2013 Coming Right UP!

What would you like to do a whole lot more of at school in 2013?
science experiments projects math reader's theater inventing publishing writing technology cooking
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I'm planning some great things for you! Hope you are having a wonderful vacation! Miss you all!

Happy Vacay!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Many students were out today because it was a half-day, bad weather, sick, or all of the above! 

Congratulations Julianna, Olivia, Nikolas, and Vinnie, who are at the top of our Scoot Pad leader board in math, they have all completed the first math unit and have moved onto unit two! Also, congrats to Brian, aka, BRAIN who is on unit three in math! Keep it up guys! I'm so proud of your hard-work and all you are learning. Read, play, learn, and enjoy your vacation! 

Snowflakes For Sandy Hook

Today as part of our holiday festivities we made snowflakes to send to the new Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut. Students will not be returning to the former Sandy Hook, and we are helping to decorate their new school, a former abandoned middle school. It will be decorated with a winter wonderland theme when they return after the holiday break. Our snowflakes along with many other classes throughout the country, will be displayed throughout the building with a sign that indicates they were made with love by the kids in our class. Taking the time to do this was important to me, and many students needed a chance to talk about what they had heard about the terrible tragedy that happened last week. I could tell it weighed heavy on some of their minds. I'm wishing that we could do so much more to help those families. 

I Admit It...

I am a computer geek! But I know some of you are too! We are going to try this site out at school next week and I can't wait to see who will be at the top of the leader board in each category. Do you want to try it now? Here's the link: http://www.scootpad.com/Watson  Login in with your USERNAME. You can change your password at school, for now everyone is the same: 12345 Once you are logged in try the homework assignment I left for you. You will be ahead of the class and receive a special privilege on Monday... assuming we have school. There's snow in the forecast! Snow date Tuesday!

Parents this site is AWESOME! It is common core practice in math and reading.  I think it could really help boost NECAP scores. Students can do assignments at home or school and I can track the amount of problems solved, time spent, and trees saved. No kidding! 

Animoto Fun!

We had so much fun today creating these animated presentations based on what we are learning this week in science. Animoto was a great platform for students to make a presentation in. They worked in groups of three or four. Here's their final products. Great job, no wait, AMAZING JOB guys! I am so impressed!

P.S. Use them to help you study for the quiz on Friday!


 

Holiday Party

Our class will be having a holiday party on Thursday, Dec. 20th. Students who want to participate in a gift swap should bring in a gift that is school supplies or art supplies. The gift should be around five dollars, and be something to write on, and something to write with. So an example would be a sketchbook and color pencils, markers and a cool notebook, or paints with painting paper. Please make sure the gift is wrapped too! I will provide the refreshments... If there is a snow day we will have the swap/party on the 21st. 

Back In The Lab

Here are some pics of our most recent experiments with gravity and the temperature which water freezes at. We had lots of fun doing them. The students really had their thinking caps on!They collaborate with one another and work together to answer questions. Although our experiment today sort of bombed, I felt good that they hypothesized why.

Zooborn Newborns

Baby Polar Bear Anori is almost one year old!

How cute is this little guy? You can read all about him and other baby animals that were born this week at zoos all over the world on ZooBorns. Check it out! There are tons of photos, videos, and birth stories about adorable little zoo babies.  Perhaps, you would like to be a zoo keeper or veterinarian?

More Science Fun

Here is a link to a fun website that has science games for many different topics. We happen to be studying the food chain this week, which is the very first topic listed! These games are a little reading intensive... don't be a clickaholic. Make sure to READ carefully!

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities.html

Also, here is a link to solve a mystery. Let me know when you crack the case!

http://secretsatsea.org/story/1a.html

'Tis The Season for Generosity

We joined the fifth graders for a walk to the Methodist Church on Valley Street on Friday. The students carried bags of canned goods, and other nonperishable items to donate to families in need this Thanksgiving.

Extra Extra!

All righty! This extra credit assignment is a fun and challenging one! Your topic is Sir Issac Newton. Create a biocube using the link below. 

Read, Write, Think- Biocube

If you do not have a printer you can follow the directions and write out this assignment below. Use your Science Studies Weekly and your science notebook to help you.  This link will provide you with Even More Info on Isaac Newton. Have fun, add color, and do the best you can to create the cube. Since I will not see you until Thursday, just bring it then! Make sure to go and vote with your parents tomorrow! Enjoy your day off!

Fun Times

Here is a page that has a ton of multiplication games to play that will help you practice your tables! My faves here are Diaper Derby and Math Models. They're fun times, hahaha!

Click Here for More Multiplication Games!

Halloween Fun

SCIENCE EXTRA CREDIT!

This cloud was generated from our class blog!

Well since there's no school tomorrow, you kiddos may need something fun to do! Not that video games are not fun... but extra credit assignments can be too!

Try this. Watch the news, WMUR will do. As they report about hurricane Sandy, take notes. Write down major words such as, wind speed,  tropical, dangerous, rain, force, damage, etc. Try to get as many words as possible including proper and common nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Shoot for 20-25 words.

Next go to:http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html

Create a word cloud in a shape by typing in all the words you heard about the hurricane. It's a lot of fun to play with the shapes and color!

If you are prone to printer problems like me, ask an adult for help emailing it to me at: hwatson@mansd.org and I can print it for you at school in color. This will add a plus, (+) to your science grade on your report card. Have fun and stay safe during the storm!

PS:  I'll post some pictures tomorrow of the Halloween parade. Just Dance on the Smartboard was FUN!

In the Lab

This year our class received Science Studies Weekly, a subscription to a science newspaper that is tied to the Common Core Teaching Standards. It is FABULOUS! It has great articles, experiments, quizzes, and vocabulary activities. The students loved doing the first experiment today.  If you have a minute, ask your son or daughter about the experiment. I'm encouraging them to use the vocabulary that they will be quizzed on this Friday when they discuss the experiment. Here are some shots of the scientists working together!

Game On!

Here is a link to multiplication tests and quizzes. 

Multiplication Tests and Quizzes

Now that we're finished with NECAP testing we're ready to conquer new math skills. In order for students to do that successfully, it is crucial to know their times tables backwards, forwards, and inside out! We'll be doing daily multiplication quizzes at school, but students must practice them at home as well!

Blowing Away the NECAP

Demetri is ready to score another PD (proficient with distinction)!

We have one more day of testing left. The kids have worked extremely hard. As the students turn in their tests, I've been checking to see if they've been showing all their work, underlining key parts in questions, and taking their time. Now if a student has accomplished all this, they receive a raffle ticket. Each student has an opportunity to earn six tickets, one for each session. Mrs. Otero will be awarding a snowboard, an autographed skateboard, and a few other special prizes as well! I hope some of my hard-working students win! They are all winners in my eyes! 

Here's What's Popping!

Well, we finished our final drafts of our bubble gum stories. They are a riot to read! I think the ABC strategy worked well for this. Plus, it made such a cute display in the hallway to showcase the student's writing! 

A Bit of Creative Writing

Today in Writer's Workshop we worked on writing a story using a new strategy. I think overall it was a success! The students all drafted a story with a bubble gum theme. The objective of the lesson was to vary the start of each sentence using a different letter of the alphabet. Here is the example that I wrote to help teach the lesson. It's a true story by the way! Students began by writing the alphabet across the top of their paper.  Then as they wrote their story, they had to cross out the letter that each sentence began with. In the example below, I used as many letters as I could. It is not important that students use every letter, only that they try their best and use as many as possible! 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Let me tell you about a sticky situation. On a beautiful spring day I was riding in the backseat of my mother's car. Windows open, breeze blowing, life was good! I chewed my bubble gum as we drove to pick my brother up from school.

You would not believe the bubbles I could blow! Right as my bubble was growing into about the size of a soccer ball, the wind blew my long hair right across my face! No, no, no!! My mom saw the whole thing in the rear view mirror. We pulled up to the school and she came around to see the damage. Ughh, lots of sticky gum stuck in my hair. Please mom I thought, get this out!

As we were driving home, mom said she wasn't sure if we could get all of the sticky pink gum out. On the kitchen counter I sat as she tried to wash the gum away. By the time my dad got home, it was clear that the gum was probably there to stay.

This story ends with a very bad haircut. As you know, a girl's hair is important to her. VERY important. Just imagine how I felt! Here's the moral of the story: Never chew gum in a car with the windows open. Ever.

I know, I didn't use "Z" or "X". But that's okay! The students first drafts were impressive because the sentence structure was much different than in usual narratives. Tomorrow we'll do a second draft and some conferencing. Later this week we have a fun art project- related to the bubble gum theme, to celebrate all of the hard work and terrific writing! 

An A+ Week

Well I have to say that these kids are in the groove! We read a heavy-weight book this week that is part of our Reader's Workshop curriculum. The story was quite educational, moving, and tremendously sad. Below is the summary of Pink and Say, by Patricia Polacco. 

Pink and Say ISBN: 0399226710
Pink and Say highlights the brief and special friendship of two young boys, Pinkus Aylee (Pink) and Sheldon Curtis (Say), during the Civil War. When wounded attempting to escape his unit, Say is rescued by Pink, who carries him back to his Georgia home where he and his family were slaves. While the frightened soldier is nursed back to health under the care of Pink’s mother, Moe Moe Bay, he begins to understand why his new found friend is so adamant on returning to the war; to fight against "the sickness" that is slavery. However, it isn’t until marauders take Moe Moe Bay’s life, that Say is driven to fight. Although ultimately, both boys are taken prisoners of the Confederate Army, fortunately Say survives and was able to pass along the story of Pink and Say to his daughter Rosa, Patricia Polacco’s great grandmother. As it was told, Pink was killed just shortly after being taken prisoner, therefore Patricia’s book "serves as a written memory" of him. At the end of the story Patricia bids the reader, "Before you put this book down, say his name (Pinkus Aylee) out loud and vow to remember him always."
One of the more heartwarming moments of the story is when Say tells Pink and his mother that he once shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln. Convinced that his encounter is a "sign" of hope, Say reaches for Pink’s hand, exclaiming, "Now you can say you touched the hand that shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln!" At the end of the story when the boys are separated, Pink reaches for Say one last time to touch his hand. Ahhh, tear-jerker!!!

I'm so impressed with how maturely this class discussed the book. You would not believe the conversations I was overhearing about the Civil War, friendship, slavery, and our country. AMAZING!

Also this week, we used our ActivExpressions, also known as "the clickers,"to review pages upon pages of NECAP math problems. Math is 100% more fun and engaging when our lessons include this technology. 

Take a look at what we're asking these kiddos to do. They all brought the papers home tonight. They're paying close attention as I teach or review the skill because they are waiting to VOTE!! 

The Voice

Happy Birthday Shel Silverstein! He is my FAVORITE poet! I have memorized so many of the poems from his books, Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic. My little bloggers, if you read the poem below this post, and recopy it in your NICEST penmanship, I will buy you popcorn on Thursday. I hope you like his poetry as much as I do!

Practice Makes Perfect!

This Friday students have a test on the seven continents and five oceans. Yes, FIVE oceans! The Southern Ocean which borders Antarctica has been added since most of us learned this basic lesson when we were in school. Here  are a couple of links to games students can play to help them practice.

Are you a beginner, intermediate or expert? There's also a tutorial to watch.

Oceans & Continents

Matching Oceans & Continents 

Introducing...

Mrs. Gagnon working with her guided reading group.

This year Hallsville has four Title I certified teachers. Our class was assigned Mrs. Gagnon. She will be instructing reading groups with me and also is in our class during math and writing. She is so enthusiastic and a magnet for kids! We're psyched to have her in our class this year. I suspect she will be getting her own classroom ASAP-- we'll consider ourselves lucky for now!

CU-2MRW@theBBQ

Tomorrow night is the annual Hallsville barbecue, with a twist. Marinela is returning to teach Zumba. While I'm not planning on doing Zumba, I do plan on enjoying the music, food, company, and all of the raffles! I really hope you can all make it! Here is our chocolate themed raffle basic. I'd like to rig it so I could win this myself. It'd be sweet! (Pun intended:)

Miss Nelson is Back!

Nick, Miss Nelson, & Madison- such smiley faces

Today we were blessed with the presence of super-star teacher Miss Nelson! She is a fabulous teacher whose specialty is math. Miss Nelson is teaching math on Monday and Tuesday in our class. Her primary focus is test-taking skills. Miss Nelson has over 35 years of teaching experience. She is a former principal and has been a sister for fifty years. When she teaches, kids get it. She has so many tips and tricks to help students remember all of the vocabulary and terminology in math. The kids and staff at Hallsville adore her and we are so happy she is back!

Just the Basics...

Now that we're past the first couple of weeks, we are starting to really hit the books. As we are working in class I'm noticing that some students are missing some basic school supplies. I just wanted to mention that all students should have scissors, a glue stick, a pencil sharpener, and a ruler that measures both inches and centimeters.

P.S. The school store is open on Wednesdays :)

Thank You Very Much!

Thank you to all the parents who have sent in items for our chocolate themed basket! The fourth grade is collecting items for a basket to be raffled off at our annual barbeque on Sept. 21^st. Money raised from the raffle will be used to help our school's main office move to the front of the building.  If you haven't yet, and are able to, please send in an item to contribute to our basket. Here are a few examples of items that we are hoping to include: brownie mixes, hot chocolate, chocolate candy, chocolate scented candle, chocolate chips, chocolate chip cookies, basically anything that is chocolate! Please send in items by the Sept. 20. Thanks You!

Also, thank you for the Lysol Wipes, tissues, paper towels, and hand sanitizer that the students brought in recently. I'm hoping that this will help ease cold season. Knock on wood!

Student agendas arrived Friday. We will step up our organization this week and do some goal setting. Please sign the agenda next to the colored stamp each night after you see your son or daughter's homework completed.  I look forward to meeting with you all Thursday night at open house. Hope to see you then!

So far, So Awesome

Good morning all! I'm hoping today will be the day that our ultimate school supply- the planner, also known as the agenda will arrive via federal express. The fourth and fifth grades have been waiting for them to help us get organized. I'll let you know more details about how we use the planners for assignments, goal setting, and organization soon.

In the meantime, our first issue of Scholastic News came. It is a magazine with current events that integrates all subject areas, social studies, science, math, language arts, and even character education. I love the interactive piece too that lets us go online to learn even more about topics from each issue.

I hope the spelling menu assignment went smoothly for parents. I really try to stress to the kids if mom or dad cannot help you with a given assignment that is computer related, to just pick something else to do that evening. I'm finding that a lot of students have access to computers at home, which is fantastic. I asked a new student if he had a computer at home, and he said, "No we have four!" Sweet! Here is an example of a Wordle. Katie made this one by typing her spelling words into the website, http://www.wordle.net/ Katie's mom emailed it to me to print. Nice Katie!!

First Day Jitters

Today was a DREAM... I have sixteen students! If you are aware of what's been going on with class sizes in our district, you know that this is not normal. I am so excited to have such a small class. I sure hope it lasts!

I have nine girls and seven boys. They seemed really happy to meet me and see the classroom. I have never seen a class adjust so fast, maybe it's sheer numbers. But by the end of the day everyone was just so in sync, I was able to teach a math review lesson for the NECAP tests. We made back to school fortune tellers (cootie catchers), and of course read First Day Jitters.

I hope tomorrow is as great as today was. I am feeling a little guilty because my colleagues are swamped with enormous class sizes, up to thirty-two kids. There's a possibility we could get a slew of new students from a neighboring over crowded school. We'll see what tomorrow brings, but today was definitely a 10.

How to Write a Really Sweet Blog Post

Here is a link to the Google Document you'll need to get started when you are blogging about your independent or shared reading book!

How to Write a Really Sweet Blog Post

Latest Greatest

As you probably know by now, I L♡VE technology! Not because it's pretty much the way of the world but because of the things it allows us to do. Mostly I really love how it engages those students who do not learn strictly through auditory teaching. I am such a visual learner, hence my addiction to Pinterest! For the kinesthetic learners, technology can help with hand eye coordination as they manipulate words during a language arts lesson or numbers when they solve a math problem.

So, the latest greatest web site that I have found is for both students and teachers! This website can be projected onto a whiteboard to show realtime behavior. While you can enter your class list and award points individually for positive behaviors, or subtract points as well for negative, that's not really my style. I would have been 100% mortified if a teacher had done this to me in elementary school! Fourth graders love nothing more than competition, so we will put in group names and award points based upon the groups students sit with. For example, group A, the Dolphins, has shown excellent effort, attendance, and participation on a given day. They receive 3 points. If there was an issue with forgotten homework or an unexcused tardiness, then two points would be lost. At the end of the week the winning group will receive a bonus. I love how this site lets you give the positive feedback instantly. Cool, cool, cool!

http://www.classdojo.com/

Quotable Quotes

 

Quotes make us think. It could be a famous one, something our mother said, from a movie, or history. I love quotes, and this might be in my top ten.  

Word Super Kids!

Well, today I found a word of the day website which I think will be a great addition to Reader's Writer's Workshop. I think it will be a fun way for students to build their vocabulary. The words are all appropriate for fourth through sixth graders. I'll show the word on the whiteboard and we can read the definition, part of speech etc. Maybe I will have a little competition to see who can write the most meaningful or descriptive sentence with the word. If I hear a student use our word of the day correctly, who knows, maybe they will win a class dollar or free popcorn! Here's the link!

http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/words/middle/ 

http://www.ladybugsteacherfiles.com/2012/02/word-rock-every-day-were-expanding.html

Here is the link to a little writing that I may incorporate with the word of the day. Perhaps we will make a book!

iPick- No YOU PICK!

I think I just reinvented the wheel. We may or may not be using a new spelling series this year in fourth grade. I like our old one. It is very intermediate/upper elementary. I purposely didn't bring home our new series this summer! Whichever series we use, I think this will be a fun way to assign spelling. I made this assignment menu so students would have some choice about how to study spelling words. I would have liked it a whole lot more than writing the words five times each! Below is the link to the Google Document. You can open it to view or print.

iPick Spelling Mrs.Watson's Spelling Assignment Menu

There's An App For That

I really love Sesame Street, not just because I grew up with it or have two small children. The little videos that teach with music are always so cute. I love seeing some celebrities in them too. This one made me smile.

School Supplies Already?!

I'm guilty. I've been everywhere, Target, Walmart, Staples, Five Below... checking out the new school supplies and it's only mid July. I wish that I could say that I found some deals. I'm going to have to train myself to at least check clearance sections. I found lots of great stuff though. Fancy bulletin board paper, stamps, glitter hearts, cupcakes, and some other  cool but traditional back to school things.  Here's what I've found so far!

The Answer is...

Good Morning all! I think I found the solution and end to my reading log dilema. I found a free website called kidblog.org and I'm thinking that I will use it a ton this school year. First of all it is free. Secondly, students just need a user name and password, not an email address. Last and best of all, they can use it at home after they read, or at school during their Reader's and Writer's workshop. I'm thinking of this as sort of an idea bank where kids can post about books that they are reading and give recommendations to others. Through the settings you can approve posts and student comments. I really think this will help teach students about appropriate social media behavior as well, although more in an academic context. Also, it will serve as somewhat of a record for our Million Word Challenge. I'M SO EXCITED THAT I FOUND THIS! Here's the link http://kidblog.org/home.php

Let's Get It Started in Here

Hello! Just starting out and I think this is going to be fun! Hopefully this blogging thing will be easy to figure out and useful to keep my student's families in the loop of what is going on in our classroom this year. So I'm starting out today with a thought about reading logs. How can I ditch them this year? I love the idea of students reading a lot or even a little at home. I love knowing what they're reading, be it novel, comic book, science book, magazine, or website... but I hate the thought of them having to record it all like a chore. Reading is suppose to be fun and if parents and students are nagging one another about recording minutes and signing off, well it sort of becomes not fun. If anyone ever told me I had to read a certain required book like say, The Perfect Putt (which my husband is reading now), and record the minutes I read it, seven days a week, and then also write some commentary about what I liked or disliked, quite frankly I would ask,"WHY?" No purpose would be served except to turn me off on reading. I'm already turned off by golf :-) Last June I gave my class a survey about their year. I asked all kinds of questions and one was what they liked least about our class. It was clear to me that the most popular answer was keeping a reading log.  Anyhow, teachers get to know who reads and who doesn't pretty quickly. So it's my mission this summer to find an alternative to the dreaded reading log.