of study and we sure learned a lot. In Social Studies, we started our Hawaiian Project. Students are in groups of 3 and have to plan a 4 day trip and each day has to be on a different island for the whole class. They have a total of $8400 to spend on all 4 days. Next week each group will share their itineraries and then they will get to vote on which trip sounds like the most fun. Stay tuned for the results. Some fun math going on with this one. Speaking of Math, next week, we will be ready to start our Metric Olympics. That will be a fun way to assess what we have learned. Today, we finished Chapter 6 of Owls in the Family. Ask your child what the surprise in the box for the Pet Parade was and what happened. Write it in the planner for free money. Great turnout for the bike rodeo. Glad so many took advantage of this wonderful safety event. Remember Friday is the STEM math and science night. $500 for anyone who goes to work or participates. Lots of fun hands-on learning will take place. My reading kids-remember to have your dioramas here on Monday because YES we will be sharing our projects!!! Finally!! Congratulations to Jazmyn. She got 4th place in the state of Montana in her age group through 4-H in air rifle target shooting. Great job, Jazzy. Also, thank you for the neat book you shared with us today. Have a great night and thank you again for all your support.

Bike Rodeo Time

Yes, I hope you come to the bike rodeo and check out the bikes that are up for free drawing just by registering. Also, get your bike checked out for safety and make sure you have a helmet. All this for FREE!! What a deal!! Remember if your child comes, please write rodeo in the planner for free money. Today in Science, we took our last quiz on worms so we are pretty much done unless Jeff Ewalt, the Zoo director, does some things with them when we go to the zoo on Tuesday, April 30th. Yes, that is next week. Can't wait!! He is amazing!! Tomorrow we are going to take our worm farm out into the back of the playground and release our worms. Tomorrow we also start our Hawaii Vacation Tour in groups of 3. We will celebrate this activity by having Hawaii Day coming up in May. Keep earning that money because this is a $500 buy in and you don't want to miss it. Ecosystem Projects are officially due on Monday, April 29th!! This means projects & dioramas. REMINDER: The 4th Grade Recorder Concert is on Wednesday, May 1st at 1:30 in the gym. Hope to see you there. Have a great night.

Jumping Worms???

Have you ever heard of Jumping Worms??? I know I sure hadn't until today and we actually got to see and try to hold them. Yes, we had Sandy Stroh, who owns a worm farm come and talk to us today. She brought 3 kinds of worms and some worm eggs and lots of worm casts. Ask your child the names of the 3 kinds of worms she had an also what a person who studies worms is called. If they can tell you, write it in the planner for free money. I wonder how many are now going to become this and start their own little worm farms. She gave lots of info. on how to get started. The best thing is: she will even buy the worms they raise. What a great little entrepreneurs we may have in the near future!!!! We continued with our Metric Measurement today in Math. We measured items in the classroom to the nearest millimeter and centimeter. Once we are done with all three measurement components, we are going to have a little Metric Olympics to put it all into practice. How fun will that be!!! Today in Social Studies, we had a little introduction to our Hawaiian Project. Ask them what they get to do in groups of 3. Can't wait to see what they plan. Best planned itinerary may find themselves with a fun little reward at the end. Remember the Bike Rodeo tomorrow after school from 3:30-4:30. Register for a chance to win a free bike and also helmets will be given away so come and check out the fun and get your bike ready for some fun, safe summer riding. $500 for those that go. Also the STEM Night is on Friday from 6-8. Again $500 for those that go. Remember to get those dioramas here this week. Have a great night.

Happy Earth Day!!

By looking outside, it doesn't quite look like Earth Day-Oh well-the good news is-it is going to warm up by mid-week. Today was a great day. It started out with an AWESOME note that I got from Mr. Taylor, the substitute saying the kids were the best class he's been in yet this year. That is one great compliment. Then Mr. English came in to congratulate the kids on their AMAZING NWEA growth. He told them that they had the highest growth in the school. They were so proud and rightfully so. Way to go Team Hankins!!!! Tell your kids how proud you of them too and write proud in the planner. We finished Book #3 of our worm studies today. Now we are ready for Sandy, the worm farm owner, to come and give us some new info. and hands-on learning. For my reading kids, let's get the diorama ecosystem projects here by Thursday. Notes went home today with info. about the Bitterroot Bike Rodeo. This is a great event so I hope you will take the time to participate and have a chance to win a free bike. Also, students helping out at the STEM Night on Friday got work time slips today so mark down your times so you show up to help. You will receive $500 for helping and anyone showing up to participate will also receive $500. Easy money!! Remember PE shoes tomorrow. Have a great night.

Happy April 21st!!!

Yes, hard to believe it is April 21st with this crazy snow. Seems more like February weather. Oh well- we need the moisture. This is a quick post since I was not in school on Friday. Can't wait to get back tomorrow and see the hopefully awesome note from the sub. Ask your child to rate their behavior on Friday from 1-5 (1 being the lowest & 5 the highest) for how they felt their day went and write it in the planner for free money. This week we are going to finish our Ecosystem projects and share them hopefully by the end of the week. Also, this week we are going to finish our worm unit and we have a guest speaker on Tuesday who owns a worm farm. Can't wait to see and hear all she is going to share with us. Now that we are done with our West tour, we are going to do a fun Hawaiian project and then have a Hawaii Day. Then as we finish that, we are going to get back into Montana History to do the Gold Rush along with Montana Ranching & Farming. In Math, we are going to be moving into Metric Measurement. New unit spelling list will be coming home tomorrow. Have a great night.

Sub Tomorrow!!

Yes, there will be a sub tomorrow as I will be downtown working on Montana History!! YAYYY, as you know I love putting together new stuff for our kiddos. Please visit about expectations and using good character. They know that choices=consequences and it wouldn't be any fun to stay back from all the upcoming field trips that we are going to be going on. In Science today we learned a lot more about worms. Ask them how many hearts a worm has. Write it in the planner. As you can see from the pics that our worm habitat is doing just what it should. These worms are really burrowing and using those long & round muscles. In Math, we worked on Adding/Subtracting of decimals. This concept is fairly easily as long as numbers are aligned up correctly. They will review this tomorrow and then do some practice problems. Ecosystem reports are looking good so far. Ask your child how they are coming on theirs. They will work on them again tomorrow and I stressed the importance of continuing the good quality. Remember spelling test tomorrow. Have a great night.

Finally!!!

Sorry this post is so late, but I had lots of difficulty getting into my blog today. It took me to a whole new account which to my knowledge never even knew I set up. Don't you just love technology sometimes???? Oh well, here I am!! Today was a great day in Room 6. Julie, from Northwestern Energy, came in and did a presentation about being safe around power lines. She had an electrical set up which showed many ways that people can be electrocuted. Ask your child to show you how they would get out of a vehicle if a power line is down in the road and they need to get out of the car for some reason. Have them show you and tell how many of these they need to take to get far enough away from the vehicle. Write the number in the planner. Also, ask them what number that needs to be called if you plan to dig in your backyard so that safety personal can come in and mark for any power or gas lines. Write the number in the planner. Tomorrow is our states and capitals test. I have added a Part 2 and that is about the tour and geography challenge we did for this section. Many students brought their green books home tonight to read over the section. Great for them!! Our Ecosystem reports are coming along nicely. I still haven't set a due date yet, but will be sometime later next week. I think everyone has all the pics they need now so we can really get busy. Make sure dioramas are being worked on at home. I can't wait to see all these finished products. Thank you for all of you that returned the field trip permission slips. Please get them back for sure by Friday. Don't forget to mark your lunch choice. Remember that the Music Recorder Concert is on Wednesday, May 1st at 1:30 so mark your calendars. Have a great night.

Permission Slips Went Home Today

Permission slips went home today for our field trip to Zoo Montana. We talked a lot this morning in morning meeting about expectations and about the fact that even if you paid in with fake money, it doesn't entitle you to go for sure. Any major negative behaviors/actions until then could keep a student from participating. Choices= Consequences. There are also a couple students that have not paid in with fake money and the slip shows how much they still need. Today we started our Ecosystem reports. We are off to a great start and they really worked hard today for 45 minutes. Thank you to those of you that printed pics at home and we printed some here at school today, but if you still want & need some-tonight is the night to do it. Also, we talked about the diorama project so they should get going with that. Pretty much the only requirements for that is that it is 3-D, full of creativity, and 4th grade quality. No deadline has been set for this big project yet, but will set one next week. I want to see how far & fast we come along with the project/poster part that we are doing here in school. We finished our tour of the west region today and our states and capitals test is on Thursday. They will have a Part 2 to that test and it will be some questions to go with the tour that we were on along with the Geography Challenge that we did at the beginning of the tour. This should not be a big deal as we review these things daily and if they have been listening, should be no problem. So to see if they have been listening, ask your child to tell you about 3 stops on the tour and if they can tell you about them, write WEST in the planner. Remember Library books tomorrow. Have a great night.

Busy Day With Finally a Full Week Ahead of Us!!

Today was a busy day as we finally have a 5 day week again. Seems like forever ago since that happened. First of all, I want to once again stress how proud I am of these kiddos and the growth they made on their MAP testing last week. We finished Friday with Language and had great results. Today in Reading, my kids continued their ecosystem projects. I have mine completed and modeled for them and have a picture attached below for you to see along with an example of a diorama of a desert habitat. I know it is not the rain forest like my project, but just wanted the kids to see an example. We will talk about these more tomorrow. What the kids need tomorrow for school is colored pics (preferably) of animals in their ecosystem's food chain and food web. We have a color printer here at school, but that is a lot of pics for me to get in a short time so hopefully you can help with this at home. Remember this is for my reading kids only. Thank you. We finished our first worm book today and will go into parts of worms tomorrow. Ask your child 3 cool facts and write them in the planner for free money. In Social Studies we will finish our West Region tour tomorrow and have our states and capitals test on Thursday. Unit 29 spelling list this week. Way to Go, Gabe on being Student of the Week. We loved your baby book album. Cute pics. Have a great night.

WOW!! I COULDN'T BE PROUDER!!

Once again these awesome kids shined like "RockStars"!! Their growth on the Math MAP testing was amazing!! I am so excited and proud of each and every one of them. We have the Language portion left tomorrow and I am positive we are going to get the same fabulous results. Once all 3 tests are over with, I will be sending you a slip with their scores and growth. They are definitely proving they are ready for 5th grade!! Ask them how many points they went up and write it in the planner. You will definitely see most were way over the expected 8 points. We continued our tour of the West Region today. We may finish it tomorrow. Depends on the great discussions we have. My reading kids started their Ecosystem Research today for their projects. Ask them which ecosystem they chose and what they get to make at home to go with it. Remember to get the picture packets or money envelopes back tomorrow if at all possible. Remember the testing rules once again for tonight and tomorrow morning. It definitely is working. A couple of dates coming up to remember are: April 23rd -Sandra- a lady I know who owns a worm farm is coming in. April 30th-Field trip to the Zoo May 15th-Field trip to Pompey's Pillar. We haven't scheduled the Grewell Ranch trip yet so as you can see, students will need to have $2000 to be able to participate in all this. Most students already have enough $. Ask your child how much they have so you know where they are and how much they have to earn. Remember this amount is attainable if students make positive choices. Have a great night.

Great Day 1 of Testing

Yes, I am so proud of these kids as for the most part they did great on their MAP reading test today. Ask your child how many points they went up and celebrate!! Tomorrow we will do the Math test. I am so excited for these results. Once again, I will give them their fall score in the morning and they have to make at least an 8 point gain from fall to spring so they will see if they reach that goal as they finish their test. Spring pictures came home today. These were not purchased by you yet so if you choose to purchase some or all of them, please see the enclosed envelope sheet for prices. If you choose to purchase some of them, you send back the money for those and the pics you don't wish to get and if you don't want any, just send the whole packet back. Does this make sense-hope it is clearer than mud!!! I told the kids that if they get any pics or money back here by Friday, they will get free money. If you looked at and talked about this with your child tonight, write pics in the planner for free money. Ask your child what they noticed about our cool worm farm and write it in the planner. Also, ask them 3 cool facts they learned about worms today. If they can, write worms in the planner. Remember the testing rules-good night sleep, protein breakfast and snack and we will see you in the morning. Also check out the green slips that came home today about the Family Science Night. How cool is this? It looks like lots of great things planned. Have a great night.

MAP (NWEA) testing week

HI there- Ok-so I was informed by the students that the blog never published yesterday so here it is along with a couple new things from today. First of all, thank you to everyone for your help in donating lots of cakes and baked goods for our cakewalk at the carnival. The 4th grade cakewalk proved to be the "hit" of the carnival once again so thank you so much for helping this out. The funds we received will continue to be used as science/math supplies/books as well as items bought for auctions to buy things with extra fake money. Testing schedule this week is such: Wednesday-10:00-11:30-Reading --Thursday-12:30-2:00-Math --Friday-10:00-11:30 Language. So please don't miss school unless you are ill. These are my favorite tests because they show how much your child has learned throughout the year and they are compared only to themselves so what a great time to show what they know!!! We made our worm home on Friday so now we will be able to watch them tunnel (hopefully) and see how they adapt to their habitat. We are now going to be learning lots of cool facts about worms by reading 3 different books and doing some activity sheets. In Math, we finished our customary measurement unit and now we are moving into decimals & fractions before we move into the metric measurement section. We are going to do some fun metric olympics for this unit after testing. In Social Studies, we are going to finish our Geography challenge tomorrow and then tour the West region. Make sure you study those states and capitals. We will look at having the test a couple weeks from now. No actual date set as of yet. In Reading, we are finishing up Selection 2 and then we will be working on Ecosystem projects (some of it done here at school) and some done at home. I have a rubric with expectations on it along with a model of one I made so students will know what is expected of them. We had a guest speaker today that did an awesome job. Ask your child about whom it was and what she did and what their favorite part was. If you have a good discussion, write YAM in the planner. Also, ask them what the little testing message and treat they got from me today to start getting us prepared for testing tomorrow. Testing Prep: Remember at least 8-10 hours of sleep each night, protein filled breakfast, and bring a protein filled snack. Also, as your child leaves for school in the morning, send them off with a positive message and make them feel good about themselves. Have a great night.

Quick Post

Hi everyone- This is going to be a quick post as we have a staff meeting at Beartooth today after school with Dr. Bouck on the upcoming bond levy. First of all, I want to say a HUGE thank you to the moms in our class that have volunteered TONS of their time in putting our baskets together for the carnival tomorrow night. Yes, not one, but two. They worked so hard in getting donations from the community and we want them to know all their hard work is greatly appreciated. So thank you to Alicia Hansen, Nikki Neville, and Lora Hirsch. If I missed anyone else, please let me know and I will make sure you are recognized!! Speaking of carnival, we will be needing those cakes tomorrow so I am going to give a HUGE thank you in advance to the rest of you for donating cakes, cupcakes,etc. to our cakewalk because of course it couldn't happen without you and those cakes. You can send them to school with your child or bring them tomorrow night if you come. Remember time is 6-8 and I am offering $100 (yes, I upped the price) as found out Ms. Erickson was offering $100 so want to make it even since it is for the same cause. So thank you again for all of your efforts in helping with this event. Today we started our Geography Challenge for the West Region. Ask your child what river forms the border of Oregon & Washington and put it in the planner. Have a great night and cya all tomorrow.

Wormy Kind of Day!

Today was Science Lab day and the kids had quite the time testing what worms like best. They did a light test, wet/dry test, and a smell test. Ask them to tell you 3 different observations they made and write them in the planner for free money. Tomorrow we will start reading some great books about worms and finding new facts and making diagrams to go along with our reading. Today in math, we moved in converting measurement. This is a tough concept, but we will practice hard and get through it. Maps for the West states and capitals went home today so start studying. Also, April reading calendars went home today. Get those March ones back. I know they may not be as complete as I would like, but that is partially my fault since I didn't send them home in time!! :( Next week is MAP testing-formally NWEA. We will be testing on Wed., Thurs, and Friday. So please don't make any appointments for these days. Thank you as make-ups are no fun. Remember the carnival on Friday from 6-8. Have a great night.

Great Day Back!

Today was a good day and great to be back in the swing of things. In Math, we continued with our measurement and measured capacity with containers and then we made Gallon Bot Man to help us remember the capacity measurements. We also measured weight with a small kitchen scale so now that we have been introduced to the measurement components for linear, capacity, and weight, we are ready to convert them to larger or smaller units by either multiplying or dividing which we will start tomorrow. In Science, we started our fun worm unit. Today, we started our KWL chart and then observed them under magnifying glasses and then sketched our observations in their worm booklets. Tomorrow we start some fun lab experiments with them along with reading some cool, informational books, and then we will build a worm house to do some more observations of them tunneling, etc. Ask them about one observation they observed and write it in the planner. In Reading, we started Selection 2 of our Ecosystem unit which has fantasy and realistic fiction stories. Fun stories that will review idioms and writing summaries. We finished our section on fur trading/trapping in Montana History so we will take a short break from that before we start up again. We now will go into our final region, the West, in Social Studies. Today, we made our flashcards to study here at school. A study map will be coming home tomorrow for them to practice at home. Test will be in a couple of weeks. Unit 27 spelling list this week. Reminder: Carnival is on Friday from 6-8:00. Remember to send cakes, cupcakes, plates of cookies, etc. with your child that day. Each cake or plate of stuff will entitle them to $50 fake money. Speaking of money, we have at least 3 field trips coming up so they need to make sure they have at least $1500 for them. Have a great night.

Quick Post

Hi there- I hope you all had an enjoyable break. I know I sure did, but as always doesn't it seem to go too fast- especially when you go out of town for part of it. I had a great time skiing in Big Sky with family. Just love breaks and family time, but,I miss all my Bitterroot kiddos and tomorrow will be here soon. I do want to compliment them on doing a great job for the sub on Wednesday morning as I was at a Drs. appt. I knew they would be awesome and that sub would love to come back if she has the opportunity. I am not going to post for the week's happenings until tomorrow just because we still have family here so I am going to make it short, but put in the planner what your favorite part of the break was for free money. Cya tomorrow