Fun Music Day Today

Yes, as I am writing this, the kids are practicing their music notes on computer. How cool is that. They can practice this at home. Go to www.musictechteacher.com Have fun!!!! Today in math, we practiced our multiplication facts with the fun card game of "War". We all know how to play this so play with your kids as a fun way to practice. Permission slips for the NILE came home today. Please get them signed and returned by Monday, October 14th. Free money for those that return them tomorrow. Independent reading calendars. Yes, I know it is a bit late for them this month, but better late than never. The reason they are late is I had a plan to do nightly reading with Lead 21, but not quite feasible so we are starting this way for now. Your child should be reading at least 150 min./week or 600 min./month. As they read each night, write the amount of minutes and initial each day. Then at the end of the month, total up the minutes, sign and return to me. These will be a large part of the quarterly reading grade. I will be adding strategies & skills to these on a weekly basis starting in November. I want to visit with you about this part at conference time to clarify any questions. Thank you-If your child is in System 44, they didn't get one as they are already doing independent reading for Mrs. Bunn. Any questions on this, please ask. If your child hasn't been reading up until today, just cross those days off, but if they have been go in and fill in Oct. 1-9 with the minutes. If you understand all this and will encourage your child to read nightly, write "I Love to Read" in the planner for free money. In science today we learned about molecules and atoms. Have them draw, show, and molecules in a solid, liquid, and gas. If they can write, science in the planner. Remember Fallen Rock t-shirts are due tomorrow, Friday. Have a great night.

Happy Wednesday

Great day in Room 6 today. Wednesdays seem to be our most productive day as we have no specialists in the afternoon so therefore, we can add on to the time of some of lessons in Math, Social Studies, and Science. In Math today, we played a fun game practicing our multiplication facts/multiples with a partner. Ask them about it and if they can tell you, write (x) in the planner. It would be great if you could set some time aside each night to practice the facts together. Some students are struggling with addition/subtraction so that makes the multiplication fact mastery that much harder. So practice-practice-practice. Also in math today we did estimations by using rounding. So excited that they still have a great grasp of rounding so that made this concept a lot easier. In Social Studies, students worked with partners on a map Geography Challenge. They learned about population density, annual rainfall, and elevation. Ask them which region of the US has the highest elevation. Write it in the planner. Hint: MT is in this region. In Read-A-Loud today, we worked on Making Connections and they made a text-self connection to Pathki by sharing a time when they tried to please someone by doing something nice for a person and it didn't work out the way they expected it to and they might have even gotten in trouble for it. Have them share theirs with you. Permission slips for our field trip are going home tomorrow. But, some of you asked about the date and it is on Tuesday, October 15 from 8:40-11:40. I have a few volunteers to help so we are good on that. Thank you. Deadline for Fallen Rock t-shirt orders is Friday. Thank you and have a great night.

Xtramath Program

Today we added another component to our scheduled computer time. We added Xtramath which is a program to help with mastery of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. Students need to know these quickly in order to master them. They start out in addition and then move on as they master that operation. Congrats to Dylan for mastery in addition already on the 1st day!! We finished up Section 1 of Montana History today. Students got graded on this portion of it and now we are ready to move on. We read more of our Read-A-Loud, Pathki Nana today. Ask them to tell you what she learned about her childhood so far from her grandmother and why she is always sad. Have them predict to you how Grandmother is going to help her change. If they can do all this, write Pathki in the planner. In Lead 21 we got back into our small groups today. We will try and finish up our heritage unit in the next couple of weeks and then have our Heritage celebration. More on that at a later date. Remember Library books tomorrow. Also, if ordering Fallen Rock T-shirts, the orders are due on Friday. PTA movie night is coming up-see slip that came home today. Picture Day is Monday, October 14th. Have a great night.

Happy Monday

Great, busy start to our week. We started off our day with our morning meeting and having a great discussion about "keeping true to your word". I just love to hear them start off their day excited that it is Monday and them glad to be back in school. How cool is that!!!! I just love these kids, and the energy they have for learning. We started a new Read-A-Loud today now that we are done with Fallen Rock. We are reading another book that ties into Montana History, Native Americans, and tribe life. It is Pathki Nana. Ask your child what part of MT it is located in and what her tribe name is. Hint: Begins with a "K". Write it in the planner for free money. Then in Montana History today, we are doing a fun symbols page in our journals. These will be the conclusion to Part 1 and then later in the week we are moving into the regions of Montana. In Lead 21, we read a biography about Celia Cruz today. If in my reading, ask your child about competitions she wanted to be in and what boundaries kept her from doing them at first. Then discuss how she was able to overcome that. I am hoping this conversation is about "reaching for your dreams, not giving up, and BELIEVING in yourself. We also learned about Author's Purpose and some forms of Figurative Language. More on these later this week. In math, we did some fun mental math. Wow-this was harder for them than I thought. They need to work on their addition/subtraction facts for quick memorization. It is imperative they know these as we are ready and needing to hit multiplication/division. Also, have them tell you about the fun math drill using only the digits, 2,4,6. Order forms came home today for Fallen Rock T-shirts if you wish to purchase them. Congratulations to Kira & Sydnie for being chosen as our Student Council Representatives for our classroom. I know they will serve us well and make Team Hankins & Bitterroot School proud. A big applause to those that tried out, but didn't make it. They would have liked to have chosen all, but weren't able to due to numbers. Have a great night.

Happy Friday!

Wow-where did the week go? Our day started out today with a very special treat in the gym. Ask your child what it was and if they can tell you, write it in the planner for free money. As you can see by the pictures, we had a great session with our buddies. We wrote getting to know you poems. Ask your child who their buddy is and 2 things they have learned about them so far and if they can tell you, write the name of their buddy in the planner. Had electronics day today and as you can see by the pics, it was a big hit. Students enjoyed music, games, and just hanging out together. I think this was worth the $400. It was also a fun way to celebrate our first 25 celebration points. I am so excited to announce that everyone passed the Chapter 1 math test with at least a B- or better!! Yaaay!! Now we are on to Addition/subtraction of larger numbers and with this estimation and continued decimal practice. In Science this next week, we are continuing our Weather unit with forms of matter, the water cycle, and different parts of weather such as wind, high-low pressures-cold-warm fronts, etc. In Social Studies, we will finish up the map skills unit with 2 more Geography Challenges. In Montana History, we are moving into the 3 regions of Montana. In Language, we will be working on Possessives and some more writing. Speaking of writing our Bradley & Jeff character descriptions turned out well using the stoplight writing process. I can't wait to see them grow as writers. In Reading, we are moving into Selection 2 of Lead 21. Skills this week are: author's purpose, more determining importance, strategies we will work on are: making connections and writing I-V-F summaries. Our spelling list this week is on homophones. These are words that sound alike so students not only need to know how to spell them, but how to use them in context too as that is how it will be done on the test on Friday. Thank you to all of you who contributed to our raising money for cancer awareness by wearing hats today. Devin-we enjoyed all that you shared in the Student of the Week box today. Love the hat and especially the story behind how you got it. That is so cool and also very kind of your family. Have a great weekend everyone.

Awesome Day Today!!

How exciting for us to have an author here at our school. The kids were totally thrilled & intrigued by Bill Merical. He talked about how he got started in writing this book and the fact that he never imagined & dreamed it would get published and have so many copies sold. Just goes to show that you can do anything you put your mind to. It was so great to hear his message in person about being a good person and using good character, and setting goals for yourself. Guess what-he is in the process of writing the second book. He gave the kids a little bit of an idea of how the story of Fallen Rock & Valor will continue, but he did just enough to "hook them". HMMM-isn't that what great authors do? Have a discussion about his visit tonight and let me know what you think by writing a message of your choice in the planner for free money. Enjoy the pics below. Fallen Rock T-shirts are available for purchase. They are $10 and I will be sending order forms home next week if you wish to purchase them. Tomorrow is Hat Day-yes, bring in a $1.00 to wear your hat and your money will go toward our Pack the Place in Pink donations. We raised $105 last week. Awesome-keep it up Bitterroot!! Also, tomorrow is Technology/Electronics Day-bring your iPods, iPads, DS', or whatever you choose as long as it is school appropriate and you are responsible for it. Buy in will be $400. Celebration Day is tomorrow. We took our Math test today to free up some time tomorrow after lunch to celebrate our successes. :)))) We had indoor recess today and the kids did awesome playing board games. So fun to see them use teamwork and play together and it was even electronics!!!!! I know my family still loves playing good, ole fashioned board games. Spelling test tomorrow. Have a great night.

Bill Merical, the Author is Coming Tomorrow!!

First of all, I want to say I am so proud of this class and the behavior & work habits that they displayed yesterday with the substitute. Every student except for 1 did just as they were to do; be respectful, responsible citizens. That one student lost money from the sub and myself and also had to miss recess today and have a chat with me about it as a consequence. Let's just say-I don't think this will happen again and if it does, the consequences will be more severe. YAAYYY!! We are so excited to meet Bill, the author of Journey of Fallen Rock tomorrow. He will be in our room from 12:30-1:30. Homework tonight for that is to think of and write down any questions they may have for him. He may answer some of them in his presentation, but we don't know what he is going to share so write down anything you are wondering. Make sure they have to do with his job of being an author or the book, and not lots of personal questions. Lewis & Clark HR today. Yes, we read lots about Lewis & Clark today and now they have to sequence events in order. Have a discussion about this and ask your child at least 4 things they learned and if they can tell you, write L&C in the planner. Technology Day: Friday is going to be technology day in here. Students can bring in IPods, DS systems or whatever they want and listen to school appropriate music during work time, recess time, and the celebration time. They can bring in the DS systems for celebration time. We will talk more about this tomorrow at morning meeting. The buy in for this is going to be $400 fake money. They just have to remember that they will need to have at least $500 for the field trip to the NILE on October 15th. Celebration: We are going to do that on Friday after lunch. We will have treats and play board games or use our technology and just enjoy each other's friendship. Tomorrow is our Chapter 1 math test on place value, decimals, counting $, making change, and all that we have been doing this chapter. Have a great night.