Daily Pages

Oh, one more thing! I have to brag on the class today with their Daily Pages. That is an activity we do in their writer's notebook. They've decorated them so far, and the daily pages is something that helps build their writing stamina. They don't have to write about important things. It can be about the daily routines they experience on the bus, in the car, at home, or anywhere. They must write and write, trying to reach a goal on the page they set for themselves. It really helps in making them stronger, with being able to write for longer periods of time. Today, we did 5 minutes without stopping, first. Then, I added 5 more minutes. Some kids reached their goal of one full page! That's amazing for the first time, so I'm very proud! Try it at home!

Tuesday Folders

Well, you were supposed to see the Tuesday Folder today but by the time I began filing the stack of papers, only about 25% of the class had written their numbers on their papers, so it took me twice as long to file them in their mail slots. One thing lead to another, with lessons and activities, so...you will see them Wednesday. Their conduct is in the folder from the previous week and you also should've gotten their scores from last year's ACTAAP if they were here at Rena. Sorry about the folders. Just a little bit hectic today, but no worries.

One Week Down

Well, we had a great first week of school. I have such sweet little girls and funny boys. It's such a nice mix! We still have lots of procedures and routines to get into, but we definately chose plenty of books to read. We'll get the rest of their folders set up next week. Math also started with working on arrays. We're beginning our look at multiplication. The arrays help students visually see the groups. This will do it for now, have a great weekend!

Rocket Folder

I have put together their Rocket Folder today. I explained how they get it signed at night. They also have a punch card for good behavior. They have to get 10 punches for the treasure chest. I thought that would be fun to do. Today was also our first day of Math. Let's just say that it's taking a little bit of time to get back into the swing of things, including me. I think their attention span was a little short, but we got through it, and can tell you what an array is. They're making a "Me" mobile, where each circle they cut out and draw stands for something about themselves. We took a DSA (Developmental Spelling Assessment) this morning before library and I'm anxious to score those. They went to library and were able to check out two books if they wanted. I didn't send home the reading log because I want to explain and model it first. Well, enough for today!

Another Class Website

I almost forgot! I also started another website for those whose either places of employment or at school because some places block blog pages. So, this is another place you can visit. You will go to the Scholastic homepage, which is www.scholastic.com. THEN, go over to the right and go to Class Page Builder. There is a login and password.
Login: student
Password: brown

I thought I'd make it easy to remember. Thanks for visiting!

First Day of School

Well, hopefully your kids came home saying that they liked fourth grade. They kept making comments all day about how it was the most fun grade so far, but of course, when we begin to get into our work, they may change their tunes! I thought the day went great. It took forever to get the supplies out and put away. That's probably my least favorite thing to do. Twenty-eight of everything. Can you imagine having that many children? I really enjoyed meeting everyone and learning everyone's name. That's usually a goal of mine to get everyone's name correct that first day. That was hard my first year of teaching, just because you're so overwhelmed with everything else. Now days, it's old hat to me. I am looking forward to this year and learning about your kids. I spend more time with them than my own child, so I like to know them well and understand them. I like to learn their interests. I really enjoyed coming home today and reading their "Tell Me More About Them!" form. I like to hear from your point of view. If you haven't sent that back, please do. I love to read them. We'll get started with learning class procedures tomorrow, so more to come!

Open House

Thanks for all of you who could make it out to Open House. I know many of you are still busy with your summer plans. I look forward to meeting some of you later in the year. Please feel free to email me with anything. Don't forget to take the poll question and also check out the authors' websites listed on the side margin to your right.

No More Glue!

If you haven't bought supplies yet, please don't worry about buying the 2 BOTTLES of Elmer's glue. I have tons from last year, but we still use the glue sticks. Those are used a lot in word study and math. Elmer's is just a little messy, and other than that, we just don't use it much. Thanks!

Welcome!

I have loved blogging for myself and thought this would be a great way for all of us to communicate and for you to keep updated on what's going on in our class and at school. I plan on posting all the books we read as a class on Shelfari, which is not up yet. I want to be able to put up pictures, but I will probably not show faces, maybe perhaps things we've worked on. That's something that could be a little too technical as far as laws go, and I will also only post initials for names, no full names whatsoever. I don't ever want to jeopardize anyone's safety. It will mainly consist of updates for class news and things we're doing. Please feel free to post a comment, although I'm not sure if you have to be a member to post, so we'll see. If you are, go right ahead. There will be a link for emailing me as well.

This is a first for me, as I usually have a Teacher Web page instead of a blog, but this is so much easier and friendly! I can't wait for our year to get started!