Wall Wisher

Use this link to  share your thoughts from this year. Follow the directions after clicking the link below!

http://wallwisher.com/wall/Itisover

Give Mavis a Run for Her Money

It is that time of year and I think that it is time to mix things up a bit! Here is a link I would like for us to try using. Once you are done you will take a screen shot of your score and send it to me in an email! Do you're best. I know you'll do great!



http://www.abcya.com/cup_stack_typing_game.htm

Create A Graph

In case you wanted to create graph for your science fair project. Here is the link:

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx

Ready for a Challenge

We are going to give ourselves a challenge today and use only this search engine to help us solve the morning work fact sheets. You will also be challenging yourself by only using 2-3 words in the search engine box. You can do it!

http://web.ebscohost.com/sas/search?sid=b42288da-89cf-4dfd-830d-09129e313a23%40sessionmgr12&vid=5&hid=10

Is it worth it?

Ok....So you have gone to Jefferson City!  A pretty cool trip...Right? What if I told you that there are schools, even ones right here in Park Hill, that don't go to Jefferson City...There are people out there who think that it isn't a good use of money and that it doesn't line up with 4th grade learning topics...What if I told you that there are kids out there who will NEVER get to go to Jefferson City. They will never see the things you saw yesterday....Are they missing out? What things did you see, learn and experience yesterday, that made that trip so awesome? Can you prove that it lines up with your reporting topics? Did it help you learn something that sitting in our classroom Could not have?


Is this Jefferson City field trip worth the money?


Yes.....
No......

Why?

Jefferson City Reflection

Now that you have been to Jefferson City I bet you have a lot on your mind. Please share with us what you would deem the most interesting part of the trip. Why was it interesting? What did it teach you? Why was it important for a 4th grader to learn that?


Post your comments below!

Judical Branch Help

This link will help you identify the other 3 counties that appear in the Judical Circuit 24.

http://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=1626

Jefferson City Reminders

Missouri Government: Digging A Little Deeper

Use this website to help you find the answers for the government scavanger hunt: http://www.sos.mo.gov/kids/gov/?up=y&pID=attgen#read


Go here to find out more about our state symbols. Can you tell me what the bear symbolizes in the state seal?  http://www.sos.mo.gov/Kids/history/symbols.asp?symbol=seal

Check out these notable Missourians: http://www.sos.mo.gov/Kids/history/famousmissourians.asp

Use this link to find the officers that serve in each position: http://www.mo.gov/my-government/elected-officials/

Here is a link that will help you find the Missouri Representatives and Senators for our area: Type the zip code 64151-2362 into the Legislator Look-Up box on the main page to find these answers.
http://senate.mo.gov/

How Does the Government Help You?

How does your government help you?


Click HERE to read about the different programs, benefits and loans that our U.S. government provides its citizens.  Once on the site, click on Government Benefits, Grants, and Financial Aid.



Post a comment on one way that our government helps citizens and how it helps

MO Flag

A little MO flag ingot

http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/flags/mo_flag.htm

"I Am the Lorax I Speak For the Trees"

Today our students shared a Lorax readers theater with 2nd grade. Here are a few pictures from today's show!

Looking A Few Weeks Out

These next two weeks will be a very busy time for many of the kids of room 117. I have posted some events to help keep things organized.

April 25th Grade Parent Meeting for Jefferson City (8-8:30) 

April 30th
May 1 Hayes and Holub Classes to Jefferson City (bus leaves at 7:45, return at 6:15)
May 2 Moore and Moyer Classes to Jefferson City (bus leaves at 7:45, return at 6:15)
May 3
May 4STAR PARTY

May 7th 4th Grade Movie Night for aution winnters. Limited spots still avaliable for $10 (4:30-6pm)
May 8 4th Grade Field Day ( in the pm)
May 9
May 10
May 11 Science Fair Projects Due to Ms. Hayes

....but what does it mean?

Challenge time! Using the notecard you have been given come up with 3 keywords tht represent your amendment. What words really summarize the rights that your amendment protects? Use those key words to search Google Images for 1 picture that symbolizes your amendment.

She Says Effort, We Say 4!

 Dr. Roe sure knows how to get our mornings off to the right start! Here morning pep talks get our brains started and ready for MAP Testing. Tomorrow is our last day of testing and we can't wait!

We're So Bright We Gotta Wear Shades!

Science Fair: Investigation Vs. Invention

Investigation

A list of intersting science fair project ideas:

http://www.sciencefairsanity.com/home/sci/listitems_9_0

This site gives you a quick survey and helps you generate some test ideas:
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/

A collection about great science fair project ideas:
http://www.terimore.com/

A list of science fair ideas:
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/sciencefair.htm

More Idea:
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/projects.html

http://www.sciencebob.com/index.php


Invention:

These kiddos saw a problem and figured out a way to solve it:











These girls found a prolem and solved it.
http://www.kmbc.com/video/30432025/detail.html

Parent Resrouces

This site is a great resource for parents looking to provide resource to their students:
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/sciencefaircentral/Getting-Started.html

Resource about the scientific method:
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/scientific_method.html What kinds of things inspired these kids?

Decomposition, Worms, and Castings, Oh My!

Today we rewarded ourselves for an awesome day of MAP testing, with a little hands on learning. Student got to work up close and personal with worms, castings and other food products. Thanks so much to Mrs. Kruse for lending her worms, and her worm expertise.

Guess Who Got 4s for Effort

All of us!

Rock This Test!

We Are Red-y!

We Are Red-y for Testing!

March Testing Newsletter!

Testing Themes!

In our classroom, MAP will mean MY ATTITUDE’S POSITIVE.  We want to have a positive attitude every day and to help us have a positive attitude we will have the following themes:

Monday      “RED-DAY”

April 2       We will wear red to show we are READY!!

Tuesday    “LUCKY CHARM DAY”

 April 3                We will bring our small, favorite lucky charm

Wednesday          “OUR THINKING CAPS ARE ON! DAY”

 April 4                We will wear our favorite cap

Thursday  “CHEWS” TO DO YOUR BEST DAY!!”

April 5                We will bring our favorite kind of gum to chew

Friday       “ENGLISH LANDING SPIRIT DAY”—We’ve Got Spirit!

 April 6             We will wear our English Landing spirit wear or wear red,                           white and blue

         

Monday      “SOCK IT TO THE TEST!”

April 9                We will wear our craziest (or mismatched) socks to     show that we are going to sock it to the MAP test tomorrow!    

                            

Tuesday    “WE ARE “BRIGHT” TEST TAKERS DAY”

 April 10              We will wear our favorite sunglasses

Wednesday          “WE THINK YOU’RE A SMARTIE”

 April 11               All Kids will receive Smarties

Thursday  “WE’RE A TEAM OF TEST TAKERS!”

April 12               We will wear our favorite sports team apparel      

Friday       “SWEET”—WE ARE DONE!”

April 13               We will bring our favorite candy bar to eat after recess

Testing Islands!

Step one in getting our brains ready for testing was a tropical party that allowed us to relax. Students read around the room using beach towels and assorted festive comfortable seating. We are now in our own private islands, ready to kick back and show what we know! Here are a few pictures from today!

Tropical Getaway!

Also tomorrow we will be moving our desks into private islands in preparation for testing week. To make this a fun and exciting experience we will be celebrating with a Tropical theme. Students are encouraged to wear tropical garb, bring beach towels, and sunglasses! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Building Wide Science Rotations

In preperation for MAP we are working as a building to help our 5th grade friends review science ideas. We are teaching our 5th grade friends about electricity and circuits. We used these links to help our 5th grade friends.

http://www.engineeringinteract.org/resources/siliconspies/flash/concepts/simplecircuits.htm

they have to click on the picture for this one:
http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspView&ResourceID=638

Poetry Inspiration

   We continue to work with poetry and discuss the way that we use figurative language to make our writing more interesting and our conversations more entertaining.  This podcast is a reminder of how poetry can come to life:

http://www.poetry4kids.com/blog/podcast/an-interview-with-jack-prelutsky/

Readers On A Mission!

These students reached their 3rd quarter AR goals!

Not Pictured: Ian, Taylor, and Maya

Missouri Severe Weather Week

Check out these links for more information on Missouri Severe Weather Safety Week!

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lsx/?n=severeweek

http://www.ready.gov/kids

We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do!

Congratulations!

One of our very own students was the recipient of the National School Breakfast drawing. What did he win you ask an eReader!

Line Segment Reminder Videos

Here are a couple videos to help with homework tonight!

3.6.12 Updates

We started off with a great early morning recess to celebrate 4^th grades Harvester Food Drive achievement, and it only went uphill from there. Some highlights from our day :

·        Students continue to work to display their understanding of symmetry in 2 and 3 dimensional shapes. Homework is coming home tonight that will help them practice this skill. Today we introduced the idea that there is a difference between rotational symmetry and reflections. We will continue to work with this topic this week.

·        Today we continued a new set of MAP preparation groups. These groups continue to focus on building language arts skills, the same way that our math rotations are focusing on building math skills. These groups are very fluid and students will have many opportunities to get small group help to build their skills.

·        We have been playing with the figurative language this week and are building flipbooks to help share our knowledge, look for those to be coming home in a few days.

·        This afternoon we played a riveting game of Trashketball! This game gave us the opportunity to apply the figureative language skills we’ve been developing! Team Purple:  Jae, Connor M., Connor S and Maya!

·        This week we are diving into the Missouri Compromise. We will continue to read articles and develop our schema about this topic.

·        In science, later this week, we will be taking the time next week to work on utilizing the scientific method to evaluate and interact with scientific exploration.

·        Feel free to follow us on Twitter @KDSof117. We have began interacting with classrooms from around the world. Including a class from Australia, and one from the UK. We are working to take a few minutes everyday to tweet about the things we are doing, the thoughts we are having, the images we are seeing and all of the many things that make us, us!

·        Thursday are spring school pictures!

  Trashketball!                                                 Harvester’s Recess!               

A Little Out Door Reading To Wind Down!

                                                                                   

Sharing our learning with 2nd Grade

After a visit from Mrs. Bean's class our friends were feeling pretty great about their ability to help students research! Enjoy these picutures.

Figuratively Speaking

We solved these as a class this morning. Can you meet the challenge?

What Makes You Happy?

During class meeting we will be talking about strengthening friendships. Watch this video that goes with that disscussion.

Always Something Interesting in Room 117

In an attempt to meet standards and connect students with a global audience we have created a class Twitter account. This is an idea that several classrooms around the globe are launching, as a way for teachers and students to connect with real world learning opportunities. We are going to give it a try. We have had a discussion that I do not think that it is appropriate for 4th graders to have a personal account, however this is an awesome way for our class to connect with other classrooms around the world and people who are experts in their field. We will be tweeting about the events of our day, interesting videos we view and ideas that touch and inspire us. We will not be tweeting student pictures or personal info, but instead focusing on sharing information that already exists in the world. If you have a twitter account feel free to follow us @KDSof117. Please bear with us as we use this tool, to connect with information and bring real life content to our classroom.

Man's Best Friend?

This week we are reading several stories that focus on the relationship between humans and animals. We watched this video today to start this unit. What an interesting relationship these animals share!

Someone Loves You Mr. Hatch

If you missed the video yesterday feel free to go to the link below and listen to the story: Someone Loves You Mr.Hatch!

http://www.storylineonline.net/

Main Idea and Detail

We have been working towards identifying the main idea and detail in a story. We have then been using that information to write our story summaries. Here is a website where you can test your skill.

http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/h/mainideap2.cfm

Trail Research

Use your scanning skills and your keywords to check out these websites.

http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/oregontrail.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/6400

http://www.worldbookonline.com/kids/home

Lab Catch Up

Some of you might be interested in working on taking Mavis Beacon practice, followed by a speed test. We will be keeping track of how many words you can type in 1 minute.

If you are still workign on your Lewis and Clark Research you can do that at this time.

You may post book reviews here: http://booksby117.blogspot.com/  Remember you are always welcome to post on a friends review

You may watch this video on data and taking a survey, if you missed it earlier: http://safari/SAFARI/montage/play.php?keyindex=14907

This game is a good refresher for multiples and factors:  http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-math-lines-xfactor/index.html

Student Led Conferences!

We are busy planning and preparing for our annual Student-Led Conferences on Thursday, February 16! Your student is learning so much this year and will have a wonderful opportunity to share this learning with you at the conference. Student-led conferences put the students in charge, holding them responsible and accountable for their school performance. student will do most of the talking. It will be a time for your student to review and explain his or her mid-quarter progress report and data notebook. He or she may have samples of work to share or may have areas of the classroom to show you. Teachers will be in the classroom, but your student is expected to lead the conference. If after the conference you have questions or concerns, please contact your child’s teacher to schedule an appointment.
You may be asking, "What does a student-led conference look like?" In a student-led conference, your

Students will be sharing a variety of different items this day and it will be a great opportunity for you to recieve a copy of your studen'ts 3rd quarter progress report.

Comparing and Contrasting

We have been working on looking at differences and similarities throughout out research.


This is a non ficiton text piece that we are going to be reading as a class.
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2011/08/dolphin-dimples-detect-electricity/

Electricty Work

We are currently learning about electricity. This site provides information that we wll be using to compare and contrast information we are collecting.


http://www.eia.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=solar_home-basics




After reading the article from our science book and reading this article. Answer two of the questions below:


1.What is one way that the articles are the same? What is one way that the articles are different?


2. What is the author's purpose of the article in our textbook? What is the author's purpose of the online article?


3. Is the online article a trustworthy resource? Justify your answer.


4. Do you think that solar energy is a good idea? Justify your answer.

Graphing

This is a great way for us to practice making graphs!

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx

Math Groups!

We will all start with Flashcards. Once you have gotten 30 correct flashcards you may show me and I will let you move on to a different activity: http://www.aplusmath.com/Flashcards/multiplication.html


Now you may play this: http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-math-lines-xfactor/index.html

STAR PJ Celebration!

In celebration of  reaching our class behavior goal we have earned a STAR Party. Today Students celebrated by bringing their favorite stuffed animals and reading in their PJs. What a great way to end a Friday!

Lewis and Clark Proof of Learning

We are choosing one of the choices from Assignment #5 to share our understanding of Lewis and Clark and their expedition. We will ALSO be creating a production piece to share what we believe to be the MOST important information about the Westward Expansion unit. Check back later this week for posted production pieces! Happy Researching!


http://www.ecarter.k12.mo.us/dept/elementary/fourthgrade/ccrites/lewisandclarkassignment.html

Time Warp Trio

Feel free to check this site out for a little extra information on Lewis and Clark.

http://www.timewarptrio.com/adventures/lewisandclark/