WHOOOT-WHOOOT!!!!

We started our Owls in the Family book today and found out that the two main owls in the story are a Great Horned & Snowy so today we got into groups of 3 to research owl facts, snowy's & great horned. Ask how we determined the groups to be in. Then discuss some of the cool facts they found and if you found out lots about owls, write owls in the planner. Tomorrow the Lead 21 kids will share their ecosystem findings and then we will put all our owl facts on owl posters to hang around the room. Also today in Science we went to our Brain Pop website and learned about natural selection & mutations. Ask them what a favorable mutation that a baby owl could get from a parent would be. If they understand mutations, write mutations in the planner. HIP-HIP HOORAY-we all finished testing today so as a celebration we did some fun time with computer math games. Bike Rodeo tomorrow here at the school from 3:00-4:30-make sure you bring your family bikes in for a summer tune up and a free helmet if you are in need of one. Reminder: No School on Friday, May 2nd. Remember to return April reading calendars tomorrow. Have a great night.

Quick Post

Yes, this is a short, quick post as I am in charge of doing "Fit Kids" Club tonight so outside I go. Great, but sad day today in Hankins' Room. Ask them why some of us were feeling a little melancholy at the end of the day today. That darn books gets me every time. If you have a good conversation about the book and they tell you 3 of their favorite parts, then write great book in the planner. Happy Birthday, Kylee. Thank you for the yummy treats. Remember Library books tomorrow. Have a great night.

Marvelous Monday

Yes, today was a good day. We had a great day of Part 1 of our Math testing. Tomorrow, we will do Part 2. I hope everyone is here tomorrow so no one gets real far behind as we have to do a class activity together before the testing which will help them with part 2 portion of the test. Remember that good night's rest, healthy breakfast, along with a healthy snack. Today as part of our science unit on animals, we did a mammal scavenger hunt finding out some pretty amazing facts. Ask your child 3 new facts they learned today and if they can tell you, write scavenger hunt in the planner. Now we are ready to begin our studies on owls and do some research besides reading the book "Owls in the F Also, ask them what they learned in Montana History today about Lewis & Clark's expedition. Some of you may have read about this in the Billings Gazette yesterday. Kind of cool and how exciting for these MSU students to have been digging and working on the exact spot where history took place back in 1806. Today in math, we had some fun making line plots with our "stinky feet" data. No, not really stinky feet, but we plotted our shoe sizes. We definitely have "BIG" & "little" foot in here!!! :))) Have a great night.

NUTS!!!!!

Yes, we got to start our day out with the 2nd Grade Performance called "Nuts". What a treat!! They did an awesome job and it was so fun to watch our buddy class along with the rest of the 2nd Graders. Happy Weekend to each and every one of you. I hope you enjoy family & friend time together. I just love the idea of "spring in the air". Yes, we are testing again this next week Monday-Thursday. It is the SBAC-Math portion of the tests and then we are done with testing for the year!!!!!!! Once again I am so proud of these kids and their hard work. So please make every effort to have your child here these days with no appointments scheduled. Making up tests is not easy nor fun. Next week we are starting our owl studies to go along with our Science unit on animals. Remember the $2 for the owl pellets. Thank you. In math, we will be reviewing line plots skills along with practicing measuring & making angles and adding & subtracting angle measurements. In Social Studies, we will be starting our tour of the Southwest section. Remember no maps coming home to study those 4 states & capitals. We will probably test on them May 6th. In Montana History, we will finish up this week with the "importance of the buffalo" to the trappers/traders. Lead 21-sharing our compare/contrast writing with other groups. Writing-stories are coming along great and we have not set a due date for them yet. No Spelling list this week due to testing during our spelling/reading time. Congratulations to Kira, our Purple Hand Cookie recipient. She was nominated by her peers for her helpfulness & friendship. REMINDER: NO SCHOOL ON Friday, May 2nd. Have a great weekend.

Owl Pellets

Yes, the owl pellets have been ordered and thank you to those of you that brought in the $2 so far to cover your cost. We won't be doing them next week, but hopefully the following week. "Finishing the year strong". Yes, that is our motto for the rest of the year. I have noticed some carelessness & rushing of work lately so we talked today about having a positive attitude and finishing strong. Please remind your child of this and if you do, write finish strong in the planner. Thank you. Music-today in Music-Mrs. McKennsey brought in an instrument and she is taking some time to discuss instruments with students and then on May 15th someone from Eckroth Music will be here to show students different instruments that they will have to choose from for next year if they wish. May 22nd-date for our field trip to Ms. Erickson's farm. Yes, we have done this trip for years and it ties into our MT History/Social Studies curriculum very well. They are also our pen pals so it will be fun to connect with them. The only bad thing is that both of our 4th grades can't go due to the numbers of students that her family wants to have around the activities that they will be doing with the kids. Showing how to shoe horses, branding cattle, picking eggs, feeding lambs, etc. This is a very educational & great experience for our city kids. Remember PE shoes tomorrow. Have a great night.

Happy Wednesday

Amazing leeches-yes, I think the students were a little bit surprised or grossed out today in science to find out that leeches are used in medicine treatments. We found out that they are used to help prevent blood clotting especially for procedures like skin grafting or reattaching a limb or appendage. Ask them what part of the leech is used to prevent clotting and write it in the planner. As part of our science unit on animals/ecosystems, we are going to be studying owls and reading a book called "Owls in the Family". Also students will be dissecting owl pellets. Each owl pellet is $2.00 so we are asking for your help with this, so you may send the $2 with your child anytime. Thank you. Today in Social Studies, we started our Southwest unit-this unit only has 4 states so no practice map coming home. Ask them the 4 states and if they can tell you, write 4 in the planner. In Math, we are working hard on doing some constructed written responses to math problem solving. Reminder: Next week Monday-Thursday, we are going to be taking the final parts of our SBAC testing on math. So once again please make every effort to have your child here those days. Thank you. Field Trip coming up-We have our field trip to Pompey's Pillar coming up on May 15th. More to come on that later. Have a great night.

Happy Earth Day

Yes, Happy Earth Day and welcome back-I hope you all had a great, relaxing Spring Break. I know I enjoyed mine enormously having lots of family around. Watching two 3 year olds play soccer and doing an Easter Egg Hunt had to be the most entertaining. Was so fun to be outside and enjoy the beautiful spring weather. Even squeezed in a little yard work. To celebrate Earth Day today, if your child picks up some trash in the neighborhood, write Earth Day in the planner for free money. This week is going to be a normal week for us with no testing and no school-wide activities going on outside of the ordinary. Some of the Hankins' Happenings this week are: Lead 21-we are continuing with our Ecosystem unit and reading Selection 4 which is about how ecosystems can be changed or interfered with due to natural disasters or human destruction. Writing-each student chose an a large, colorful animal picture today and they are going to do some story writing about it starting tomorrow. The stories will depict the animal in its' ecosystem and can be either fiction, non-fiction or realistic fiction, but will have to have some science/writing related components intertwined into the stories. Ask them what animal they chose and write it in the planner. Montana History-we are hoping to finish the section on trapping/trading. We are moving from trading beaver furs to buffalo skins and then we will see what effect that has on the buffalo population and what happens to the buffalo as only the furs are taken. Spelling-Unit 32 word list Math-we are spending a good portion of this week in preparation of next week's SBAC math test. It will consist of lots of problem-solving and writing to explain answers to the problem. Science-this is an extension to Lead 21, but more about animal behaviors, adaptations, 5 animal kingdoms, 5 groups of animals, etc. rather than focusing more on ecosystems and food chains/webs. Ask them something new they learned in Science today and write it in the planner for free money. Remember Library books tomorrow. Have a great night.

Great Day Today

Yes, we had a great day today in Team Hankins!! Our morning consisted up of Library and then we all finished up with the ELA (reading) testing so now we have a break from testing until the week of April 28th when we will do the 3 parts for the Math. This afternoon we finished up with our objective on volume. I think we have it down. Have your child find the volume of a rectangular prism with the dimensions of 5ft. (width) 7ft. (length) and 8ft. (height). Write the correct answer in the planner with the correct label also. Then we did a fun problem solving activity with a partner and had practice using our calculators as we did multiplication, division, and converting minutes to hours. Ask your child about this "chunky" bunny activity we did. Since we worked so hard on testing all week and missed most of our morning recesses, we took a break this afternoon and enjoyed the nice weather and went out and had some fun friendship time. Reminder: Tomorrow is a 12:00 dismissal. When we came in we read from our read-a-loud "Petey". It just keeps getting better & better. Ask them who Petey got to meet from the past and who Trevor is going to try and find. Also ask them what else Trevor is trying to do for Petey. Have a great night.

Happy Tuesday

Short post today since we had Day 2 of testing and not a lot of exciting happenings in Room 6. We did the Performance Test of ELA (reading) today. This one had only 4 questions, but took lots of reading, thinking, and writing. Discuss with your child what their question #4 required them to write about and what kind of writing text they had to do like story, paragraphs, opinion-proof, etc. Write the topic and type of writing in the planner for free money. PE today was made up of notes and activity of their choice. I wonder what they chose to do as a class? Ask them. Math today was about volume once again. We will do one final day of that tomorrow. In MT History, we learned about how trappers would get together at a rendezvous to sell their furs & supplies which proved to be very advantageous for them as they would sell at a 1000% mark up. Ask what a rendezvous is and if they can tell you, write rendezvous in the planner. Remember Library Books tomorrow. Also, tomorrow we are all going to finish our ELA testing so let's hope everyone is here so we don't have to do any make-ups. Remember Early Out on Thursday. (12:00 dismissal) No School then on Friday & Monday. Have a great night.

SBAC Testing-Day 1 Complete

Yes, we did it!!! Day 1 of testing is complete and it went very well. Students took their time and hopefully put some good thought into their responses. Tomorrow we will continue with Parts 2 & 3 of the ELA (reading) test. There is an activity part for this one that we do together to prepare students for Part 3. So get a good rest again tonight along with a good breakfast and bring a healthy snack. In math today, we learned about volume. Ask your child what the formula for finding volume is and write it in the planner. Have a great night.

Friday Fun

Yes, Friday was a busy day filled with lots of fun. First of all the day started with the 4th Grade recorder concert. These kids did awesome and impressed all those in attendance. Great job 4th graders. School Carnival-it was great to see so many of you there supporting our school & teachers. I think all those in attendance had a great time-many of you winning baked goods, prizes, and of course some of those amazing baskets. If you attended the carnival, please write carnival in the planner for free money. Also, I know some of you brought in baked goods that night so if you were one of those, please write how many in the planner so I can pay you for them. Celebration earned: Yes, we earned our 25 point celebration and we will be celebrating sometime this week. Not sure what day yet, but one of the afternoons of M-W. We will be doing a physical activity/game along with enjoying root beer floats. SBAC tests-yes, we will begin those tomorrow morning and do them again on Tues, & Wed. mornings. These are all new to all of us, so we will just do our best and make the best of them. I know the kids will do great, I just worry about myself getting everything set up on computer for them to begin testing. Always, that worry of not really knowing what to do when it is the first go at it. But with everyone's help & support at school, we will manage. We 4th graders get to be the first ones doing it!!!!! Lucky us:) We will finish up the section on fur trading in MT History. In math, we will learn about volume. Reminder: Early Out on Thursday, April 17th with NO SCHOOL ON Friday and the following Monday. Have a great rest of the weekend.

Busy Day Ahead Tomorrow

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. It is our 4th Grade Recorder Concert beginning at 10:00 in the gym. Hope to see all of you there. Just a reminder that the students will actually be sitting on the floor while they play their recorders so no need to get all dressed up like I know we like to for a concert. Also, tomorrow is the PTA sponsored carnival from 6-8:00. Again thank you to all of you who have sent in items or $ for our grade level baskets. Mrs. Hankins even put together a Rodan & Fields basket for the carnival. Yes, I don't think any of you know, but I have a skin care consultant business created by the Drs. that created Proactiv. Money from all baskets will be put together and divided by all the grade levels and evenly distributed. What a great way for Bitterroot to come together as a team. Also, gently used books are being collected for a book bingo booth. So send any you may have to share to school with your child tomorrow. 4TH GRADE CAKE WALK: Yes, we need those baked goods tomorrow. Remember students will be paid fake money for each item they bring in. Thank you in advance. Today, we practiced for our SBAC tests for the final time. WE will be doing our first session on Monday morning. We are ready to do our BEST-BEST-BEST!!! In math today, we learned how to find the area of a triangle using the formula A=1/2 x b x h. So if the base of a triangle is 16 and the height is 9in. -what is the area. Put it in the planner for free money. Lead 21 finished selection 1 of Unit 6 today all on ecosystems. Ask them 3 things they have learned about ecosystems. If they can tell you, write ecosystems in the planner. Every student even Read 180 & System 44 students can do this because they are doing them in Library. Ask your child about our Read-A-Loud book: "Petey". I think from your conversation with them, you will be able to tell they are loving this book. If they can tell you a little bit about it, write Petey in the planner. Have a great night and enjoy this nice weather.

Short Post Due to Staff Meeting Tonight

Yes, this is going to be short & sweet as I have a staff meeting after school and then another commitment right after that. Just a reminder that the recorder concert is at 10:00 on Friday in the gym. Students are practicing with both 4th grades tomorrow for their dress rehearsal. They sound great so you don't want to miss it. The carnival is also on Friday. Thank you to those of you who said you are going to bring baked items on Friday. If you didn't commit yet, that is ok, but please let's get as many as we can. Other years we had so many, we had to give 4-5 away each time towards the end. Let's go Team Hankins!! Thank you. Today in Montana History, we talked about fur forts in MT and fur companies. We learned that there were 2-the Hudson Bay Company & the NorthWest Company. They eventually merged into which one? Write it in the planner and tell why for free money. We practiced again for the SBAC test today. We did reading today. This requires quite a bit of reading and keyboarding skills to type in short answers. Sure glad we spent lots of time practicing our keyboarding skills. If you haven't already returned your picture packets or money envelope, please do so. Thank you. Have a great night.

Happy Tuesday

Quick post due to having a testing scheduling meeting. Yes, we have once again changed our SBAC test schedule. Sorry if this will inconvenience any of you. But the schedule is as follows: April 14-16-testing from 8:45-11:30 each day April 28-30-testing from 8:45-11:30 each day This is going to be a better schedule I think as it allows for more time and a break between the reading & math. We practiced a little bit today so the students could see how to navigate around the site and to see what kinds of questions were asked. The thing about this test is that there are fewer test questions, but the ones that there are are more in depth which is parallel to the common core standards. Please mark these dates on your calendars. Thank you. Today in math we found the area of rectangles that had measurements that were fractions or decimals. Kids did a great job multiplying decimals and moving the decimal over. Have them do this one for practice to show you in the planner. 2.25 x 3.6. Tomorrow we are going to find the area of triangles with the formula of A=1/2 x b x h. In Lead 21 we are finishing up the selection one on food webs & food chains, along with learning about animal adaptations. We started our 3rd section of MT History today discussing the term "capitalism" and how the area changed with the coming of fur trading/trapping. Tomorrow they will get a map of all the MT fur posts. There were an amazing amount of them years ago. Yellow carnival reminders went home today. We are getting some great things for our baskets. Thank you. Remember to please bring in those baked goods on Friday for the Cake Walk. Could you please indicate in your child's planner if you are going to help us out in this venture and how many so I can get an idea of where we are with the baked goods count. Thank you. Tomorrow is Library. Have a great night.

Awards Celebration

Today was the day we got to celebrate the 3rd Quarter achievements. We had lots of award winners today. I would like to acknowledge them: Bobcat Award: Kylee BUG Awards: Harley, Caden, Jacoby, Alex, Ava, Brenna, and Kaelynn Terrific Kids Club: Harley, Phil, Caden, Piper, Kira, Jacoby, Dylan, Ava, Sydnie, Kaelynn, and Tylie. Great job everyone and I can't wait to add to this list for this 4th quarter so everyone keep working hard to reach that goal. Today in buddies, we helped them with their last page of their Me on the Map books by making the Earth by using colored paint and marbles. Turned out quite cool. Then both the 4th & 2nd graders got to share their biographies. Reminder: Monday -No School for kids. Next week: In math we will continue with geometry by working hard on area & volume. Lead 21: We will finish up Selection 1 of Unit 6 and then they will start an ecosystem project for their Lead 21 inquiry. Language: working on prepositions. Spelling Unit 31 words. Montana History: yes, we are back into MT History and moving into the section on Fur trapping & trading. Lots of great facts to be learned about MT during that time period. Reminder: Carnival is on the 11th along with the recorder concert. Have a great weekend everyone.

Happy Thursday

Yaaayyyy-the sun was shining today so that made for an extra happy day!!! Great job on those Midwest states & capitals tests which went home graded today. Today in Math, we learned how to draw angles with our protractors. I know you don't have protractors at home so they can not draw one for you, but I want them to tell you the 4 kinds of angles along with their measurements and if they can, write the 4 names in the planner. Tomorrow is Awards Day at 9:45. So if your child received a slip with their report cards, you are welcome to join us in the gym. Today everyone officially finished the MAP testing. Now we have one week break before the SBAC tests. We will be practicing for those next week. I am so excited that lots of nice growth has been made this year in Reading & Math. Great job Team Hankins! Spaghetti Wars with Mrs. Neese-fun activity to demonstrate the importance of teamwork and working together. Ask your child what they did and what made it easy or difficult to complete the task. Reminder once again about the goodies for the upcoming carnival on Friday the 11th. Thank you. Pictures that went home yesterday are not for keeps if you don't want them. They are to be returned and I will make sure they get back to the PTA/photographer. Free money for bringing them back in a timely fashion. Also, if you purchase any, you are to put the $ in the envelope and return the envelope to school for free money. Remember you can purchase some or all of them. So as you can see, it is a win-win situation whether you purchase or not. Have a great night.

Celebration Today

Today was a fun day spending all our hard earned money. Students had lots to buy and yet I still didn't have enough so some money was returned to bank. I don't think they minded though as they seemed to have fun and loved what they bought. Tomorrow we start with new, fresh money. This last quarter they will need to be saving their money for our upcoming field trips. Another reason to celebrate today was the awesome growth the students made on their Math MAP tests. Amazing-they should be so proud. We had one computer glitch with it today and that student will test tomorrow. :) Remember the States & Capitals test tomorrow. Also for those of you that didn't finish your travel brochures yet, they are due tomorrow. Hopefully they brought their cards home so you can see the growth. IF they did, write the points gained they made and put in the planner for free money. Remember your recorders for music tomorrow. Once again just another reminder about baked goods for the CAKE WALK and any donated items for the baskets. Also, No School for kids on Monday, April 7th. Oh how I hope the sun shines tomorrow and the weather warms up!!!!! Have a great night.

Report Cards Went Home Today

Yes, report cards went home today and they were overall very good for this quarter. Please read the comments carefully and work hard to make any improvements that were suggested for this last quarter. Once you have gone over your child's report card, please write RC in the planner for free money. Also, if your child received a little slip noting they will receive an award on Friday, please write reward so I know you saw it and that you are invited to join us. Awards were given for those who had straight A's this quarter or brought up at least one subject grade without any going down. As I always tell the kids, if you didn't get one this quarter, work harder this next quarter and hopefully you will get one. If you did get one, continue to work hard to keep it that way. Tomorrow is our MAP Math test. We have worked so hard in math this year and I am so excited to see the growth the students are going to make. To assure they do their best, please encourage them with a positive note or message them in the morning as they leave for school. Also, the traditional good rest, healthy breakfast, and snack. Once again if you can help donate cakes, cookies, any baked goods for the cake walk that would be greatly appreciated. Also thank you to those of you that have already sent in items for the gift baskets. Today in morning meeting we talked about getting out of our "comfort zone". So they have a task before Friday and that is to go out of their comfort zone someway here at school to make their learning or friendships stronger. We will share out on Friday. Ask them what their comfort zone task is going to be. Reminders: States & capitals test is on Thursday. No School on Monday, April 7th for students (PIR Day for teachers) Carnival & Recorder Concert on April 11th. Thank you again for all you do. Have a great night.