Today's Events

Today was our Fall Festival celebration.  We were amazed by the creativity of some of the costumes.  We began our parade in the gym with prayer: 
Dear God, 
      Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to have fun with our friends.  You have blessed out school so much with stellar students, awesome teachers, and great families.
      Please be with us as we leave today.  Watch over us and keep us safe.
      Help us to remember the difference between make-believe and real.  You are our real God and we praise your name today and always.
      In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. 
After the prayer we took turns by class "parading" around the gym.  Then we had some fun with "The Hokey Pokey," "The Bunny Hop," and "YMCA."  For many 4th graders, it was their first time ever of doing "The Bunny Hop."  Finally, it was back to the classroom to enjoy some goodies.  If you'd like to see some pictures, check out the 1st Grade blog.  Mrs. B. is very good at including pictures.

Tomorrow is another busy day.  We will be having our usual Spelling Test in the morning.  After lunch we will be getting together with our Chapel families to go raking.  DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR RAKE!!!  If your name isn't on it, we'll put it on at school.  If you have leaf claws, you might send them along, too.  If you haven't signed the permission slip, please do so!

Monday we will be having our Unit 2 Memory Quiz.  This will be a quiz over all of the verses on the purple study sheet.  I have an example of the Unit 1 Quiz on a previous post in case you are curious.

Science Make-up Test Thursday

The results of the Science test on electricity were less than stellar.  This is disappointing since the class spent a week reviewing information and filling in review sheets.  The test should have come home today.  Ask to see it.  The test, along with the study sheet, will assist you in helping your child study for the make-up test Thursday.  Since the end of the quarter is Friday, this will be a great opportunity to boost the Science grade.

Back to School!

Tomorrow morning we will have a special presentation at 8:10 about the Gbarnga School Project, which is where our Chapel offerings are going this year.   

This coming Thursday is our Fall Festival Party.  Costumes should be school appropriate as stated in the handbook and should be brought to school, not worn to school.  Students may bring snacks for the party.  I'm asking that snacks also be school appropriate.  I know that may sound like a funny request, but we are emphasizing this as a Fall Festival, not a Halloween party.  It would be best to keep the ghosts and witches away!  The all-school parade will be at 2:00 in the gym.

Friday will be our annual raking project.  This activity will begin at 12:45.  Parents are welcome to join us for this activity.  PIP hours may be logged at this event.  Students will be raking with their Chapel families.  Students should bring along a rake to school Friday.  If you have leaf claws, they may also bring those.  They should wear some type of gloves and clothes suitable for raking.  

 

Monday's Assignments' Highlights

Since this is a short week of school, some of our "regular" assignments have been moved to different days.

This week's Current Event (goldenrod) is due WEDNESDAY instead of Thursday.  Our County Quiz for this week will be WEDNESDAY instead of Thursday.  This week's counties are #15 & #16.  Both of these counties are what we call "doubles."  That simply means that the name of the county and the county seat are the same.  #15 is Shawano, and #16 is Waupaca.

We have started the Lesson 8 words for Spelling.  The Spelling Test for Lesson 8 won't be until next MONDAY.

Tomorrow is the big electricity test for Science!

The Memory assignment for tomorrow is only the first part of Col. 3:16, up to "all wisdom."  The rest of the verse will be due Wednesday.

The IMC will be open Wednesday morning for students who need AR books for over the extra-long weekend.  Since the end of 1st Quarter is Nov. 1 (next week Friday), this would be a great opportunity to get caught up if needed.  Your student can check with me tomorrow about how many points they've already earned and if they've already hit an "A+" for 1st Quarter.

Even though there were many assignments on the board today, I was very impressed with how many students used their working time successfully today!

Reminders & Things Coming Up

Science Test on Electricity:  This coming Tuesday is the Science test on electricity that Mr. B. has been reviewing with the class.  If your student hasn't started reviewing the notes at home with someone, they need to start now.  They've been getting reminded in class for the last several days that they need to review a little each evening with someone until the test day.

Fire Safety Newspaper:  It is due Monday.

Current Events:  Because we don't have school this coming Thursday and Friday, this coming week's Current Event report (goldenrod) will be due on WEDNESDAY.

Sign & Return:  24+ items have come home so far this school year that should have been signed and returned.  Some of these include Memory quizzes & tests, Spelling tests, Math tests, and County Quizzes.  Most students have been very responsible about taking care of this.  However, if you aren't seeing these kinds of things coming home, ask your child about them!

Speaking of things needing to be signed and returned, a note was handed out Friday for the trip to Merrill High School this coming Wednesday for the dress rehearsal of the play "Fractured."  It's a play about fairy tales.  There's no cost for this trip, but the permission slip needs to be signed and returned by Tuesday.

HATS FOR CANCER:  It's not too late to sign up!  We still have three Fridays left of this all-school activity.  The donation is $2.00 per Friday with all proceeds going to the Germain family to help with expenses in Anne's fight against cancer.  I have extras of the orange permission slip in the classroom, or you can simply write a note and send it in with your donation.

This and That

The 4th Grade will be taking a Science test next Tuesday.  Today in class Mr. B. gave them unit review sheets and had them taking notes as they reviewed.  He also told them that between now and the test, they should spend a little time each evening looking over the notes with an outside person.  (I told Mr. B. he should probably explain "outside person" since 4th graders sometimes think quite literally, and might think they need to do this outside!)  So, they know that they should be asking parents to help them look over their notes and quiz them on the material.

Another assignment for Mr. B. is a Fire Safety newspaper that will be due Monday.

We have been working on the skill of "copy & paste" in computer class.  We have time in the computer lab on Tuesdays and Fridays.  A usual Tuesday activity is creating a Wordle out of the week's spelling list.  (www.wordle.net)  We started the copy and paste instruction when some students were inadvertently losing their lists after carefully typing in all the words.  Now we type the list in Word and then copy and paste it into the Wordle site.  We've done it this way a few times already.  Today only 3 or 4 students asked for help which means the skill is sinking in!

We also use computer time for research.  We've Googled information about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Langston Hughes.  A regular research site we use is www.wicounties.org to find out information about certain Wisconsin counties.  We're doing this as we are learning the counties and county seats.

Nuisance items:  It's a classroom rule that if I need to take something away, a parent needs to come in to get it back.  Usually the item(s) get put into a zip bag and labeled with the name, date, and why it was taken away.  Hopefully, this won't happen often!

Math concepts this week so far:  U.S. Customary System = inches, feet, yards, mile.  Metric system = millimeter, centimeter, meter, kilometer.  Circles = diameter & radius.  Triangles and rectangles = length, width, & perimeter.  

Current Events & Madison Trip

Current Event topics shared on 10/10/13:

•  Are You Smarter Than an Eighth Grader in 1912?
•  St. Vincent de Paul Marks 10 Years in Merrill
•  Too Young to Run?
•  Runaway Minneapolis Girls
•  American Coin Sells for $2.25 Million
•  The Pinocchio Lizard is Alive and Well and That is Not a Lie
•  Rip Roaring Homecoming Start Leads to Blue Jay Rout
•  Food Practice Shooter Aspires to Train Kids to Love Vegetables
•  Will ‘Recycled Island’ Finally Become a Reality?
•  Get Paid to Lounge in Bed?  Sweet!
•  Refugees Inside Their Own War-torn Country—Syrians Continue to Suffer
•  Tomato Fight

I really enjoyed and respected Kiana’s personal response to the government shut-down story last week.  I have her permission to share it with you.

"I think it’s silly because a bunch of adults should get along.  I chose this because my mom works at the post office and I thought she would lose her job, but she didn’t. : )  This article is important because people are losing jobs and I would like to go to Yosemite one day.  Congress should do rock/paper/scissors, enee, meeny, miney, moe, and bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish to help decide."

Since I was asked today, I thought I would share that the 4th Grade Madison trip has been set for Friday, April 11, 2014.  We take this trip with the 4th Grade class from Trinity.  I started the parent list this afternoon.  If you'd like to be added to the list, send me a text, an email, or a voice message.  You may also speak to me in person!

Midterms and AR

Friday afternoon, students received their midterms for 1st Quarter.  Attached to the midterm was an AR report.  The AR report shows the results of all quizzes taken so far this year.  Some students have already passed the quarter goal of 14 points.  That's awesome!  They shouldn't stop ready, though.  I allow them to carry over points to the next quarter.  For example, if a student currently has 21 points, that means they've earned their A+ for AR for 1st quarter.  It also means they have 7 points already toward the 2nd quarter goal.  Since the AR grade is cumulative, it was not figured into the reading grade for the midterm. However, it will count as one-fourth of the reading grade for the end-of-quarter report card.  Please make sure your student brings back the signed slip from the bottom of the midterm.  NEW THIS YEAR:  Students need to sign it, too!

The Current Event sheet for this week is purple (lilac).  Most students have been doing an amazing job finding articles that are interesting to them.  This past week (yellow), we had several on the government shut-down, two on getting paid for lounging in bed playing video games, four or five about a gorilla in the Dallas Zoo that got booted for bad behavior, one about a cardboard bicycle, and one about pets getting rescued after the flooding in Colorado. This is not a complete list--I'm doing this from home and I don't have them with me.  I'll complete the list tomorrow!

Classroom Updates

Tomorrow will be the first memory work test of the year on the Bible verses from Unit 1.  These are all the verses on the goldenrod sheet that is titled "God Blesses His Family of Believers."  We talked about this test yesterday in class.  It will be multiple choice by half verses.  For example, the verse for Lesson 1 starts with "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word..."______.  From the bottom of the test page, they would need to find the rest of the verse "...was with God, and the Word was God.  John 1:1."  Then they will put whatever letter happens to be in front of the second half on the line after the first half.  Here is a snippet of a memory test that will be later this year:

Lesson 25: For by grace you have been saved through faith. _____

Lesson 26: The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due season. _____

Lesson 27: Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. _____

F.  You open Your hand; You satisfy the desire of every living thing. Psalm 145:15–16

G.  belong to Jesus Christ. Romans 1:6

H.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8–9

I.  Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9 

This Thursday's County Quiz will include all the counties so far, plus #9 Dane (Madison) and #10 Milwaukee (Milwaukee).  Most students have done very well with these quizzes!  Those that are not doing so well are getting tripped up by where the numbers go on the map.  As you sign the quizzes that come home, check to see if that's a problem area for your child.