Proud to be an American

Today we celebrated Veteran's Day by having in our very own Mr. English as a guest speaker. He talked about and shared a slide presentation with us about his deployment over in Iraq. We so appreciate him and all the other men & women in the Armed Forces that fight for our country & our freedom. We learned some pretty cool facts about what he did over there, but I think the favorite one was "how many blackhawk helicopters could fit in the cargo plane with room to spare for bunks on top? If your child can answer that, write the number in the planner. We started our morning by reading about the history of Veteran's Day. We found out it wasn't always called this and it used to be called Armistice Day. Ask them why this date & time in history was chosen. Next, we watched the "changing of the guards" at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Quite amazing-the students were intrigued by the seriousness of it and what one has to do be selected to be a guard of the tomb. Ask them how many steps they take on the walk as they guard the tomb and why this number is significant. If they can tell you, write the number in the planner. Then we read a book called "America's White Table". Very powerful-ask your child to tell you about it. If any of you, would like to read it, I will borrow it out to you. The pictures below show the things on the table so ask your child what they stand for to see if they can remember. As you can probably tell, we learned a lot today which makes us even more grateful to all those military men & women out there who are fighting for us & our freedom. Tomorrow we are making our flash cards for the NE states & capitals to study here at school and then we are starting our tour. Finally!!!! Math story problems today using multiplication. Some may have these for homework. Good computation practice. Remember to practice those facts!!!! Test over all the 0-12's is SOON!!!!! Remember PE shoes tomorrow. Have a great night.

Thank you-Thank you

Once again thank you for our visits during conference time. I enjoyed our time very much. This week is going to be another busy week. Following are some of the happenings: Math-we will be writing story problems using multi-steps/operations. Also, continuing to practice our multiplication algorithms. We will add on algebraic multiplication/division equations and finding the rule for in/out boxes. In Social Studies, we will begin the week with Veteran's Day. We will read the book: "America's White Table" and then learn about the history behind Veteran's Day along with watching the "changing of the guards" in Washington D.C. Then we will finally get on our tour of the Northeast. Keep practicing those states and capitals. The test will be not this week, but the next. In Language, we are continuing to work on verbs, but adding in more suffixes & homophones. In Reading, we are continuing to find & write examples of figurative language. We are also starting Selection 3 in our readers. Skills/strategies we are going to work on are: Making predictions, writing questions for discussion, and writing summaries. We will also practice synonyms/antonyms with the voc. words from their section. No Science as we are going to take a break so we can get through Social Studies. In Computer time, we will continue with ReadAbout & Success Maker, but now we will be adding a keyboarding program for practice. Since we won't have the extra time to do the XtraMath, please continue to keep doing it online at home like many of you are. Thank you. Today Kaitlin shared Student of the Week things. We found out she likes to collect diamonds. Yes, can you believe it?? Not real ones though-darn!!! We loved all the things she shared with us-keep working & playing hard in softball. You will be on the Skyview High School team someday-I know-then I can come and watch you. That about sums up the week. Have a great weekend.

Quick Post During a Short Break

HI Everyone- Just a quick post to check in. Conferences are going well and I appreciate you coming and taking an interest in your child's education. Your interest & communication with me shows them that education is valued and it makes a difference in their attitude toward learning so Thank you. I love talking about the progress they are making and discussing what they can do both here at school and at home to help make them more successful. Tomorrow is Montana's birthday and I am bringing treats!!!! Have a great day.

Conferences Are in Full Swing

Great afternoon visiting with those of you that had a conference with me today. I always enjoy sharing your child's accomplishments and discussing what they can do to make their learning experiences more positive. Thank you to those of you that came today and for the rest of you, I will see you tomorrow. As you can see from the schedule, the timing is tight so try your best to be on time and I will do my best to keep us on schedule. Have a great night.

Conferences & Early Out Tomorrow

Yes, tomorrow is the first day of conferences and a 12:00 Dismissal. Check to see that you have your conference time marked on your calendar as I am looking forward to visiting with each of you. Come with any questions you have about curriculum, the blog, classroom routines, etc. I will mainly be talking about strengths & weaknesses of your child along with going over test data. Today, students got to purchase items with the remainder of their fake money. Everyone got to purchase something so that is truly a great thing. Remember lots of coupons were purchased yesterday. Now tomorrow everyone starts over with $100. We had our final weather grade taken today. Students found out some fun weather facts while doing a scavenger hunt with a partner. Ask them 2 new things they learned and if they can, write weather in the planner. In Math today, we worked on multiplication computation. Students now have 3 algorithms/strategies they can use to solve 2&3 digit x 1 digit problems. I can't stress enough the importance of knowing their basic facts. Please please practice at home. Library tomorrow-bring those library books. Have a great night.

Spending Our Fake Money For Quarter 1

Yes, today students got to buy coupons with their fake money if they chose to. They were $300/each and they could buy as many as they wanted. Ask them what they purchased and write $ in the planner for free money. Tomorrow, they will be able to shop at Hankins' store to spend any remaining money. Then we start over with $100. Has been a good real-life experience. "The better the choices you make, the more money you have to spend". Raindrops and stories that came in today were amazing. I just LOVE seeing all that creativity. They are all due TOMORROW!!! Today, we had a quiz on the water cycle and they all did a great job. Tomorrow we will finish up with a weather scavenger hunt. In Montana History today, we started the government section. Our capital has not always been Helena. Ask them where the 1st capital was and if they can tell you, write its' name in the planner. Multiplication Facts: Parents please please see to it that your child practices these on a nightly basis. It is so hard to do computation if basic facts are missing. This is so important. Thank you. November Reading Calendars went home today. 600 minutes is expected for the month. Remember 150/week at least. I hope you are enjoying the pictures that came home today. Speaking of picture, the one of Kylee is she with her participation award for competing in the County/City Cross Country meet at Pioneer Park earlier this year. Great job, Kylee. Also, remember to mark your calendar for your conference time if you haven't already. They are listed over on the side of the blog. Have a great night.

We Made It!!

Yes, we made it through Halloween week. Actually the kids did a great job these past 2 days with all the excitement. It is fun to be able to do the fun things and yet still be able to use good character and "rope" that excitement back in and get down to business. Today we started out with a little skit consisting of: Reasons to say "NO" to drugs. Then we made leaf animals with our 2nd grade buddies that turned out so cool. The 4th graders that had extra time made leaf animals also and then we hung them in the hall with our fun slogan: "Mrs. Hankins's Class Leaves Drugs Alone" along with drug free messages hanging with them. You will see them hanging in the hall next week at conference. Ask them what animal they helped their buddy create and/or what animal they created. Some 4th graders share buddies and also some of our buddies moved so we had a couple groups of just 4th graders working together w/o a buddy. That happens. Took our Math Chapter test today and the students did a great job. Now we are moving on to more multiplication/division strategies. Goals for next week: Lead 21-finishing up our informational text on A Green Future. Skills & strategies for the week are: Point of view, drawing conclusions, and idioms. Language-continuing with Verbs & verb tenses. Spelling-Unit 9 word list Math-multiplication/division story problems along with multi step story problems. Also, the properties of multiplication. Science-finishing up the water cycle unit Social Studies-practicing those NE states & capitals Montana History-Government section-Also Friday is Montana's Birthday so we will be do a fun map scavenger hunt with partners. If you know how old Montana will be on Friday, write it in the planner for free money. Speaking of money: Students will use their fake money to buy coupons on Monday and then any money they have left, they will be able to buy things from Mrs. Hankins' store. Any & left over will go back into the bank. Then on Wednesday, they will will start the new quarter with $100. Raindrop Stories & Projects: These are due on Tuesday morning!!! Can't wait to see them and students will get to share their whole story with a partner. Student of the Week: Kira had many fun things to share. We learned she wants to be a Civil Engineer. She has many things she enjoys with horses, purple, soccer, and hunting being just a few of them. Ask your child the thing we learned that she said we didn't know about her. Hint: pink/squirrel Have a great weekend and I hope you get out and enjoy the nice weather.