Thursday, September 30, 2010

Using Dynamic Dominos

Here is what we worked on today using our Dominos.
This is a great way to work on multiplication and having something hands-on.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Upcoming items and reminders.

Hey Parents.

Just wanted to let you know of some things that are happening here at Gibson.

September 30: 4th Grade Curriculum Night from 6:00-7:00. It will be held in room 304. There will be a powerpoint presentation discussing the curriculum. Afterwards, if you have any questions for your child's specific teacher, there will be time.

Tutoring is starting. Some of you are getting a envelope with information on tutoring for your child. If you do not recieve on and would like for your child to be in the Tutoring Program, please contact the office with your request.

Scholastic Book Orders are due on September 30th. Please remember to make checks out to "Scholastic." They will not accept cash. The more books you get for your child, the better it is for our class.

That's all folks!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Creating your own Graphic Novel

Hey Friends,
Here is a great site for creating Graphic Novels. It's amazing and totally creative.
Take a look @

http://www.comicmaster.org.uk/

Enjoy!

Here's what's happening.....Week of 9/27/2010

Hey Everyone,
September is at an end. Hard to believe that we have been in school for a full month and have covered so much. Here is a run down of what we will be looking at this week:

Reading: We have started our Imagine It book. The series covers a lot of reading, writing, vocabulary and spelling. We have 150 minutes to cover the material so please remind your child that focus is essential for understanding and coverage. Our story this week will be from "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell.
Our theme is "Risk and Consequence" and how it can be positive or negative.

Math: Our math is covering multiplication. We have starting with Strategies for multiplying and will lead into multiplying 2 digit by 1 digit numbers. We will also review our estimation with multiplication and how it helps with solving the problems.

Writing: Our writing menu is up and running for the 1st quarter. The menu is a great way for students to take responsibility for their work as well as their writing. The due date is October 28th so please do not procrastonate till the last minute. Late work will not be accepted.

Science: Our class has started working in our Science Notebook. This is a great way for students to journal science concepts and illustrate to better understanding. The Science Notebook should not have any pages torn out. It is for student journaling only.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Finding the Median, Mode and Range using Skittles.....Yum!

Here is a data activity using our Skittles. The kids loved it!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Here's an idea of what Wordle.net can do!

Click on Image to get full size

September 20-24th...Look at what's happening.

Hey there parents,

We are quickly wrapping up the September month. It's crazy how fast things have moved this school year. We are doing a great job showing our Gibson PRIDE.
Here is what we're working on this week:

Reading: We have started our Imagine It series. This week, our class is looking at the "Getting Started" section. This is dealing with word structures, suffixes, and lots of writing.

Math: This week we are taking our previous knowledge and looking at data using Mode, Median and Range. This is a pretty easy concept but the word problems might cause some difficulty. We are going to work on this all week, using skittles and other candies to show our Line Plots, and our data entries.

Writing: This week our class is working on Note Taking. This is a new concept for us, since we are so used to taking information at face value. We are working on paraphrasing and combining knowledge to construct our own sentences.
**Thursday @ 9:00 is our first "On Demand" writing test.**

Here are a few links that we have used in our classroom:
Math: www.eduplace.com/math/
Language Arts: www.wordle.net ; this is a great site to use when creating word list and making them into art.

Remember to create Rigor in everything you do.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

What's Happening Sept. 13-17

Hi Everyone,
This is only our 2nd full week of school, so a lot of us are getting into the swing of a schedule and a routine. As this progresses, please remind your child to focus. We have some day dreamers in our class....it's time to wake up to some learning!

Here is a look at what we will be doing this week:

Reading: Our Imagine It books have arrived, but we are going to finish our chapter book, Frindle. The students seem to be discovering a lot about what kids their age can accomplish when they have determination. Next week we are starting our Imagine It book with all it's fancy bells and whistles.

Math: We are working on creating and reading Line/Bar graphs. The bar graphs seem to be pretty simple for students to understand. Our snag is when we have to organize data and make it into a graph. Setting up our graph is also a problem, so we will continue to work on this to help make it successful.

Writing: We are wrapping up our final copy of the "Picture Day" story. The students are going to have a "gross" illustration to add with their work. We will have these posted, so feel free to come on by and check out their work.

Social Studies: This week we are doing a mini-project in class on NC and it's three regions. Some of the work that students have to do is their responsibility. They must take the initiative to read and discover the information for themselves. This project will end on Wednesday and lead us into our 2nd mini-project, Making a Pamphlet on one of the NC Regions.

No Spelling/Vocab this week. We will start that once the Imagine It books are in use.

Please remember, that late work is not acceptable. If students loose an assignment, they need to be responsible enough to complete it. I will deduct one letter grade for each missing day. If it is never turned in, it is an incomplete and a zero.
Please get all work in on time!!!!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Have a Great weekend.

Over the weekend, please remember to READ! We are working hard with creating rigor in their reading. Students can read anything....so long as they are reading and comprehending.

If you have not turned in packets of information, please see that it gets to us on Monday. A lot of those papers are needed in the front office for contacts, medical, etc.

As always, thanks for all you do in creating a great learning environment.

See you Monday!!!!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Wednesday Folders and Progress Reports

Dear Parents,
Today is the first day that our Wednesday Folders are coming home.
Inside you will find school-wide information and student work samples from the previous week. Please return the stapled work. I will keep this in a folder for review if there is ever any discrepancy.

Since we have only been in school for a short time, there has not been that much work to put in the folders.
Also, work that is graded has not been put into the NCWISE grading system. It is basically just for you to see the progress of your child and where help may be needed.

Progress reports are also coming home today. You do not need to return them. They are for your records. I have a copy here at school incase you ever need to know the progress of your child.

Thanks for everything you do to make this a successful 2010/2011 School year.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Weekly Update Sept. 6-10

Hi Everyone,

I hope that all of you had a great holiday break and didn't do too much labor on the holiday. We are jumping right in this week and working hard. Our Imagine It books are in, but we are still waiting for them to be coded for distrubution. Here is a look at what we will be working on for this week.

Math: Ordered Pairs. I have explained to the students about Ordered Pairs and how it is like the game, Battleship. "Over and Up" is the key phrase. We are also looking at how to find points, and creating shapes with Ordered Pairs. This is really a higher level Dot-to-Dot.
**I have given students a CD that has some background music. They are learning rhymes that can help them remember steps in Rounding and Ordered Pairs. Using music is a great way to learn things.

Reading: Since we are still waiting for our Imagine It books, we are going to start reading from Frindle, by Andrew Clements. This is a great starting book for our class. It relates to their age level and shows them that all things can be accomplished when they are persistant.

Writing: We will be finishing our first narrative entitled, "Picture Day." The students are working hard to make the story their own work.

Social Studies: We are still working with the regions of NC. We will be specifically looking at Location and Cultural aspects of the regions.

We are going to hold off on spelling this week. There may be some vocabulary activities for them to do, but nothing for them to memorize.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Great Start to the School Year!

Hey Gibson Friends and Family,
Just wanted to let you guys know that we have had an amazing start to our 4th grade school year.

Just a few reminders:

Please remind your child to follow our Gibson PBIS policy. Review it at home if necessary.
Remember that each night your child should be reading for at least 20 minutes.
Constantly work on multiplication facts- this is going to help with our math later on in the year.

Have a great Labor Day.